KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 McDonalds Dodge Avenger, Finished 2nd)

“We couldn’t (catch up to Edwards). Those guys did a good job. They beat us to the end. We dominated I think the first half. The car was really good. We just got a little bit, the car felt good still at the end. He was just cutting through the center a touch better than me and we ran second. It was good. It was a great weekend for everyone at Gillett Evernham. These teams did a great job and everybody stepped up. This is the first time that we’ve run good with McDonalds on the car, but it was nice to get a Dodge Avenger up front with McDonalds on it.”

TALK ABOU T THE RACE TONIGHT: “We started good you know. Track position was key. We qualified perfect yesterday and had track position all night long. We had a great car. We had McDonalds on the car and just ran up front. The lap traffic worked good for us. I was able to get around a lot of it fairly quickly. Some of the cars hold you up and other ones you can get by quick. We just battled. The first 300 laps or 250 laps we were probably the best car. After that I think Carl came on a little stronger there at the end and I just couldn’t get back to him. He was a touch better through the center of the corner and he would get back to the throttle a little quicker and down the straighaways. It was close. He was just a touch better there at the end. It was fun. It was exciting to get a good run in our Dodge Avenger. It has been a while since we’ve had a top five. Its been a while since we’ve run up front all night long and had a pole. We just kind of put the whole thing together. The whole team stepped up and did a really good job. George Gillett was here. It was good to have him here. He came from Russia. I don’t really know why he was there yesterday, but it was nice to have our new owner here, and Ray (Evernham) and everybody just stepped up and just did a great job.”

HOW MUCH DID THE COT RUN TONIGHT MEAN TO GILLETT EVERNHAM MOTORSPORTS: “We were strong here the first time, but we were definitely a lot stronger tonight as the No. 9 car. The other cars didn’t run as well as we did and that was a little confusing, but the No. 9 car was definitely stronger tonight than what its been. These guys have spent a lot of time trying to develop that car and make it faster and make it better. I’m looking forward to running that car the rest of the year when we do. You know next weekend we go to California and I wish that was a COT race, but its not.”

HOW MUCH OF A SHOT IN THE ARM IS A WEEKEND LIKE THIS FOR YOU? “It feels good, you know. I think it will feel a lot better tomorrow when I can think about it and sit back. I’m going to do a couple sprint car races this week and enjoy myself and go home. We have a charity race for the Kasey Kahne Foundation Wednesday Night at Skagit Speedway and Tony (Stewart) is coming. It’ll be a blast and hopefully we raise a lot of money for the Ronald McDonald House. To run well, you know you go into a season and you think you’re going to run well – you don’t, and then to get a great weekend here like we did this weekend feels good. We are just going to try and carry it on. Next weekend we’re back to California and we are back to that same car that ran 31st with last week, so hopefully we do something this week to make that performance come up a touch next week.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Avenger, Finished 6th)

“The track was obviously the best idea somebody could of implemented into a half-mile. I’m happy to race on it. I’m happy to come home in sixth place, racing Dale Jr. We led a lap and he didn’t so we tied for the day. That’s big picture and we’ll take it. Our Dodge Avenger was tight in the beginning a little loose in the middle and then we got tight there at the end. So we’ll take it.”

DAVID STREMME (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Avenger, Finished 14th)

“It was good. We needed long runs. We started in the back and finished 14th. I’m pretty happy with that. We fought hard all day and stayed on the lead lap. That’s big here. The new surface is awesome. I couldn’t run up high very much because our car was really loose so I ran the bottom. It was a good day. It was a lot more fun out there than was it was before. And a lot of that is from the multi-lanes. I think guys will give and take a little more and they’re not afraid to run the top side. I was more worn out from the Busch race than this race.”

SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge Avenger, Finished 18th)

"That was a decent finish for the No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge. We were tight center and off for the first half of the race and we fell a lap down. But Rodney (Childers, team director) kept adjusting on it every stop and we were able to fight back and get the lucky dog. In the end we came home with the car in one piece and we gained some ground on the top-35. "

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 alltel Dodge Avenger, Finished 7th)

“I was miserable in the car, but it was a good run for the alltel Dodge. We just got behind a little bit on pit road and that was enough. We just didn’t have enough to get past those guys. We were good enough to hold our own but couldn’t pass them.”

