Chevy American Revolution 400 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes

Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowe's Chevrolet

Note: crashed on Lap 80, bringing out caution flag. Johnson's car is currently under service in the garage.

WHAT HAPPENED?
Well, the car's pretty bad. Cars in front of me were sliding around and checked up. It just was a chain reaction deal-I got hit from behind. Down in the inside wall, when I was making my lap around, I tried to get back to pit road and went down the backstretch and my steering failed. When I climbed on the brakes, all the camber in the car and castor in it, I braked and I turned right into the inside wall again. If it didn't hurt that I backed it into the wall the first time, it killed it the second time.

CAN YOU GET BACK OUT?
Possibly. We're going to try. We need to get every point that we can. I know the guys will work hard to get the Lowe's Monte Carlo back on the track. Hopefully we can pick up some spots.

Nights like tonight, it feels good to have a points lead. But, there's still a lot of racing between now and the cut, so we need to get back out there and get racing.

Jeff Gordon #24 DuPont Chevrolet

Note: Repeated trips to pit lane for service related to Gordon hitting the wall earlier. The car is currently under service in the garage.

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT HAPPENED?
I know exactly what happened. It was one of the stupidest things I've ever done in my life. You know, a car spun in front of me, I saw smoke and I slowed down, decided to take it a little high, just ran straight into the wall, by myself.

WHAT IS THE SPECIFIC DAMAGE?
It's suspension damage. I didn't want to take a chance of something breaking out there. By the time we fix it, there won't be that many laps and not that many points.

Tony Stewart #20 The Home Depot Chevrolet 2nd position

I just told Kasey (Kahne, winner) that down the road when they talk about his first win that I got the honor of being the guy they mentioned that he had to race for the win. I'm just really happy for him. It's long overdue. The kid has done an awesome job for two years now. He just needed a perfect night and tonight's that night.

ON THE LAST FEW LAPS OF THE RACE Well, the No. 9 (Kasey Kahne) was getting smaller and smaller (laughs). No, we had a whole mirror full of Ryan Newman and the great thing is that the top three guys were short track and open wheel guys tonight. And if we were going to run second to anybody, the kid who won the race tonight - Kasey Kahne - that's the guy to run second to. I'm just really proud of him and it brings back a lot of memories when I was here in '99 and got that first win and Dale Earnhardt was the first guy to see me after the race to congratulate me. It's an awesome night. Our Home Depot team did a great job. We just got a little too tight at the end. I told Zippy and the guys that at least we had a shot at it tonight and that's something we haven't been able to say very much this year. I'm really proud of them. We had awesome pit stops and Zippy gave us a great car. We just got beat by a better car and a better driver tonight. He did an awesome job.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU SPUT OUT WHILE RUNNING IN A TIGHT PACK OF CARS? To be perfectly honest, I screwed up (while) having fun. It was just so much fun dicing in and out of traffic. I haven't been up front and dicing for the lead like that for a long time. The fun thing is the three of us were up there in the lead and lapping cars that were fighting to stay on the lead lap. But the three of us were looking out for each other and making sure we weren't going to get underneath each other and I just screwed up and spun the car. I asked the group for a Mulligan and they gave it too me. The good thing is that I got a second out of it. I'm happy tonight. Obviously I would have loved to have won the race, but I'm happy for Kasey. He deserved it."

Kyle Busch #5 Kellogg's Chevrolet 4th position

The guys made awesome changes all night and we finished within the top 10. So it was a real good effort and a strong effort by all these guys. And I hate it for the No. 42 (Jamie McMurray). I got into him a little bit down there in Turn 1 and he ran me down a little bit but I got loose in there and I should't have gotten loose but I had to correct it. I hoped I wouldn't hit him but I did. He raced me clean all night long and I hope we can bypass this deal and go on to next week.

The No. 12 (Ryan Newman) and the No. 20 (Tony Stewart) were really battling close and neither one of them slipped. But I got into Turn 1 underneath them and it's always treacherous at this place for some reason when you get underneath somebody. Obviously we found that out last night with me as well too, but it was a good night for us tonight.

