KEN SCHRADER – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Finished 42nd) – “All I saw was smoke and I had a strong suspicion that I wasn’t gonna make it through. We came up on that group and I guess J.J. got loose and he turned around. When I came out of the smoke there he was. You don’t turn left or right because you don’t know where to go anyway.” WHAT HAPPENED? “We got in the back during the pit stop, but we had a good car. We came out of the turn and everybody checked up a little bit. We caught that group fast and J.J. got loose. All I saw was smoke and I said, ‘I’ll just hold this deal straight, but there’s a pretty good chance you won’t make it through,’ and, sure enough, when the smoke cleared there was J.J.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Charter/National Guard Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) – YOU STRUGGLED IN THREE AND FOUR TODAY. “I was just a little bit tight down there. I was getting it there at the end. I was overdriving the corner a little bit because this race track is so different at both ends, but I was really good in one and two. Usually I’m pretty good down in three and four, but I just needed a hot, sunny day. My car shines on that kind of race track where it’s slick, and after about 15 laps the tires get slick and off my race car goes. This was bad news for me, these cold temperatures and bunching the field up caution after caution.” A GOOD POINTS DAY. “Yeah, it really is. I was asking where the 5 and 11 were when it started raining like this because it’s gonna take a while to dry this race track unfortunately. I think I have a car I can win with here and it just breaks my heart that it’s gonna rain. If it would have stayed green for a two-tire run green flag cycle, I think I could have had a pretty good lead.” POST-RACE COMMENTS: “It was kind of a tough day for us because I like it when my car is set up for hot, sunny weather. That’s my real strong suit and we needed long runs. You could see how good we were when that happened. It’s just unfortunate because we were coming on really great there. We needed the long runs because we were not good on short runs.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – “We had a great race. The Office Depot Ford was really good, and my pit crew – coming back from the debacle at Pocono to have great pit stops. I guess Kasey beat us out by about a foot, so congratulations to him. They did a great job.” IT WAS CLOSE OFF PIT ROAD. “When I started to realize how pivotal that was gonna be as far as the outcome of the race I said, ‘I’d like to see that tape,’ and they showed it and he definitely beat us. It’s a good points day, but I want to get that first win for Wally and all the guys. It was still a blast. I had a good time.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Carhartt/DeWalt Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “I’d rather keep racing because I think we’re better than that. I don’t think we can win, but I think we’re probably a top five or a top 10 car. It’s been eventful. We wrecked in the pits on the first pit stop and that kind of messed our car up and then we got it fixed. We got running better and made our way most of the way back up to the front and then I spun out and lost a lap doing that. I finally got decent track position so I’d like to race again because I think we can finish better than where we’re at, but it could be a lot worse I guess.” DID YOU TRY AND PLAY THE RAIN GAME? “No, because we had so much stuff going on that we just had to pit every time and try to get track position and try to get our car fast because we had so many problems.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

“We had a great car, we just didn’t need the rain there at the end, or we needed a better weather man up on our box or something because we just did not play it quite right. There at the end Kasey was a little bit tighter and he could go on that restart and I needed about 10-12 more laps to be able to catch him and it just didn’t work. But it was fun. I had a good time racing with everybody and racing with Dale and Jimmie and Greg and Kasey. It was just a fun race and just ended up second, which is better than we’ve been running lately, so it’s good.”

DO YOU THINK YOUR TEAM HAS COME FULL CIRCLE AND IS READY TO DO AS WELL AS LAST YEAR? “Yes, absolutely. I’ve learned a lot about racing and there are just so many things involved. I’m sure Dale could tell you. Last year everything was going great. We won some races and all of a sudden it’s like we’ll be leading somewhere or have the fastest car and something stupid would happen. The biggest thing for us is just not to get down on ourselves and we perform really well. Like Wally said today, it’s cool to be upset about having the fastest car most of the day and running second. That’s pretty neat. That says a lot about our expectations and I feel like if we can just go ahead and kind of get on a little bit of a roll. I’m not too sure about Sonoma, but I know Chicago and Daytona and stuff, if we can just go out and have a little bit of good luck we’ll be great. We’ll win some races for sure.”

WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY IF YOU KNEW THE RAIN WAS COMING QUICKER? “If I would have known exactly when the rain was gonna come, we wouldn’t have freed the car up at all on that last stop. We freed it up a tiny bit and then when they dropped the green flag I’d have just got to turn one, turned left and never lifted until we passed both of those guys. That’s probably what I would have done.”

YOU HAVE BEEN PERFECT ON THE TWO-MILE TRACKS IN ALL SERIES. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL SETUP FOR IT? “We do have great cars and our team works really hard at these big places, but I just like the way they drive. To me it feels a lot like a half-mile dirt track or something. I really like the pace and the momentum of these big places. I just love them. I’m sure at these places the car has more to do with it than anything and I’m probably just enjoying the good cars, but it’s fun.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU GOT AS MUCH AS THE RACE IN TODAY AS YOU DID? “Yeah, I didn’t even think we were gonna race today, so that was pretty cool to get to race today. I thought we would be here tomorrow. I’d run those last 67 laps tomorrow, too. (laughter)

HOW SHOCKED WERE YOU WITH THE BUSCH RACE LAST NIGHT AND DAVID GILLILAND WINNING? “I don’t know David Gilliland at all. I don’t know anything about him. I didn’t want to be up there at the end. I was like 23 laps down and I was running about 30th and I was just gonna hang back, but I kind of passed some guys just so I could watch the end. I wanted to see if he won it and I was cheering for him so hard because I thought it was a cool story. I mean, a guy shows up with no sponsor and a team with a bunch of cool old veterans and won a race the seventh time out. I thought that was the story of the year so far, so I just wanted to see it.”

WHAT DO YOU SEE IN KASEY KAHNE ON THESE BIG TRACKS? “I saw his rear bumper really, really well (laughter). That thing on the last run of the day he just took off. He’s real good and they’ve got their stuff together.”