Tony Stewart Victory in DIRECTV 500 Increases Chevrolet Lead in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Manufacturer's Point Standings; Johnson Vaults Back to Driver Point Lead

Monte Carlo SS Drivers Sweep Top-Five Finishing Spots at Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville VA - Chevrolet extended its lead in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series point standings with Tony Stewart's, No. 20 Home Depot Monte Carlo SS, victory in the DIRECTV 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

The top-five finishers in today's race were driving Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS race cars. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS finished second, followed by Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS in third. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS was fourth and Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS rounded out the top-five.

Johnson's finish shot him back to the top of the driver standings, moving him up two positions. Monte Carlo SS drivers currently hold five of the top-10 in NNCS standings. Stewart's win puts him in the eighth position.

Stewart led 288 of the 500 lap event that had a total of 16 cautions for 87 laps.

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Manufacturer's Standings (Wins To Date)
Chevrolet - 43 (3)
Dodge - 36 (2)
Ford - 35 (1)

The next race for Team Chevy Monte Carlo SS is the Samsung RadioShack 500, April 9, 2006 at Texas Motor Speedway.


Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Monte Carlo SS - Winner

"Just an awesome day. Greg (Zipadelli) and I had talked before the race about not worrying about leading the most laps, but to lead the right one today. We had a good car at the beginning and if you are able to go to the front, you are not going to not go to the front. We got out there, but we just really concentrated all day on not getting lazy, because we had a good car at the beginning of the race and we didn't want to let these guys get caught up to us by the end of the day. We kept focusing on trying to make the car better all day. I kept trying to give Zippy good information on what we needed to do or what I needed the car to do that it wasn't doing and let him make the adjustments. Like he said, right there relatively close to the end, we were off a little bit and Jimmie got by and got away from us a little bit and it kind of went the other way and we got right again. It was just a matter of getting back to the front at the end."

HOW IMPORTANT WAS PATIENCE AND ATTITUTE? "The last three races I think we led the most laps here so we obviously have had an awesome car. Being able to hold that 24 car off is what really made me happy today because Jeff (Gordon) is so good especially late in the race like that. Even when I saw him back and forth I thought he's holding something back. This is Ricky Hendrick's birthday today and I know I'm not part of the Hendrick organization but everytime we come to Martinsville we think of the Hendrick family and the tragedy and Scott Lathram and his family. I just want to let everybody know we're thinking about them. What an awesome way to get this first one done."

HOW DOES THIS WIN COMPARE TO YOUR FIRST WIN AT MARTINSVILLE? "The first win we had here, the guy that ran second was Dale Earnhardt, so that was probably a little more special because of who was behind us. But, as good as we have run here the last two years, this one means a ton because we have been so good here. We were heartbroken in the spring a year ago with the wheel coming off, then in the fall race, just got beat by Jeff (Gordon), who did a better job than us. I mean they were just faster than us at the end. We knew we were going to be a contender this week and with the anticipation of coming here, this is one of the places I couldn't wait to get to because I knew we had a shot at winning this race."

YOU HAVE QUIETLY LED OVER 800 OF THE LAST MORE THAN 1,500 LAPS HERE. TALK ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO SNEAK UP ON THE COMPETITION HERE. "We don't want to sneak up on people anyway. We want people to know we are one of the teams hopefully they have to try to beat. We are proud of how we have run here. Zippy has done an awesome job. I feel like I can get around here pretty well and this is a track that both of us look forward to. Everybody kind of has that one track where they really, really go well at and even though we didn't win the two races last year, I felt like this was one of the tracks we excelled at so I was looking forward to being here."

TALK ABOUT LIKING RACING PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND HOW ROUGH SHORT TRACK RACING CAN BE, ESPECIALLY TODAY RACING JIMMIE JOHNSON FOR THE WIN. "Yes, it really is. Jimmie and I have been friends since we both first started in NASCAR together. The sad part about the relationship between Jimmie and I is that our sponsors hate each other and it is kind of funny at the same time. It has kept us from doing things together that we wanted to do. Jimmie and I wanted to run the Paul Revere race at Daytona in the Daytona Prototype Class. He couldn't run with me because of the sponsor conflict. They would let him run with someone else, but not with me.

