Race 2 Win: Dodge Charger 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

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Dodge Charger 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Darlington:
Hamlin 10th
Sorenson 11th
Truex Jr. 14th
Bowyer 23rd
Stremme 25th
Yeley 26th

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings:
Hamlin 119
Bowyer 110
Yeley 96
Truex Jr. 96
Sorenson 93
Stremme 77
Sherman 39

DENNY HAMLIN IN THE No. 11 FEDEX EXPRESS CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT DARLINGTON.
Notes:

Hamlin finished 10th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fifth time this season. He UNOFFICIALLY leads Clint Bowyer by nine points (119-110) in the Raybestos Rookie standings.

A Raybestos Rookie has now scored a top-10 finish in seven of the past eight seasons at Darlington. The others:
1999: Tony Stewart, sixth
2000: Matt Kenseth, sixth
2001: Kevin Harvick, eighth
2002: Ryan Newman, fifth (spring race)
2002: Jimmie Johnson, sixth (spring race)
2002: Ryan Newman, second (fall race)
2002: Jimmie Johnson, ninth (fall race)
2003: Jamie McMurray, fourth (fall race)
2003: Greg Biffle, 10th (fall race)
2004: Kasey Kahne, fifth (fall race)

Hamlin scored the first top-10 by a Raybestos Rookie at Darlington since Kasey Kahne finished fifth in the 2004 fall race.

HAMLIN: “It was a good run for us. I’m pretty happy about it. It seemed like the colder the racetrack got the worse we ended up. We just started fading the more into the race we got. We bounced back. I think we fell back as far as 15th but we bounced back to a top-15 there late in the run.” YOU HAVE A SCRATCH ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE CAR. HOW HARD DID YOU HIT? “It wasn’t too hard. It was just right rear. The right front fender really has not damage. It’s just one of those Darlington kisses that you always seem to do. In the Busch race I didn’t have any damage but I guess I made up for it tonight.” YOU APPEAR TO BE LIMPING. DID YOU BURN YOUR FOOT? “No, I twisted my knee coming out of the motorhome [smiles] and for some reason it stiffened up in the racecar. I’m sick of all these injuries. I wish I could be 100 percent.” YOU DRIVE FOR NFL COACH JOE GIBBS. DO YOU FEEL LIKE AN INJURED QUARTERBACK? “They’ve definitely got to put me on the DL or something. I get some time off this week so I’m pretty happy about that. I’m looking forward to Charlotte.” YOU SEEM TO BE FRUSTRATED THAT YOU DIDN’T FINISH BETTER. IS THAT A MARK OF HOW FAR THIS TEAM HAS COME? “Coming back and finishing in the top-10 and being disappointed with it just shows how strong this race team is. We keep getting better, knocking out another top-10 and another leading Raybestos Rookie. I’m pretty happy about out night, all circumstances taken into affect.” YOU WON LAST NIGHT AND FINISHED IN THE TOP-10 TONIGHT. HOW DO YOU ATTACK THIS TRACK? “You really have to have a lot of patience here. You really can’t burn your stuff up early. I tried to pace myself last night and the same thing tonight. I just seemed like we were giving up more on the long run tonight that what we were last night. It’s something we’ve got to work on. Four different races here and top-10s in all of them, I’m very happy.”

MIKE FORD, CREW CHIEF, No. 11 No. 11 FEDEX EXPRESS CHEVROLET: “As the sun went down we seemed to loose the handle on the car a little bit. We got some of it back on the longer runs at the end. I guess you can tell we’re improving. We’re not real happy with a top-10. It could have been better, it could have been a lot worse, but we felt like we were better when the sun was out. We kind of fell away there for a little bit and had to come back.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: “We’re gaining on it. It was good just to finish for once. The last couple of weeks have been hard. It was good to finish. We got behind there early in the race. We went the wrong way on one of our adjustments and got way off then we got it really good and I scraped the wall and pushed the fender in a little and got real tight so we fixed that. Every time we’d get the car better we’d do something to mess up and loose a bunch of track position but we got it all back towards the end. We were decent. We could go real good for 20 or 30 laps and then we’d get real loose. We could never really get that out of it and we finished about where we should have.”

REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET DODGE: “That’s not a bad run at a tough racetrack, especially with the way things have been going lately. It’s nice to have a good run like that. I thought we had the car pretty close. We just need it a little better and we’ll get another top-10.” HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS TRACK MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY? “It’s pretty tough. You’re always sawing at the wheel here so thing about this is that you don’t ever get to relax. On old tires, sometimes down the straightaway, you're sideways. You’ve always got to be on top off it.” YOUR CREW CHIEF JIMMY ELLEDGE SAID A FEW WEEKS AGO THIS TEAM IS READY TO SCORE MORE TOP-10 FINISHES. “I hope he’s right [smiles]. We’ve got some things that we’re working on to try to get better, the short tracks. We feel like our cars are good at the mile-and-a-halfs. All we can do is get better. We can’t really get worse. That’s the plan: keep on going and figure out where we can get stronger.” HOW MUCH OF A CONFIDENCE BOOST IS IT TO RUN WELL AT A DIFFICULT TRACK LIKE THIS? “It’s nice to come here to a place where it’s tough to drive and get a good finish. The team did a great job. We just got to get a little better and we’ll get inside that top-10.”

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