CARL EDWARDS and MATT KENSETH press conference
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 R & L Carriers Ford Fusion (finished 3rd) – “It was crazy. You never know what’s going to happen on one of those green-white-checkers. You’re pretty sure at a plate race with a green-white-checkered there’s going to be wreck, and you hope that you’re not in it, basically. The restart was really odd. Kyle went about 20 car lengths late and everybody was just running into each other like crazy. I’ve never been hit so hard and hit people so hard before they ever threw a green. So, that sort of got it started and then I guess Kyle must’ve had a little run, and Jeff got spun out. And then down the back, I was trying to push Carl because we had such a good restart and Kurt was behind me pushing me like crazy, but he was trying to look different directions on Kyle, and Kyle was blocking like crazy and he was all over the straightaway. I was scared to hit him; I thought he was going to spin out. And finally I did give him a little shove and he got sideways and Kyle went up to block him and got sideways, and I was right in the middle of it and was going to wreck, so I had to get out of the gas. If Kyle could’ve gotten straight and if we could’ve gotten a farther-back run on Kyle, I think we both could’ve gone by him, and maybe race for the win, but we couldn’t quite get that figured out exactly right. So, anyway, happy with the finish. I think that’s the best I ever finished at Daytona. The guys made great adjustments, and we were pretty competitive, so it feels good.
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (finished 2nd) – “I don’t know exactly what the caution was for was it a wreck in turn one? Was that it? Man, I’d have given anything to be able to run at least down to the end of the back straightaway, but that’s the way it went and Kyle did a great job. They were real fast. That was a little nerve-wracking there, before they announced the winner, but I don’t know what to tell you. Second place is second place. I really wanted to win. Matt did a great job helping me. That was very cool.”
KENSETH – KYLE BUSCH HAS WON SIX TIMES THIS YEAR. WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF HIM AS A DRIVER, AND WHY IS HE SO GOOD? “I think he’s the same driver he’s been the last couple of years. First of all, I know you can only run as fast as your equipment will carry you. So, obviously, he’s got good equipment. I think a lot of times you’ll get together with somebody and have good chemistry and can figure this stuff out better than maybe you can with somebody else. And, obviously, he’s been able to hit it off with his team really good over there, and obviously they got good stuff. And, he’s just been pretty much on fire, so he’s been having an exceptional year, that’s for sure.”
EDWARDS – WHEN DID YOU KNOW FOR SURE THAT YOU FINISHED SECOND? “I wasn’t sure until we were going down the back straightaway. Jason Hedlesky had told me, and said, ‘The 18 to Victory Lane.’ I was pretty sure, though, when we were running, because I saw the yellow light come on, right when I was going by it, and I was just getting a run up on his door, so I thought that I was probably second.”
EDWARDS – KYLE BUSCH OBVIOUSLY HAS HAD EVERYTHING GO RIGHT FOR HIM THIS YEAR. HE’S ON A GOOD TEAM WITH A SOLID CAR. ARE YOU CONFIDENT THAT YOU CAN COMPETE WITH HIM DURING THE CHASE? “Yeah, I feel great about how competitive we are. If we had not blown up at Atlanta, and if pit strategy had worked differently at Sonoma, and if we’d had gone another 200 yards here tonight, we might have a lot more wins. And that’s just how racing goes. You know, Kyle’s got the trophies and I’ve got all the respect in the world for him, but once the Chase starts, everybody gets to almost start all over again. He’s getting a little bit of a headstart with all of these wins on the bonus points, but I feel very good about our team, all of them. We have the potential to be very good in the Chase.”
KENSETH – YOU HAVE NOT FARED WELL IN THE DAYTONA 500. WHY DO YOU HAVE MORE SUCCESS IN THIS RACE? “I don’t know. It’s hard for me to remember back every race. We were running, I think, third or fourth, and had a great car in the 500, a way better car than what we had tonight, and got wrecked. I couldn’t do anything about it, I was beside somebody and they ran me in the wall, so I couldn’t really do anything about that. I guess that’s the last one I can remember. So, I don’t know that it really matters what time of year it is or what race, I think it’s just more circumstances than anything.
EDWARDS – YOU WERE HANGING IN THE BACK EARLY IN THE RACE. WAS THAT INTENTIONAL? “That’s a good question. At first I was thinking it was intentional, and then I just couldn’t go any faster. We really had some things that weren’t right on our car. It was really hard to drive. So, I just kind of hung back there a little bit until we got it fixed, and Bob [Osborne, crew chief] really did a great job, and we actually did some stuff with the front end and worked on some things. So, it worked out. But, I couldn’t drive like that for 400 miles, the way the car was, so I just figured I would hang around instead of wrecking everyone.”
