DAVID RAGAN: “Yeah, kind of like the Busch race last night. The first half of the race we probably didn’t have the best car and then I found the car worked pretty good on the topside and I ran the topside with new tires, old tires. It seemed like whenever I wanted to it was pretty fast. We had a great car, other than my mistakes pitting on pit road and blending a little too early we might could have had a car to finish in the top-five or contend for a win. A small mistake just hurt us like that.” WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SPEEDING PENALITIES? “I just gassed it a little too early. We had a good stop. When you’re right there on the speed limit going down pit road and if you hit it just a split second too early it reflects on your speed there that last mark and that’s where we got busted at.” HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH THE HEAT? “Not too bad. I had an ice pack the first half of the run and just a lot of water throughout the run. But once the sun goes down it’s a hundred percent better. When you have a good handling car you kind of forget about the heat.” IT SEEMED LIKE YOUR CAR GOT BETTER WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN. “It was so loose to start off with I was just hanging on and it was really loose that last run. The car was really close. To win a Cup race or finish in the top-five you’ve just got to almost have a perfect night. We had a couple of mistakes and we paid for ‘em but it was still a decent run for us.” HOW MUCH MOMENTUM DOES THIS GOOD RUN GIVE YOU FOR NEXT WEEK AT RICHMOND? “We run well at Richmond in the spring and we run good here in the spring. Any time you can finish on the lead lap in a Cup race and then pass some of them guys it means a lot. It’s just a matter of good pit stops and having a little bit of luck to finish in the top-10.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 BURGER KING TOYOTA: YOU HAD A GREAT CAR TONIGHT. “Yeah we did. The pit stops were great, the car was good, everything you need to run up front. We just got caught up in a deal there. I’m still not entirely clear on what happened. The result was that we got screwed up and we tore the car all to heck and it just kind of screwed our night up. I’m really proud of the guys. The pit stops were great. The car was good. We ran like we should and that felt really good to do that.” YOU RAN WELL ALL NIGHT. THIS MUST GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE THAT YOU CAN RUN WELL IN NEXTEL CUP. “It absolutely does. I mean you’re out there racing guys like Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, guys that are running good and winning races. You’re passing those guys and running up front with them and they’re racing with you. They’re giving you hand signals and motioning to you. I’m so used to just letting those guys go because they’ve been so much better than me. It’s nice to have the shoe on the other foot. I enjoyed the night. I thought I was going to get my first Raybestos Rookie of the Race award tonight but I’ll have to do it next week.” WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE ACCIDENT? “I was on the outside and the 36 was in the middle and I think we all just kind of ran out of room. I don’t exactly know, just what they told me. I haven’t seen a replay to really know for sure. It’s just disappointing.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “Bristol, we had a good car, we just didn’t get the finish. That’s kind of how the whole year’s been going. We make the races, we’ve been kind of good, and just can’t get the finish. It’s one of those things. We’re better on the short tracks. We made Bristol and we felt good and to be the quickest Toyotas on the grid and the highest finishing Toyotas as well, that’s a big deal. These two-mile and one-and-a-half mile tracks are probably the ones I struggle on the most. To have that as my best career finish and do a complete race, no problems and fight hard and get a top-20 out of it, that’s a big deal.” ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP WELL TONIGHT? “Hell yeah, I’m going to sleep on the plane. I’m going to be tired. I’m looking forward going to Milwaukee this week and test and work on Loudon. At Richmond we had our best qualifying for the year for us so I don’t see why we can’t do it again.” HOW MUCH DID YOU LEARN TONIGHT? “A lot. It’s hard to describe to people what a 500-mile race is. There’s so much stuff that goes on. Early in the race I hit the wall, I was sideways, I thought I had wrecked. You think it’s all ending right there and you just keep fighting. That’s the stuff that I’ve got to learn. It’s tough. I’m still used to two-hour races where you get to a certain point and it’s go-time. It’s hard to even say that with 20 to go because you still have to race the track more than anything.” IS THIS GOOD RUN TONIGHT A PRODUCT OF THE BUSCH RACE AND ADDITIONAL TRACK TIME? “For sure. Like I said, the biggest deal making the race is probably being in that Busch car two-and-half hours before I got in the Cup car. We were having a good race in the Busch race and just got in an accident. That was a lot I learned from starting in the day and going to night. Like I said all year, you just give me laps and we’ll be okay.” TONIGHT’S GOOD RUN MUST GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE. “We’ve still got 11 races left. For guys that’s winding down and for us that can be just starting. We can get some momentum. Like I said we can go to Richmond and if we do our job we should be able to make that race again near the top because we were last time. Now that we know we can run 500 miles and be in the top-20 and moving up from there, like I said, it’ll come easier. You just have to get over that hump.” SOME PEOPLE WISH THIS WAS A 400-MILE RACE. ARE YOU GLAD THIS IS A 500-MILE RACE? “No, I wish this was a 400-mile race, too except I think at like 400 miles I was about 12th. Man, it’s a long race.” HOW WAS THE HEAT? “It’s hot, for sure. I think we’ve got to work on our cooling a little bit in our car. I was hot by the end. Nothing out of the extreme where I couldn’t hang on but it was in the back of your mind that you were hot.”