David Reutimann (fourth) was the highest finishing Camry driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Alabama’s 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.  

Joey Logano (fifth), Martin Truex Jr. (sixth) and Denny Hamlin (ninth) also finished in the top-10 for Toyota.  

Other Camry drivers in the field included Robby Gordon (18th), Casey Mears (24th), Kyle Busch (25th), Kasey Kahne (26th), Joe Nemechek (27th), Michael Waltrip (28th), Scott Speed (29th), Marcos Ambrose (34th) and Jeff Fuller (43rd).  

Nine Camrys took turn leading today’s 500-mile race for a total of 63 (of 188) laps.  Lap leaders included Reutimann (14 laps), Logano (eight laps), Truex (nine laps), Hamlin (four laps), Busch (20 laps), Kahne (three laps), Nemechek (one lap), Speed (three laps) and Ambrose (one lap).  

Hamlin remains second in the unofficial NSCS point standings and trails Johnson by 14 points after seven events in the 10-race 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship playoff.  Busch moved to the fifth position and is now 230 points behind Johnson.

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position:  4th How was your car able to push and lead in the draft today? “It’s just weird, sometimes you get out behind cars and you can push them and you can move forward.  Other times you just can’t.   There’s just no rhyme or reason for it.  Had a great Aaron’s Dream Machine – great pit stops all day.  My guys did a great job – Rodney Childers (crew chief) and everybody did a fabulous job from the time we unloaded until now.  Thanks to Toyota and Toyota Racing Development – great horsepower all day.  That thing was like 280 degrees when we came back around here on water temp and they told me to keep digging.  I don’t know too many motors that will take that all the time so hats off to those guys.  Just happy to get out of here – this is probably our best speedway car and we’ve been using it quite a bit.  Thankfully we haven’t left where it’s been torn up too bad so we’ll be ready to take it back next year.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  5th Did you have any plans on who to draft with in the closing laps? “Basically it was whoever was in front of me on that last restart.  We were trying to get all three (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) cars together there for a while and it was working for us.  That caution came out and it split us all up.  At that point the 56 (Martin Truex Jr.) was in front of me, which was cool because it was a Toyota and we just hammered down.  I was just a bulldozer and kept pushing, pushing, pushing.  Was able to get the 56 up there – we were up to fourth and fifth and we were catching the first four cars there.  As soon as we got there Martin had to check up a little bit and that killed our momentum and at that point I went by him.  He tried to get back to me to push me and that was it.  I felt like if we were able to get by those guys there coming to the line there then maybe I could have pushed Martin another lap and tried to make a last lap pass for the win there.  It was fun there at the end.  I had a lot of fun in the Home Depot Toyota.  We had a good car and just had to be patient the whole race – that was the toughest part is trying to be patient and riding behind these guys and waiting to position yourself there at the end.  I was pretty comfortable when I was in the top-seven or eight there with about 20 (laps) to go.  Felt like that was where I needed to be and didn’t do anything stupid.  I just stayed in line and when it came down to it, I needed to go.  We did what the plan was today, but the plan was to win it so we almost did the plan.” Did you want to try to help Denny Hamlin when he went a lap down? “There’s not a whole bunch we could do.  You’re out there trying to get yourself to the front so it’s definitely a challenge there.   Basically if he (Denny Hamlin) was hung out then we would let him in and help him out as much as we can.  Felt like we did a good job helping him out as much as we could today.  I think he had a solid run.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position:  6th How do you feel about your finish at Talladega today? “We finally finished one at Talladega.  I had fun today driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota.  I had a good car all day.  Here, it is all about surviving.  We were able to survive.  Usually if you can do that, at least for me, I have a shot at winning.  I haven’t been able to get it in a Cup car, but we were close today.  We had a big run coming to the white flag.  We had good help from Joey Logano in the 20 car, but the hole closed up on us.  Logano was pushing me really, really well for the last two laps.  We had a huge run coming. If they didn’t block us, we were going to be the leader at the white flag.  I guess it wasn’t meant to be – what are you going to do?  We had a good race.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  9th How was your race overall today? “It wasn’t very fun.  I didn’t get to race as hard as I would like to at times and thought I was in a good position there.  I was actually in a great position with two (laps) to go.  I had the 5 (Mark Martin) pushing me, but as soon as we passed the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) he stopped pushing and that’s teamwork.  That’s what I would expect of a teammate.  We were in a bad spot.  We weren’t around our teammates when it counted right there at the end.” How did you feel when you fell to one lap down? “I was a little disappointed.  I knew we could get it back.  I was hoping we were going to stay out and get the pass around, but Mike (Ford, crew chief) wanted to make the safe call and get the lucky dog.  We got that and just had a good car.  Just never ran all day.  I hate that I had to race like that.  Unfortunately with our points format, it’s how you have to race.  It was an up and down day.  It looked like everyone broke even.  I lost a little to the 48 (Jimmie Johnson), lost to the 29 (Kevin Harvick), but still it wasn’t anything detrimental today.” Why were you upset when you got out of the car? “I had the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) by five spots coming off the last corner and when the 5 (Mark Martin) stopped pushing me, it just killed us.  We weren’t going to go forward from that point.” How do you feel being 14 points behind Jimmie Johnson leaving Talladega? “It’s what I asked for.  I asked for nobody to really get killed here this weekend and to let us settle it on the race track where our cars and our teams can make a difference and us drivers can make a difference.  That’s what we got.  We’ve got a tight one and I’m looking forward to the last three (races).”