"He is a good guy and I wasn't going to wreck him. There were a couple of times when I had him in a compromising position and I let him go and let him get going again. I didn't want to win it that way. Trust me, I was roughing him up pretty good, but that is short track racing. If Dale Earnhardt was here, I guarantee you he would have worn both of us out and got by both of us on the way to winning this thing.

"Jimmie understands that and there are a lot of guys who don't. Like you said, it is a very good situation to know that when you are racing with guys like that. I knew as soon as I went by him, that if he could get back to me, he was going to do the very same thing. I wasn't going to have a problem with it. I knew if Jeff could get to me on those last two restarts, I was going to get something from him. That is just short track racing. As long as I don't get spun out and wrecked in the deal and end up 23rd and end up third or fourth because of it, that is just racing. If I am not fast enough to lead the race, then I am going to get passed by somebody who is going to be faster.

"As you said, to have guys who understand that and don't whine, carry on and complain and go on and on definitely makes racing here more fun. But trust me, there aren't a lot of guys like Jimmie. Jimmie is a class act and that is why I like racing with him so much."

DID NASCAR WARN YOU WHEN YOU WERE BANGING ON JIMMIE? "I didn't hear anything."

TALK ABOUT LAST YEAR STARTING OUT SLOWLY AND NOT HAVING MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO WIN AND THIS YEAR YOU HAVE HAD A FAST CAR IN EVERY RACE AND NOT WON UNTIL TODAY. WHICH IS HARDER TO ACCEPT? "Probably just the fact of not running well. This year we have had a fast car everywhere we have went and haven't gotten a win until here. But just the fact that we have led and been competitive in all the races from my side. I can't speak for Zippy on that, but from the driver side, just knowing you are competitive and having your program where it needs to be is the toughest battle. It is those days when you aren't running good and you aren't winning races but you don't know what you need to do to get yourself in those situations, is when it gets frustrating. Being in the situation we have been all year and knowing we have had good race cars we know we can't stop working because everyone else is. But last year at this time, we were all scratching our heads and asking what we had to do to get caught up. Trust me, from a driver's stand point, it is a lot better situation than what it was a year ago."

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE WHEN YOU GOT CUT OFF, DID YOU THINK TO YOURSELF, OH NO, HERE WE GO AGAIN AT MARTINSVILLE? "I don't think, to be honest, that we ever think about it that deeply. You are so caught up in the moment. s a race car driver, you are saying, 'OK, this is what it is doing and this is what I need it to do.' You don't think about a year ago. You just think about what you have to do to get it where it needs to be today. If we didn't win the race, yes, I probably would have said that crossed my mind but we just stay focused. That is what makes guys, that win here, win here. Because when things go wrong, you don't give up, you stay focused on what you have to do to get it right so you will have the opportunity to win."

DOES IT ADD SOMETHING TO WIN A RACE WHEN THE COMPETITORS ARE JEFF, JIMMIE, DALE EARNHARDT, JR. AND DRIVERS LIKE THAT? "They are racing with us every week, they have been there all year. I don't care who it is that is up toward the front near the end. The guys that have gotten here, there is a reason these guys have gotten here. They didn't buy their rides, they just didn't just show up out of the blue. You have to prove yourself. You have to earn the right to be here and if you don't get the job done, you get moved down a level. I don't care who it is. I don't care if is Derrick Cope and Chad Little that I was racing for the win. To win a race, you win the race. You beat whoever was best on that day and there are days that you don't know who it is going to be, you can't take anybody for granted. If you are going for the glory side of it when you have Gordon and Earnhardt and if you are strictly racing the profile and names, sure it is great to beat those guys, but last time I checked, to win the race, you have to beat all 42 drivers out there and I don't think there are 42 drivers with big names like those guys right now."

IT WAS A PRETTY WARM DAY OUT THERE TODAY. DO YOU USE UP MORE ENERGY OUT THERE OR WAS IT A PRETTY LEISURELY DRIVE OUT THERE? DID YOU FEEL THE HEAT AT ALL? "If you think that was leisurely, I'll put you a seat in there and you can ride around. The thing to always keep in mind, I have been sick all weekend and I didn't even tell Zippy until this morning because I didn't want anybody worrying and I didn't know what we could do about it anyhow. I have had a cold for three days. So I worked hard to stay hydrated throughout the weekend because I knew it was going to be hot out there. I don't care if it is monster trucks, drag cars, sprint cars, stock cars, Indy cars - if it is driving well, you don't use near as much energy as you do if it isn't driving right. If it isn't driving right, you are fighting it. If you are fighting it, you are using energy. That made it easier for me today. I knew in happy hour that I had a good driving car. I told him this morning, so if I started struggling a little bit, be patient with me because this is what was going on. He knew that and he kept telling me on the radio during every caution to keep drinking my liquids, keep drinking my water. That is the kind of relationship we have. He knows when I am struggling. It is the little things like that that make a difference. Even though we were working on the race car, he was working on me as the driver, as much as working on the car. That is the kind of things we do."

