ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion – “Man, this is a great feeling. Tommy and the guys have been pumped up so much coming back down here. To get a win for M&M’s is a great feeling. We were shut out last year and Tommy came on board and it gave us a new outlook on racing and new ideas about things. To get Ford Fusion’s first win in NASCAR is great and something I will always remember.”

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD AN EASY VICTORY UNTIL THE CAUTION CAME OUT. “Boy, I definitely didn’t want to see the caution come out. Carl was working with me pretty good at that time, and I knew the guys were going to lay back and try to get a run. Of course, I could see the 8 car coming, so thank goodness the 99 blocked him pretty good and enabled us to get away and get the win. I’m just so happy for this race team. My guys deserve to win and they are practicing so hard on the pit stops. We beat everybody off pit road and that’s why we won the race. It’s just a great day for us. I do want to apologize to the fans. No burnouts today, but this could be the engine that I run in 500, and I didn’t want to mess it up today.”

WILL THE OUTSIDE LANE WORK ON SUNDAY? “Yeah, I think it’s going to be a hot, slick day. Right now there’s too much grip in the track. Tommy kept preaching to me to stay on the bottom and make these guys pass you on the high side. Nobody wanted to get off the bottom, and when one person went high, he’d just get left out to dry. I’m just proud of my guys. We had such a frustrating year last year and we had such hopes coming back into this season, so to come down here and get it started the right way and get some momentum on our side for a lot of great sponsors. It’s a great feeling and it’s hard to put into words right now what I’m feeling.”

DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Ford Fusion – “We were way too tight at the beginning and the car just got to really pushing. When I fell back I totally lost the nose one time and almost took out a couple of times, so I had to cool that down. We made an adjustment on the pit stop and the car was a lot better. The car was still too tight, especially entering the corner. When I’d get in there trying to run hard and get a push, my car would slide up the race track a little bit. I wasn’t bad off, but we’ve got a little work to do. It’s great to see Elliott win. We know the Ford can get out front and lead some laps now, so that gives us all a little bit of encouragement.”

HOW IS THE CAR? “It doesn’t look too bad. It’s the rear bumper and probably the least critical place on the whole car, so it didn’t really look like it did that much. I’m sure they’ll get on it and fix it.”

SURPRISED? YOU. “Yeah, we were all slowing down even more because there was so much debris from the blown tire on the frontstretch and we were just trying to pick our way through there. The next thing I knew I got hit in the back. I wasn’t even looking in the back. I was looking ahead of me making sure I didn’t run over anything.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion – “It’s a little frustrating for running fifth. It’s the best that we’ve ever run in the 150 Gatorade races, and we’ve got a good spot for Sunday. It’s just frustrating. We didn’t have a good stop, which is no big deal because they’re awesome all the time. Then I was just trying to figure out what the right thing was to do, and I had it wrong. I was even with the 8 and everybody just piles in that line all the time. It’s just frustrating because you don’t know where to go. You can’t do it by yourself and our car was so fast that all I needed was one or two guys. It seemed like I couldn’t get in the right place.”

IS THAT WHAT YOU WERE TALKING TO JIMMIE JOHNSON ABOUT? “No, not at all. I was just talking to him about the race and drafting together, just about different things. I’m trying to get better at it, too, and sometimes when you talk to people and see what they were thinking during the race.”

CARL EDWARDS Press Conference

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Fusion – “It’s good to see Ford Fusion get to Victory Lane this early.”

ON ALL THE TALK ABOUT RULES THIS WEEK AND HOW IT AFFECTED THE RACE. “ I was trying my hardest just to follow all the rules. I feel like they made it pretty clear. It was clear to me not to go under that line. It seemed like it was pretty calm. Everybody did a good job.”

WHAT DID YOU SEE REGARDING THE DEBRIS NEAR THE START-FINISH LINE TOWARD THE END OF THE RACE? “Elliott Sadler was slowing down to go through it, so I just followed him. I didn’t really see it that well.”

YOU HAVE A GUARANTEED SPOT IN THE DAYTONA 500. IS THERE ANY LUSTER LOST ABOUT RACING TODAY TO GET INTO SUNDAY’S RACE? “Anytime you have a race track and they throw that the white flag, it’s fun to race. I was thinking about it when we were sitting on pit road, and just to be able to race for a qualifying spot, starting spot, is kind of neat. You have the ability to set up the beginning of the Daytona 500 the way you want it. To me, I thought it was a pretty useful race. It helped us. We wouldn’t have started that far upfront.”

IF THE BUMPER IS CHANGED, YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SPOTTERS IN THOSE ZONES. “I don’t know about those zones. I wasn’t exactly sure where they were, and I slid up in front of you [Dale Earnhardt, Jr.] off of two that one time. I was like, ‘He’s coming, but I think we’re in one of those zones.’ Bam! ‘Nope, we must be out of it. Whoa!’”