ROBBY GORDON, No. 7 Speed Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports Finishing Position:  18th

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Finishing Position:  24th

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  25th

DAVE ROGERS, crew chief, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing How do you feel about the race today? “This is one of those places where a lot of people leave upset and a few leave happy.  We’re pretty happy with our M&M’s Camry – it was a pretty good car.  We could lead, we could push really good, but circumstances at the end – it just didn’t work out for us.  We got hung on the bottom and the top line just freight-trained us.  We lined up behind the 00 (David Reutimann) and there was a small hole and he was able to get up top.  Then we lined up behind the 20 (Joey Logano) and there was another small hole and he was able to get up.  You can’t blame those guys – that’s what they have to do to finish ahead for themselves.  We could never find that small hole to get up – we got trapped on the bottom and we got freight-trained there.  We got a 28th-place finish out of it.  I think this team is a lot more solid than that.  That’s what’s disappointing.  One of the rewarding things of this sport is at the end of the day you always have a report card – you know how well you performed.  It stinks when your report card says you finished 28th, but you know you were a lot better than that.  We’ll lick our wounds and get ready for Texas.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position:  26th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position:  27th

MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 55 Aaron’s 55th Anniversary Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Finishing Position:  28th

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position:  29th

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Kleenex/Clorox Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position:  34th

JEFF FULLER, No. 97 Heatredefined.com Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position:  43rd

Clint Bowyer Wins at Talladega; Points Battle Tightens with Kevin Harvick Finishing Second and Jimmie Johnson in Top-10; Juan Pablo Montoya Finished Third to Give Team Chevy a One-Two-Three Finish

TALLADEGA, Ala (Oct. 31, 2010) – Clint Bowyer, No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet, powered his way to the front of the field and ahead of his teammate Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Realtree Chevrolet, as the white flag flew. As the Richard Childress Racing drivers prepared to do battle on the last lap, the caution flew for an accident behind them.  It took several moments for NASCAR to review video tapes before declaring Bowyer the victor by less than a front bumper of their Chevrolet race cars.

For team owner Richard Childress, Bowyer’s win holds sentimental value as it was 10 years ago at the fall Talladega that the legendary Dale Earnhardt, Sr. won his last race behind the wheel of the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevrolet.

Bowyer led nine times for a total of 19 of the 188 laps on the way to the fourth victory of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. It is his second victory of the season but his first on a superspeedway. He remains 12^th in the standings but moved with 15 points of 10^th place in points.

Harvick remains third in the standings but is only 24 points out of second and 38 points behind the leader with three races remaining. He led eight times today for a total of 12 laps.

Pushing Bowyer on the inside line was Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, who garnered the third finishing position at the finish to give Team Chevy a one-two-three finish. After starting on the pole, Montoya led eight times for a total of 18 laps.

With a seventh place finish, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, extended his points lead to 14 points over second place Denny Hamlin. The four-time defending NSCS champion led twice for two laps.

Four-time champion Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/National Guard Chevrolet, finished eighth in the 500-mile race after leading once for one lap. He moved up one position in the standings to fourth place.