CAN YOU SAY THAT TODAY'S WIN WILL GIVE YOU THE MOMENTUM TO GO ON A RUN AND HAVE A STREAK LIKE YOU DID LAST YEAR? "You guys are getting way too deep in to this. We won a race today guys. Next week we might fall on our face, next week we might win again. Who knows. We don't know, you guys are asking good questions but none of us know what is going to happen next week. We don't know if this is a momentum builder. We know going into this weekend we had a good shot at winning this race versus the other ones we have already had. I don't know. If it leads to a good run, great. But there is nothing we learned here that we are going to take to the week after that. We are at Martinsville, it is a short track race. Next week we go to Texas. Nothing we learned here is going to get applied to the Texas car. Then we go to Talladega soon and nothing from here or Texas is going to apply to that. I wish I knew the answer to that. I hope it leads to a streak. But there is not any evidence to back that up and support that right now."

CAN YOU REPEAT WHAT YOU DID LAST YEAR? "Sure, about every three months of my career I go into a five racing winning streak in my head. It's tough competition. I may not win another race the whole year. I hope I win 10 more but I may not win another race this year. That's how tough it is right now."

WERE YOU SURPISED HOW QUICK YOU WERE ABLE TO PULL AWAY ON THE THREE-LAP SHOOT-OUT? "Yeah, I was. Jeff got a really good re-start the time before, a lot of that was because I let him get a good restart. He was hanging back and kind of rolling the re-start to where he had more speed coming. So when I took off he had more momentum built up than I had at that time. The second I just kept watching in the mirror I told Greg that he's hanging back again. I just kept running pace car speed and he just catching me. Finally he ran into me and ran into me and took me clear up off the ground and spun the tires before I even got on the gas and as soon as he sat me down I took off. I don't know what happened behind but all I wanted to do was get two car lengths on him getting into one so I could get through one clean without him right behind me. If we could get a way a little bit then I could go back to running my line, my pace versus driving the car on the entry of the corner to get away from him to where they can't get to you in the center."

ON HIS FENCE CELEBRATION: "When we did that at Daytona, it was just one of those spur moment things. I wish everybody had the opportunity to be up there during something like that because that is the coolest view to see people no matter what kind of driver they're supporting they're still cheering because they know that before you even celebrate with your race team, you're celebrating with them. To climb up there, that's a pretty cool view and to have that opportunity to win races and know that when I win a race I can go up there and have that view. If they don't enjoy that and they don't like it anymore then that's the day I'll quit doing it. Trust me it's tough for a fat kid like me climbing up these fences after you just got done running 500 laps with a cold for three days. I would never let those fans down. The response every time we've done that has been so overwhelming that that is part of victory celebration. When I get that checkered flag first that's part of what I look forward about winning races, celebrating with the fans like that."

HOW HAPPY ARE YOU THEY DIDN'T TURN THIS PLACE INTO A POND? "I'd like to see them do to this place like what they do at Bristol - once a year put dirt on it and let us race on it as a dirt track because this place would be a cool dirt track too. I like it the way it is, trust me. The speedway has done such a good job and staff here has done good of making improvements here - giving us new garages here, fresh asphalt, fresh concrete in the corners. They've really taken what was a very aged race track and make it modern and something that we're all excited about racing on. The racing here has been awesome since they did everything that they've done. As a fellow promoter I'm excited to see things like this happen and see how excited the promoters are to do things to make the competition better like this."

Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for the No. 20 The Home Depot Monte Carlo SS

"Thanks for allowing me to come back again. This is a good sign when you get to come back in here for a few minutes.

"We had a great race car all weekend. We practiced well, we qualified well and we raced well. We got a little bit behind there at one time. We had made an air pressure adjustment and made it just a little too tight. We had to go back and then back again there with about 130 or so to go. We were hoping that we were going to get the opportunity there to get another set of tires on it and change what we did."

