GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) – "We had a really good car. The 3M Ford Fusion was really good. It was just too bad we had to let up and save fuel at the end. We only lost one spot, but I had to let Tony Stewart go by there at the end to save fuel. I really hated to do that. It's hard for a race car driver with a fast race car to let up, but that's what we needed to do to finish, and we did what we had to do. I just wish I had got third. You want to get every piece you can get. I didn't think we'd make it on gas, so the guys really wanted to pedal it. We had to finish. I was thinking it was going to be Michigan all over again where we ran it out with a half lap left. So I had to let him go and finish fourth, but it was a good day for us." BIG PICTURE WISE, A GOOD DAY TO SHOW YOU STILL HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? "Yeah, it was. It was a good points day for us, and we need every point we can get right now. We just couldn't take a chance on losing the positions -- running it out. I hate to give up five points to Tony, but we're gonna run good at Pocono and we're gonna run good at Michigan coming up. I'm confident we're gonna get back in this thing." YOU HAD A FUEL ECONOMY RUN AT THE END: "We did. I hated to let the 14 go by, especially when we were better than him. It's tough not to be able to show how fast your car really is. I had to pedal back. They were telling me in the pits we might not make it on fuel, so we couldn't run the car wide open the whole way. I think the fans got to see a great race today and we're thankful they came out with a big crowd after what happened last year. It was nice to see such a great turnout, and hats off to Goodyear for getting the tire right."
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) – “I’m happy with our finish for how we’ve been running lately. We’ve been running about 20th to 25th, so I’m happy with our finish. It was kind of hard to pass. Except for the lead couple of cars, wherever you were on the track is about what you could run for lap times. Overall, I’m happy with it. I wish we ran better, but I’m happy with the finish.” TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY? “I’m really happy with the finish. It was one of those days, I don’t know about the top two cars, but it just seemed like whoever you raced around and wherever you were on the track is how fast you could run. At least for me it was right next to impossible to pass. You could catch a car and get two or three car lengths from it and then you’d just kind of stall out and sit there. We had some good pit stops and good pit strategy that got us in front of four or five guys and we were able to maintain that until the end.” A GOOD POINTS DAY. “Well, honestly, we’ve been running so bad I haven’t really even thought much about the points. To finish 10th probably exceeds my expectations for the weekend with the way we’ve been running lately and the way we’ve been finishing lately. Actually, today we probably finished a little better than we ran. We had good pit stops and didn’t have any problems and got a solid finish. We just have to get running better and get finishing better, but I’m certainly happy with 10th for how we’ve been doing lately.” DID YOU GET BETTER THROUGHOUT THE RACE OR WAS IT ALL PIT STOPS? “We got the balance of the car just a little bit better. We fought loose most of the day. We got a little bit better at the end. It wasn’t a lot better, but it was a little better. We just kept sneaking up on it and we never got it to drive exactly how I wanted to, but we got it better where it was at least competitive with the cars I was around.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 15th) – “It was long and difficult. That was our day. We put ourselves in a box in qualifying. I didn’t realize how difficult that was gonna make the day. Passing was very, very tough here today. My guys did a good job on pit road and Bob made decent adjustments, but once things got strung out it was very difficult to pass.” WAS IT AN AERO ISSUE? “Yeah, I believe it’s just the fact that everyone’s cars are so close and we depend on air enough that you could run about as fast as the guy in front of you. Maybe there were guys with really good cars, but I just couldn’t get my Aflac Fusion to pass anyone. It was very tough.” ANY TIRE ISSUES TODAY? “Goodyear did a great job with the tires. That’s for sure. You’ve got to commend them for the effort that they put forth on this. I can’t imagine how much money they spent to come out here and make this a great race and a safe race for all of us, so that was good.” ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE FINISH CONSIDERING WHERE YOU STARTED AND THERE WEREN’T MANY CAUTIONS? “Yeah. That was probably a decent points day. I don’t know where that puts us in points, but it could have been a lot worse.” IS THERE STILL A BIG GAP BETWEEN HENDRICK AND EVERYONE ELSE? “There’s no big gaps anymore, but whatever gap they have is just enough to be pretty strong. The good thing about it is that it’s not much. We worked on some stuff this weekend that will hopefully pay off down the line, but it’s just small things.”
BILL ELLIOTT NOTE: Bill Elliott finished 26th and was one lap down at the finish after a lugnut got sandwiched between the left-front wheel and hub during his final pit stop. Elliott was running 15th at the time and had to pit a second time because the wheel wasn’t tight. Leonard Wood said after the race that there was an imprint of the lugnut on the wheel and that in all his years of racing he had never seen something like that happen.
