COLIN BRAUN – No. 6 Con-way Freight Ford F-150 (Finished 14th) – “We had a great truck today, I thought. Everybody did a really good job on this Con-way Freight Ford F-150 team. I’m just real proud of those guys. They all did a good job and coming here and being a rookie, I was just trying to get all the laps under my belt there. I got hung out to dry a couple times by Bodine and those guys. They race pretty rough and unfortunately we kind of got back in the mix there and we started racing with Hornaday a little bit. I guess he was having brake problems and he got in the back of us and spun us around. That put us way back in the field, so it was at least good to get back up to where we finish.” IS THE AGGRESSIVENESS OF THIS SERIES WHAT YOU’RE LEARNING THE MOST AT THIS LEVEL? “It’s hard to be aggressive and really not hurt yourself. That’s the biggest thing. Guys like Bodine and them are really good at messing somebody else up without really screwing themselves up and that’s what I’m learning. These veteran guys are definitely teaching me things and we’ll see. Hopefully, I can use that back on them sometime here in the future.”
RICK CRAWFORD – No. 14 Power Stroke Diesel by Int’l Ford F-150 (Finished 3rd) – “That was a typical Martinsville race and that means we’re built Ford tough today with this F-Series pickup. I think this Super Duty with that Ford Powerstroke Diesel under the hood, we laid down some rubber today and she handled great except at one point, but with 50 laps from the end it came back. I don’t really know what happened to it, but it came back and I just threaded the needle there at the end. I’ve got a real narrow truck, so third place is pretty good for the F-Series pickup today. We’ll take that.” WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END WITH THE 51 AND 23? “It looked like to me that Kyle tried to outbrake Johnny. Johnny and Skinner pitted at the same time for fuel, I think, but I think he tried to outbrake him a little bit and Johnny shut the door. It was typical Martinsville. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
ERIK DARNELL – No. 99 Northern Tool + Equipment Ford F-150 (Finished 5th) – “Green-white-checkers are always wild in the truck series and with Kyle Busch and a couple of those guys up there, you know they’re gonna be running hard and racing for that win and you’ve just got to be on your toes and try to make your way through it should something happen and it did. My spotter, Jason Hedlesky, did a great job today and kind of talked us through it and we went from seventh to fifth on the last lap and turned a dismal day into a top five run, so we’ll take that any day.” PATIENCE A KEY FOR YOU TODAY? “Patience big-time. I was frustrated at the beginning of the race. Our Northern Tool + Equipment Ford wasn’t good at all. I don’t know why that is. I thought we got our truck decent in practice yesterday. We didn’t qualify as well as I would have liked and we really fought it today, but we made the right calls on the pit stops. We got our pit stop out of the way early enough to where we could try to make it on a fuel run there and, fortunately for us, we saved enough fuel to make it to the end and picked up a couple more spots on the green-white-checker finish. It started out as a bad day and we ended up with a top-five run, so it was a good points day for us. It’s hard to believe that’s our first top-10 of the year, especially with some of the runs we’ve had, but, hopefully, we can build on this.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 09 Zaxby’s Ford F-150 (Finished 7th) – “We had a good strategy day with our Zaxby’s Ford. It seemed like we struggled a little bit all weekend. It had a lot of speed in it and it was just as good as anybody’s, but I just couldn’t pass. It seemed like we were down on horsepower a little bit and we just made some good calls in the pits. We got our tires and fuel early and just stayed out of trouble and stayed on track. When other guys ran out of gas, spun out, wrecked or pitted, we just kept chugging along and got a seventh-place finish out of it, so I’m pretty happy. I didn’t think we were probably gonna run that great as we started the day, but we kept it out of trouble, kept our nose clean and got a good result.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN – No. 10 Int’l MAXXFORCE Diesel Ford F-150 (Finished 11th) – “The International MAXXForce guys made a decision. We took a chance on it and I backed all of our chances 100 percent. I’m from Vegas anyway and we had one heck of a Ford. I probably had something for Dennis, but every restart all I wanted to do was make sure I was saving enough fuel, so I was being really smooth on the throttle and wasn’t trying to back on and off. We had one heck of a Ford today. Thank you to the Roush Yates guys for the power plant because we had all we could. I didn’t have a scratch on it until the last 400 feet, but the Circle Bar guys will take this home and we’ll come back here in October and see if I can’t continue this streak at Martinsville for me.”
RICK CRAWFORD PRESS CONFERENCE – “It was wild from my point of view, too. I’m gonna be the first to say I hate to take third and be satisfied and go home, but it was quite a day. We’re built Ford tough and we’re gonna take this one. We battled adversity at the beginning. We had a great truck all day. The F-Series pickup, the Ford Powerstroke Diesel by International is like driving a Super Duty and that’s what you need here at Martinsville. It was an exciting day. I threaded the needle, made some bold moves and finished third.”
CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THE FINAL RESTART? “It looked like to me, and it’s happened to me before, maybe not on a green-white-checker or against my old manufacturer, but what it looked like was he tried to outbrake Benson and realized he was too far. Then he tried to get it sideways. I think the side of the truck hit the 23 and all it takes when you’re out there with 180 laps or 190 laps on your tires, I could stick my hand out the window and spin the truck out. All I’ve got to do is touch it and all it took was a little touch there at the end. I hate it for both of them. I hate it for Skinner running out of fuel. They ran a good race. I hate it for my teammate, Brendan Gaughan in the MAXXFORCE Diesel by International Ford, he ran a great race, but it pays to finish across the checkered flag line.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON SEEING BOBBY HAMILTON’S TEAM BACK IN VICTORY LANE? “I told the Dodge guys at Daytona. I was very proud of them. It looked like they turned the corner. A lot of people don’t know this but at the end of the season last year we knew we were losing our driver, David Starr, and we were trying to pick a replacement for him. I went to Dennis Setzer and asked him if he had a deal signed with Lori Hamilton yet and he said, ‘No, but we’re working on one.’ I said, ‘If anything ever happened to it, let me know because I have a ride for you.’ But at that point in time I wasn’t looking elsewhere because I’m not that kind of business man. I probably could have stole Dennis Setzer. I probably could have given him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. I’d like to have Dennis as a teammate. I have a great teammate today in Brendan Gaughan. He kept the 10 truck alive. It’s a great Ford teammate for me, but my hat’s off to Dennis Setzer and the Dodge guys and Lori Hamilton, everybody up at the engine shop. I knew they were turning the corner in Daytona, so they ran good. Him and Stacy both, they’re gonna be a force to be reckoned with the whole year.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HOW THIS RACE ENDED IN A POSITIVE AS OPPOSED TO THE LAST RACE? “I said it earlier in an interview on Sirius radio when we got Sirius the other night, I said coming to Martinsville in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. You might be passed on the last lap. You might not finish. You might have a blown radiator. You might finish third. You might win the race. It’s happened. I’ve been second. I’ve been first. I’ve been now third. Last year I was fifth or sixth or seventh – somewhere in there. It’s just exciting, it’s exciting for the fans. Walk up there and ask them. Ask them as they’re walking to their vehicles what kind of race did they see today. They saw heroes be heroes as Dennis Setzer. They saw outlaws become outlaws as in the 23 and the 51. And they saw guys out there driving their hearts out all day long putting on a show for the fans.”
