GFS Marketplace 400 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 17th) - "That's really frustrating. We just really need to watch what we do here because we're in the chase a no-brainer unless we beat ourselves. It was a good car, but things just didn't work out."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus (Finished 6th) - "It was a great run for the National Guard car. We just missed that win by a little bit, but we rebounded. That's what we needed to do was get a good top 10 and that's what we did."

WHAT ABOUT YOUR PIT STRATEGY? "We didn't take much of a gamble. I was gambling on a caution flag. If the caution would have come out, we would have had four skins and been able to put it to them. We were the fastest car on the race track by a half-second, but we just ran out of time to get there. I think we had the right strategy. If I had to do it over again, yeah, I'd take gas only but you never know. That's why they call it racing."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Taurus (Finished 3rd) - "Our strategy was OK, I guess. It's just when you're running in the back you've got nothing lose by coming in and topping off. I thought our strategy was right. I mean, when you're running second or third you can't come in and top off and go to the end of the longest line and hope for a green. I mean, you can't do that. The reason they were able to do that was because they weren't running up front as much. We didn't get beat on the race track today. That was good. I really thought that battle with Carl was for the win until there was two to go, so that was a little disappointing."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 Pedigree/M&M's Taurus (Finished 39th) - "I don't know what to say. I think my worst nightmare has come true. I've put us in a position where we've got to win the next couple of races to try and get into the chase. My guys are doing a great job of giving me good race cars. I don't know what I'm doing as a driver to mess up so many times. I just got really loose behind the 45 and the 12 and it just came around. I was a little loose in traffic all day, but I didn't really expect it to be that loose. So I just made a driver mistake and I have dug a hole that's maybe too deep for my team to get me out. I've got a great race team. We're not gonna hang our heads. We're not gonna give up. We're gonna go to Bristol and try to sit on the pole like we did in the spring race and try to lead some laps. It's not over with. Yeah, we're making our chances a long shot, but it's not over with yet. We've just got to be a little smarter on the race track."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Crown Royal Taurus (Finished 7th) - "It was a good day. I was real proud of the effort my team put forth with all of the emotions. We led the most laps today, but we didn't get into victory lane and that's OK. We had a dnf last week, so this helps that. Now there are only three to go."

WHAT ABOUT YOUR STRATEGY AT THE END? "It was characteristic of Michigan with long green flag runs like that, and then it wasn't characteristic with the normal trend of things with late yellows. So it was real interesting on taking four or taking two. We had track position and we felt that would work into our hands, and then the car got tight at the end and some guys beat us on strategy. It was a good day anyway."

AT THE END WERE YOU POINTS RACING OR LAYING BACK TO GET A GOOD FINISH? "We were going for everything we had. We just got tight. The track really glazed over the end. With guys taking two tires and four tires we just got tight. The strategy, I thought, would come out in our favor with track position but it didn't and we ended up seventh."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (Finished 19th) - "We had a great car. We had a top 10 car and were running along fine, tweaking on the adjustments. Everything was going good and then Sadler spins out in front of me. He was in the middle of the track and I had high or low and I went high. At about that time his car caught hold and he shot up the race track and hit us in the door. That did a lot of damage, but the guys did a great job of patching it back up. Man, that was unbelievable strategy there at the end to gather a bunch of spots. We were gonna finish way back in the thirties, instead we're somewhere in the top 17."

WHAT ABOUT RUNNING OUT OF GAS AND COASTING ACROSS THE LINE? "About the last 10-15 laps you just slow way up on the straightaway and don't touch the accelerator until you get to the next straightaway. Obviously, it's not the fast way. I could see some guys around me playing the same game - Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett. I saw all of those guys doing the same thing. We were all sitting there limping around sort of injured trying to get to the end."

CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 AAA Taurus (Finished 4th) - "I told the guys to keep their heads up because that's just a blast. I had a good time. To be that close to victory and have it go on pit strategy and everything. I have to congratulate Jeremy. That's awesome to see him get a win. I would have loved to have seen Scott get the win, but I still had a blast all day. I got to race with Tony and Matt and everybody. I'm just really proud of the AAA crew. I wish we would have seen a backflip though, man. I thought we were gonna get it."