ELLIOTT SADLER PRESS CONFERENCE

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 M&M’s Ford Fusion – “Man, it’s a great victory. I sit here before you guys and I remember coming in here and interviewing and sitting in this same chair when we came here and tested and told everybody about the different atmosphere at our race shop and a different attitude. To be able to come back here and qualify fourth and then win the first race is a great feeling. We’ve got a lot of enthusiasm with our team right now. We’ve got a great leader whose got everybody fired up and to come down here and win NASCAR’s Ford Fusion’s first race in NASCAR is something that will be in the record books a long time, so it’s pretty neat to be able to come here and do that.”

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TAURUS AND FUSION? “I just think we as a team came in here this time for winter testing and Tommy is like, ‘I don’t care how fast we run. I don’t care if we set a record or not or whatever, we’re gonna get this thing where you’re comfortable and where you can drive it.’ Even if we look like we’re struggling on the sheets, if I’m happy as a driver and he’s happy with all the things he sees – with tire temperatures and buildups and things like that, then we’re gonna be happy as a team. So we came in here for three days and worked on handling, worked on not wearing the tires out, worked on getting the balance that we needed to have. The Fusion has helped us with that. I just think the way Tommy looks at a race car and the way he looks at a race is different than anything I’ve ever been used to. We just got it driving good. That’s all we worried about yesterday – not whether we were able to draft good or push good or whatever, if I could go through the corners wide open, I’ve got a great chance of running up front. I just think when we got out front today because of our pit stop that I didn’t have to lift. My car didn’t get tight and I was just able to keep enough momentum to stay in front of them. I think a lot of it has to do with the new Fusion nose. It’s got a little bit more grip in it than what the Taurus had, but a lot of it has to do with a new outlook we have as a race team.”

HAPPENED WITH THE DEBRIS AT THE END? “My spotter just told me there was debris everywhere, there was metal and rubber chunks everywhere, so I just took my time and went through there slow and tried to pick my spot. Then I looked up and everybody was wrecking. So I’m not really sure what they were doing as far as trying to catch the pace car or whatever. But me, personally as a driver, didn’t want to punch a hole – I got a flat in the Bud Shootout, I got a flat yesterday in Busch practice. I didn’t want anymore flat tires this week, so I took my time to go through and just make sure I didn’t see the metal and things like that, so I’m not really sure what happened behind us.”

THE REACTION TO THE NO ZONE? “At the driver’s meeting I’m sure everybody knows that they set down new guidelines for bump drafting and aggressive driving and stuff like that. At the start of the race we were running third, fourth and fifth and noticed a lot of guys were not slamming into each other as far as me being hit from behind and then the way Clint was pushing Dale, I was pushing Jeff. Everybody was just nudging a little bit until we got to those no zones and I don’t think anybody wanted to take a chance. But in the position I was in running second or third or leading most of the day, I didn’t see a lot of it. So I’ll look at a film of it tonight. I’m going to watch the second race now as a fan and as a student to see are the guys bump drafting? What is NASCAR letting them get away with? What are they not letting them get away with? What’s going on so on Sunday I’ll know kind of where to draw the line at. I didn’t have to do much of that today. I did learn a lot today about my race car and about the 20 car, where he’s so good at, and we still have a little bit of work to do, I think, before Sunday’s race, but as a driver and as the rules, I’m gonna go back and watch this and see kind of what NASCAR let go and what they didn’t let go.”

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS FUSION NOSE? “I just think they did a better job with it with it’s character lines and its headlights and stuff like that. I think they’ve made it more sporty, made it where it’s got a little more downforce than what we’ve had. Ford did a tremendous job of putting this car in the wind tunnel and taking it through its paces before they gave it to the teams, so when they gave it to us at Robert Yates Racing we didn’t have to do much else to it. It’s pretty much taken care of itself, so it makes it better for me to drive as a driver. We finished first and second today, so that’s a great start for the Ford Fusion. I think it’s gonna be good on regular tracks too. It’s not night and day difference, but it’s just a little bit and in NASCAR racing the competition is so close, if you can get your car a little bit better that’s the difference in winning a race and running 20th.”

HOW MUCH CONCERN WAS THERE ABOUT GUYS GANGING UP ON YOU? “I was really concerned with the 48 was behind the 2 because Jimmie has always got good pushes going on. Their cars suck up really well and when he got to pushing the 2 I was really, really concerned when those guys get lined up like that. The 20 car was very fast coming up through there at the beginning of the race. There are certain cars that you know no matter who they get behind, they’re gonna get a really good push and it seemed like all the pushes today were coming between the tri-oval and turn one, so I was trying to gear my car up and give as much momentum as I could between those two spaces so they couldn’t get but so much of a run on us and it seemed to pay off. Tommy kept saying it to me every two laps. “Stay on the bottom. No matter what, stay on the bottom.’ So I’d block as much as I could but took away the bottom as much as I could and made the guys pass us on the outside and it seemed to work out for us pretty good.”

