MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER CHEVROLET: “It was good and bad. We got a fast car. It drives really good until the tires wear out and then it’s terrible. We’ve got some work to do tomorrow to get it to drive better. It’s really, really fast when it’s got tires on it but when they wear out I can’t drive it so that isn’t any good. We’ll work on it and get it better tomorrow.” THE WAY THE RACE SHOOK OUT YOU AND DALE EARNHARDT JR. WERE NOSE TO TAIL IN THE DRAFT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE. “I was behind him for a while and pushed him pretty far up through there. We were probably up to sixth or eighth at one time and somebody got between us and he kept going forward and my car just went to pieces. We just need to work on it for the 500 and we just need to get it driving better.” HOW WILD WAS THE RACE? “It wasn’t bad I didn’t think. It was pretty typical of plate racing for me, except for when the caution came out and everybody ran into the back of me and spun out and crashed. That was a little crazy but other than that it wasn’t too bad.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX EXPRESS: YOU WERE THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE FINISHER. HOW WAS YOUR RACE? “It was pretty good. I made a rookie mistake getting into pit road and missed my pit stall and went to the back. We fought our way back up there. I’m pretty happy about the car. We’ve got to tweak it a little bit. It’s not handling quite as good as I was hoping. We’re still fighting to get help out there. But to finish in the top-10 is pretty good for us.” WAS YOUR CAR A HANDFUL ON OLD TIRES? “I felt like old tires was our strong point. When guys started falling off we really started coming to the front. I can just hope for long runs in the 500 and if that’s the case I know we’ll have a good finish.” YOU WON THE SHOOTOUT HERE SUNDAY NIGHT. COULD YOU TELL THAT MORE DRIVERS WERE WILLING TO DRAFT WITH YOU TODAY? “It was about the same as it was before. It just seemed like if you could get to the front, near the front of the pack, you’d have more help. In the back you’re really struggling to get some [help]. It’s been a pretty good day so far.” HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO PIT HERE AT DAYTONA? “It’s extremely difficult. The tires are slick as glass, the brakes aren’t as good as what they are on short tracks. I made a rookie mistake there and luckily made up for it.” HOW MENTALLY TOUGH WAS THE RACE WITH THE DELAYS? THE QUALIFYING RACE FOR THE DAYTONA 500 IS ALWAYS PRESSURE PACKED EVEN UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS. “It was really tough. It seemed like we were just sitting around waiting constantly. The anticipation was a big buildup but I’m glad to get it over with and go to the 500.” WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED IN THE SHOOTOUT AND THE DUEL THAT WILL HELP YOU SUNDAY? “Don’t have a tight car, for sure [smiles].”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: HOW WAS YOUR RACE? “Not very good. I learned a lot. That’s the way it is. We just struggled out there. It was a little bit tight and I was fighting the car and the main thing is fighting knowing where to be.” DID STICKER TIRES MAKE THE CAR A LOT BETTER? “Absolutely. It made it better with stickers. I was just always at the wrong place at the wrong time and went backwards.” DID YOU HAVE A HARD TIME GETTING ANY DRAFTING HELP? “Oh yeah [laughs]. That doesn’t help anything, either, but the main thing was that we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU SUNDAY? “I learned a lot of things, not really anything in particular. Just a whole lot of things.”

BRENT SHERMAN, No. 49 SERTA DODGE: HOW MUCH DID YOU LEARN TODAY? “I learned a lot. We stuck to a game plan. We rode around and made sure that we were going to have a good car for Sunday. We learned a couple of things. At the end we put tires on and maybe passed five or six cars which we would have raced ourself into the race anyhow. That’s good to know because everyone is like ‘Well you’ve got a guaranteed start.’ I’m just proud of the guys that they gave me a good enough car that we were able to race our way in anyhow. That’s a small victory for me, that I knew I would have raced in anyway, which is great. We’re going to work on it. We had some tire wear on the right front that could be better so we’re going to change some things around in practice with the car. But all in all, it drove pretty good. We’ve just got to hang around to the end and that’s what we did today and we were able to pick up some spots at the end of the race.” ARE STICKER TIRES GOING TO BE A HUGE ADVANTAGE IN THE RACE? “Man, I was catching those guys. We kind of fell back on the first lap just getting our momentum going and then on that second lap we were flying. It was a big, big difference. I could pick a line and just stick wide open with it and go around cars. If we would have had some more laps I think we would have passed some more cars. It was a good choice to put some tires on and a couple of cars had some problems with flat tires and that was the last thing that we needed with two laps to go. We made it through the race with no dents, no bumps and we’re looking forward to Sunday.”