Scott Riggs
#10 Valvoline Chevrolet
2nd position
PRESS CONFERENCE
You know, this team has taken a lot of chances several times during the race. The only way we could get track position is to take a gamble. And like I said we've taken gambles like that a lot in the Valvoline Chevrolet. Always seems that cautions fall if we try to pit early if we're trying to get track position under green, the caution falls. Just waiting for the caution to fall there at the end and somehow it didn't and we ended up with a good finish.
DID YOU GUYS FOLLOW JEREMY MAYFILED (RACE WINNER)
Whatever the last caution was, that's when we pitted. Right there. We weren't going to pit actually, but they waved off the one-to-go once and then when they did that, we came in and pitted the next time around and we knew we could make it all the way around after that.
WAS YOUR SITUATION SUCH THAT YOU HAD TO BACK OFF THE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS?
Actually, the way the car was driving, it was actually better for me to wait to get the car completely pointed through hthe corner before I got into the gas and that's the best way to save fuel. When you get off the gas, get all the way off of it. And when you get on the gas, get all the way to it and not try to breathe the gas on and off through the corner and pedal it. You know, actually the way the car was driving was the best way for it for fuel mileage. We had pretty good fuel mileage the entire race and I continued to do that and a little luck went our way.
DOES THIS FINISH HELP YOU WITH YOUR RIDE SITUATION FOR 2006?
Well, what I can tell you right now is that nothing is in stone yet. I'm sure that things will be happening pretty quick here the next week or two. This run doesn't dictate what's going to happen for me next year. This run just helps all the guys with their morale and keeping their chins up and knowing we're doing the right kind of things that we need to do and just have to put ourselves in the position to get these kind of finishes. Doesn't affect next year at all.
Tony Stewart
#20 The Home Depot Chevrolet
5th position
NOT A WIN, BUT A TOP FIVE TODAY
That's why we're smiling. A top 5 for the Home Depot Chevrolet is good. You know, we got up to second there which I was really proud of but just couldn't stay there at the end with all the pit strategy. Just really happy with team. To start 36 and end up in the top 5 is a pretty good day, I'd say.
ISN'T IT HARD WHEN RACES LIKE THIS COME DOWN TO FUEL STRATEGY MORE?
Well, that's part of racing. That's part of it. It is kind of frustrating to a certain degree, but at the same time we could have all could have came in and got fuel like everybody else at the end of that deal, so you know, it worked for two guys and for us we lost three spots, but like I said, you can't not smile when you come out of here with a top 5 finish today.
PRESS CONFERENCE:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RACE
Really happy with it, honestly. You know, we had a good car. We had to work on it all day to make it fast, but starting 36th and getting to second there. You know, it was a smart move by the #19 and the #10 to gamble and they made that and it paid off really well for them. So, we only lost three spots and ended up with a top 5 so definitely still leaving here with a smile on our face.
RE: CHASE FORMAT
Why are asking me that? They're not going to change it if we like it or don't like it. Let's not make controversy. It is what it is, it's an exciting format. It gives the guys the guys that are ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th to get their teams and sponsors a lot of publicity now that they need. So, we're in year two of this. Let's cut the controversy and I'm excited that we're going to be in it. Mathematically, we're not not going to be in it. I'm excited that we're in a position where we're locked in already.
RE: DEBRIS ON THE TRACK DURING THE RACE?
Must be your first Michigan race. Every year that we come here there's a lot of wrappers and stuff. It's just the layout of the track and the majority of the grandstands are on the west side and the wind is blowing from the west to the east so it's going to blow it on the race track and through the catch fences. I wouldn't say it was any worse than it typically is here. It was pretty much the normal amount of debris. I've seen it worse, I've seen it less. With as windy as it was, to be honest I expected it to be a lot worse in all reality.
IS IT A RELIEF TO BE OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT FROM THIS HOT STREAK?
Let's just put it this way. I don't give a blank. It doesn't matter. Hey, just the fact that we're running this good. I don't care whether the limelight is there or not, in case you guys didn't realize, we don't show up just for you guys each week. We show up for our sponsors and for our teams and for the points and the glory and the girls and everything else involved. So, I don't really care. It really doesn't matter to me whether you guys put me in the limelight or not this week or not. I still did what I wanted to do and that's leave with a smile on my face.
Greg Zipadelli
Crew Chief
#20 The Home Depot Chevrolet
AS A CREW CHIEF, WHAT WAS THE THINKING BEHIND WHEN TO PIT, ETC AT THE END OF THE RACE?