ON HOW GREAT OF A DRIVER TONY STEWART IS AND WORKING WITH HIM: "He drove a great race today. He stayed focused and concentrated and didn't use himself up here, mentally or physically. That is one thing I said to him earlier, it didn't matter how well we ran at the beginning, we needed to have enough there to run at the end. We have gone out and led a lot of laps in the past and haven't been able to close the deal. Today, we really wanted to close the deal and make sure we were there at the end. He did everything he had to do, he ran as hard as he needed to all day long."

DOES IT SEEM TO YOU THAT THE RACING IS A LITTLE ROUGHER OUT THERE THIS SEASON? "Well, he got into Jimmie (Johnson) a couple of times there getting up off the corner because Jimmie's car wouldn't go and that was for the lead and for the win. That is just short track racing. When we did get by him, we drove away. Other than that, we didn't touch a single person all day long. That is fairly black and white. Some days, it has been the other way around. But you are right, that seems like it has been a little more the nature this year. "

IS SHORT TRACK RACING NERVE RATTLING FOR THE GUYS ON THE BOX AND IS IT MORE DIFFICULT TO CALL A SHORT TRACK RACE? "I think it is. There is a lot less room for error. As far as adjustments, you are doing fine adjustments. As far as track position, it is so important, you want to make the right decisions, the right call all the time. If you pit and everyone else behind you stays out or you stay out and everyone behind you stays in, this is one of those tracks that you will pay for it all day long."

WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE TODAY IN WINNING COMPARED TO LAST YEAR'S RACES WHEN YOU DOMINATED AND DIDN'T WIN? "It is frustrating to run as good as we have this year and not be able to close the deal. Like I said earlier, that is one of the things we talked about before this race was to really concentrate at being there at the end. At that one stage, we made some adjustments to tighten up our car and I think it hurt it. The 48 had made some changes and theirs got better. There at the end, I think it flip-flopped. They did something on that last stop and we went back to where we were at the beginning of the race. The track temp had come down and we were good enough to hang with him and Tony did a good job of working him over."

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS - Finished 2nd

"It was a really good day for us. I thought we were going to be about fifth or sixth and to finish second I'm pretty happy with that. Not the last re-start but the one before that, I thought we had a shot at Tony (Stewart) for the win. Unfortunately all the oil was on the track and I was just slipping and sliding and trying to hold on to second."

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE LAST RE-START? "I did a lot to clean the tires off and try to keep as much heat in them. When we took off the car wasn't the same car. I don't know what it was. I was just trying to hold on because I was completely sideways and my teammates behind me were trying not to get into me. They were racing one another. They got pretty excited. Unfortunately I didn't get as excited as I wanted to for the lead."

DOES THIS TAKE SOME OF THE EDGE OFF FROM LAST WEEKEND? "Yeah. I think we had that behind us once we got here to Martinsville. I don't carry any grudges. I know that in order to finish in the top five you've got to make as many friends as you possibly can and stay out trouble out here. It was a pretty incident-free race for us."

ON ALL HENDRICKS CARS IN TOP 10: "I know 5 and 48 were in the top-five and I know Brian (Vickers) had a good car too because I had seen him earlier in the race. Great effort by everyone at Hendrick. We have a pretty good handle on this place. Tony (Stewart) got one on Jimmie and I today but we needed a longer run there at the end."

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE LAST GREEN CAME OUT AND YOU WENT SIDEWAYS AND WHEN YOU WERE COMING OFF OF TURN TWO? "I did everything I could under caution to get the tires cleaned off and heated up but during the restart prior to that, I went through (turn) one and two and it's the best my car felt all day through one and two. I got pretty excited. I thought man we got a shot at this thing. Then the caution came out and then the red (flag) came out. I was doing everything I could to clean the tires off again and I was hoping it'd feel the same way. I drove down in there hoping it would be and it wasn't. The car just completely jumped sideways on me. At that point I was doing everything I could just not to wreck. I think I even messed Jimmie up a little bit because Kyle was battling with him on the outside and I slowed him down because I got so sideways out there. Then I just had to be so easy after that I didn't have any shot at getting at Tony."

