HAMLIN: “It will be interesting to see where they end up putting us. A lot of guys cut course on the last lap but it was still a good run for us. We had a better car than that. We ran top-10 most all day until that pit strategy deal. We took the safe route of taking four tires and fueling late. We took the safe bet and that’s what we needed to do.” WAS THIS ONE OF THOSE BULLETS THAT YOU NEEDED TO DODGE TO MAKE THE CHASE? “I think so. I think this is a really big race for us. It’s definitely one of those races where we needed to get a top-15 finish, and depending on where everyone else finished, it would have been a good day. A lot of guys in front of and behind us in points had troubles which is bad for them but good for us.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN ON THE ROAD COURSES THIS SEASON THAT WILL HELP YOU NEXT SEASON? “It’s hard to say. It’s just so hard to get a good finish at a road course because so much of it your pit call and how good your car is only a very small part of it. We had a good car today, a good top-10 car and top-five car at times and we came home 12th with it. That’s just one of those deals.” WAS THIS A MORE PHYSICAL RACE THAN SONOMA? “No, I think this is a lot less than the one at Sonoma, being that we had that Milwaukee race the night before and it really took its toll as far as on my body. This race is relatively easy with all the cautions that came out made it easier.”

REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET DODGE: “I’m not sure where we finished because a couple of guys went straight there at the end of the race [through the inner loop] and did not stop. Before that big wreck there at the end, I think we were running maybe 11th or 12th. We were a lot faster at the end of the race. We definitely used our fuel mileage to our advantage. The cautions helped us out a lot. I think I was like a second faster at the end of the race than I was at the beginning. All in all, it was pretty good for us. We just have to get better at this stuff and we’ll be all right.” DO YOU JUST NEED MORE LAPS IN GENERAL ON THE ROAD COURSES? “Yeah, more laps, and we kind of had a little bit different car here this weekend. We’ll get better at it. I’ve got to get better and we’ve just got to tune the car to where I can drive it a little bit harder. There were just a couple spots where we were really loose. We’ll fix that and we’ll be all right.” WAS THERE MORE AGGRESSIVE DRIVING HERE TODAY THAN SONOMA? “Yeah, there was. I thought it was crazy out there, people wrecking. I mean, that last lap in the bus stop, I couldn’t even see. There was dirt flying everywhere. There was a lot of dirt out here that you wouldn’t think was there until somebody gets in it and then it flies everywhere. There were a lot of cautions and a lot of wrecks but it ended up okay.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: “That last restart you could tell that the right-rear tire had a leak and was going down. I tried to get Denny to take a look at it and he said he really couldn’t see much. I could tell in that one lap where we went green that in the left-handers the car was really laying on the right rear and got loose. It was one of those deals where there’s not much you can do. Obviously you don’t pit because you’ll never pass anyone. If I would have just hold off there and cars would get by me every time we’d come into Turn 6 there and just kind of hang on. Unfortunately going into the carousel coming down to the checkered it finally popped. I held onto it for a little bit then finally spun. I guess that’s just par for the course. That’s just the way the whole year has gone. We can run top-15, top-10 all race long and then just the stupidest things seem to happen in the last 10 laps of the race. We had a real good race car and felt like we could have got past a couple more cars, could have got up to 10th. Regardless we were at 12th and that would have been a decent run for today. Unfortunately it didn’t happen and we’ll have to go on to Michigan and see if we can’t rebound there.” YOU RAN WELL EARLY IN THE RACE DESPITE MINOR DAMAGE TO THE REAR OF THE CAR. “Restarts are so hectic around here and the road course guys seem to be able to drive into the corner a lot deeper than most guys. I was going through the bus stop there and everyone checked-up and Boris couldn’t get slowed down in time and got into the back of me. I think it spun himself out. It’s funny because you look at all the cars coming off the racetrack, and the same with Sonoma, and they look like they just left Martinsville. I guess that’s why we’re not road course racers. But regardless, these cars are going to go and be show cars from now on. The Car of Tomorrow will be the new road course car. I guess people were just driving like they stole them.”