We were waiting to see who was going to pit-who didn't pit and who was going to go for it. We kind of weeded it out to there were too many cars sitting out there riding around. We kind of played it safe. We didn't really think we could make it on fuel. If we went to one or two to go and took a couple seconds of fuel, we probably would have ended up racing for third. Instead, we put tires on and got a top 5 out of it. So, we lost a couple of spots from where we ran or where we could have run, but that's part of it. You know, depending on where you are and what's going on is how aggressive you need to be and we just kind of played it on the safe side.
Joe Nemechek
#01 U.S. Army Chevrolet
8th position
I definitely have mixed feelings about today. We took a gamble on fuel mileage and that paid off -- we finally got a break. I ran out of fuel just before the checkered flag. One side of me says, considering the problems we had an eighth-place finish is pretty good. But on the other hand, we had a perfect car -- very capable of winning today until I hit the wall after the right-front tire went down. The Army Chevy suffered damage to the front-end and we could never get it to work right. This is an aerodynamic-sensitive track and we were badly handicapped after the tire incident. Winning the pole and leading the race for a number of laps, and not have a shot at victory, is disappointing. But this is a crazy sport. We'll take the eighth-place result and go on to the next race.
Brian Vickers
#25 GMAC Chevrolet
9th position
INTERESTING DAY HERE TODAY
Yeah, interesting to say the least. I'll tell you what, this GMAC Chevy team has done such a great job and finally glad to have some luck on our side because that's all it was for us was luck. We were not anywhere near where we needed to be. But I'm still so proud of these guys, never gave up, stayed confident on the radio and good pit stops all day. Lance made a good call on a gamble with fuel at the end and it paid off.
HOW MUCH FUEL DO YOU THINK YOU HAD AT THE END?
I think we had plenty. I wish I would have gone harder. I could have maybe got another couple spots out of it, but at that point we were going to be happy to have what we have, you know what I mean? We didn't want to push our luck any.
Jimmie Johnson
#48 Lowe's Chevrolet
10th position
HOW WAS YOUR DAY?
Not like we expected. You usually have this happen every three or four years at Michigan. It did it today, so we came in and tried to put four on and tried to come through the field. We were the fastest car there at the end, it's just that we gave up too much time. The guys that did two tires or fuel only really cycled out through. They still didn't win, but that strategy was probably a little better. We learned a lot of things and I am very happy with the race car. Indy was the start of some new things and new hope for us. Watkins Glen was good, you know, but it's a road course and then to be here today and run in the top 5 all day long, see the leaders, race with them and then understand where our cars are a little off, I'm very excited to go into the final 10. I think we're getting some momentum back and heading in the right direction.
YOU UNOFFICIALLY CLINCHED A SPOT IN THE CHASE TODAY
Yeah, that's nice. It's comforting to know to at least be in the top 10 in points. It's a testament to these guys to clinch it with three (races) to go. I'm excited for it and it just means we've had a great season. We shouldn't be ashamed of anything.
WILL YOU ALTER ANYTHING NOW FROM RACE TO RACE?
No, you keep going. I think it's more important to have the right mindset for collecting points and racing for a championship right now, so when you get in the final 10 you hit your stride and you're doing what you need to do. I would expect all the other teams in the same mindset and everyone else will be very stingy with points and smart on the race track from here on out.
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH A 10TH PLACE TODAY OR COULD YOU HAVE HAD A FEW MORE SPOTS?
No, I'm definitely not happy with a 10th place today. We were sitting fourth before that thing cycled out and some guys gambled, some guys two-tired and fuel only and we just made the wrong decision, wrong strategy. We were very fast at the end and we were making up a lot of ground but we just couldn't overcome what was going on on pit road. But, great day, great race car. Chad's worked real hard to find some new stuff and I really think this is a start of things to come.
WAS THERE A DEBATE TO TAKE TWO OR FOUR?
Not really. I really leave that up to Chad because he can see what's going on on the track. I knew when I had four that I was going to be lightning fast. Just kind of laps to take advantage of four tires.
RE: BRISTOL
Just from the new news of being clinched in the final 10, going to Bristol is going to make that race a lot more enjoying. That's just a race where I love going there, I love racing there, and I love leaving there. Then it's behind me and the stress is gone. It's a tough track. Anything can happen.
Jeff Gordon
#24 DuPont Chevrolet
15th position
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE DAY?
It wasn't pretty, but it was a good points day for us. I'm not exactly sure what it did for us in the points, but I know that (we gained points).
