MENARD: “We started at the end so the only place we could go was forward so we had that going for us. We could make long pit stops and get the car good. We started off and it was way too tight. We kept raising the track bar, taking wedge out and playing with the air pressures. It was the best the last few runs.” YOU GOT THE CAR BETTER AND BETTER DURING THE RACE. “We kept making good adjustments, Pops [Tony Eury Sr., crew chief] and everybody. We communicated well what the car was doing and they made good adjustments in the pits. That’s what’s nice about Cup racing is that you’ve got a long time, lots of opportunities to work on it. We started off and we weren’t good at all. I would have been happy if we would have finished 30th. At the end I think we had a top-10 car.” DID RACING IN THE AFTERNOON HELP YOU TODAY BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T MAKE A RACE RUN ON FRIDAY? “No, I don’t think so. We didn’t do a single race run so we didn’t really know what we were getting into when the green flag dropped. I knew it would be pretty decent and like I said just kept freeing it up. If it was night race we might have been a little tighter yet because we were in qualifying trim, basically. It probably was to our advantage to race in the day.” IS IT ENCOURAGING TO RACE WELL WITH THE COT CAR? “We’re slowly getting it figured out. Hendrick guys, obviously, have them figured out really well and it seems like we keep making gains on it. We’ve tested a couple times and made some gains there. We’ll just keep working on it.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA TRAVEL FORD: WHAT HAPPENED ON PIT ROAD? “We just didn’t have track position from there on out. We had a top six, seven, or eight car. That long green flag run I felt like we were about as good as it could get, and then we’re battling lapped cars the whole day and got really frustrated. It’s tough to get around ‘em and then we had a lot of quick cautions there at the end that certainly hurt us. We had a top-10 car and finished 20th with it so I don’t know what that means [smiles]. We’ve got to do a little better than that. He was just coming out of his box and I was going in mine. I don’t know if his crew chief or spotter or whoever calls him out of the pits obviously didn’t see us coming in and our team didn’t know he was ready to leave. He pulled out and I was pulling in. It’s just one of those things. And then we were backwards and went on and changed the right-side tires, which was a good call. We could have rebounded from that if we didn’t have all those late cautions.” WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN THAT TOLD YOU THEY WERE GOING TO FINISH THE PIT STOP? “I said perfect. We’re in here, we need to do it. I actually backed up a little bit so I’d be in the stall. We need to prepare for that. We didn’t know what to do for a few seconds and then they went on and changed the right side tires and made sure the rights were on the right and the lefts were on the left. We just had to compromise. The AAA pit crew did a great job compromising today. We just never seemed to be able to get good track position.” WHAT WAS IT LIKE BEING ON PIT ROAD WITH EVERYONE GOING BY YOU? “I had a bird’s eye view of Clint Bowyer. We were nose to nose. That’s not what we want to have happen. No harm done on our part, just poor track position.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “We started the race doing ok and were able to get the lucky dog and stay on the lead lap. Then we got a couple laps down on the long green flag run and were never able to get it back. We fought all day to gain grip. More than anything it was good for me to get lap time today. That is the best way for me to continue to learn these cars. I wish I hadn’t made the rookie mistakes I did today but I guess that is all part of the learning process. As always, I’m proud of my guys and all the hard work they put in today to get the car handling better.”