DID THE TRACK CONDITIONS AFFECT YOUR CAR AS THE DAY WENT ON OR WAS IT THE WAY YOUR CAR REACTED? "We made some adjustments yesterday that I thought were going to be really good for today. When the rubber built up on the race track that absolutely killed my line, my set-up, everything we had. The car just would not work today on the bottom line. If it did, I just had to be so patient. I was just real loose in and off all day today. I think we learned some things but we had to make such big adjustments to finally get the car where it could drive off the corner but it still wasn't enough. It was the best that it had been all day. When Jimmie and Tony really got battling there, it allowed us to get up there and take advantage of those guys racing so hard. I kind of had taken care of my tires and got a rhythm and somehow I was able to get in second."

WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOUR TIRE EARLIER IN THE RACE AND WHAT WAS YOUR PLAN FOR BATTLING BACK? "I just overheated the brakes and melted the bead on the right front tire. It was pretty much my fault. I was running with Kasey Kahne at that time. He had a good car. I was just running too hard. I felt like I was overdriving the car in the corner. I felt like I was maybe putting too much on the brakes and then the car started pushing really, really bad for about four or five laps and boom. We got lucky. We got very luck with that today with where and when it happened. It could have been worse. We could have gotten in the wall and we could have gotten a lap down. We were fortunate that the caution came out and we went back and got our four tires on it and worked our way back up there. After that I definitely took it easy on the brakes and just tried to be a little more patient."

ON WHAT HAPPENED WITH HIM AND STEWART ON THE RE-START: "The re-start prior to that, Tony took off early. I still got a good re-start. Even that last one wasn't too bad. If he did take off early I wanted to be right there on him. I got to him and basically right as I touched him, he took off which I was expecting. He got a little bit of a jump on me but not enough to really affect things. I got into one right there on him. I was pretty happy with everything until I got sideways off of two. It's frustrating when that happens because we were in the top five at that point I think. We knew that we needed to work on the car. I wanted to be able to do it sitting in the top five not coming from the back. I look at it in more ways as being very fortunate because we didn't go a lap down and I knew we had a car good enough to get back up towards the front. As a racer I was definitely concerned that we didn't have a car capable of winning or even a top three. We were about a fourth or fifth place car most of the day. In that last pit stop Steve (Letarte, crew chief) made a really big adjustment and like I said it was the best the car had been all day."

ON TONY STEWART LEADING MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF THE LAPS IN THE LAST THREE RACES HERE. IS THERE ANYTHING HE DID TODAY THAT HE DIDN'T DO IN THE LAST TWO RACES HERE? "He's tough here, there's no doubt about it. When I look at guys that run good here, I put him as one of the top guys. Jimmie in the last four or five races here goes right along with that. This is short track and he knows how to drive a car well at the short tracks. They do a good job setting it up. You've got to know how to run the right line and get the car set up right but you've got to be there at the end too. He races pretty smart and gets himself there at the end. For whatever reason he hasn't had that position which is probably why he's so aggressive with Jimmie because he's let some races get away from him because he didn't have that track position in the closing laps. I would have loved to have taken it away from him but just couldn't get close enough."

ON A LOT OF ROUGH ACTION ON THE TRACK THIS YEAR AND IF IT'S A WORRISOME TREND: "I think that it's so competitive that you're not giving an inch out there. We expect that in the short tracks but I guess we don't expect at Daytona and Talladega and places like that. The bump drafting thing has gradually been getting worse and worse and worse. It's been a long time coming for NASCAR to really try to pay attention to it or do something about it. I think it's a trend because the competition is tougher. It's harder to pass. The cars are so dependent on aerodynamics these days. That's one of the reasons why we're not seeing as many multi-groove race tracks. But when we do, you don't see all that. When we go to Atlanta, you don't see all that bumping and banging because we have a race track that we can race on. When we come to places where it's one groove, we're going to knock one another out of the way if someone holds us up."

ON HAVING THE SAME AMOUNT OF CONTACT AS BRISTOL BUT BEING ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH IT MORE HERE AND WITH LESS EMOTIONS INVOVLED: "I finished the race this weekend so I was happy. I have nothing to show."

