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News and Results | Point Standings | 2007 Schedule | 2007 Teams | 2006 Schedule and Results | 2005 Schedule and Results Dodge Dealers 400 - Dodge Post-Race Quotes
ON THE ACCIDENT “I just caught the fence in turn two and it collected so many top cars and everybody for that matter. It’s tough when everybody puts a lot of hard work into building these cars and one little problem like that took out a lot of cars. “It was a nice top five that was developing, we actually had thirty lap fresher tires then anybody and something broke.”
“We couldn’t really find a good balance, it was either too loose or too tight. We fought that all day and just really stayed out of trouble, that was the key thing. It’s good. I’m pretty happy. This week we finally figured something out.” ON HIS TOP 10 FINISH “It’s incredible. It’s pretty surprising to get a top 10 finish. The real key today was taking a 10th to 15th place car and staying out of trouble all day.”
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE? “I know the No. 2 car got high and bounced off the wall. It looked like something broke. He bounced off the wall, came across and if I would have known it was going to be that big of a mess I would have just hit him and tried to knock him out of the way instead of crossing my car up and blocking the race track. “It was a good run for the alltel Dodge up until that point. We had a great effort for Penske Racing until about twenty to go.” HOW HARD WAS THE HIT? “It wasn’t that hard of a hit. It was a pretty straight forward hit and the belts take the whole load. It didn’t hurt, really. I was more worried about getting t-boned in the door afterwards which happened, just not a real hard hit.” HOW FRUSTRATING TO BE INVOLVED IN A WRECK SO CLOSE TO THE FINISH? “It’s unfortunate. Typically it happens at a place like this or this place when you get bunched up like that on a restart; we’ve been racing so hard, car balances change and everybody tries to get two spots instead of one. I’m not sure what happened these last two deals – I know the 17 blew up and I think Kurt broke something. It’s just tough. It’s racing, it’s racing at Dover. HAD THE RACING GOTTEN SO INTENSE A WRECK WAS ALMOST A FORGONE CONCLUSION? “Yes, it was. But, what happened as far as intense wasn’t what caused the accident. Just in the wrong spot at the wrong time with a good racecar that was capable of a top five.”
Rundown your day? “We were tight at the beginning of the race and the more we ran the tighter it got on a long run. We made some adjustments, took a rubber out of the left rear and all that did was unhook the rear of the car. It just made it way loose getting in the corner and off the corner; it still had the same push across the center. After we got two laps down, unfortunately, we finally started playing with some air pressure adjustments and the car came right around and had a pretty good car. We could run easily with the top 10 guys. It was just unfortunate, just a day late and a dollar short, getting behind on our adjustments, getting behind the learning curve, and it cost us two laps. It was good to finally figure it out, but it just hate to be two laps down before you figure it out.”
“We just got caught up in the wreck. It happened up near the front, so the fact we had handling problems most of the day wasn’t the reason we were involved. We started off pretty good, but on the long runs the car was too tight and wouldn’t turn in the corners. It was a long day that ended a big short for us.”
“The car was extremely loose in and loose off early in the race. We worked on it and made progress, but got the right side of the car damaged in a wreck with about 50 laps to go. A lot of cars had problems today as there were only five cars on the lead lap at one time, so we’re not alone with handling problems. We just have to keep working.”
ON THE ACCIDENT “We were a little bit loose. I guess it’s my fault. I watched the Busch race yesterday and I knew Denny (Hamlin) was sick, I just didn’t know he was hallucinating and needed three lanes to get up off the corner because he ran all over us. I guess he is in a race by himself.” ON HIS WORDS WITH HAMLIN “I just told him ‘he is in the Chase and I’m not’. That’s how simple it is. It’s a shame that a guy with that much talent has to drive like that. We’ve seen it a lot. We’ve seen it all year long. Even his teammate Tony Stewart talked about it. I think it pretty much speaks for itself.”
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