BOWYER: “This was a good finish for us. The guys had a good meeting this week and I told them ‘Let’s go down there to Daytona and get things turned around’ and that’s what we did. I’m proud of these guys.” YOUR CAR HAS A BIG WRINKLE ON THE RIGHT SIDE. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? “Me and Junior were up there playing with the wall and I got a hold of it one time. It was just a little love tap. I never lifted. I just kind of drove right through it. It was a lot of fun out there and a heck of a race. I was afraid it was going to be another boring race like the Busch race but it turned out pretty cool. I’m real proud of the guys on the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet. They did an awesome job. It’s all good.” YOU GAINED A FEW POSITIONS AT THE END OF THE RACE. “Yeah we did. We just fought hard all night long. The guys fought in the pits and we fought on the racetrack all day long. We had a good racecar. Gil Martin [crew chief] and everybody did an awesome job preparing this thing. We’re going to go to Chicagoland next week and do the same thing.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX HOME DELIVERY CHEVROLET: “We had a pretty decent run. We just kind of slipped up there at the end. The car just would not run in a pack at all. Once we got strung out it was fine, but in a pack it wouldn’t go. We paid for it there at the end.” WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE SURE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN AT TALLADEGA? “I think it’s pretty much you’ve got what you’ve got. I don’t know what it is, maybe the cowl package or body. We definitely need to work on it.” YOU SAID THE ROAD COURSE RACE AT INFINEON AND THIS RACE AT DAYTONA WERE CRITICAL FOR YOU TO MAKE THE CHASE. DO YOU LIKE WHERE YOU STAND NOW? “I’m satisfied, not happy, around 15th. I wish we could have got a top-10 and kept that streak alive. It is what it is. We didn’t end up crashing, which is a good thing.” DO YOU SOMETIMES SCRATCH YOUR HEAD AT HOW TONY STEWART DOES IT HERE AT DAYTONA? “He shuffled me out. I know how it happened. He shuffled me out and put me in the middle and got me in a real bad spot. He was able to make up a lot of spots that way.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: WHAT HAPPENED? “I wish I knew. To me, it felt like I cut a tire down because I have been loose all day long. I got caught in the middle down the front straightaway. I went into 1, was a little bit tight, everything was still good, and then just as I come off there it just took off dead push. I got off the gas and got on the brakes and couldn’t get slowed down quick enough to keep from missing the 16. I got in the back of him and created a wreck that got a bunch of good cars. It definitely stinks. We needed a good finish. I know we got caught in the middle. I don’t know how much we would have held on for but I was hoping for at least a top-15.” TO BE THREE-WIDE COMING OFF THE CORNER HERE IS A BAD SITUATION HERE. “Yeah, but you run three abreast here all the time and it’s no big deal. Being stuck in the middle wasn’t a big thing. It wasn’t an issue and I wasn’t nervous about it. It’s hard to tell if you cut a tire after you hit the fence and get hit by two or three other cars because it’s just carnage at that point. It’s a tough break.”

BOWYER PRESS CONFERENCE
“It was a good night for us. It was a good way to get things turned back around. We’ve been in kind of a slump, so to speak, the last month or so. We’ve been running good and had the speed to be there, a top-10 every week. We just can’t seem to get the finish. The guys had a good meeting this week and we got the morale built up a little bit and I told them ‘Let’s go down there to Daytona and get things turned back around’ where it all started the year with a good run in the 500 and it’s just what we did.”