ON COMING UP TO THE FRONT AFTER YOUR PROBLEM EARLIER IN THE RACE? "I've always felt like there's times when you've got to be aggressive and times when you've got to patient. Today when my tire blew that instantly sent a message to me that I needed to be more patient. I think I was being a little too aggressive at the beginning of the race at that time and we had a long, long way to go and it just wasn't worth it. From that point on, I did take it and if I saw an opportunity I'd take advantage of it. Then I'd try to cool things down and not push too hard. If somebody was faster than me I'd let them go like Junior and Harvick and a couple guys like that. I really didn't have to beat and bang on anybody today even though there were times when I still had to be aggressive I didn't have to do it with a front bumper. That's what I like to do, when the car is good and set up the way you want it, then you don't have to do that. That's pretty much how it was for me up until I got into the top five. Then I never could get position. I got position one time on the 38 and he got loose. I never touched him but other than that and maybe me spinning out in front of Jimmie with two or three to go, it was pretty uneventful in the right front."

ARE YOU GLAD TO MOVE TO A 1.5 MILE TRACK? "I wish I could come here every weekend but I know that Texas is an important race track for us. It's a track that we struggled at a lot last year. We've been really focused on trying to get better at that track and we're very curious to see how that goes. Jimmie has been better than us there so I don't know if that's a good track for him or not. I know it's one that will answer some questions for us and give us an indication of what direction we need to be going or if we're going in the right direction with the things we've been doing so far on the mile and halves. I like the short tracks. I like mixing it up. There are times when you're back-to-back on one and half mile race tracks and that gets a little bit old but I like mixing it up with the short tracks and the road courses."

ON WHAT YOU WERE THINKING DURING THE RED FLAG: "They make you shut down all the fans so the battery is there to start the car. It's gets pretty hot in there."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS - Finished 3rd

"We had a great performance today. We ran up front most of the day, staying in the top-three. I am very proud of the team. We had great pit stops, a great race car. Just messed up a little bit myself there at the end.

"We were starting to fade a little bit and the 24 and the 5 were really strong and coming on. I was hoping that the 24 could get to the 20 and get by him.

"Today was a special day for us in some regards because we had a great day for our whole organization on what would have been Ricky Hendrick's birthday. But it is also a sad day for us and my thoughts and prayers go out to the Hendrick family as it is a sad day for them.

"We are real happy to be back on track and be competitive on the short tracks and the super speedways and the intermediate tracks. Last year at the end of the year, we just didn't have our team where it should have been. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports looked really hard at everything over the off-season. Now we are right where we need to be, hopefully we can keep this magic rolling and keep learning and advancing so we are right where we need to be at the start of the Chase."

ON THE TRACK SURFACE AT THE END: "Yeah, I was sliding all over the place. The guys gave me a great race car and great pit stops. Tony (Stewart) is always really good here on the short runs. I lost a little ground to him and the 24 got by and we brought home a nice third place finish."

ON YOUR RUN TODAY: "It was a real strong performance for the Lowe's team and really for all of Hendrick Motorsports. Between Jeff and I and it looks like Kyle and Brian (finished well) so we're always excited to come up here and race. The fall race has the anniversary of our airplane going down and the spring race is right about the time of Ricky Hendrick's birthday. As excited as we are to be here to race and put up a good performance, it's also tough and I think between all of us we really wanted to win a race today and take a trophy back to Rick (Hendrick)."

ON TONY STEWART'S PASS AND THE BUMP JIMMIE GAVE HIM BACK: "When you come out with the upper hand, I'm sure everybody would say it's all fair with short track racing. Looking back on it, I ended up third. I was fading so I don't really have any complaints with the way that he raced me. I passed him two or three times earlier in the day and found another line and worked my way around the outside of him. I was a little surprised that he continually drove it in and kept trying to blast me in the center. I think he probably hit me for four or five laps and the time that he got by me, he really had my wheels off the ground and I couldn't get in the gas and he got inside of me and from there drove on and drove away from me. This is short track racing. I had a great time racing today. It was really hard racing on the race track from Tony and I throughout the whole day so there just at the end he got aggressive with me and I had a fading car."

ON RACING YOUR TEAMMATE KYLE BUSCH: "He did a great job throughout the entire day. He ran up front and his crew had great stops. He had a great race today. Like Jeff said earlier when he came off of (turn) two and got sideways, I protected the bottom and broke my momentum. If I was in the position (that Kyle was), I'd do the same thing, trying to get around the outside and do something with it but he faded back and the 8 got by him. He did a great job today. At one point I told my spotter to pass the word along to him that I thought he was doing an awesome job out there."

