CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Who has responsibility for the accident?
“Yeah, I think it was shared, you know what I mean? I think it was just racing. I haven’t seen a real close up view, but the way I had it figured is first of all that was the race of my life up to that point. That was a lot of fun and Joey (Logano) was so good on the short run. I don’t know how he got that restart. It was a really good restart. I thought we were – I thought everything was going to work out and Jason (Hedlesky, spotter) told me he was looking low and I – he told me basically he was there. I knew what Jason was saying and I just pushed the issue as far as I could because I figured that was the race there and so here let me watch it again. Yeah, Joey just timed it perfectly, he moved down, I thought I could feel him a little and I just thought that – I was probably a little optimistic, but I thought I could clear him or force him to lift. I just thought I had just a little more time, but he drove down as far as a guy could be expected to drive down and that’s how it ended. I don’t know what the caution was for. I really hope it was something that we needed to have a caution for because that was really – that was going really well.”
What did you say to 22 team and did you apologize?
“Yeah, no apology. I just wanted to say, ‘Hey, that’s just racing and good luck to you guys.’ There’s so much on the line. I want to make sure that – I don’t want to be anything extra to mess with Joey (Logano). He’s done a good job and they deserve to go have a good, fair race. I hope Kyle (Busch) gets it. I just can’t than everybody enough – all of my fans, ARRIS, Toyota, Subway, everybody that came down here to support me, Comcast, Sport Clips – I’m a little ashamed of my haircut, I need one – and I thought we had it. This is – that was frustrating.”
How will you reflect on this race?
“It was so much fun to drive up through those guys. This track is perfect. It’s such a blast to drive. The Goodyear tires are great. We’re sliding around doing everything we can and having a really good time. Running Kyle (Busch) down and racing him like that and for him to race me that hard and that fair was so cool. I just hated to see that caution. That was very, very frustrating. I felt like that was our race and our championship, but hey this is how racing goes.”
How did your race team get you in a position to win a championship?
“They put it in my hands. That’s all you can ask for. Dave Rogers (crew chief), my guys, everybody, they did a good job. It didn’t work out. This is life. We performed well. We did our best. I just risked too much and Dave told me before this race it’s a pretty big reward and remember risk gets reward and I just had to push it. I couldn’t go to bed tonight and think that I gave him that lane. I’ll watch the rest of the race and I am telling you this team is going to be on fire next year. You watch out. This is going to be awesome.”
What happened to take you out of the race?
“Joey (Logano) was so good on the short run that I knew I couldn’t give it to him. I couldn’t give him that lane. I went down there and blocked and he went down there as far as a guy could expect to go down and I just thought – I thought we were going to possibly hit. I just thought I’d have a little more time to correct it, but we were so far down there we couldn’t go any farther down and basically we ended up wrecked, so that’s the way things go sometimes. This race – I was so proud of my guys. I was so happy with the performance. That run to catch Kyle (Busch) and pass him that was everything I had. That was the drive of my life and we didn’t yield a championship, but I have a lot of pride in how we performed.”
What did you tell Todd Gordon when you went to the 22 pit box?
“I just wanted to make sure that they knew and they could tell Joey (Logano) – I don’t know if Joey cares or not – I assume he does, but I just wanted to make sure he knew that was just racing in my opinion and that’s hard racing and I wished them luck.”
How would you sum up this race?
“This was a pretty dynamic race. I thought we were going to just kill them the first half of the race and then at the end Joey (Logano) – they stepped it up. They’ve got some real speed on the short runs, so I think Kyle (Busch) is going to have his hands full with him on this short run. Hopefully Kyle can get the win and a championship. But, man, just a fun race. I wish it didn’t end like that. My guys deserve better than that. Hindsight obviously it would’ve been better to be a little less aggressive and maybe race him but man I thought if he got in front of me it’s over.”
How much motivation will this championship run provide for next season?
“The neatest thing about tonight was when we restarted fifth and marched through those guys all the pressure and all of the stress – I’ve got to really credit what we went through in 2011 and the mental toughness with this team with just getting us up to the front, getting ahead of the pack and that caution was very deflating. It was very frustrating, but, yeah, it’s racing and that’s how it goes sometimes.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
What was your vantage point of what happened on the race track?
“All I see is the 2 (Brad Keselowski) coming up the track and nowhere to go. This is one of those wrong place, wrong time. We got put in the back a few times. Once was our mistake early and (Kevin) Harvick’s after that. It’s unfortunate. We had a really good race car tonight and nothing to show for it. It’s two weeks in a row. Frustrating, glad this year is over and we will go and regroup and get ready for next year.”
