EA Sports 500 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Roush Racing Taurus (Finished 42nd) - "Something broke and it was just spraying oil. It wasn't making a lot of power, but, man, that was fun while it lasted. It would have been a lot of fun to finish that race because I was having a blast and learning a lot. We were just really, really loose, but these cars run great. It's really neat to get in that good of a piece of equipment for your first superspeedway race." WHAT WAS THE INTENSITY LIKE OUT THERE TODAY COMPARED TO NON-RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES? "It's the same thing, but it's just amazing at how good these guys are at just giving and not taking chances. You can tell these guys are so good at this. I just tried to learn a lot from them and I think I did learn a lot, so this is a really good day for me as far as developing my superspeedway racing skills. I think we were running as far forward as we had all day when it broke, so at least that happened. I just had a fun weekend. Other than running 10th last night and blowing up today, all of the racing was a blast. I had fun." YOU LIKE DOING THE DOUBLE DUTY STUFF? "Yeah, this is great. This is a dream come true for a driver to get to race this much, it's just frustrating to end the day like this because I think we had a really good car."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 15th) - "I don't think that was a great race. It might have been a great show, but we could have been doing that on a figure-eight or a demo derby there." NOT A GREAT DAY FOR THE TOP 10 IN POINTS. "Yeah, but we didn't wreck and some of them did. We got out of this one without trouble and maybe we can go and do some real racing for a while." YOU WERE HOPING NO WORSE THAN 15TH AND YOU FINISHED 15TH. DO YOU TAKE THIS AND RUN? "Yeah, especially under conditions that other people in the points finished behind me a lot because it was so messed up. This is pitiful. This is pitiful. I swear, if there is anything I can do in my entire power I will not let my son race here."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus (Finished 14th) - "I was back in there three-wide and getting hit and hitting people. Everybody was bouncing off of everybody. It's kind of stupid, really. I know it's fun to watch, but it's kind of a bad situation you're sitting in. That's a difficult situation we're put in going 185 miles an hour and being pinballs like that, but, overall, we survived and kept the car in one piece. It's the best speedway car we've ever had. I thought we were in a good position to finish in the top five before that yellow came out under that green-flag pit stop. It's cool Dale, Jr. won. He's gonna be 30 this week. He's getting pretty old so he better take those wins while he can."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (Finished 22nd) - "It was OK. Everything did it's job again and it wasn't half as bad as last year. It was just a few tumbles and everything was fine." TWO STRAIGHT WEEKS WHERE THINGS HAVEN'T GONE YOUR WAY. WHAT ABOUT YOUR TITLE CHANCES? "I don't know. I'll look at the points. I'm sure we lost a lot of points today, but we're gonna try to go get 'em and try to win some races everytime. For us to finish 22nd today with everything we went through is a blessing. We've just got to try to be consistent, but we've dug ourselves a hole and we'll try to come out of it. I'm not gonna tell you we're out of the feelings we have we're never out of anything. We've got good confidence, but I want to try to end the race here at Talladega one year still on all four tires - at least the fall race - so we'll try it again next year." THEY CALLED YOU STROKER ACE. "Yeah, we had a long day with batteries and overheating and stuff like that, but to finish 22nd is probably a blessing. I really didn't want to do on my roof, but they'll probably have some cool highlights now. I want to tell my mom and dad and everybody at home that I am OK. It wasn't half as bad as last year, but I really would like to finish a fall race here on all four tires, so we'll try it again next year." COMPARE THIS ONE FROM LAST YEAR. "It wasn't as bad as last year. Last year it just kept flipping and flipping and flipping. This year it just flipped a little bit and kind of got back on all fours. I don't think I got as high this time as last time. I couldn't get as much lift off the grass as I could off the asphalt, so I'll work on that for next time." IT WAS A ROUGH DAY. "Yeah, we just had a long day. We had battery problems and ran hot all day. Every problem we could have as a race team we had it today, so to come out 22nd, it could have been a lot, lot worse. I think if I hadn't flipped or wrecked we might have been 11th or 12th so that's tough. That puts us in a big hole for the championship. We know we probably can't win that now, but we still have a chance to get in the top five and that would be a great accomplishment for this race team. We're not giving up. We haven't all year and we've got some unfinished business left. We'll try to go take care of that starting next week at Kansas City."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Rent-A-Center/Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 12th) - "We just got bounced and got run over at the end of the race. He ran over the top of us. I think it was the 31 car. He ran over me and ran over everybody. Our strategy was good all day, but we just couldn't seem to get going. We started off and were a little bit too tight. They worked on it and got it freed up a little bit and then at the end it was pretty good. I just couldn't keep up with Junior. I had a plan. I knew where I needed to be. I needed to be on his bumper. I tried following him and I could run with him about a lap and then he got checked out, and then I got caught by the other pack that ran me down."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Finished 3rd) - "Everybody did a great job, but then it gets down to the time that you want to get as many positions and everybody wants to try to win. Junior, he's got a fast car and he does a great job of driving it. I'm not sure he gets enough credit for that because he's a hell of a young driver. Congratulations to him. These guys did a great job with this UPS Ford and I'm awful proud of them. That's more like what we're accustomed to." BACK TO BACK TOP 5 FINISHES AND YOU WERE SO CLOSE TO THE TOP 10. "It's a little late for that, obviously, but it's not too late to jump-start us for next year and finish this year on a good, strong note. We're encouraged by these good runs and going to Kansas next week, I'm pretty excited. That might break our losing streak out there."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Sharpie/IRWIN Taurus (Finished 5th) - DID YOU HAVE ANY DRAFTING HELP? "It was fun today. That 8 car is awesome. Congratulations to them. Dale, Jr. is awesome when you come to restrictor plate races. We got a top five and Dale, Jr. is atop the points with us in second. This is a great race for us." YOU MAINTAINED YOUR POINTS POSITION. "Those boys keep leapfrogging us. Gordon's leading one week and Junior's the next. We tested at Kansas and we're gonna test Charlotte. Those are the next two races for us and, hopefully, everything goes well." A GOOD POINTS DAY. "Definitely, but the big project was to work on our engine program and build a better car and we did that this time. We qualified in the top 10 for a first time ever at a plate track, for me anyway, and just the way our car handled most of the day - it was up front. I got shuffled twice, but we were able to make that up with pit strategy. I was real proud of the guys. The way the restart went down at the end it was very hairy. We just didn't quite get in the right lane. I was hoping the 77 and the 5 would go, but I think they vapor locked." YOU GOT HELD UP JUST ENOUGH BY THOSE GUYS? "Yeah, the spotter gave me a great signal after we took the white saying the outside lane was checking up. I was gonna follow them because the 20 was in the middle lane, but that allowed me to go to the bottom. He got in behind me and that pushed me to a top five." CAN YOU SMELL A CHAMPIONSHIP NOW? YOU'RE RIGHT THERE. "Not at all. We just have to work like we do each week. I don't really know what the feeling needs to be after the third race. Is it any different than after the second or first? No, but we've survived three races and run good at three races and we've got seven to go."

