TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN OUT THERE TODAY “We had a pretty fast car all weekend and got some paper or something on the grille early in the race and got it real hot and had to pit under green and lost a lap there. We just kept adjusting on the car, actually about the best we had it was then. Everything actually lined up exactly in our favor. You know, short run, Denny gave me the inside, which I probably would have chosen if I had had to choose one, and I got actually a really good restart. I’ve been jacking that up most of the time lately, so got a really good restart. We were side by side there, and I just couldn’t quite get by him. I’ve lost a lot of close ones, like you said. I think we’ve been second here four times, and really happy to run that good but really disappointing to be going for the lead on the last lap and not come back with a win, either.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY HERE AND HOW IT STANDS WITH ALL THE STRUGGLES YOU HAVE HAD ALL SEASON? “Yeah, it’s been an interesting day. All our cars were fast today. Greg probably had I didn’t see the except race for the scoreboard, but it seemed like Greg probably had the best car if he wouldn’t have broke his transmission or whatever happened there. Our pit stops were really good today. They were better than they have been. I didn’t speed on pit road today, which was a bonus. I’ve been doing that too much lately. All day we had a mistake free day. Even when we had trouble we were able to stay calm and fix our problems and get back in the lead lap and be able to pit the race right and get tires we needed to work our way through traffic and get to the front. Everything went just right today in the pits and on pit road and pretty much on the track, too. I wish I could do the last one more time and try something different, but other than that, everything went as good as we could have expected today.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RESTART THERE AND WHEN DENNY GOT BY YOU COMING OUT OF TURN 2 AND WHAT HAPPENED? “We took off, and like I said, I got a really good restart and he pulled as close as he could to me to get the wind off of me, which in lap 100 you wouldn’t do that to somebody because they’d be mad, but over last ten laps that’s totally fair. I’d probably be trying to do the same thing as much as I could to get the inside guy loose and get him uncomfortable. So surprisingly my car was pretty stable and it lasted for a lap, and I just lifted real early because we were side by side and I wanted to actually keep him outside of me, and I thought if we left turn two at least nose to nose and I could get into three and still have him outside of me that we’d have a shot to the finish line. I lifted real early when he lifted, and then I got back to the gas real early, and he must have slipped a little bit, and I got a really good run. When Mike told me clear, I was a little surprised we cleared him, and I just pulled up in front of him and starting getting off the corner. I probably shouldn’t have been holding the wheel as much as I did but wanted to get a nice run off the corner, and as soon as he got away from my side for whatever reason and got behind me, my car just took off. It just felt like it raised the car half an inch and went straight, and I had to get out of the gas, so I had to keep from hitting the wall. Part of that is the way I tried to drive the corner and part of it was maybe from not having him outside me anymore, not having the car turning as loose as it was when he was there. I don’t know, it was a heck of a race down to the finish. Like I say, you hate it when you get beat.”
