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News and Results | Point Standings | 2007 Schedule | 2007 Teams | 2006 Schedule and Results | 2005 Schedule and Results Aaron's 499 - Dodge Post-Race Quotes
“Man, what a difference a week makes. Last week at Phoenix was terrible, but we had a great weekend at Talladega. We had a great car today. I think we really had something for ‘em today, but things didn’t work out the way they needed to for us to win today. Still, that’s another career-best finish and another top 10, and after our 11th-place finish earlier this season at Talladega, I feel really good about our plate program. The guys did a great job today. This is really what we needed as a team, especially after last week at Phoenix.”
“We were stuck in the back and I didn’t know if we had a chance to get back up to the front. Then everybody started racing and we just tried to find a hole where we could. One of those holes wasn’t that big in the back straightaway. It could have worked out real bad for us, but the Miller Lite Dodge hung on and we worked our way up through there “I can’t believe we finished third, but we’ll take it. We almost got bit by the caution again today with guys pitting and the cars wrecked, but we were able to stay out and were able to have enough fuel to come back around and pit. We were right there with the leaders most of the day and then got shuffled when the cars all drove in the high lane. I don’t know if that’s much fun to watch, but it’s great when we get to three-wide racing and that’s what the fans pay their money for. I’m glad they got their money’s worth today. “We can in and pitted and topped off, so we knew we were good to go on fuel. I tried to gain one extra spot when the high lane was the place to be. When I went to the middle and everybody was up high that’s when I got pushed to the back. I tried to get one extra spot. I got greedy and it really killed us. That’s the way it goes. It ended up that everybody jumbled back up and we were able to find our way back to the front. “It was a good overall day for us. We want to break through and win one of these, and we’re knocking on the door. We knew we needed to have some guys to pit with us. That’s the key for restrictor-plate races. You lose your momentum, but it was a nice solid day, and it was nice to be able to pit and not have the yellow flag pop out for a change. “It was interesting. The top groove is something that has developed over the last few races here. It bottles everybody up. You hope a group of cars, teammates such as the Hendrick cars, team up and open up that bottom lane. I know they’re not satisfied with running 10th or 15th. It helps us guys trapped in the back gain positions. “I enjoy the restrictor-plate races now. When I was a rookie it was very difficult to understand which lane to be in and which veteran to follow. When you get kicked out of line, how are you supposed to get back in line? Over the years you just learn every time you make a mistake and it’s helped having a defensive frame of mind, just following the guy in front of me. We’re getting closer. We’re getting stronger building Penske superspeedway cars, more horsepower. Before long we’ll have everything we need, including a linettle bit of luck and we might drive into victory lane at one of these plate tracks. “You guys have blinders on all the time so it’s up to us to help explain what we feel has been our problem this year. If we had had a little bit of Lady Luck, I think we could have had three top fives in a row, maybe even a win at Texas, so over time things even out and that’s the motto we’re taking. We feel like we’re making better racecars, making better decisions out on the race track and eventually we’ll be a contender. It hurts we’re not up there every week fighting it out with guys like Jimmie Johnson and Gordon is real strong right now each week, but we’re making strides and getting closer.”
“I didn’t know if the 42 was blowing up or what, but he checked up and we hit bumper to bumper. I tried to go underneath him and cut my right front tire and fender and stuff off of it. The guys did a good job getting it fixed and not losing a lap. We came back and we were at the right place at the right time for a change. I think if it had stayed green we would have actually could have finished better than ninth, but we’ll take ninth for what it was worth. It’s still a good finish. We’re still trying to shake that monkey off our back, but at least we loosened the grip today. I wouldn’t say luck came our way, but we fought back through bad luck and that’s what you’ve got to do sometimes. We had a great Kodak Dodge. It was just unfortunate what happened. We had some help with guys drafting and pushing me back up there. That great Penske-Jasper horsepower helped me work good in dirty air with that beat up of a body.”
“You want to finish it under green really. That’s how we race all day. You don’t want to finish under caution, but we ended up better than we’d been running and lots of beer was getting thrown out there. I was away from it, so I was missing it, but they were hitting a lot of cars. It felt good today. We led some laps and finished 12th in our Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger. That’s the best we’ve finished in awhile, and it felt good.”
“We had a decent run here at Talladega. We led some laps and we couldn’t quite get back up to where we needed to be at the end. Everyone was single file and everyone was kind of afraid to pull out. Then we had that melee on the last restart. Kasey did a good job driving, and we ended up with a good finish.”
“I guess to come from three laps down early and finish 20th on the lead lap wasn’t a real bad day. We had a good car, and who knows what might have happened if we didn’t have that early problem.”
“We kept digging today, and it looked like we were headed for a top-10 finish at least, but we couldn’t make it on fuel and had to pit. It was fun running up there with the leaders.”
“That’s a good, solid finish for this team, and that’s what we needed. We qualified well and we had a good race today. We just need to get a little consistency now and we’ll be headed in the right direction.”
“The car was good today. I think it was a lot better than the 15th-place finish we got, but we ran up front and you really never know what to expect in a plate race, but all three Evernham Dodges had top-15 finishes today, so that’s something to build on. We’ve got some good tracks coming up in May, so we’re looking to climb back into that top 12.”
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