ALL-STAR CHALLENGE QUOTES
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – HOW BAD WAS THAT WINDSHIELD? “It was pretty bad. It happened on like the first lap. When the oil got on it, it wasn’t that bad, but then when we went back to green, they put some oil-dry down and when that hit the oil on the windshield it started smearing. I really wanted to pit at that halfway point to put tires on, but you know you’re not gonna make it back up through there. Our Crown Royal Ford Fusion is really good, though. I think we should be really good for this All-Star Race.” YOU CAME A LONG WAY. “Yeah, I think that our Crown Royal Ford Fusion will be really good here. If we just stay out of trouble and get through this first 50 laps. Our car is good, it’s just that the windshield got covered in oil and I couldn’t see. I kind of drove over my head to get by the 12. I couldn’t really tell where I was going, and then once I got ahead of him I just ran about 75 percent there to finish the race. I’m glad there wasn’t anymore cautions because it kept smearing and getting worse, but it’s a good race car.” HOW IS THE TRACK? “It’ll be really exciting here in just a little bit. The top is there and the bottom is good, so it will be a really good show that the fans will get to see in a second.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 8th) – THE PIT STOP WAS KEY AT THE MIDWAY POINT. “Well, a third-place finish doesn’t mean anything here, so it’s either first or second. We knew it was gonna be tough to pass those guys and get to that first or second spot where we were at. I think we could have stayed out and maintained fourth or fifth, but that didn’t mean anything, so we figured we should come down and put four tires on. We were here to win and at the least try to learn something for next week. We made a real aggressive adjustment and got an idea on what we need as far as next week. It was a plus what we did on pit road, but just not enough. If it was another 20-lap run, maybe we could have done something, but short laps, track position and it was tough to pass. The bottom line is we’re disappointed that we didn’t win, but our UPS team learned something for next week.” YOU HAD A SPORTY CAR THERE IN THE FIRST SEGMENT AND BATTLED THE 42 PRETTY HARD. “Yeah, I was being aggressive and you’ve got to be a little aggressive on a 20-lap run like that. Obviously, for the Coca-Cola 600 next week I wouldn’t dare put myself in positions like I did tonight. It’s good to race like that sometimes. You learn a little bit and learn your limits, and I certainly didn’t want to hit or push or wreck anybody on purpose. I got real close to the 42 there, he got loose, and in turn raced me pretty hard, but, again, it’s how these short races are. I’m sure you’ll see a lot more of it in the next race.”
PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) – “We’ve got some work to do for next week. It’s really tight – all of our cars were – so we’ve got to re-visit some things and maybe come back with a little different setup. We didn’t really have much of a strategy. I think the 13 car oiled up our windshield and I couldn’t see, and we were really tight, so we decided to pit and put tires on, free it up, pull a tear off, and then we pitted again with 10 laps to go. We knew we weren’t gonna transfer in, so we had to try something and we put tires on and made another adjustment and that was it.”
BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) – “We came over here and our main objective was to get some laps and try to learn some stuff. We got a used motor from Roush. All of these other guys pump up and come over here, and we just got something to come over here and make laps. I feel like we did good. I feel like we came out of here with a decent deal. We didn’t tear our car up. We learned some stuff and, regardless of what happens, I feel like we’ll be a lot better off coming here next week by what we learned tonight versus coming here cold turkey next week.”