ON HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAVING FOUR CARS IN THE TOP 10. WHAT WAS IT THAT YOU GUYS HAD PREPARED GOING INTO THE RACE TO MAKE YOUR TEAMS SUCCESSFUL? "I personally think it has a lot to do with Jeff Gordon and what he's done here over the years. It's one of his stronger tracks. He's come up with a great set-up. >From my standpoint, I really try to run the same set-up and find a way to make it work. I see that same thing going on with Kyle and with Brian. The questions they ask remind me where I was when I first came here the first two years. During practice all of us were huddled around Jeff between the two practice sessions on Saturday trying to pick his brain a little bit." (JEFF GORDON - "I'm thinking twice about those conversations now.") He's so generous to share what it takes to get around here and at the same time, over the years he's refined such a good package here that we can just get in there, try to do our job as a driver and we've made the most of it."

ON HAVING THE SAME AMOUNT OF CONTACT AS BRISTOL BUT BEING ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH IT MORE HERE AND WITH LESS EMOTIONS INVOVLED: "I don't think we touched (Jeff and himself) but it's definitely a lot easier here to use the bumper to move somebody out of the way. The encouraging thing from my standpoint is the outside lane was starting to come in. There were times where I was up there actually making ground on the 20 and another time when I was leading where I could kind of stretch it out there. When you put us all that close and competition is this tough, you're going to have bumping and banging. It didn't seem like a lot of cautions, just short track racing like you would have on a small little paperclip."

DID YOU KNOW NASCAR TOLD TONY STEWART TO CALM DOWN NEAR THE END? "No, I don't think the message made it to him either (laughs). I have to give him some credit. He did it in a way that didn't wreck me but it had my rear tires off the ground where I couldn't touch the gas pedal. I was just a sitting duck and he got inside of me and got position on me."

ON WHAT YOU WERE THINKING DURING THE RED FLAG: "I could see that there was a big mess down the backstretch. After the red flag I was a little nervous about the groove being real clean and there being grip there. Watching Jeff come off of two I thought 'uh oh this going to be bad, we're going to have another caution' but everybody came through there and nothing happened. You just hate breaking your rhythm and you hate things stopping at the end like that. On top of that, it's warm and all the heat is making its way up through the car and you can't get going fast enough to get some air circulated inside car."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS - Finished 4th

"I am just really proud of the whole effort everybody has given me this year. We had a hard year last year. This company has bounced back really hard and I try to do my job on Sunday. They give me great cars. I get to take credit for wheeling on it, but man, you can't do it if your car don't work and my car was working real good today. That is due to all the work back at the shop."

ON HOW BAD HIS CAR LOOKED. "I remember Harry Gant winning a race with a car that sort of looked like that. Beating and banging, man I was worried that my car was really tore up too bad to be competitive. I want to thank my team for working so hard to get me back on the race track, cutting everything away the way they did to be out of the way and working on it so the car still drove great. They didn't give up. Just proud of the effort they gave me today. It is just such a pleasure to drive that car when those guys work as hard as they do. I want to thank everybody back at DEI for their efforts. This company has really turned around. We still have a little bit to catch up on technology but the guys are working hard at the shop. In the engine shop, they are working some late nights. Martin's (Truex, Jr.) had a tough day today and at Bristol but the first time I came to Martinsville, I hit and ran over everything. It takes a while to learn how to go around here. Just a great day for us even if we didn't win, man, it really felt like it."

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS - Finished 5th

"It was a good day today. Any time you leave Martinsville with a top-five finish, it was a good day for our Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS. If we could have finished third it would have been even better, but we slipped a little so we will take fifth. The last three laps were pretty hard racing but that is what you are going to have at a short track with everybody going after it. I thought everyone was going to go to the bottom and try and protect it so I went outside and had a great run on Jimmie. I didn't want to screw him up too much in one and slow down too much and let Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) hit him a little and move him out of the way. Trying to be nice guy, but it is still a good day."

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS - Finished 7th

"The car was good. I had a little trouble with lap traffic and just kind of got back there a little bit and lost couple of spots. All in all it was a good day for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet."

Brian Vickers, No. 25 GMAC Monte Carlo SS - Finished 8th

"I am happy (with our finish). We really wanted to get a win here. It was a good run for us."

