Race 2 Win: NEXTEL Cup Series Race Notes

Nextel Cup Series

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
Allmendinger 15th
Menard 22nd
Reutimann 29th
Montoya 37th
Ragan 40th

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: WHAT HAPPENED? “We were backing up a little bit. Our AAA Ford was a little free and you’re just trying to bide a time waiting for the first caution and we’re very disappointed to be the first caution. I guess the 41 had a good run on the outside. I didn’t know he was there, just pinched him up into the wall. I really feel bad to hurt his day. He didn’t do anything wrong but just racing too hard too early on. Just one of those things.” WAS GRIP A PROBLEM? “A little bit. Everybody probably started off pretty free tonight. To be good at the end of the race you’ve got to start these races off on the free side. We didn’t expect to go out and have a lot of grip the first few laps, kind of a normal deal at Charlotte. Just very disappointed that the AAA Ford Fusion is not out there making laps.” HOW HARD DIDYOU HIT? “Pretty hard but I hit at an angle that, you know, was a pretty solid angle, just hit going down the straightaway. I didn’t have an idea the 41 was there and hate that I squeezed up on him but you can look at it a couple of different ways. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to make it three-wide that early on but I shouldn’t have squeezed him up into the wall.”

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: WHAT HAPPENED? “It looked like a right front tire went down on it. That’s what it looked like. A few people had issues with it tonight but all of ours had looked good up to that point so we really wasn’t worried about it. We were probably 10 laps away from pitting. He hadn’t said anything about any problems or anything so just kind of all went at once.” DO YOU THINK HE MIGHT HAVE RUN OVER SOMETHING AND CUT THE TIRE? “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. He hit the wall so hard and the tire is tore up so bad that it’s kind of hard to tell, really, what happened to it.” THE CAR SEEMED TO BE A HANDFUL ALL NIGHT. “We got knocked into the wall there early in the race and flat-sided it and that pretty much put us behind from the get-go. The same thing has happened to us at several races this year. You just can’t come back from stuff like that. When you get the fenders knocked off of it and the side tore off of it, it’s hard to run good.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER IN THE No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TONIGHT’S RACE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY.

Notes:

Allmendinger finished 15th in tonight’s race, his best finish in 14 NEXTEL Cup Series races. He took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time in 2007.

Allmendinger scored the best finish by a Raybestos Rookie this season at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

ALLMENDINGER: “That was by far our best race. We started off and the car was really good. That’s the best that we’ve ever started a race. We started driving up through the field. We were kind of tight all day. There’s two runs in there we got really tight and that hurt us. Fortunately we got the lucky dog that one time and the other time we were running around 20th and the yellow came out. But that last stop, Ricky [Viers, crew chief] and the boys, they made an awesome change and that thing was hooked up. Heck, if the yellow wouldn’t have come out I think we would have been, I think eighth or ninth. I mean we’re running those guys down. Both restarts, I’m not even sure what happened. The motor just died like it was out of fuel but it wasn’t. There was nothing I could do. The second restart, I spent the whole lap coming to it just basically trying to clean it out and as soon as I hit third gear, it went again. I feel bad for Mark because I was trying to get out of the way and he was trying to get under me and run into the back of me. Fortunately enough that helped push us but it probably screwed his race. I’m sorry about that. If we would have said at the beginning of the day a top-15, that’s an awesome run but we could have been a lot better. We’ll take it, move on and go to Martinsville. Man, the last change they just had the thing hooked up and I was running on the top. I felt good and I was having fun. And when that yellow came out, I was a little nervous about everybody pitting behind us, which the they did, but the car was so good if it wasn’t for the restart problems I think we could have drove by the 88 and the 22 which were sixth and seventh or something like that. We’ll take a great run and move on.” DID YOU HAVE ANY TIRE ISSUES TONIGHT? “We were tight and at times I was a little nervous because I was chattering it. But there never really was a sign that it was bad.” THIS RUN TONIGHT MUST GIVE YOU A BOOST OF CONFIDENCE. “For sure. That was by far the best race from start to finish and obviously our best finish. We finished 15th but we can look at it and say we were a top-10 car by the end of the race. For me, I made one mistake, got up into the wall when the car was really tight but it didn’t hurt it. My best race that I’ve driven by far. Like I said to the guys, when you’re actually passing guys it’s kind of fun out there.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO PUT TOGETHER A STRING OF RACES THIS YEAR GOING INTO THE 2008 SEASON? “I mean that’s the most important thing. We had six in a row where we had some decent runs, or five in a row that we had made. Kansas hurt. We should have made that one and Talladega, Brian [Vickers] made it and we just didn’t get the speed out of the car. There nothing, unfortunately, that I can do but I think, obviously, as well as Brian was running at Talladega it gives me enough confidence to say that I could have done the same thing. Hopefully we just make these last six. Martinsville is going to be a tough track, Phoenix is going to be a tough track for us, but if we can get through those and have decent runs to build off of, that’s the most important thing.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINOS.COM TOYOTA: YOU HAD A TOUGH NIGHT FROM THE FIRST LAP OF THE RACE. “Yeah, I couldn’t even make a lap before I hit the fence with it. I’m still at a loss to what happened. I was just going to tip toe around there for four or five laps and wait and see how everything was. I just kind of cruised off down into three and it was going through the corner and it just jumped sideways and the next thing I know I was in the fence. There’s no excuse for that. I’m just very, very disappointed in myself. I felt like we never even really had an opportunity to find out how good the car was and I think it would have been pretty good because even with the damage, time-wise, you could run somewhere in the top-10 with it. I messed it up. It bent the right front lower A-frame and knocked the rear end out of it. It was one of those deals where our night was over before it started and we just soldiered on. Pit stops were good. Everything was good except for that first lap there. We’ll go to Martinsville.” DID YOU HAVE ANY TIRE PROBLEMS? “I did end up having a right rear tire get cut at one point during the race, which I think I just ran over something. Up to that point I hadn’t had any problems at all, tire-wise, other than the fact that they’re really, really hard. But I think everybody has that problem [smiles].”