RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

COMMENT ON INCIDENT WITH TONY STEWART “We were on fresh tires. I don’t know if Tony knew that or not, but regardless, he didn’t live up to what he preaches and that’s move over and let a faster car go – especially a car on fresh tires trying to get a lap back. He came down on us a little bit. I came up on him a little bit and we hit. He got the raw end of the deal. It didn’t do us any favors, but he sure didn’t live up to what he preaches. I was way faster than Tony was. We went three wide down the back straightaway and he didn’t give any getting into the corner. He came down on me just a little bit like I said and it hurt both of us. Eight tires are better than four. He just forgot that.”

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SECOND INCIDENT? “We just got punted by the 55. I don’t know if he needed the caution worse than we did or what, but we just got hit from behind by the 55. He’s usually like that here. We didn’t get wrecked hard enough to get out and throw a helmet at him like usually happens here.”

DID YOUR CAR GIVE UP A LITTLE AS THE RACE WENT ALONG? “The car gave up a little bit. We were not good on long runs. We were decent on short runs. It was just loss of track position and once that deal happened we never got it back. We flushed some oil in the radiator and that ended our day.”

WERE YOU COUNTING ON THIS BEING YOUR DAY? “I was counting on a good run. It just wasn’t.”

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

“We had to fight all day. Our Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger was all right, but it was barely a top 10 car. We ran into Newman and bent up the front a little bit. It hurt it from there. I’m happy with the team, happy with the fuel mileage, the engine ran great. It was a good points day. We needed that. I think Kenny (team director Francis) was nervous (about running out of fuel). I wasn’t nervous. I was hot. We were just trying to get a good finish, and we got two cars on that last restart, so I was pretty happy.

“I don’t remember it being this hot here before. We’re going to work on our cars and try to get ‘em cooled down a little more. They’re pretty hot, but the days this year have been pretty hot, too. We needed a good run like this to stay up in the points. We’ve been losing too many in the last three races. Scott Riggs ran well all day. I was racing with him at the end, and he definitely had a better car until that last restart. We got by him and he got trapped on the bottom trying to get by a car. Jeremy had a good run today, too, and then he ran out of gas near the end. So all-in-all, it was a pretty good day.”

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

“The finish doesn't reflect the kind of day we had. We ran in the top 10 late in the race and had a good shot at a top-10 finish. We played it a little close on fuel mileage and ran out with four to go (lap 296). Track position was critical. We elected to stay out for track position and came up a little short. It was good running up front again. This was a positive step for the No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger.”

SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Auto Value Bumper-to-Bumper Dodge Charger)

NOTE: Riggs finished 10th Sunday at NHIS, scoring his fifth top-10 finish of the season and moving up two spots to 21st in the series standings.

“Track position was everything. We didn’t have any in the beginning. We kept working on the car. It was tight all day. The guys made good calls in the pits and kept working on it and getting it better. My car would not go on restarts. Every time the tires would cool off it would take us a good three or four laps to get going. On that last caution, the tires cooled off a lot and I wasn’t very good at the beginning. I lost two positions at the end, and that wasn’t very good. Kasey did a good job and got a top 10, and we were able to hang in there and get a top 10, too. It was good for us, but we want to get better. We want to start up there next time and get better instead of starting in the rear.”

DAVID STREMME (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger)

NOTE: Stremme’s 11th-place finish was his career best in 22 career starts.

“It’s a brand new car, and it was pretty good yesterday in practice. I said it was probably the best car I’ve ever had, and that’s the way it ended up today. Reed had a good car, too, and had some bad luck, but he ran up front and led some laps. Things are looking up. I’m looking forward to going back to some of these tracks for a second time in Cup and see if we can’t get some good results in the second half of the season.”