Chevy American Revolution 400 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

SCOTT RIGGS, #10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET: "Something let go in the motor. I can't say enough about the guys at Hendrick giving us awesome horsepower every week. Every once in awhile you are going to have something happen like that. I can't say enough about the guys on the Valvoline Chevrolet. They did a great job. We were real loose in the beginning and we were working our way back up and got back on the lead lap. We were making gains and kept adjusting on the car and had a car that we could really race with tonight. I hate we had something go wrong and take us out. I think we are just starting to show our potential with this team. I can't say enough about Hendrick and all the help that they give us." AT LEAST YOU RAN WELL TONIGHT. "That's what makes you feel good. You know you are going in the right direction and making good adjustments. I don't know how in the world we got a lap down there again. We made a green flag pit stop and I did all but slide into the end of pit wall getting in hot. I ran as fast as I could down there, got an awesome pit stop by the guys, sped out of the pits and somehow still got a lap down. I guess them short pitting had that much track position on us to get us a lap down. I can't say enough about the guys. They did a great job all night. At least we're starting to go in the right direction: forward."

BRIAN VICKERS, #25 GMAC CHEVROLET: Note: Vickers finished eighth, his best finish in 16 career NEXTEL Cup Series starts. His previous best effort was 12th at Texas (race number seven). Vickers led the Chevy American Revolution 400 once for 32 laps, the third consecutive race where Vickers has led at least one lap. He is just the sixth Raybestos® Rookie to lead a lap in the spring race at Richmond since 1980. A Raybestos® Rookie has now led at least one lap in the last three consecutive spring races at Richmond. He is the first Raybestos Rookie to score a top-10 finish at the spring Richmond race since Ryan Newman placed second in 2002. Vickers took Raybestos® Rookie of the Race honors for the second time in 2004. "The guys did a good job all day. We had a good car. We fought tight center off all day and we were kind of afraid to over adjust there. I feel like we didn't quite adjust enough throughout the race but we met our goal. We wanted to come in here and get a good solid top-10 finish and get our first top-10 and that's what we did." STARTING UP FRONT HERE HELPED TONIGHT. "It definitely did help. It was a good race tonight. The track really surprised me. It really turned into a three-groove racetrack, which made for some great racing. I was very, very impressed. They did a great job paving it. I don't know what they did but I've never seen a new track turn into a three-groove racetrack like that. That was pretty neat." YOU SEEM TO IMPROVE THE MORE THAT YOU RACE AT THIS LEVEL. "We're growing. Sometimes it just takes time. The Raybestos Rookie of the Year deal is not over yet. We're going to go after it." IS THIS YOUR TYPE OF RACETRACK? "I think they all suit our driving style. Right now, this team is probably more suited for this racetrack. We're still trying to find out own, as far as body location and things like that. We're maybe behind at some of the bigger racetracks but you've seen that our two best finishes have been at short tracks and I think that's a characteristic of myself and the team." YOU RAN AT THE FRONT DURING THE WHOLE RACE. THAT MUST GIVE YOUR TEAM MOMENTUM AND CONFIDENCE. "It really does. We're looking forward to Charlotte. I think it's going to be a good race for us. This team has really come into it's own. We got our first pole, our first top-10. We're all excited about it. We're just going to continue to grow at a steady pace." IS YOUR FOOT BURNED? "Yeah, my feet got a little hot. I didn't say anything. I didn't want them to panic on the radio. For whatever reason they got burned. It didn't bother me at Martinsville but today it got burned. We need to put some fans in the floorboard. We have no air circulation down there right now."

JOHNNY SAUTER, #30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET: "It should have been a lot better. We had a set of tires there in the middle of the race; the longest green flag run that were just terrible. I don't know what the heck was wrong with them but it really hurt us. I felt like we could have had a top-10. The car was really good." DID THE LAPS YOU GOT IN THE BUSCH CAR LAST NIGHT HELP YOU TONIGHT? "I don't know about that. I'm learning every week that the Cup car and the Busch car are not exactly equal. They both want something a little bit different and the sooner I learn that the better off I'm going to be. This is pretty basic racing here, short track racing. It's pretty easy."