YOU STAYED OUT AND THEN CAME IN AFTER EVERYBODY ELSE HAD PITTED WITH ABOUT 45 LAPS TO GO. WHAT WAS THE STRATEGY? “That was a fuel-mileage thing. Bob thought we could make it to the end with a caution, maybe, and maybe even without a caution. So, we stayed out and led one lap and thought we’d gamble on fuel, which is very cool of Bob to do. We are getting closer to the Chase, and we do feel pretty comfortable with our position in the points, so it was cool to see Bob do some gambling. We play it very safe, and that’s what we were doing there.”
WHAT HURTS MORE: NOT WINNING OR THE 20-POINT DIFFERENCE? “That’s what hurts the most – that’s what hurt the most at Atlanta and that’s what hurts the most tonight. You’re so close, especially with one guy – Kyle’s winning all these races, he’s really setting himself up for a great start to the Chase. If he wins one or two more, he’s almost got a freebie there if he blows an engine or has a bad race or something. They’re doing it right and that’s going to be hard for the rest of us. Those points, we’re going to have to make up. That’s just the way it is.”
ON THE INCIDENT WITH JEFF GORDON AT THE END. “On the Jeff Gordon thing, he was coming down and he was doing the best he could, I think, to try to get in front of me, and he was up against my fender. I thought that he would turn right at any moment, but that’s all that happened there. I don’t think he knew that I was inside of him.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion (finished 5th) – OTHER DRIVERS WORKED WITH YOU TONIGHT. “I feel like we had good speed, and it was to their benefit to work with us, whether they wanted to or not. It was good. I made a few mistakes out there where I think we could’ve been up there in the top two or three. It’s shame we had to come back down pit road there with three or four cautions to go, and it put us back in the back, but it was fun coming back to the front and we had a good time. But, we just got to keep working on it, and that was a good rebound from last week.”
WERE YOU CLOSE TO ANY OF THOSE WRECKS? “I think I was in a lot of it most all day. We’ve got to apologize to Kevin Harvick, on one of those restarts I really pushed him hard and pushed him there on the outside. I don’t think he liked it too much, but other than that, we had a fast car and it was rtime to make some moves. I think everybody saw we had a fast car, whether they wanted to stick with us or not, I think they used it to their benefit to stick with us. There on the last lap, it’s crazy here at Daytona because everybody’s slipping and sliding on old tires. The 7 had a good run on the bottom and we were kind of the meat in the sandwich in the middle, taking the white flag. I was able to stay in the throttle and not spin out, and just have a solid run. It’s always fun to run up front. We would’ve liked to have a shot to win it, but it was close. It was a good night.”
PLUS, IT WAS A GOOD POINTS NIGHT AT AN IMPORTANT TIME. “Yeah, and that just makes us even hate last week’s finish even more. Real disappointing. This is what it’s going to take to make the choice, and to get out of Daytona with a good finish, we’ve just got to look at some of the next few races and stay focused on the big picture.”
BORIS SAID – No. 60 No Fear/Advance Auto Parts Ford Fusion (finished 35th) – BEFORE THE RACE, YOU SAID THAT YOU NEEDED ABOUT THREE CAUTIONS TO GET THE CAR TO BE WHERE YOU NEEDED IT TO BE. IT LOOKED LIKE YOUR PLAN WAS WORKING. “Yeah. At the drivers’ meeting they said you couldn’t change springs on pit road, and we really needed to change out left-front spring. We were struggling all night. We finally got it really good when we running alone, but at the end, when we were in traffic, it was just way too loose. So, I misjudged it. When we were in traffic it was just too loose, and then somebody hit me in the right rear there at the end, so that’s too bad. But, still, we ran respectable at times, so I’m pretty happy.”
YOU MUST HAVE A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS TRACK. YOU RUN WELL AND HAVE BAD LUCK. “I love it. There’s nothing I hate Daytona. I wish we came here every week.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion (finished 40th) – “It felt like we had a tire going down. It got real loose down in one and two on that last lap, and then going into three, once I got in there I just had no right-rear to lean on and I was just chasing it the whole time. Unfortunately, Ryan Newman was out there and he got tangled up in it, and so did some other people. So, it’s just kind of an unfortunate day. Our freecreditreport.com Ford Fusion was very, very fast. We knew we had a fast car in practice. I hate to see our day end early like this.”
YOU FINISHED SECOND AT SONOMA, AND WERE RUNNING AS HIGH AS SECOND TONIGHT. YOU’RE SHOWING HOW COMPETITIVE THIS TEAM CAN BE. “Absolutely. Like I said, I felt like we ran something over there and it felt like we had a tire going down. It’s too bad, but definitely we were competitive, we were running up front, we had a strong car, and overall, not a bad showing for Yates Racing.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (finished 43rd) – WHAT HAPPENED? “I was just too tight coming off the corner. The 42 had a run on the outside of me, there was nothing I could do. I tried to keep the car down, but it just kept sliding up there. But, you know, it happens. It’s racing. He was up beside me and I just pushed up there. There was nothing I could do. I figured he’d give me a little break there, but we’re racing for last position back there, and he wants to go like heck every lap.”
ARE YOU DONE FOR THE NIGHT? “It looks pretty bad, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
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