HOW KEY WAS TODAY'S FINISH FOR THE CHASE? "That's truly what we came here to do. When we look back, I'm sure at the end of the year, this is gonna be one of those races where we wished we had more like it. I dare not complain. That was a good day. We led a couple of laps. We finished fourth. I think we probably helped ourselves in the chase deal. If we make the chase, it's gonna be awesome. If we don't, we're gonna go all out and win as many races as we can. Either way it'll be alright, but I'm having fun."

WAS THAT THE ONLY CALL YOU COULD MAKE AT THE END - TAKING FUEL? "There are so many different ways it can go. I feel like when all the cars were down there Bob looked at the probabilities of what would happen. He's the smartest guy I know and nobody came up with anything better, so that's what we did. We pitted when some guys didn't. That's what we had to do. We couldn't stretch it on fuel because if we threw a great points day out the window, we'd never forgive ourselves. A victory would have been really sweet here. I'm happy about this. Man, I had a good time."

WHAT ABOUT THE END? "I was truly have a blast. They said, 'Alright, 10 to the stop and 15 laps to go.' I thought, 'OK, we're gonna have to stop and some guys aren't.' So I said 'I'm just gonna drive my heart out and try to get as much space as I can in case there's no caution.' Then there was no caution. We came and pitted. I feel like our team did the best they could possibly do. I don't think there's anything I would have changed for the whole day and, to me, that's the definition of success. I'm really proud of the AAA crew. To be that close, there's like six laps left and you give up the lead coming down pit road. That's tough to do but that's big picture racing."

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. "Is that amazing? I'm gonna love this place everytime I come back here in the fall because it's just so cool. To think that it's a year - a year has gone by. That's amazing."

WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT THE PIT STRATEGY? "Oh yeah. I was thinking about all that. To be honest with you, I didn't really know what everybody was doing and I decided, 'I'm not gonna think too hard.' I just wanted to go as fast as I could and see what happened."

GOOD ROUSH CARS TODAY. "Oh yeah. We were almost all in the top five at once. I was trying to pass Tony so hard just so we could get that one photo under green of all five Roush cars up front, but Tony got up there and messed that photo up."

MATT KENSETH PRESS CONFERENCE - "We had a good day. I feel like we didn't get beat on the track. We weren't the fastest car at the beginning. We were probably a fifth to tenth place car and they did a great job on pit road on our pit stops. We made all the right adjustments and at the end we had all the fastest cars in the race up to that point beat, so I felt good about what we did. I think our pit strategy was absolutely right. When you're up front, you can't come in and take a gamble and top off and go to the end. We came and got two tires there and that made up enough ground on all the guys that did the gas-and-go where we finished in front of them all. So we did everything right. As long as it took them to clean all that rubber up back there and all that stuff I knew that somebody was gonna stretch it and probably beat us."

ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY WHEN YOU STAYED OUT? "We did everything right, I believe. It wasn't just the pit or not to pit thing, it was the coming in after the pits were open the first time and topping off. That's what got those guys there - pitting later in the caution. I don't know how to word it right. No disrespect to wherever you're running, but we've done it a million times when we haven't been running very good. When you're running tenth or fifteenth or wherever you're running, it's easy to take a gamble and go back to 25th and be full of gas and know if it works out just right, I can make it to the end because I'm not running quite as fast. 'I'm running in the middle anyway, so I might as well take a chance and go to the back and try it.' I don't know where those guys were running all day, so I'm not necessarily saying that about them, but I know they weren't in the top five, six or seven. So that would have been silly for us to try that - to be running - I think we restarted second and with this lucky dog thing, I don't know how many cars were on the lead lap. I can only imagine there had to be 30, so you would have gone all the way back there. So I think we did the right thing. We beat all the cars that got tires on that caution - did the gas-and-go thing - we made up enough time on two tires to pass Carl at the end, which I was thinking was for the win until I found out there were two more guys out there. I think we did our pit strategy right. I think we made all the adjustments right. The 97 was the best car all day and on that last long run we beat him, so I feel like we made all the right adjustments and had the car to win the race at the end, but circumstances didn't allow it."

