CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – “That was fun. Tony just had such a fast car there at the end, but we’re back. We’re doing it. We’re scoring more points than anybody. We’re heading into the chase. I feel like we locked ourselves in and I just want to thank Afla9c for sticking behind us. That’s what they do, they stick behind you when things are bad. It hasn’t been good, but the last couple of months have been great. I’m excited about going to Richmond. I’m real excited about starting the chase. We had something that could win the race tonight and that’s a blast.” WHAT TURNED IT AROUND FOR THIS TEAM? “I can’t say what turned it around. Bob and the guys have just been working hard and that’s what it’s about. When they go to the shop and we’re not running the way they want, they’ve got to keep digging and keep working. It’s pretty cool that they’re able to do that and everybody stuck behind us – my fans, Aflac, Scotts, and Ford and everybody. I know we don’t look like we did in 2008, but we’re better set to go race for that championship now than we’ve ever been.”
KASEY KAHNE – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Finished 32nd) – “I felt like we were there. We had a top-five car and when we got out front we were pretty good, but I was still trying to hold off Carl and Jimmie, and Tony was really quick. I was just going down the straightaway and got hit from behind and I know it was the 39, so I feel like he lost us about 20 spots today. He said he got hit from behind and that forced him into me, so that’s racing, but either way, we’re the one that took the big shot there.” YOU AND RYAN HAD AN AMIABLE DISCUSSION AFTER THE RACE. HOW DID THAT GO? “Ryan and I are fine. We don’t have an issue with each other, it’s just that when you get racing sometimes it gets you mad. He lost about four spots from me rubbing him a little bit and I lost about 25 or 30 from him rubbing me, so he got me a little better.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Scotch Blue Ford Fusion (Finished 36th) – “It was my fault. I didn’t know we were still three-wide and I guess I cut down on the 39. I have to watch the replay. He certainly didn’t cut us any slack. He could have cut us some slack and let us go there. I don’t know, I’ll have to watch the replay before I make my judgment, but I didn’t know we were still three-wide. It looked like I had cleared him, along with the 43, and I just turned down into the corner and, unfortunately, he was there. We still locked ourselves into the chase, so we’re excited about that.” IT WORKED OUT OKAY FROM A POINTS PERSPECTIVE. “Yeah, we’re 161 points ahead, so I’ve got to beat one car if whoever it is wins and leads all the laps, so we’re pretty much locked in.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) – “It was a frustrating night. We performed really poorly and just couldn’t get the car to run. The last two stops, whatever we did really woke the car up and our last couple of runs were pretty good. We had a tire rub and had to restart behind all the lapped cars and then the last run we didn’t get tires, which ended up working out okay because we beat most of the guys that got tires and got the car a lot better. As dumb as it sounds for being a five-hour race, we just ran out of time. We just need to figure out our adjustments earlier, I guess. Overall, it was a good day for us. I’m happy for our finish considering how we ran.”
ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Stanley Ford Fusion (Finished 41st) – “I saw the 16 spinning and kind of blocking the track and me and Harvick tried to go under him. I couldn’t go any lower because of the 29 car and I think the 16 was standing in the gas trying to stay out of the wall and just came down and clipped us in the right rear and turned us head-on into the wall. Our Stanley Ford is damaged and done for the night. It’s very frustrating. We had a really good car and guys kind of started short-pitting and that put us behind and we were trying to play catch-up, but I really wanted to finish this race. We felt like we had a good shot at a good finish tonight.” WAS THE HIT AS BAD AS POCONO? “Oh, no. Nothing like Pocono. I hit where a SAFER barrier is in turn four. We didn’t pull any g’s at all, so I’m thankful they had that here in turn four at Atlanta. I do want to say thanks to all the fans for showing up tonight. We’ve got a heck of a crowd here in Atlanta. Man, I just really wanted to finish this race and run good. It’s the same car I had at Michigan and we were making a comeback, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Finished 35th) – “It’s real positive because our race car was really good. It was awesome. The guys worked really hard and we had a good car all weekend. We could have definitely had another top five tonight, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 37 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) – "I'm really proud of the job this team did this weekend, given that this was our first race together. We started with a pretty good car and Peter (Sospenzo) and the team made some good adjustments to help us run pretty fast and pick up a bunch of positions. We had good pit stops and good pit strategy to help us finish on the lead lap, so all in all it was a good night for the Taco Bell Ford team."
