CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 World Financial Group Ford Fusion (finished 5th) – “I can’t believe that out of all of that we ended up fifth. I can’t remember the last time I ran into somebody that wasn’t Clint Bowyer. That was just bad luck that we got together on pit road. I wish that wouldn’t have happened. It kind of messed up Clint’s car. But, our guys did a good job, the World Financial Group Fusion was not as good as it needed to be, but everybody worked real hard to come out of here fifth after what it was looking like, that’s good.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR FROM THAT PIT-ROAD INCIDENT? “Yeah, it had a little bit of damage to the right rear, but that didn’t affect us. You know, Clint got the brunt of it there. I just did everything I could – the 99, he just pulled out. I don’t know what it looked like on the replay, but, to me, I did all I could to kind of save the front of my car and try to fit it to the right, and Clint was out there on my right-rear quarter. I really appreciate him not staying in the gas and turning me in the fence. That was nice of him.”
POINTS LEADER CLINT BOWYER FINISHED 10TH, SO YOU DID MAKE UP SOME GROUND. “We’ve got to finish in front of Clint every week. I’d really like to just race him and beat him – he was running really well and that kind of ruined his day. It worked out for us, but it won’t always work out like that if we keep running into people.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion (finished 9th) – NOT A SPECTACULAR DAY, BUT A TOP-10 NONETHELESS. “Yeah, not bad. Dover is a great race track and it’s an exciting place to race, but we always seem to just be missing out on just a little bit. We can qualify well or practice well, but we’re always a 10th-to-15th-place car when they drop the green. So, hopefully we can learn from this experience, and we’ve just got to keep on working on our program. Again, a solid day, but we’ve just got to keep getting better to try to contend for some of these wins.”
IS THERE A CERTAIN LEVEL OF SATISFACTION, THOUGH, WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE THE BEST CAR BUT YOU STILL GET A TOP-10 FINISH? “Oh, yeah. In any of the top three series in NASCAR, top-10s are great. You can learn; we’ve got a car in one piece and we can take back to the shop and work on it. Certainly, a good day, but as a racer and as a winner we want to be in the top two or three and competing for the win. So, yeah, it’s something we can learn from. We’ll work on this car a little bit and take it to wherever else it’s going to run, and hopefully we can be a little better next time.”
KELLY BIRES – No. 47 The Animal Adoption League Ford Fusion (finished 34th) – “We just blew a left-front tire getting down into turn three there. Had a fast car, very happy with it. Knew we were going to get a top-five finish, but an unfortunate incident. We’ll just have to build another car just like it.”
DID YOU GET ANY WARNING AT ALL? “No, no warning at all. Just going down the backstretch going into turn three and it just let go, the left-front tire, and I tried slowing it down, but there is no slowing it down getting into turn three. You don’t realize how fast you’re going until you hit the wall here.”
ARE YOU OKAY? “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just the feelings that are hurt a little bit. We had a good car, and it’s just a shame we couldn’t come away with a finish we deserved. We’ll build another fast car and go to Kansas next week and run good.”