Carl is the 5th seed with 2,003 points based on his one win of the season.
CARL, TALK ABOUT THE RACE HERE TONIGHT AND YOUR THOUGHTS NOW THAT THE CHASE FIELD IS SET. “Well, once I get over the frustration of not winning this thing I am going to be really excited about how fast our team is. We really turned things around tonight. That is the best we have run on a short track in years. That was huge. That was a tough race not to win. I feel like we had the car beat and if we had another lap or two we would have been all over Harvick there. It was a fun race. I had a good time and I am ready to go get this Chase on.”
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE CHASE, WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE TO YOU AND YOUR TEAM? “I am pretty excited about all the races we are going to after tonight. This is the best we have run on a short track in a long time. The race I am usually worried about the most would be Martinsville and now I am pretty excited. I didn’t expect us to run as well as we did tonight. I think for a little while we kind of were slowing down and then the last week we ran really well at Atlanta and this week we felt like we had a dominant car, a really fast car. I am excited.”
WHY DIDN’T YOU PIT AND WHY THAT DIDN’T COST YOU THE RACE? “I am actually excited that Brad doesn’t get those bonus points. I didn’t know that until just now. I am pumped about that. I don’t know why we didn’t pit. I think Bob thought there was going to be another caution. We were getting caution after caution and we just thought more guys would stay out. We were still running third when the next caution came out and still should have been able to win. I just didn’t get a good enough restart and didn’t get by Jeff quick enough to have a lap or two once we got to Kevin. We learned a lesson. It cost us three points. Once I get over the frustration of not winning I will be happy about how we ran.”
DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE BACK WHERE YOU NEED TO BE TO GO OUT AND WIN THIS THING? “Yeah, big time. These guys know how it feels. When you are running really well everything is easy. When you are struggling you get nervous about when you will get back on track. I feel like after tonight’s run, the way we ran, that is a shot in the arm for me. I feel like we can run with the guys that are running, like Brad has been running the last few weeks. I feel like we are back up there. I know it is one race, but I think everyone will agree that Richmond tests a lot of parts of your team. You have to have a real good car. We made one strategy mistake tonight but we are a team and we are in this together. If that is the worst mistake we make in the Chase then we will be okay.”