Kevin Harvick #29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet 5th position

It was a good night. I lost a little on pit road, but we had a solid, top-5 car. It was a solid top-5 car and had to paddle back a little bit there. But all in all a good night for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet team.

Bobby Labonte #18 Boniva Chevrolet 8th position

It was pretty good. We finished 8th and the guys did a good job. The pit stops were good, the car handled great. It was a good night for us.

HOW WERE THE LAST FEW RESTARTS? Pretty good. It was getting better. It was getting a little wild, but it's typical racing. No big deal.

ARE YOU FEELING LIKE YOU'RE GETTING THE FINISHES YOU DESERVE? Well, yeah. Last weekend we finished 17th. We didn't run that good, but we finished better than we should have. We were terrible. So then, in Phoenix was sixth place. So, yeah, we're finally getting somewhere. Finishing races is a big thing.

Michael Waltrip #15 NAPA Chevrolet 9th position

We just fought so hard to get ninth. We just didn't have a car quite like we did at Phoenix. It just didn't handle quite as good. It's our first trip here with Tony Jr. (Eury). They feel like we learned so much and when we come back here in September we'll be on top of it. I just have a smart team. At the end it would have been so easy to pit. We were running ninth and we know the cars around us are a little better than us. But it wasn't the right call. The right call was to stay put and race hard and hold them off. They made the right call. I'm just thankful to my NAPA Auto Parts Chevy team. We were just one notch off. We were just a little bit too tight all night long. If it wasn't for that we could have contended.

ON MISSING THE NO. 2 CAR WHEN IT SPUN That's what experience will do for you. When he started spinning, people say the race car drivers need to have quick reflexes. It's quite the opposite. When they start spinning the first reflex you should do is go 'all right, let's see here he's going to go.' I was able to stay patient and wait. It worked out. I have a great team. Thank the Lord for my team.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #8 Budweiser Chevrolet 14th position

We had a decent car. It wasn't that great. I got tight and during the middle part of the race we lost a lap. I made the lap up luckily and got the lucky dog. I was able to get a decent finish. We had about a tenth place car right at the end of the race but we didn't have a tenth place car during the midKdle part of the race and we lost a lot of track position.

Jeff Burton #31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet 16th position

We had a real good car. We had a piece of rubber get in between a belt and a pulley. It knocked the pulley off the power steering. With the set ups we're running, you just can't drive it without power steering. It's not like it's used to be where you have it to help you. We had to go to the back and finish. We had a great car. Part of the way through the race we didn't have a real good stop. I pulled out and got the right front fender tore off of it. That hurt us but we still had a top six or top seven car and finished sixteenth with it."

Scott Riggs #10 Arometrics Chevrolet 26th position

We were off from the beginning of the race. It was my fault for losing a couple tenths there in qualifying. Just trying too hard, got up too high. And I lost a lot of time there and it lost us starting position, 36th. That was tough. We weren't really good at the beginning, so we got a lap down, then we got the lap back. A lap down again, lap back. Spun out. Kept fighting all night long, making changes. Trying to get the balance of the car to where it needed to be. Then, with 50 laps to go, I lost my brakes. That was just tough. We were starting to work our way up front, got in the top 20, might have had a shot at the top 15, and then I lost the brakes. There was nothing we could. With the way we had the car setup, I had to charge the corner real hard so I could be on the brake petal in the center of the corner to really make it turn. And if I didn't, it wouldn't turn. We missed it and did all we can do and hope to be better next time we come back.

Dave Blaney #07 Bass Pro Shops/Jack Daniel's Chevrolet 27th position

HOW WAS YOUR CAR? We were inching forward the whole time, especially on a long run, it was coming up good. On a short run we really couldn't make up a whole lot of ground.

DID YOU GET INTO JAMIE MCMURRAY THERE AT THE END? Yeah, I tried to let him go and somebody came under me and made it three wide. Shoved me up into him. I didn't want that to happen.