DAVE BLANEY – No. 38 A&W All-American Food Ford Fusion (Finished 24th) -- "Not bad for my first go at it in this car. This was the first complete race I've run in a while, so I knew it would take me a few laps to get into a groove. I was doing a little experimenting, trying to run a few different lines. The car was a little too loose for me to be too aggressive, but it wasn't bad for our first time out together."
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Finished 29th) -- "This whole weekend was a bit rough for us. We battled the car all day Saturday and we worked on the handling all throughout the race tonight, too. We made a lot of changes to try to free the car up, and we did get a little better toward the end. But those long green-flag runs during the first half of the race left us with too much ground to make up."
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 19th) -- “I felt like at the beginning of the race, we had a top 10 or top 15 car. We just couldn’t keep up with the track; it just kept getting freer and freer as the night went on. And we were making big adjustments every single stop on our UPS Ford. We just couldn’t seem to get to the point where the car was fast. We would get close, but when the track cooled down even more, we’d be that much more behind when the next pit stop came. We lost a lap when I spun out, but we didn’t hit anything. We were fortunate to get back on the lead lap and finish inside the top 20. In the big picture, it’s not a win, but it wasn’t in the thirties either. I’m satisfied with the way our team worked together tonight and made what could have been a bad night, a salvageable night.”
CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE – “When we talked in here on Saturday, that’s one of the things we talked about was we haven’t led a lot of laps and we haven’t had that dominant car and tonight I felt like we had a car as good or a better car than we’ve had all season – really for a season and a half. I’m really proud of my guys. The last pit stop was spectacular. That’s probably the best pit stop I’ve ever had. It’s like Jimmie said, when you run up front like that you get in that mode of racing for the win and the victory, and that’s good for everyone, especially for us at this point. I feel like we’ve scored a ton of points the last seven or eight races. We’ve performed probably better in that stretch than we ever had and it makes me really excited. I’m really looking forward to the chase. It’s gonna be fun.”
WHY DO YOU SAY THIS CAR IS BETTER? “There was nothing specific significantly for this race, but I feel that this race suits my driving style very well. I really enjoy this race track. When Jimmie and Kasey and I were racing two and three-wide for the lead there for a few laps, there was one point I was laughing going down the front straightaway. It was just fun. That’s what racing is about is having some fun, and I feel like this race track really lends itself to that style of racing, so I enjoy it and it was a good coincidence that my crew and my car were on their game tonight as well.”
CAN YOU TOUCH ON THE RESTARTS? “I don’t know the rule. I don’t know if any of us – if the leader spins his tires and you’re beating him, is it okay to beat him by three feet or not? I was in the same boat as Jimmie. There was one time I lifted and I think it was Jimmie or somebody else went blowing by me and I was like, ‘Damn, maybe I shouldn’t have done that,’ so we’ll have to clarify that, I guess.”
WHAT DID YOU SAY TO TONY? “I just told Tony, ‘Good job.’ His car was amazing. He did a really good job of driving it. The place where he was driving on the race track, I couldn’t run there. I was just letting him know I thought he did a really good job.”
THOUGHTS ON NEXT WEEK WITH 10 OF 12 GUYS LOCKED INTO THE CHASE. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? “We’ll just go for it. I think I can speak for Jimmie, but we’ll probably just go there and go for the win. We don’t have too much to be concerned about, other than that particular race, so, for me, it’ll just be a fun race.”
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT MORE TESTING AT A TRACK LIKE THIS. DALE JR. SAID JOKINGLY LIKE IT SEEMS GUYS ALWAYS STRUGGLE UNTIL THE FINAL LAPS. “I don’t want to do anymore testing, but he’s right. There will be times you’re in the race car here and the crew chief will get all excited like, ‘That was a great lap.’ And you’re like, ‘Man, this thing is driving terribly.’ I don’t think that the guy who wins this race even has a car that drives great. It’s a very difficult race track, but I don’t know if testing will make it easier. I don’t think so. It’s just got a lot of character and that’s why I think all of us like racing here so much.”
DOES ANY OF THIS MOMENTUM FOR YOU MATTER WHEN THE CHASE STARTS? “I used to say it didn’t matter. I used to never believe in momentum, but I’ve never run so poorly for so long. Now, I’m seeing this turnaround and it’s been a couple of months and I think I understand the team more and I understand where we’ve been gaining, so, for that reason, I believe in this momentum that we have and I believe it will apply to future races. You can’t do anything about a cut tire or a broken valve spring or something like that, but at least we’ve proven to ourselves the last couple months that we can do it and that feels good for us.”