ALL-STAR RACE QUOTES
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 21st) – “Everybody is trying really hard tonight and the 77 just drove in there probably a little bit too hard – trying to get a little bit too much on that restart. He just got loose underneath me. I saw him moving up. I moved up the race track quite a ways, but I guess he couldn’t keep it down and couldn’t save it. You’ve just really got to get these cars really loose to be able to turn and he was just a little too loose, I guess, and took us out.” ARE YOU DONE? “Yeah, we’re done. It only pays to win here. We were sitting in a great spot, but coming from the back with 15 laps and then a 10-lap shootout with a tore up car, we just don’t stand a chance of getting up there in the front.” WHAT HAPPENED? “I saw the 77 turn down and try to make a run on the bottom there and probably just driving a little over his head. We’re all driving a little over our head tonight. The All-Star race pays a million dollars to win, so that’s what we’re all trying to do. Maybe he was a little aggressive on the restart and didn’t give his tires a chance to get hot. It got away from him and he got up into us and wrecked us, but he certainly didn’t mean to do it on purpose. That will happen.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – WALK US THROUGH THE LAST RESTART. “It sucks getting beat, obviously. I thought we had a shot. Most of the night we were really good on long runs and really bad on short runs. We were just really loose and we tightened it up a lot there at the break. The tires held up for four or five laps. I just got too tight and Tony was running up on me real fast there, and I chose the middle because I’d been really fast in the middle of one and two. That was my best groove, I just hit the ground and got so tight I couldn’t get it to turn.” YOU HAD KYLE TO BATTLE ON RESTARTS. DID YOU DAMAGE THE CAR AT ALL? “I don’t know. I haven’t looked at it yet, and I wasn’t trying to block his advances, but all night – these are different rules than every week – and you’re two-wide and you can’t pass anybody until you pass the start-finish line, so he was up in my right-rear way before the start-finish line and got us in the right-rear and messed us up that one restart, so I’m glad there was a yellow to start over.” ANY CONSOLATION? “It’s better to run second than anywhere else but first, but, on the other hand, it’s disappointing when you take two to go on the track and you’re in the lead and you come home second. I feel bad that we got beat, but I think I could do it 100 times and I couldn’t hold him off. We got the car too tight on that adjustment, which we knew it was a guess. We’d been too loose and we’d been really slow on short runs all night, so we had to tighten it way up to see if it would be faster on a short run, and it was, but with all those yellows I think the tires just got too hot and I couldn’t hang onto it.” ANYTHING TO TAKE INTO NEXT WEEK? “Yeah, I mean I feel better about next week because our car was really fast on the long run tonight and we just had to go crazy and tighten it up to try to make it good on the short run there at the end and was just trying to crutch it too much, but 30 and 40-lap runs it was really fast, so I feel pretty good about the 600.”
BOBBY LABONTE – No. 96 Ask.com Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) – “We got real tight in the center on that one run and were just tight for the most part. We just never could get it out. It got a little better on that last run for about five laps and then it went away again, so we’ve got a little headstart for next weekend than we had when we got here. We got a little bit better throughout the night, but we’re still fighting the same thing.” NEXT WEEK’S RACE WILL HAVE THE SAME NIGHT DYNAMIC, SO DOES THAT CONCERN YOU? “I think there’s enough differences in some cars there that maybe we can learn a little bit this week and get it back. The guys did a really good job. We missed a couple wrecks there and brought it home in one piece.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 5th) – “First off, congratulations to Tony and his whole team. They’ve worked real hard and it’s cool to see them succeed, but I was really cheering for Matt, though. I was back there running fifth just hoping Matt would bring it home. Our Aflac Fusion just wasn’t that great all night, but the last run we were actually pretty good passing people and moving to the front. I think we’ve got something to build on for the 600, but I’d like to know what it feels like to be over there in Victory Lane at this All-Star race sometime.” HOW WAS YOUR CAR? “My Aflac Fusion was not real good for the first half of the race. We found some spring rubbers that fell out during that last stop, so they stuck those back in and the thing was pretty fast and made it back up to fifth. I was cheering so hard for Matt. I wanted him to win that race, but congrats to Tony and all those guys. They’ve worked really hard and it’s cool to see them succeed through everything he’s done this year. We’ve got a great car for next week and I’m exciting to come back and race next week.” DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING? “Oh yeah, I learned tons of stuff. I learned lots of things and I really did have a good time there at the end. We just needed some more laps and we won’t need more laps in the 600. There will be plenty.”