YOU GAINED SOME POINTS ON 10TH. "Honestly, I sort of forgot about the chase after Pocono. We've had two terrible Poconos. In the last Pocono we were making ground, making ground, making ground and we lost so much. We were a long ways out, so I don't know where we are now. Yeah, if everything goes perfect the next three weeks we could make it, but it's definitely a real, real long shot."

DO YOU THINK YOU COULD MAKE UP THAT GROUND AND MAKE THE CHASE? "I don't know. I haven't worried about it. I want to win races and lead laps. At a lot of places we've run much better. I still don't think we're quite in the form that we were maybe a couple of years ago or three years ago, but we're turning it around and we're getting better and that's all I can ask for. If we can run up front and be competitive and put ourselves in a position to win, we should, hopefully, win some races. But all you can do is the best you can every week and let those points fall where they may. I was stressing out about it before we got to Pocono and after we left there with our 39th-place or whatever it was - however we managed that - we were so far behind that I sort of forgot about it. So we're just running the best we can run every week. We're still trying to get as many points as we can every week and still try to lead laps and try to win if you can and finish as high as you can so we'll just see how it shakes out."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DEBRIS YOU GOT ON THE GRILLE? "When we got the debris on the grille, my car all of a sudden turned real good, which should have made me think of something. But these cars are very sensitive to aerodynamics. When that big piece on there the car turned so good that I went right by Kurt. I actually just passed him for the lead and didn't know it was on there. It was heads-up by Robbie. He told me to check my temperature and it was already real hot. I didn't even see it was on there, so I probably would have melted it down. So I just had to slow down and get back behind Kurt and told him what I was doing, and got up to his bumper and got it blown off the grille. Then we were still good enough to pass him and move on, so it was lucky that I was passing him for the lead at the time it happened, so I didn't have to back up in the field and find somebody to let pass me and get behind him and try to get it off the grille. The same thing happened to him earlier in the race and we did the same scenario. He let me lead a lap there and then pulled behind me and got the paper off his grille and then he went back on and took off, so there was just a lot of trash out there."

HOW DO YOUR EMOTIONS CHANGE WHEN YOU THINK YOU'RE PASSING CARL FOR THE LEAD AND THEN REALIZE IT'S NOT? "We were running and with those two tires we were making up a lot of time. I was watching pit road. You've got such a long straightway here that you can do a lot of things. I wasn't watching the scoreboard, but I was watching pit road to see who was pitting and what was going on. With somewhere around 10 to go I saw Carl rolling off pit road and merging up ahead of me. I knew that Carl was obviously the leader and he obviously did a gas-and-go and we made up some ground on him, so I just assumed that was for the lead. So I went ahead and got racing him real hard and passed him, and then with two to go Robbie told me there were two more guys up there. Robbie was pretty enthused. He wanted me to go catch the 19 and the 10 and I said, 'I can't even see them and we've got three laps left.' I was just hoping honestly that they would run out of gas and we'd get it, but I knew the 99 was the guy to beat. He was leading the race before we pitted, driving away, and I knew when I saw him come off pit road I thought that was gonna be the race for the win."

DID YOUR HEART SINK? "Yeah, I mean you don't really know. When it's that close until you come off four and they're still rolling you don't know if they're gonna make it in some of those situations. I've always hated fuel mileage races. We've been on the good side of it before, but I hate it. I always like the fastest car to win, even if it's not me. The racer in me likes that, but they did a good job and a lot of this sport is about that. Ryan won a bunch of races a while back on that and they pretty much outsmarted everybody and outfoxed everybody and took the big gamble when they could afford to take it and it paid off for those guys. That was a great job by them. I was just hoping that nobody was gonna make it and everybody was gonna at least have to get a gas-and-go."