JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “At the start of it I was just happy to run and stay in the top-five and try to maybe make the car better. And we kept working it. We did a little bit of tire pressure and track bar. We put a hell of a lot of track bar in the car today and couldn’t get it to free up. The only time it was free was when I stopped when it was under green. I was lucky. I had a flat left front tire coming into the pits and when I coming into the pit lane it blew up and that’s why I came out behind Jeff and Junior. And it was pretty loose and then when we got behind the pace car after that it actually drove pretty good. It was just way too tight in one and three. I just couldn’t let the car roll. Tony was rolling through there so much faster than me I just couldn’t do anything.” COULD YOU HAVE CAUGHT TONY? DID YOU JUST RUN OUT OF TIME AND LAPS? “No. They told me ‘If everybody pits we’re going to stay out.’ And I said ‘Yeah, but to be honest, the 20 is too fast. Even if he pits he’s still going to come out and beat us.’ And they stayed out but I don’t think anybody had anything for Tony today.” DID YOU FIND ANYTHING FROM YOUR INDY 500 EXPERIENCE THAT HELPED YOU IN THESE BIG CARS? “Yeah, a little bit. Maybe it’s just the race line and where you get out of the gas and stuff like that to pass people. It’s exciting. I tell you, I’m happy. It’s the first actual race that I get to people and I could pass them. Normally I get to like 12th and you start to try to get runs on people and you can’t and today it was something. I could really go at it.” YOU WERE CLOSE TO DALE JR. WHEN HIS ENGINE LET GO. “Ah, nothing. It’s down the straight and you see smoke and get out of the way and get out of the gas. What surprised me was how long it took for the yellow to come out because I got out of the gas and just waited. He blow up at like the start-finish line and he got to Turn 1 and the yellow didn’t come out. That surprised me a bit.” HOW MUCH OF TODAY WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE ON THE TRACK HERE? “The track, to learn, is pretty simple. I found it pretty simple when I came here the first time. It’s a very different oval but it’s a mixture of an oval and a road course. I like it. It’s funny because I was telling my crew chief most of the times when we have problems is just past the center of a normal oval and here, just past the center, you’re out of the corner. I think it worked pretty good.” HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE REST OF THE SEASON? IS THE CHASE STILL A POSSIBILITY? “I tell you the truth, if you could get this type of finish for the next three races then you have a chance. If you go next weekend and you have an average weekend then you’re out. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to give up. I think we’re going to go more forward to try to get wins than get into the Chase.” BOTH YOU AND REED HAD A REALLY GOOD WEEKEND. DOES THIS SAY SOMETHING ABOUT WHERE THE TEAM IS NOW? “You look at New Hampshire. We had really fast cars and both Reed and myself we had problems with the bump stops and the car was just dragging. Until then I was running fifth or sixth all the time so I think we’re getting there. It shows where the team is going; it shows that the potential is there. But it’s a little bit like my season. We’re going to go to places where we’re still going to still suck and places where we’re going to do really well.” WHEN TONY AND KEVIN HARVICK WERE BATTLING WITH ABOUT 10 LAPS TO GO YOU WERE ABLE TO MOVE UP A LITTLE. DID ANYBODY RADIO YOU AND SAY MAYBE THERE IS A CHANCE? “They were like ‘Keep going, they’re going to keep hitting each other.’ And my hope was that more than Kevin that Tony would damage a fender because the only way to beat Tony was that. He was just too fast.”

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “The only hiccup we had all day was the right front blew coming down pit road on that green flag stop. But other than that it was a pretty smooth day. We got the car better as the race went on and that’s all you can ask for.” HOW BIG IS IT FOR YOU TO RUN WELL ON AN OVAL? “It’s good. This is our second top-five this year at an oval so it’s big. We had a few bad races on some of the ovals and it’s disappointed us and it’s kind of disappointed us a little bit. To come back here and run good with Pocono and Michigan coming up it’s a big boost for everybody.” WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU COULD DO TO CATCH TONY? “I don’t think there was. Today he was just in a class of his own it seemed like. He’s that much faster, a half-second faster than anybody, especially if he got out front. I don’t know. We never got out front to know what we could do. We tried a couple of things there to get there and people stayed out there with us and the best we could do is where we finished, second. All in all, it was a real good day. Everybody did a great job. Everything just worked out today.” WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE WIN AT INFINEON RACEWAY, IS THIS THE BEST PERFORMANCE BY THIS TEAM THIS SEASON? “Oh yeah, by far. I mean Atlanta was a good performance. We faltered a little bit there at the end but still had a top-five but all in all, I thought it was a good day.”