CARL EDWARDS, MIKE BEAM AND JACK ROUSH POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
TALK A LITTLE ABOUT THE RACE AND THE LAST FEW LAPS. “It was an amazing race from my seat. A lot was going on. We were playing the strategy with the rain and Mike was making great adjustments. Our pit stops today were really good. I thought that rain was going to finish us there. I didn’t think we were going to get it restarted but NASCAR did a good job getting the track dry. The second to last restart I really got Joey on that one and I thought it was over and then caution came out and I thought I was in trouble because you give a guy like Joey a second chance at that and he will do better, and he did. They we rolled coming to the white side-by-side and Joey had a little advantage being on the outside and I was driving really hard, really hard, both of us were. I thought I touched him but I saw the replay and it looked like he got loose and smacked the fence and the bottom got out of it. We are very fortunate that nobody was hurt.”
MIKE, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE STRATEGY WITH THE RAIN AND EVERYTHING THIS AFTERNOON? “The rain wasn’t on the radar but all of a sudden it started raining. We had to stop because with 40 laps on the tires it was something we needed to do in case it went back green. That was definitely a challenge but luckily that worked out for us.”
JACK, HOW ABOUT THIS WIN TODAY? “I want to say how proud I am to be an American and with what has happened around the world in the last two weeks. Past that, Mike Beam built a brand new car and it is the first time we have ran that new Mustang incorporating things they thought they learned this year and it wasn’t bad. Carl did a great job today. Ricky Stenhouse did a good job too. I am real proud of the entire Ford and Roush Fenway effort led by Carl and by Mike. I am happy they let me ride along with them.”
CARL, WAS THIS THE MOST EMOTIONALLY DRAINING WIN YOU HAVE BEEN A PART OF? “I don’t know. That was an odd finish emotionally for me to be honest with you. I thought I had bumped him and I thought somebody was hurt there. That looked like a bad enough wreck that I thought somebody was hurt. It was a very different feeling than you normally have in a race car at the end of a race. I am glad that I didn’t hit him and everything was okay. That is a product of what we do. When it comes down to it this race track we were driving so hard and there is so much grip and you are giving everything you can and the cars are so close at the end. Joey was racing as hard as he could and I was racing as hard as I could and that is why they call it the Monster Mile.”
HOW WERE THE TRACK CONDITIONS OUT THERE TODAY? “The track changed a little bit and it was different than practice a little bit. I am going to go back and talk to Bob Osborne about our set up for tomorrow because I think that there are some things I saw out there that I can apply for tomorrow. I am sure the Cup guys that ran today will do the same thing. It really did. The clouds were out, it was cool and then it drizzled. The jet driers changed things. The track did take rubber at one point which was something that can happen now and then but I don’t remember last time. It seemed that was different the way it happened. Hopefully I can apply that stuff tomorrow.”
IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU GOT LOGANO LOOSE TO GET INTO THE WALL OR IS THAT NOT SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAPPEN ON THIS TYPE OF TRACK? “It surprised me that he got loose, just like I said earlier. His car was very good and he had the advantage being on the outside. That is why I thought I must have hit him, because it surprised me that his car wiggled like that. Watching the replay, I was far enough away and the placement of the cars, I truly think that where my car was I wouldn’t have loosened him. I don’t know if the track was kind of green up there or maybe there was something going on with the air but it surprised me probably as much as it surprised him.”
JACK, CAN YOU SPEAK TO THE DAY KEVIN SWINDELL HAD WITH THE UNFORTUNATE END? “Kevin did a great job yesterday and I had something going on where I couldn’t be here but he did a great job yesterday and was being very careful with the car. He asked for a change and they made a change to the car. I talked to him after the accident and he said he was confident that he was going to get back the spots he lost early in the race and the car wasn’t right and the track was green. Kevin Swindell is a real surprise to me. The guys had a discussion with him last week and they agreed to put him in the car with Trevor still not being ready. He is going to do a great job. I was really impressed.”
JACK, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT TREVOR AND IF HE IS COMING BACK AT CHARLOTTE? “I can’t say definitely because I don’t have the right pay grade and education for that but he is making progress and his symptoms are by and large gone. His blurred vision is by and large gone but we are going to take him to Grisham in Georgia to give him some laps to see if he is comfortable and then report back to the doctors and NASCAR to see what they think.”
WHAT DAY WILL HE BE TESTING? “I am not sure. I was told it will be this week but I don’t know what day. It may very well depend on whether as well.”
FOR ALL THREE OF YOU, THE FACT THAT ALL THE DRIVERS WALKED AWAY FROM THAT LAST CRASH BUT THE MOST SERIOUS INJURY WAS TO A CREW MEMBER ON PIT ROAD. DOES THAT KIND OF CRASH CONCERN YOU ABOUT THEIR SAFETY AND CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE SAFER BARRIER ON THE INSIDE WALL AND THE FACTOR OF THAT? CARL EDWARDS — “We have what I would say is the safest form of auto racing that I have every been a part of here at NASCAR. I think NASCAR does a really good job. I just saw the replay there and I think the extra expense and effort that these tracks and NASCAR have gone, and for the car owners to, all of that stuff is to be commended. The fact that there are safer barriers at inside walls at these places is an extra measure of insurance that all of us appreciate.”
JACK ROUSH — “Happily not all the race tracks are the same. Unless my memory is flawed here Dover has more banking on the straightaways than any track we go to. That puts a special importance to have that inside wall protected as well. When Mark Martin and I came here in 1988 he spun out here a few times. Every time you spin here it is an exceptional circumstance if you don’t hit the wall. The gravity just takes you right into that inside wall. They have done a really nice job at this track with the safer barriers and other things. We really enjoy coming here and racing on concrete.”
