BOWYER: “Those guys have a lot of stress on them coming to a big race like this. They just had a couple hiccups. They do right so many times. The Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet had a great day. We were fast all day long. That’s all I had. I was driving the wheels off of it.” YOU HAD A GREAT WEEKEND HERE. IS THIS SOMETHING THAT CAN TURN YOUR SEASON AROUND? “Oh, definitely. I think we could have won the race if we had the right situation. We were forced to take two tires there and four is always better than two, but hats off to Gil for making that call and saving the day for us.” DID THE CAR DRIVE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT WITH JUST TWO FRESH TIRES? “It was loose. It just didn’t have near as much grip. It was a lot of fun out there.” COMMENT ON THE DECISION TO TAKE TWO TIRES. “We just struggled all day long in the pits. The guys just struggled. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. That’s a lot of pressure on them and it just forced us to make a decision like that. We had a fast car. Every time we got back out we drove back up to the front. Another close call with Tony, that was nice. I guess he ain’t learned nothing.” YOU HAD A GOOD DAY AND WERE AT THE FRONT OF THE PACK AT INDY. “It was wild, just two tires. It was a good call but let me tell you, it was a handful [laughs]. It was loose. I just didn’t have the grip in the center of the corner but it was a heck of a job and a great call.” COMMENT ON THE INCIDENT WITH TONY STEWART. “They told us to stay away from each other and by all means give each other respect. He put me three-wide and knocked me into Vickers or whoever it was. He still ain’t learned.”

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: “You could have took four right there but where we were we’d have come out 12th or 13th . We wouldn’t have made it very many spots and taking two, taking that gamble, we made a big adjustment with it at the same time we did it because most of the time the car gets tight. We almost got him a little too loose right there or I think we would have had a run at them. I can’t say enough about the job he did today. He did a great job. The guys back at the shop, the motor department, the fab shop, awesome job, man. We’ve turned this program around. Everybody has done such a great job. It’s been a great weekend.” HOW IMPORTANT IS RUNNING WELL AT INDY TO YOUR TEAM? “I think it makes it where everybody can take us serious. We’ve had fast race cars all year long and we haven’t been there to prove it. But today shows that we can build fast cars and we can take them to the front.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX FREIGHT CHEVROLET: YOU HAD AN EXCELLENT CHANCE TO WIN THE RACE. “We decided to take two tires there, basically because our car had a fuel pump shut out 20 laps in and we weren’t getting any fuel to the motor. So guys would just blow by us on the straightaway and we’d pass them again in the corner. We had the best handling race car by far today than anybody else. We just had an issue down the straightaway, just one of those mechanical failures that you try to eliminate to try to eliminate to try to get in this Chase. But we still finished the race. I don’t know where they’re going to score us but hopefully somewhere in the top-10.” YOU STILL HAD A CHANCE TO WIN DESPITE THE PROBLEM. “I knew when four tires were only two cars behind us that we were in deep trouble. It just seems like I keep getting put out there with no tires and I just can’t hang on. I need four tires at the end.” DID THE CAR DRIVE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT WITH TWO FRESH TIRES? “It definitely made it a lot tighter than what it had been all day but we kept working the balance and we got it good there at the end. We just kept working on our car and made it better. The FedEx Chevy was strong but just not enough to hold those guys off.” WERE YOU INVOLVED IN AN INCIDENT WITH KASEY KAHNE AT THE END OF THE RACE? “When he hit the wall something flew off his car and took out my entire right side. I don’t know what it was. It’s just one of those deals where those guys were fighting. I felt like when the froze the field we were in 10th spot so who knows where they’re going to score us.” WHAT IMPRESSIONS DO YOU TAKE FROM YOUR FIRST BRICKYARD? “Obviously I had high emotions there at one time figuring that we were going to win the race. It’s so frustrating all day to have that motor shutting out on us down the straightaway. It’s one of those things that you can’t help. We’ve got a great baseline setup for next year and hopefully we’ll come back and win it.” WHEN DID YOU FEEL THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE A SHOT TO WIN? “Toward the end of the race there we were in pretty good shape. We just needed long runs. With the motor cutting out like it was, older tires helped our situation. With new tires, guys would just run all over top of us. It’s just one of those things where things didn’t go our way and we ended up with a worse finish than what we ran all day.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 IMITREX/GSK CHEVROLET: “We had guys that took two (tires) and others who took four (tires) and looked like we had the 32 car split going in to the short chute and as we went into turn three Kasey (Kahne) went to the outside of me and didn’t quite clear the 32 in time. Kasey had a run on the outside but I don’t know if he was going to try to split me and the 32, but in order to do that you have to have someone cleared and he turned down and hit me in the right front with his door and got me sideways into the fence and which pointed me back in the right direction. The car was so damaged in the back so it hurt the rear downforce and made the car really loose. It just killed a perfect day. You run in the top-10, top-11 all day long and then you have someone get impatient with 12 laps to go and cost everyone a good day.” WERE YOU PLEASED WITH THE CAR MOST OF THE DAY? “Our second run we made some adjustments on the Imitrex car and we were able to hang on to 11th and 12th place position on the race track. The car drove very well. We weren’t really good at the start of the run but the longer we ran the better the car was. On old tires we were really fast. We were easily a top seven or top eight car, which has been our goal the past five to 10 races. We’ve been trying to be consistent and run top 10’s and get a good handle on things and eventually we’ll be in the top five and start to win races. We were accomplishing most of the goals today, but unfortunately because of someone’s impatience it cost us a really good finish.”

BOWYER PRESS CONFERENCE

“It was a good day. It’s fun to come here. We qualified on the front row and finished in the top-five but it was a struggle. Our boys had a little bit of a struggle in the pits but there is a lot of stress coming to a race like this and they do a lot of things right. We had a good day. I’m really proud of Gil for making a gutsy gamble and it paid off.”

WERE YOU IN FAVOR OF THE CALL TO TAKE JUST TWO TIRES? “Well, at that point I was frustrated. Frustrated with our track position and it was a kind of go for broke deal. We came here to sit on the front row and you want to win if you get that opportunity and have a fast car you don’t want to waste it so I told him [Gil Martin, crew chief] let’s go for it.”