NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BUDWEISER SHOOTOUT
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
February 12, 2011
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET
ON THE CRASH:
“Well, I was just running along there. Me and Jimmie (Johnson) were trying to work together and get ready for our pit stop. We were hooked in the rear, the right rear quarter panel and I was watching it and you know, when I saw this gold car coming at me and I thought I had it saved for a second but it’s hard to drive them that fast when they’re out of control. But it was fun. The racing might look kind of crazy but it was pretty fun. It’s a new style of racing for sure and I was enjoying it. We were just waiting around and trying to line ourselves up for the pit stop and it was just too many race cars going for the same piece of real estate there, but we’ll be all right.”
MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Well, I don’t know. It just went around on him. We were perfect-latched and nothing was different. So I don’t know if our tires being colder or, I don’t know why that happened. I have no answers. I’m sorry. I was doing the same thing everybody else was doing. It’s just a bad deal. I hate that.”
SOUNDS LIKE PART OF THE LEARNING PROCESS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THIS TWO-CAR DEAL
“I don’t know if you need to wait until the tires get hotter. I’m not really sure. There was no indication. He did (No. 18) slip quite a bit down in Turn 3 and 4 and I did too. I had somebody pushing me. And he slipped pretty big but I didn’t pay any mind to it. I thought it was because we had three of us hooked instead of two. And then we got down there and when he turned in the corner the back just went around on him.”
“I just don’t know why or how that happened. Kurt and I ran the whole 25 laps hooked together and everything was perfect and Kyle and I got hooked on him and we went into Turn 1 and his back end just started coming around and I don’t know if we needed to wait until the tires got hotter; maybe they were a little cold. I’m not sure. I can’t figure out why that happened. It was just a non-issue. Before that we were able to run through the corners and it wasn’t even a sweat. I hate it. We were doing good and I was having a good time.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE IN RACE CONDITIONS WITH THE NEW PACKAGE? “I enjoyed it. I was having a good time. Our GoDaddy.com Chevy was pretty strong. I was wanting to get hooked back up with Kurt (Busch). If Kurt and I could have stayed together the whole time, but the restart broke us up, I think that we could have had a chance.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET: ON WHAT HAPPENED: “In the first segment we were too far behind. It is just early, people are getting desperate.
“They all wrecked in front of us. I missed the big wreck then somebody tangled me and I went toward the fence. Didn’t do much damage to the car, just the right rear quarter panel a little bit. The next thing I see is the No. 20 car (Joey Logano) coming off of the grass straight into me. It sucks.”
HOW DID YOU LIKE TO TWO-CAR DRAFTS? “I don’t mind it”
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