Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Würth Dodge Challenger) Finished Third YOU WON THE NATIONWIDE DASH 4 CASH. DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU WERE GOING TO PULL THIS OFF? “Not really. I felt like we had a pretty good car in qualifying but after how race practice went yesterday I wasn’t exactly how we were going to be. Just real happy the guys put a good car under me and we did exactly we needed to do. We’re out here trying to get points and we lost a little bit to the leader today but we’re going to have our days too so we just need to be smart about what we’re doing and continue to finish these races and just real happy we got the Würth Dodge a top three finish. We’ve been real fast in these cars this year and haven’t gotten the finishes that we deserve.
“This is a great night for the Würth Dodge and for all of us at Penske Racing to be able to get out of here with another top three finish. I’m glad to have won the money; we’ll split that with the team.”
IT’S BEEN A LONG WEEKEND BUT YOU CAME AWAY WITH A THIRD-PLACE FINISH AND A CHECK FOR $100,000. “I’d like to say that I was thinking about Tami on the last couple laps but I was thinking about a couple of cars that were driving around slow because they were having some problems and I was like, ‘I sure hope the yellow doesn’t come out.’ As soon as I crossed the finish line I thought that this was pretty nice because Nationwide doesn’t do what they have to do and make it eligible for us guys that are running the Nationwide Series full-time. To be able to bring a fan our and come to the race and have a one in four shot of winning $100,000 is a pretty neat deal and I’m glad that I was able to do it for her. To see the excitement that she had after the race, all the guys on the team were excited. It’s another good finish for us. We did everything that we could do today. Whether or not we got another practice session in yesterday we would have been any better is anybody’s guess. I’m just really happy that we were able to bring the Würth Dodge home in the top-three. We’ve had a fast car every time that we’ve had the Würth paint scheme but we haven’t gotten the finishes that really deserved. Good for them. They were the ones that came along and finalized our plans for this year and made us able to come out here and run full-time. I’m a big fan of theirs and looking to grow them as a sponsor. I’m just really happy for Tami and all the guys on our team.”
Chad Walter (Crew Chief, No. 12 Würth Dodge Challenger) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RACE? “I can’t say enough about how awesome Penske Racing handled this Pocono-Iowa logistics to put us in position to race like we did tonight. There was so much effort put in to give Sam a car that was better than the way we ended practice yesterday. There were a few pizzas and dreary eyes this morning trying to get something worked out to give us a little bit better balance on the Würth Dodge. I’m not sure we really hit it all tonight but we were able to make the car better all night. Sam hung in there all weekend and gave great feedback. We had a really good long run car and it showed late in the race tonight. For us to make up some points on the 3 (Austin Dillon) and the 6 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) is cool. We have to go chase down that 2 (Elliott Sadler) car next.”
Ryan Blaney (No. 22 Discount Tire Dodge Challenger) Finished 10th “It was and up and down night for this Discount Tire Dodge tonight. We just really couldn’t get going. After pit stops it took us a while to get going and get with everyone else. Once we did get going our car was fast towards the end of the runs. Our last run was great. We were running down guys and were really fast. A few tough breaks there at the end kept us from bringing home a top-seven or better.”
TRACK POSITION IS CRITICAL HERE. WAS IT TOUGH TO GAUGE HOW FAST YOUR CAR WAS RUNNING MID-PACK? “Yeah, track position is important here and it’s tough to get going. You couldn’t really drive around the outside of guys and you had to be really patient. Track position was tough. We had decent track position one time, took two tires and we just didn’t run well initially after the pit stop. That was our issue most of the race. We’ll go get them at Richmond.”
Jeremy Bullins (Crew Chief, No. 22 Discount Dodge Challenger) CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RACE? “It was a solid night for the Discount Tire Dodge. It’s just about learning what Ryan needs and likes inside the racecar. Coming out of here with a top-10 is a solid night. We had to overcome some things on pit road. It’s so important to get out front and get track position here and when you lose a few spots on pit road it’s tough to get them back. Ryan battled and got us some of those spots back. Our car was really, really good on long runs. At the end of the run we had a car as fast as a top-five car. We just didn’t have what we needed on the short run.”