KASEY KAHNE, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE: "We didn't start out very good and we made some adjustments and actually got the car better but we were already a couple laps down. Then I just lost my brakes. I got loose and hit the wall myself. I screwed up there and hit the wall and toed it in a little bit and we weren't very good at all after that. I think before I toed it in we were decent until we lost the brakes. We were actually pretty good; we just needed to get our laps back. I think I learned a lot in qualifying and I learned a lot in the race. The thing is I think we had a great racecar at times and I just hit the wall or did things to screw up the car and you can't do that. I've got to work on my short track stuff for sure." WAS THE NEW PAVEMENT LESS FORGIVING? "I think it's less forgiving but that's not why I hit it. I hit it because I got loose off the corner and hit the wall. That really had nothing to do with the track but the track seemed pretty good. It seemed like it kept working it's way up. I think there is probably more grip on the outside now than there was on the inside."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, #77 JASPER ENGINES & TRANSMISSIONS/KODAK DODGE: "The Penske Jasper boys, they work hard. Even after the problems that we had, they still ripped off a 13.3 pit stop. We have a great over the wall crew. Terry Labonte got into us. It's so hard to be mad at Terry. His spotter went up and said that he locked up a brake and slid into me and he was sorry. Labonte is one of those guys who, you know what, he's good. We've raced side-by-side for weeks. If it was me, they'd be yelling and screaming but it's Terry and I go 'I can't be mad at him, darn it.' We didn't lose any to Kasey Kahne and that means that we keep everything tight. I lost a little bit it looks like here to Vickers. We caught a lap by staying out at the end and that's just good hard racing. I wish we would have done better this first week with the Jasper colors." When we hit the wall we broke a shock. We kept trying not to lose any more laps and the last time I came up to speed to pull into pit road to do one more adjustment, I told Shane [Wilson, crew chief] that something is broke. They popped the hood, saw a broken shock, so they pulled it behind pit wall and put a quick shock on it. They took their time, put the toe back together right, tightened up the center link, stuff that could have been overlooked and caused another crash. Instead they were smart and took their time and we ended up not doing too bad."

PETER SOSPENSO, CREW CHIEF, #25 GMAC CHEVROLET: "It's nice to finish top-10, the first one all year for us. It was the first pole we had all year so it was a good couple of days here for us." HOW BIG WAS THE TEST? "It helped a lot. We just did race stuff, didn't do any qualifying stuff. That first pit stop we had a tire roll across pit road and that got us. We came out fourth and had to go to the tail end of the longest line and we were fighting from there on for the rest of the night. It was nice to get back up there." THIS MUST GIVE YOUR YOUNG DRIVER A BOOST OF CONFIDENCE. "I'm sure it helps a lot. It helps all of us a lot going into two weeks at Lowe's Motor Speedway. We look forward to going over there." ARE YOU GOING TO RUN BETTER THE MORE THAT YOU WORK TOGETHER? "I think that's the big part of it, just having that chemistry and being able to figure out what he needs. The competition this year is tough, a lot harder than it was last year. We've got to keep working on it. He was highest finishing Raybestos Rookie on a short track so that's good."

VICKERS POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

IN THE PAST 48 HOURS OR SO YOU HAVE RECORDED YOUR BEST SERIES START AND FINISH. "It feels really good. The GMAC Chevy team did an awesome job all weekend. We had a great car in qualifying and came away with our first pole and the race went pretty good today. We had a little mishap on pit road that set us back with a loose tire but we got back up to the front. Our car just seemed to get real tight there at the end from the center off. We made a couple adjustments and they weren't quite enough there at the end of the race. We came away with our first top-10. Right now we're just focused on growing this team and building it at a good steady pace. That will make it a championship team in the long run."