WILL LAST YEAR MAKE YOU REMEMBER YOU STILL HAVE WORK TO DO? “Yeah, I mean we definitely got some work left to do. We had a great test at Vegas, but we know we’ve got a little bit left as far as work to do when we go to California to be strong. We know the same cars are gonna be strong that were strong last year that beat us on the mile and a halves and things like that, but from a mental standpoint – not a nut and bolt thing with the race car, but from a mental standpoint I think this team is more focused and more ready to go week to week racing. I think we’ve got a new attitude. We feel like we’re all going into war together. I feel like I’m the quarterback of this race team and it’s time for me to act like it. It’s not time for me to just sit back and let everything else happen. It’s time for me to step in and make sure that I’m ready to go and when I’m ready to go those guys can follow me to the race track each and every week ready to fight a war, ready to do whatever we’ve got to do. So from an attitude standpoint, I think we’re light years ahead of where we’ve ever been – me as a driver and us as a team. Nut and bolt-wise, race car-wise, we still have work to do. We know that. We understand that, but I think as far as a nucleus as a race team we’re better prepared this year than we have in a long time. I really didn’t know Tommy was that organized and that much of a motivator and things like that until he came on board, but he’s got everybody rallied around him and ready to just go to war each and every week. So that’s why I think we’re gonna be OK this year – not from the nuts and bolts side, but from a mental side.”

WAS THIS RACE MORE CONSERVATIVE BECAUSE GUYS WANTED TO SAVE THEIR CARS OR BECAUSE OF NASCAR? “I think a lot of that – 80 percent of that – is protecting your 500 car. I think it doesn’t really matter where you start at other than pit selection. If you’ve got a good top 10 run going here, you don’t want to feel like your guys have to start all over with a new 500 car with only maybe a day and a half of practice left when you’ve got three days of winter testing and a ton of wind tunnel time on your primary car. I was gonna stay out front and stay in the top two or three as best I could and be as aggressive as I could. If I would have got shuffled back, I was just gonna be, ‘OK, I’m just gonna ride around here and save my stuff for Sunday.’ So I think a lot of that is just because you’ve got a great 500 car and a lot of these guys feel that and they just kind of want to save it for Sunday when you race for the points.”

WITH 20 TO GO ON SUNDAY DO YOU THINK THAT CAUTION POLICY WILL HOLD UP? “I don’t know. We’ll see. Ask Mike Helton that. As that being a rule, I don’t want to be in their shoes. That is a very tough call where they’re sitting at way above the race track and we’re in the cars running 190. That’s just gonna be a ball-strike call like umpiring. It’s just gonna be tough. We’ve kind of put ourselves in this position with all the teams being so close, drivers getting smarter everytime we come back to a restrictor plate race about how to side draft how to bump draft and things like that. I just think it was getting out of hand. I think until we can do something to the cars, implement something on the cars with the bumpers or something to weaken the noses up a little bit, this is just what we have to live with through Daytona. It’s up to the drivers. We don’t know where the line is until somebody crosses it and that’s why I’m gonna go back and watch both races to see if somebody does bump draft too hard. Where they did it, what it looked like and NASCAR made the call, then I know what I need to do to get to that point. But until somebody gets called in for a pass through penalty or what have you, nobody really knows where the line is, but I’m sure we’re gonna push the line and push the envelope a lot come Sunday.”

DID MIKE HAVE A POINT EARLIER WHEN HE THOUGHT SOME OF THE YOUNG DRIVERS WERE ABUSING THE BUMP DRAFT? “I think so. I can honestly sit here and say that some of the young guys that have come in just saw it on TV last year or two years ago and thought it looked cool, so they just slam you wherever they want to, and it makes it tough. It makes it hard on us and makes it hard on them because you want to give these guys extra room anyway, so you’re giving them extra room and they’re taking it and they might not know that they’re doing anything wrong anyway with it, but I think Mike hit it right on the head. You don’t see the veterans that have won a bunch of these races and stuff slamming you that much. Three-time Daytona winner Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon just don’t come and slam you in the middle of the corner taking a chance on taking their car out and yours, so I think it’s a big difference between the veterans that have won this race many times and the guys that haven’t. So Mike was just making it all out to the guys, ‘Hey, we’ve seen you. You all are bumping pretty crazy. We’re watching you.’ So maybe it’ll all calm us down a little bit for Sunday. We’ll see.”