MATT KENSETH PRESS CONFERENCE – “The last couple laps, I’m obviously disappointed we lost, but I feel stupid. It looks like I rolled up and Tony went flying right by me, which he did, but we were too loose all night. We were really slow on restarts and for a long run we were really good, like if it would have been the 600 and we had 30 and 40-lap runs, I thought our car was pretty spectacular. It was pretty good on the long run, so, anyway, in that break we knew we had to tighten the car up a lot, which we did, and put more air in the tires and did all the things you do to do a short run, and it was actually pretty good for five or six laps, but with all those short runs and cautions and getting the body banged in a little bit and stuff it just hurt it and with three or four to go we started getting really tight and it just wouldn’t turn at all that last lap and Tony just rolled on by.”
WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH KYLE AND YOU ON THE RESTARTS? “The rules tonight are a little different than most nights. All restarts tonight were double-file and all restarts were started by the flagman and there was no restart zone. You couldn’t pass until you got to the start-finish line, so we took that first restart with 10 to go and I took off, and my car wasn’t very fast on restarts for some reason, and he rolled outside of me way before we ever got to the start-finish line, which you can’t do, and kind of right-reared me and we both dropped way back and got a little bit of damage out of that. Luckily, there was a caution and they re-racked them, so after that I was so slow when he hit me in the right rear, he just rolled to the outside and we were three-wide going down into three and were just still racing for position until we knew the caution was out for sure.”
DID YOU FEEL THE STRAIGHTAWAY WAS WHERE YOUR CAR WAS BEST? “No, it seemed like the car was the strongest in turn three and four. It turned pretty good down there most of the night and most of the night we were too loose in one and two and we were able to get off turn four really fast all night and that seemed to be our strongest point.”
DID YOU THINK TONY WOULD GET A WIN THIS SOON AFTER BECOMING AN OWNER? “Considering the circumstances, yes. If he would have gone and done his own deal, and built his own cars, and if he went up to Bill Davis’ shop and did his own deal, I don’t think he would have won a race this year. But when you go over there and you get all of Hendrick’s information and their engines and chassis and everything they’ve got going with this car – this car is almost a production car with how you put it together, and when you’ve got all that information to draw from, as talented as Tony and Ryan are, I didn’t really think that they were not going to be competitive. I figured they’d be just about as competitive as the Hendrick cars every week, really. They’ve got a lot of their personnel over there and it’s just kind of a spin-off of that team, sort of like the Yates teams are at Roush, I guess.”
WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS WHEN YOU REALIZE YOU CAN’T KEEP THE CAR DOWN? “I felt stupid because all night the very bottom, for me, was the slowest. The middle, by far, had the most grip and once I took the lead I ran around the middle there and Tony almost passed me. He was so much faster than me, he almost went around me, so I chose the bottom the next lap just because I saw he was choosing there – just to get in front of him because with these cars, if you get one in front of you, you usually can’t pass them. So I got in front of him and had a little room back off of four, I thought, so I was gonna run back through the middle down there, where I had run the best all night. I mean, that’s where my car was all night and I had about a three-car length lead on him and I went down there and the splitter hit the ground and it kind of didn’t turn, and I got in the gas real early and real hard and it just plowed. It just wouldn’t turn at all and he just rolled right by me pretty much like I was tied to a tree. Our car, with the tires up and all that stuff, we just went a little too far on our adjustments for that short run and just got way tight at the end.”
IS THIS CAR SO HARD THAT YOU CAN’T CHANCE RACING FOR THE LEAD UNTIL THE FINAL STAGES OF THE RACE? “No, I think we’re all chancing it. When you got to the final 10 laps, if we would have gotten a decent start in that last 10 laps and ran 10 green, I don’t think it would have been much different. But when you rack them up side-by-side and you put a million dollar carrot out there in front of everybody on a side-by-side restart, and nobody is really worried about wrecking anything, you take off and you’re gonna have some excitement. But I thought once we got five or six laps on our tires, if our car would have been at all close, I don’t think Tony would have got by us either once we had it out front. We’ve seen it since we started racing this car. We’ve seen it with all cars, but especially this car, when you’re in front it’s a big advantage when you’re going that fast to have all the air.”