KENNY WALLACE (No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge Avenger, Finished 32nd)

“We should have easily run in the top twenty five and I screwed up and pulled a Jeff Gordon. Under the green flag pit stop I went all the way around the whole track and it cost us five positions. But, I gave it my all just jumping into car. That’s all I had right there. I thought it was a great opportunity and I very honored to have driven the car. The way I looked at it, I showed up, jumped in the car and had a top twenty five run going and screwed up.

“It was like an old Rockingham track. If you were going to pass on the bottom you had better hurry up and get it done. After three or four laps your tires made you go to the top side. I think it was a lot of fun running the track. It was like getting into the draft, anytime somebody pulled to the bottom you passed them on the outside.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Avenger, Finished 17)

“You know, it’s my fault. I’m blaming myself. I was too loose for my taste and I thought we were going to be too loose. We tightened up the car and it was just horrible. And when we tightened it up we run for 130 laps so we went a lap down there. It was hard but we had fun today, we ran good. I’m proud of my guys.”

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH BEING ABLE TO GET THE CAR BETTER DURING THE RACE? “Yeah, we get it better. We qualified better. I think we had a little bit more for the race but hey, it’s all we got.”

YOU RACED KEVIN HARVICK FOR POSITION AT THE END OF THE RACE. “We didn’t give each other too much room. He bumped me a couple times but I don’t care. I’m not going to cry about it.”

THIS WAS A PHYSICALLY DEMANDING RACE ON A HOT NIGHT. “Not really. When it was at like lap 130, I thought man, it’s going to be a long night, and then the next time I looked it was 370 already. It was good. It’s easy when you run up front. When you start getting behind it’s a nightmare.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Avenger, Finished 29th)

“We had to make an unscheduled pit stop early in the race (lap 62) with a flat tire. That put us two laps down, a deficit we just couldn’t overcome. We didn’t have the front grip we needed early in the race. The crew worked on the car and made progress, but we didn’t get the breaks we needed to get those laps back. Kasey (Kahne) had a great race.”

BOBBY LABONTE (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Avenger, Finished 8th)

TALK ABOUT TWO TOP TEN FINISHES IN A ROW – “I’m going to give Doug (Randolph) a lot of credit. He is just really good on the radio; made some good calls. We fought some of the things we have fought all year but we worked on them a little bit differently. It really was a good night. At first our car was really good we just kept hanging in there but we got a little tight towards the end and couldn’t go forward with it. All and all it was a great night.”

ARE YOU BUILDING MOMENTUM FOR 2008? “That’s what we said last year too and it didn’t work out. Hopefully we are. I think we have a lot of great ideas. We have some good things that could happen to us if we do the right things over the wintertime and in the last part of the year that will enhance the race team; that is going to be key for our growth. If we do that right, hopefully we’ll be stronger when we unload at Daytona next year.

DOUG RANDOLPH (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Avenger, Crew Chief)

LABONTE SAYS COMMUNICATION HAS BEEN THE KEY TO YOUR LAST TWO TOP 10s, DO YOU AGREE? “There is not much change for sure, especially here. Car of Tomorrow race I have never really crew chief-ed one. I relied on a lot of people here with the background of what has worked for Bobby in the COT race. I think the biggest thing is we just worked on communication; trying to figure out what kind of changes to make, to make the right changes and how big a change to make. I think we’re just trying to stay in the ballpark and learn a little bit at time and not step out of bounds to far where it’s hard to step back in. You know it was a tough weekend for us, we got here and tried some stuff sorta out of the box and were off a little bit and gained on it all weekend. So it’s a great weekend for the whole team. Bobby did an awesome job going through the field at the start of the race. Pit crew did a great job. It’s all about building momentum and we’ve got two weeks in a row here and we just hope to build on that.”