DOUG RICHERT, CREW CHIEF, No. 01 PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL CHEVROLET: “It was all right. I mean, it’s the best finish of the year [smiles] so I’ve got to be happy for our best finish. Do we want to run better? Sure. Definitely room to improve but everything was good all day. We had some issues with our brakes that kind of kept us behind and we weren’t as good as we needed to be. The long run, when we got stretched out, I felt like we were okay. A good day all in all but we’ve got to get better.” THIS RACE DIDN’T SEEM AS WILD AS SOME RACES ARE AT BRISTOL. “It ended up a little wild there with the restarts but all in all, I’d say it was kind of a different race. But the way with the new configuration of the racetrack is it’s got the multi groves. You can pass a guy without actually knocking him out of the way and that’s what’s encouraging about the new design.” EVERYONE IN THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CLASS IS FOCUSED ON THE TOP-35 FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? “I hate it. I was in this predicament last year and I don’t like to be in it but we got to go to Martinsville and we’ve got to qualify for these races. Now our focus is going to turn. We’re going to show up and now it’s all about one lap now and let’s see what we can do.” REGARDLESS OF YOUR POINTS POSITION YOU STILL WANT TO QUALIFY WELL AND GET THE BEST FINISH YOU CAN IN THE RACES. “Yeah, but when you’re guaranteed in the race you can put more focus in on the race setup early on and make laps and not have that pressure of qualifying. Now it’s a whole new pressure of qualifying.”

SAM HORNISH, JR., No. 77 MOBIL 1 DODGE: “We pretty much did what we came here to do and that was to stay out of trouble as much as you can here and finish. We didn’t finish on the lead lap and we didn’t have a very good car. We started off we weren’t too bad but we just couldn’t get the adjustments to go in our direction, never felt like we made the right directions. I guess we’ll keep working away at it and do the best we can.” WAS TODAY’S RACE WHAT YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE? “Yeah, except I probably got bumped a little bit more than I bumped anybody else just because we weren’t as quick as we’d like to be. The left rear quarter panel sure shows it. It was a tough day for us but we finished and I think we’re the top-35 in points so it makes us feel a little bit better about going into Martinsville.” EVERYONE IN THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CLASS IS FOCUSED ON THE TOP-35 FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. IS THERE MORE PRESSURE NOW TO FINISH WELL IN THESE RACES? “Yeah, you still want to just keep going. With the tough luck that we had in two races and a lot of thing that we really couldn’t control, I’m just really happy that we got out of here in the top-35 in points and we rebounded at the last two races just the way we needed two.”

DARIO FRANCHITTI, No. 40 THE HARTFORD DODGE: “We lost the brakes. First hundred laps or so we ran actually pretty well and we lost the brakes and we found a problem with it because the pedal was on the floor the whole time and I was pumping it and it would never come back. They think they found something with it but from that point on I was a passenger. I couldn’t brake in any of the corners so I was having to lift real early and use the front tires to slow the car down. It was just a vicious circle.” DID YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO ACTUALLY RACE HERE TODAY? “Yes, certainly, the first hundred laps I did and then as I say from then on my only experience was getting out of people’s way because we were so far off. Bristol is pretty tough to run with no brakes.” EVERYONE IN THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE CLASS IS FOCUSED ON THE TOP-35 FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. “Yeah, you know, it’s tough. It’s tough to be learning everything that we’re learning racing against these type of people. These guys know what they’re doing so it’s very difficult for us to even stay in the top-35 right now but hopefully by the middle to the end of the season we’ll have figured it out.”