DALE JARRETT PRESS CONFERENCE - "We were peddling hard, but we have work to do, obviously, to try to keep that type of momentum and get our cars to go that fast. Most of the day, I saw a lot of give and take out there, which was a good thing. As Kevin (Harvick) said, it may have looked calm from the outside, but when you were out there it was pretty wild all day. It was like you couldn't get away from anybody at anytime, so it was typical. Everybody used their heads quite a bit there until right at the end and I guess things got pretty wild, but you expect that. You've got competitive people out there and when you get down inside five laps to go, you just go as hard as you can. We just didn't have enough. I was dead behind the 29 and the 31 and peddling hard and the 8 just drove by me. It wasn't like I lifted or anything I can assure you, so we'll keep working." DID ANY TEAM ORDERS PLAY A ROLE? "Elliott and I talk before each of these races and we realize that there are gonna be times that we can help each other and there are gonna be other times that we may be helping each other and then a hole opens up for one of us and you just go and do what you've got to do at that point in time. You're not gonna get upset about it. We both had some problems midway through the race - a little later than that even - of running hot. If we didn't keep the tape on my car, it was a situation where the nose would just fly going into the corners and then I couldn't ride wide open. We had to try to keep the air to it as much as we could and I knew Elliott was having some problems, so as far as team orders, no, Robert just kind of tells us to do what we can do and we know that if we can help each other we'll try." WAS IT NICE TO HAVE PEOPLE TALK TO YOU AFTER THIS RACE, UNLIKE LAST WEEK? "I don't know that I said nobody came to talk to me, I said nobody printed what I said so that's two totally different things. It just wasn't mentioned and, again, that's with me. It's a matter of our sponsors getting their due and my guys that work their tails off getting theirs. I'm sure at a race like this and finishing that you all are gonna take care of everybody that's not in the chase - two of us sitting right here - so you can talk about us - not necessarily us, talk about our sponsors because they're the ones that appreciate it. Hopefully, it will and if we keep running like this we can't be ignored, I don't think." ISN'T IT IRONIC THAT EVERYONE FOLLOWS DALE, JR. AT THIS TRACK? "You can talk about lining up and following him, but when he passed me I was behind two fast cars and he passed me with no help. He didn't have any help. I know they line up behind him and you think back a little while ago and his dad was the same way. If people don't feel like they have a fast enough car, they're gonna line up and go there, but he passed me with no help. There wasn't anyone pushing whenever he went by me." IS YOUR ATTITUDE JUST DOING THE BEST YOU CAN? "Yeah, I think as long as the efforts there and we see progress being made. We're not just saying that we're gonna go do and take whatever it gives us. We want to do well because we have to build for next year. That was the one thing that we said that could possibly be beneficial to our race team in not making the top 10 because we would just have had to be focused on what happens in the last 10 races. Now we can do that and try some different things and not worry about it, but we can also get ourselves prepared for next year. That's the most important thing. I say the most important thing, the second most important thing right now is next year - making sure we're ready for that. The important thing is to try to get this race team into victory lane again and we're a lot closer. I mean, it's been a long time since we finished in the top five back-to-back, so I feel like we're gaining and maybe Kansas will be that place next week." DID THE CAUTION COME OUT AFTER YOU TOOK THE WHITE FLAG? "No, it did not come out at that time. No. They told me right as I took the checkered flag that there was a crash behind me and it was Elliott, but they never said anything about the crash on the backstretch. But, no, the caution never came out." BASED OFF THE EXPERIENCE IN THE SPRING, DO YOU THING NASCAR IS MORE CAUTIOUS WITH THE CAUTION LIGHTS? "I'd have to say with that being on the backstretch we could race back and nobody is in danger because we're gonna get slowed down before that. That allows us to race back and not have to use the caution. Of course, it might have saved Elliott over here at the end if they would have done that, who knows? But I'm sure that was their thinking, that it was far enough way that we weren't gonna race back through it and they didn't need to worry." ANY CONFUSION WHEN THE 40 AND 18 WRECKED WITH WHAT WAS GOING ON? "I was on pit road when Kevin and them started coming. We were coming with them and it's one of those lucky situations that you get. We were in the right place at the right time."