Mike Bliss #0 NetZero Chevrolet 37th position

Note: Bliss crashed on lap 376. He was released from the infield care center.

WHAT HAPPENED? We had the "Lucky Dog" there for a second. I saw the guy blow up, and all of a sudden it just went sideways. I think I hit his oil, because it turned in a heartbeat.

Kyle Busch post-race press conference

Kyle Busch #5 Star Wars/Kellogg's Chevrolet

GREAT FINISH. WHAT WILL THIS DO TO YOUR CONFIDENCE? It will definitely boost us all up. It was definitely a good run for the Kellogg's Star Wars car. It was a great race. But, first off and foremost, I want to apologize for the #42. I didn't mean to get into him. Good, hard racing there toward the end of the race, and I got into 1 and he was looking underneath the #12, kind of, and I was underneath him and I wasn't expecting to be that low on the race track. I had to use a little bit more break and got loose and got into him. You know, it was just good, hard racing there at the end of the race. We had a good solid effort there and just coming down there at the end of the race, you just try to get as many spots as you can. You know, if I was going for the win, I probably would have knicked him, but you know, for just one spot to get fourth, it wasn't much for me. It didn't mean much.

KASEY JUST WON HIS FIRST RACE TONIGHT. ARE YOU THE NEXT BREAKTHROUGH WINNER? I hope so. I hope it comes next week in All Star open race, so we can get into the big show and race with all these guys. Now that Kasey's in, you know, the fan vote doesn't go for him anymore. I don't know who's second to that, because I know he was kicking all of our butts with that. But, it's going to be fun. To have Kasey get his first win. This is where I got my first Busch win. So, I know exactly what it means for him, of course. Nextel Cup is that much bigger than the Busch Series. I think Tony Stewart got his first win here, too, a few years back. So, it's pretty cool to see Kasey. The whole Ray Evernham bunch has worked so hard and Jeremy Mayfield won here last year, last fall. Those guys just definitely have a handle on this place and it's cool to see Kasey. He really didn't run well here last year. So, it's not really surprising to see him do well here, but they definitely got the car handling well here from last year.

DO YOU FEEL WINNING WAS GOING TO BE EASIER THAN YOU EXPECTED, OR DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE GETTING CLOSER TO THAT? Yeah, you could say that. I thought that we would struggle a little bit more than what we have this year. The finishes have been showing that we've kind of struggled. You know, from the race runs that we've had, and the competitiveness that we've been at, we've definitely had a strong car all year long. And Talladega was one of those races where we're just riding in the back waiting for things to happen. Nothing ever happens, then we try to go up front, and then it happens. So, Phoenix was a strong run for us. Darlington was going to be a strong run for us. If it wasn't a third place or even a win there. I think we had a strong run there. There's been other stuff throughout the year, too. We just need to work on some other things and handle it a little bit better and try to keep on working on it. I've got to learn, myself, how to drive these cars and how to tell the guys what I need in the race car in order to go faster to make myself comfortable in order to pass cars and get up there to the front.

BEING THE YOUNGER BROTHER OF A CHAMPION, DOES THAT HELP YOU WITH LEARNING THINGS? Yeah, definitely. Kurt's been a great asset to my racing career. He's also been a great teacher. Everything that I've ever learned from him, is why I'm here. It's pretty cool to be able to learn from him as well now as well as Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers. I've got some great teammates to kind of pull off of as well. Everything that I've done throughout my racing career has been toward getting to this level and one day being a NEXTEL Cup winner and maybe one day a NEXTEL Cup champion. So, the more we work at it and the more we adapt to the series, the cars and rule changes and everything, we'll get better at it. And coming out here this rookie year, trying to get the ball rolling and if we can run up front on a consistent basis, I think we'll be better off. To the start of 2006.

