CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 World Financial Ford Fusion (finished 2nd) – ON THE END OF THE RACE, WITH THE MANY RE-STARTS. “If the fans don’t like that one, I don’t know what you came for. That was a pretty good race right there. I needed a couple of more laps; I didn’t need that last caution. I had a good run on him in our World Financial Group Ford was great. I just hate to lose that thing. I’m glad we get a chance to race tomorrow because it’s going to be hard to sleep tonight. Running second is no fun.”
IN THE BIGGER PICTURE THIS REALLY WASN’T A BAD NIGHT. “No, it’s a good points night, but we don’t do this for points, man, we do this for wins. It was a good race. The one thing I could’ve done is differently is maybe slide-job it real hard that last time when I got by him, but he doesn’t race me like that and we really had a good race going. That’s fun to be able to race like that. It’s just too bad to finish second. I wish we had a couple of more laps.”CARL EDWARDS press conference
CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 World Financial Ford Fusion – “I think it would be a better deal for all the sponsors involved if this was a 210- or 20-lap race, it would be a lot better deal. That’s just a fun race right there. It’s too bad somebody’s got to finish second; second is no fun. I can tell you that. I’m glad we get to race tomorrow and hopefully get to do it one step better. That’s a good race. These cars, as much as they are to drive at mile-and-a-half tracks because that tapered spacer takes all the power away, they’re really pretty fun at these short tracks. That’s a blast. And to be able to race with Denny side-by-side for the lead for a long amount of time and then go down to the wire with Kyle like that, that was really cool. He earned it, and I’ve got a lot of respect for both of those guys as drivers.”
DID KYLE HAVE A LITTLE BIT BETTER RE-STARTS? AND WOULD’VE A LONGER GREEN-FLAG RUN AT THE END HELPED YOU? “I think he would agree, too, that my car was better on the longer runs. His was definitely better for that first, about a lap, lap and a half. And, yeah, he was doing a good job on those re-starts, but on that re-start I got him great. We were three feet apart going across the finish line, it seemed like, and his car was just faster for that first lap. But, boy, after a lap or a lap and a half, I could mow ’em down but I just didn’t have enough time. That last corner I got close, and one more lap would’ve been great. But that’s just exciting. Somebody’s got to win, and he did today. I think if we were to do it over, it could go a bunch of different ways.”
YOU HAD A THREE-SECOND LEAD WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT ON LAP 178. “That caution was really bad for us. At that point I was just cruising and we were extremely fast, relatively superior there. So, that caution hurt us because we came in leading and we came out second. My guys have been working really, really hard, and I’m not down on my guys at all, that was just the one out of five or six stops that was just a tick slower, and Kyle beat us out of the pits, so that caution really hurt us. But, that’s the way it goes. I’m sure Kyle was excited about it.”
JUST PAST THE HALFWAY POINT, YOU WERE IN A LONG SIDE-BY-SIDE BATTLE FOR THE LEAD. WHAT TYPE OF CONCENTRATION DOES THAT TAKE? “During a race like that, that’s what I live for. That’s exciting. It takes most of my concentration. That’s a lot of fun. As much as I want to go down into the corner and turn Kyle sideways and move him out of the way, it’s neat when you race with guys and you know he’s not going to do that to me, so we can race and be real respectful of each other. That’s pretty cool. But, yeah, it takes all of my focus and that’s kind one of those moments that’s rare when you get to just purely race. And that’s really fun.”
ON THE LAST LAP DID YOU EVER THINK OF BUMPING HIM? “If I was close enough to bump him, I probably would’ve. I tried my hardest and I couldn’t get close enough. So many things happen, and the one thing that’s good is that I don’t feel like I – I’m pretty honest with myself – I don’t feel like I made any mistakes. I don’t think like I could’ve done anything differently and made the outcome better for me. So, I feel like I gave it everything I’ve got. I just needed another lap, that’s what we needed. I mean, I’ve had those nights where I go to bad and it’s like, ‘If I just would’ve done this or this, we would’ve won the race,’ but tonight I feel like I did everything I could.”
YOU HAVEN’T WON IN THIS SERIES SINCE LAST SUMMER. ARE YOU SORT OF GETTING ANXIOUS? “I think we’ve won three Sprint Cup races so far this year, if I’m not mistaken. Not to be pompous about it, but we’ve been trying our hardest. This is not easy. Our cars have not been as fast as they were a year ago. Tonight was a good night. I had the fastest race car out there. You know what I mean? Circumstances put us second, but that’s racing. I’m telling you what: we went 52 races or something in the Cup series and didn’t win one. This is a tough, tough sport, it is very tough.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion (finished 5th) – “I’ve got to give it to our Discount Tire team. They did a good job. We didn’t start off that great. It was a long 200 laps tonight, but a fun 200 laps. We passed a lot of cars, and, you know, if it had been a 300-lap race maybe we could’ve got up to a few more spots. But, for the most part, certainly a top-five is good, but we always want a little bit more. I’ve got to give it to my Discount Tire team. They did a great job tonight, and we’ll try to get ’em next week in Mexico.”
PHOENIX IS CONSIDERED A DRIVER’S TRACK. WHY IS THAT? “Well, you can drive in too deep or not hard enough, your car is a handful after 10 or 12 laps. Certainly, this asphalt has wore off a lot of grip over the years in the hot sun. So, it’s a lot of fun. It’s one of my favorite race tracks when you have a good car and tonight we had a good car, so it was a lot of fun. We’ll just go back and work on it a little bit and we’ll probably run this car again at Richmond and see if we can get a few more spots at the end.”
WHAT ABOUT PATIENCE ON A NIGHT LIKE THIS? YOU WORKED YOUR WAY INTO THE TOP 10 AND STAYED THERE, AND THEN GOT A TOP-FIVE FINISH. “Patience is big thing – especially, we didn’t have the track position at first. We were back there in the low teens and we had to pass a lot of cars. Everyone, it seemed like, on pit road had good pit stops and we were out there, we couldn’t gain a lot, but we were close all night and that’s all you can ask. If we can just be there at the end and still contend for the wins, that’s all we can ask and tonight we were close. We’ve just got to get a little better.”
DID THE NUMEROUS CAUTIONS AT THE END HELP OR HURT YOU? WAS YOUR CAR GOOD ON LONGER RUNS? “The cautions hurt us a little bit. We had a great car on the long run. We knew we were going to have to pit for fuel. I don’t know; it would’ve been interesting to see if everyone would’ve just took fuel or two tires or four tires. Yeah, I would’ve liked to have seen it go green the rest of the way. I think we could’ve gotten a few more spots, but we can’t get greedy. A top-five, we’ll take it and just try to move on.”
JAMIE McMURRAY – No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion (finished 36th) – WHAT HAPPENED? “I’m not real sure. Just got into turn three and the 2 car picked me up and spun me around. I don’t really know what to say.”
IT WAS EARLY, BUT IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD A PRETTY GOOD CAR. “You never know how the pit sequence is going to work out or anything, but we had a top-five car, probably. And if you have a car that’s capable of running in the top five this early in the race, you can adjust on it and get it better.”
DID YOU GET LOOSE? “I got loose after my back tires got taken off the ground, but before that, nothing.”
NO PROBLEMS GOING INTO THE CORNERS BEFORE THAT? “Oh, no. No issues.”