It was not a good day for us, performance-wise. We've got a lot of work to do before we go to California, because we can't run like that. That part of it was disappointing, but you've got to play the game -- and we played the fuel mileage game and it paid off for us.
WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE CAR?
We were so, so tight the whole time -- even in practice on Friday we were really tight. We kept freeing it up (in the race) and freeing it up and then there at the end, we were so loose that I couldn't even drive it.
That's the thing with the cars these days, it's just so hard to get it right, and we're not getting it right, you know, on these types of tracks and we've got to figure out what we're doing wrong.
DID YOU HAVE A 15TH PLACE CAR?
Heck no -- I think we had a 30th place car, so I'm actually pretty happy right now. I'm not happy with the way we ran all day, but I'm pretty happy with the way we finished because it seems like it's the first time in a long time that something's actually gone our way.
YOU LAUGHED ABOUT RACING WITH BOBBY LABONTE FOR 15TH, BUT IS THAT HOW CRITICAL POINTS ARE RIGHT NOW?
Well, it could be -- you never know, and so you've got to get everything you can get. It's just funny because me and Bobby were riding around there, saving fuel and I was drafting off of him and he wanted to let me go one time and I was like, 'No, no -- I'll stay right here.
There at the end when I saw the white flag, I got inside of him and raced him off Turn 4 and beat him to the line (laughing).
HOW MUCH FUEL DO YOU THINK YOU HAD AT THE END OF THE RACE?
Well, I had enough to drive all the way over here, so I guess I had plenty. I was running half throttle there that's why we lost so much time-that's why we finished 15th. One is we were pretty far back and we start playing that fuel mileage game pretty early in that run when the car was real loose. I just started backpedaling and letting off early and half throttle down the straightaway. You know, I just wanted to make sure if we made because if we made it, we'd finish ahead of guys that we're battling with in the points.
HOW DISAPPOINTED ARE YOU WITH THE WAY YOU RAN TODAY?
Oh, it was horribly. Horrible. It's embarrassing, you know? And I don't know what we've got to do. We've got to find something because we've tried everything. And it's not working. And Kyle Busch was really good, so you know, we've got to figure out what I'm doing wrong, what we're doing wrong as a team and you know, we got fortunate on qualifying day but it certainly didn't pay off for us in the race. We've got to be better than that. My big concern is California. That's going to be an important race and very similar type of race track and we need to be better than we were here.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
#8 Budweiser Chevrolet
18th position
It's damn frustrating. I hate fuel mileage races where the fastest car doesn't win. We had a car that at a couple of points in the race was nearly perfect. It seemed like there were only a few laps when I wasn't racing with somebody. That's a helluva lotta fun to run three-wide with a lot of these guys, but it leaves you with a sick feeling knowing that once you make that last stop, you're just hoping the guys in front of you keep running out of gas.
We got better and better all afternoon, but we really began to stuggle with the last set of tires (on a lap 144 pit stop). It got tighter and tighter and then it got really, really bad at the end. It was almost like we might have had a shock go bad on us it was so bad.
Kyle Busch
#5 Kellogg's Chevrolet
43rd position
Note: Busch brought his car back to the garage and retired after 81 laps due to an engine failure. He had led 28 laps during the race.
LOOKS LIKE YOU CAUGHT SOME DEBRIS ON THE TRACK AND IT OVERHEATED YOUR ENGINE, WAS THAT IT?
Yeah, definitely think so. Hendrick Motorsports builds great horsepower and great engines and reliability and I think we just hurt it overheating it. It's really shame-the Kellogg's Chevrolet was awesome today and ran really well. It was going to take a few minor adjustments to make it better to charge back through there and get it back to the front. But, it's a short day here in the garage area.
HOW DISAPPOINTING IS THIS FOR YOU?
It's tremendously disappointing. The guys work so hard and this is not the finish they deserve or what we all deserve as a team. It's just a shame the way everything can't come together this year. The team's done an awesome job, the driver's been decent. The crew chief's been really good. It's just bummer luck. I don't know what to do to turn it around. I don't think there's anything that we've done that's any different from last year.
IT MUST BE HARD, WHAT CAN YOU DO WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE DEBRIS ON YOUR GRILLE?
The first one we were able to shake loose-Kasey Kahne helped us out on that. When I let Kurt go by me, he didn't slow down in order to let me get up underneath him. And it wasn't any of his doing. He could have helped us or he could have went on. But, it's a shame we weren't able to get that second piece off. It got up way too hot and ultimately ended our day.