Tony Stewart post-race press conference

Tony Stewart #20 The Home Depot Chevrolet 2nd position

ON SPINNING OUT AND MAINTAINING HIS TRACK POSITION You got to spin out once in a while just to help keep the ratings up. You don't want everybody getting bored in the grandstands. It's just a fun night. When you're racing with Ryan (Newman) and Kasey (Kahne) and guys that eight or ten years ago you were racing sprint cars and midgets with, it makes it a pretty cool feeling tonight for the three of us to go out there and dominate this race with Kurt Busch involved also. To have three guys from the same background - all three of us have raced with each other in those types of cars together - and be able to have the night like we had. I guarantee you the USAC officials in Indianapolis, Indiana are pretty proud right now of the three guys they sent up here.

IN YOUR BACKGROUND WHAT DID YOUR EXPERIENCES GIVE YOU TO RACE WELL AT TRACKS LIKE THIS? I'll be honest. I don't think there is any advantage that we have. That's just the background we came from. Mark Martin came from ASA. Rusty Wallace came from ASA. The crème rises to the top all the time. When do you that, that's how you get to the situation. That's how you get to this level is by going out and doing things like Ryan did. Ryan had the world record in a midget for I don't know how long and he's still got it. Kasey has won the big races that he's won. I've won the championships and big races that I've won. We all earned our way here. It's just cool on a night like tonight, the three of us can be together at the top like that.

ON REMEMBERING WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO GET YOUR FIRST WIN It just brought so many memories back of '99 and the same race I got my first win at. When I was watching him come backwards down the first straight away, I thought if he doesn't lift he's going to crash by the time he gets back down to Turn Four. He was just so excited I don't think he even knew how fast he was going or where he was going. He was just going. I can remember. The best thing about it is I had my teammate behind me that night. It was a similar situation. Bobby (Labonte) and somebody else were racing hard for second. That just let me do my thing. That was just enough to get the nerves down enough that you could just go out there and cut off good laps. For a guy like him who has been close so many times and something happens and you not get that first win. I guarantee you, he'd rather have the caution go at two to go because he was really strong. I kept him honest on the restart, that's for sure. He was not going to make it easy, I promise you that. He did everything right. He ran a really, really, really smooth and what I would consider a perfect race. He didn't do anything wrong. When he wasn't the best on the track, he let guys go. The same guys that he let, gave him respect when they got back up and they let back by. When it came time at the end to go, he was the fastest car on the track and he made zero mistakes. He didn't give anybody an opportunity to get to him.

ON APPEARING TO BE BETTER THAN KASEY KAHNE IN LAP TRAFFIC AND IF IT'S FROM EXPERIENCE I don't know. He might have been just being very careful where I was just having so much fun. That was when I was having the most fun is when we had the lap traffic. Every time it seemed like we caught lap traffic, we caught a pack at a time. They were racing each other for position and trying to be the guy that if they did get down without trying to stay with the leader to get lucky dog. I don't know. I'd just say it's him being careful. He had such a good car that there wasn't any reason to take any risk.

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN KASEY'S POTENTIAL? You see patience and car control. The same thing as when I saw Ryan when he was at the early stages. You see natural talent. You see a lot of guys that come up and have the best cars and can't do anything with it. You see guys that come up and are in mediocre equipment but make it rise to the top. Kasey was one of those guys that no matter what he got in, he was good and competitive and was able to win it. He was just one of those guys that always stood out when he was a rookie in USAC.

ON WHAT YOUR FIRST WIN DOES TO YOUR CONFIDENCE I guess the way I felt is that you finally feel like you're solidified. It's like it's one missing piece of the puzzle. You've proved to everybody that you belong. Everybody knew that he's belonged here. There's something about getting the first win. Once you get that win it does add a lot of confidence. That kid doesn't need any more confidence is the bad thing for all of us. It just gives you such a feeling that finally I've done what I've need to do here and I finally won at the top level. Whether that feeling of satisfaction shows up with the race team or not, when that kid goes home and sees his cousin and his brother tonight and his buddies, that kid is going to have a smile on his face that nobody could knock with a ball bat. That's something that that kid deserves. If nothing else, that kid is finally has something that he can say is his and he's got the hardware to say 'see I can do this and I have done this now.