WAS IT PATIENCE THAT GOT YOU THE TOP 10 FINISH? "One hundred percent. I was just trying to stay out of trouble and keep the fenders on it. It's real easy to get into somebody here and knock the grill in and start overheating. I just tried to be patient all day. We were loose all day and we really just had to work on it. We came in every stop. Lance (McGrew, crew chief) made some good calls and instead of trying to stay out there and get track position in a car that wasn't right, we came in and worked on it all day."

Tony Raines, No. 96 DLP®HDTV Monte Carlo SS - Finished 21st

ON OVERALL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RACE: "It was a tough day. We started off OK, but it seemed like we could never get the car to handle the way we wanted it to. We worked on it and worked on it, but we just couldn't ever get over the hump. I probably drove more defensively then I should have, but that's what I wanted to do this first race -- run the race and finish. We wanted to take what we got, because Martinsville is not one of my best tracks. There are better tracks for me ahead. I think if that's our worst finish at Martinsville, I'll take that.

"It started off pretty good, the first 50 to100 laps, then it just kind of went away, and we couldn't ever get the handle back to it. Philippe (Lopez, crew chief) and the crew, they changed a bunch of stuff throughout the race, but we just couldn't get it to run out of the corners."

HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO BRING THE CAR HOME IN ONE PIECE AND FINISH THE RACE? "That was our main goal. We didn't have a notebook for here or anything like that -- being a new team. You've got to finish first and we need to get in the habit of that before we can start racing well and getting up in the points. It's not the prettiest 21st, but we'll take it and build on it to Texas. I felt like I put myself back there earlier in the race than I wanted to, because I was being extra careful. I wanted to make sure I didn't run into anybody and didn't catch a wrecked car, but I kind of felt like that hurt us a little bit track-position wise. I'm a little disappointed in that, but I just kept telling myself, finish, finish. It's not where I think we could have been, but we get to try it again in the fall and we'll see if we can do better."

Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Monte Carlo SS - Finished 23rd

ON THE BUMP AND PASS BY SCOTT RIGGS THAT SPUN HIM OUT: "I don't understand why he did what he did -- that was a low blow."

ON THE DAY IN GENERAL: "It was wild ride out there today. We took our licks, but nobody knocked us out, we fought like our soldiers right to the end. There is never any quit when you represent the Army."

Scott Wimmer, No. 4 AERO Exhaust Monte Carlo SS - Finished 28th

Note: Wimmer retired from the race on lap 189.

"We were experiencing some brake problems and had a flat left front and broke the sway bar. We came back to fix the sway bar and we might as work on the brakes too because we're not going to do too much without any brakes out there. It's a tough day for the AERO Exhaust Chevy. We'll be back at Texas."

Travis Kvapil, No. 32 Tide/Downy Monte Carlo SS - Finished 34th

Note: Kvapil was involved in a one-lap spin on lap 14 after crew had repaired minor damage from a multi-car accident on lap 2.

"I have no idea what happened. I had no wheel-hop, no signs of a tire going down, nothing from the earlier contact. I just ended up going around. It is disappointing for our Tide Monte Carlo SS team, we just need to get some racing luck going our way. We will get back out and do what we can for points."

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Monte Carlo SS - Finished 37th

Note: Hamlin was involved in a two-car incident on lap 307.

"I respect Mark Martin like no other but he's just racing us really hard. (He) got into our right side tires and (we) cut down our right rear tire. I understand he was trying to get his lap back but you got to give room to the lead lap cars and this is what happens."

Robby Gordon, No. 7 Menard's Monte Carlo SS - Finished 43rd

Note: Gordon was involved in a multi-car accident on lap 2.

WHAT HAPPENED? "I got put in the old sandwich. I guess they all checked up in front of Reed (Sorenson). There were cars spun before I got there. Myself, Junior, a bunch of us got torn up. It's some kind of drivetrain problem. I don't know exactly what the final outcome is. We probably won't know until we get home and take it apart. When you're out this early, it's a huge disappointment. We had high hopes for this weekend. We felt this would be one of our best results and bam, we let another good one slip away from us but we look forward to going to Texas next week and to Phoenix next week. Those are some good race tracks that will be good for our No. 7 Chevrolet."

IS IT THE CHASSIS THAT YOU'RE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH? "I don't know exactly where it is. That's what we're trying to figure out right now. It's something in the drivetrain. They started checking up in front of me. I think Junior got in the back of me and bumped me into the 41. The guys got the car good and I was taking off there in front of the pace car and took off without the clutch and it just locked up."