Two-time champion Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, suffered a flat left front tire just 20 laps into the race. After being three laps down, Stewart battled to get back on the lead lap only to receive extensive damage in the final crash of the day and relegated to the 31^st finishing position. He sits seventh in the standings.

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, looked to have a car capable of contending for the win staying in the lead pack and leading six times for 11 laps. On the 133^rd lap, Burton and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Legend of Hallowdega/AMP Energy Juice/National Guard Chevrolet, were involved in a two-car accident that sent them both to the garage. Burton’s car was too badly damaged to return to competition, while Earnhardt, Jr. returned to competition after repairs were made. Burton is now 10^th in points and Earnhardt, Jr. sits in 19^th place.

David Reutimann (Toyota) and Joey Logano (Toyota) completed the top-five finishers.

Next on the schedule will be November 7, 2010 at Texas Motor Speedway.

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 BB&T CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER

SCOTT MILLER, INTERIM CREW CHIEF, AND RCR TEAM OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS – POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

KERRY THARP:  Let’s roll into our race winning team here at Talladega Superspeedway.  Our race winner is Clint Bowyer.  He’s also joined by his crew chief, Scott Miller.  This is Clint’s fourth career win, his first victory here at Talladega, and his second win in 2010.  Coming ever so close to 10th place in the points battle as you turned into a terrific effort out there today.

            Talk about the win and maybe some of the anticipation there at the end before you were officially declared the winner.

            CLINT BOWYER:  Yeah, going back to your points thing, before this race I didn’t think I was going to have a shot at walking across the stage.  I knew I was going to have to go to Vegas, but they kick you out shortly after you get done with the media.  Maybe I can walk across the stage if I keep this up.  A little dig (laughter).

            Just very, very happy for a lot of reasons.  Everybody at RCR has worked very hard to get us back.  To have Kevin racing for a championship is where obviously Jeff and I wanted to be.  But to have him still in a shot at winning a championship, that’s very important.  To be able to win two races in a Chase for our race team is very important.

            Shane built an awesome racecar.  Scott has done a great job all year long of being a competition director and filling that role that we never had, filling the void.  To be able to step in and come close to winning two races in the four races he’s been here is pretty incredible.  So very proud of the job that he’s done stepping in for us.

            Just proud of everybody to be able to give up our crew, to make sure that Kevin had the best opportunity to win a championship, and to win a race with his crew is what they needed, what we needed as a race team.  You couldn’t ask for a better day.

            KERRY THARP:  Scott, what were some of the keys you think from your crew standpoint in getting today’s win?

            SCOTT MILLER:  Well, you know, we brought some really good racecars to the track.  Really the whole race is about Clint did a fantastic job of putting himself in a position to win.  We tested the waters a lot all day long to see what would work and what wouldn’t work.  Fortunately some of the things he found during the race worked out for us there at the end.

            The key to everything today was having a fast racecar and him putting himself in the right position to be able to win the race.  So it was just one of those days where everything lined up.  Fortunately we’re sitting here talking to all of you.

            KERRY THARP:  Team owner Richard Childress, which is your 11th win at Talladega, that’s most among any car owner in the history of the sport, and certainly sweeping the two races here at Talladega this year with Kevin winning in the spring and then now Clint winning, it’s got to be a happy day for you.

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  It is.  Especially standing in the winner’s circle a while ago with Clint, the team, it was real special because it brought back memories of being here 10 years ago with Dale Earnhardt when he won this race.  I was thinking about that.

            The job Scott Miller has done for us all year long helped put us in this position.  To be able to step in and do what he’s done, I’m really proud of that.

            Clint Bowyer, he’ll go down in history as one of the great restrictor plate racers, just like Kevin.  Him and Kevin both were up there.  Didn’t know which one won it.  My grandson said, We know we won it, so let’s go to the winner’s circle.  I was sitting there kind of numb until he told me that.

            KERRY THARP:  We’ll take questions.

            Q.  Clint, I asked you on Friday about redemption, if you really felt you needed a win to take the sting off of New Hampshire.  Are you feeling any better?

            CLINT BOWYER:  Absolutely.  It’s been six races, sixth race of the Chase?

            Q.  Seventh.

            CLINT BOWYER:  Today is the seventh.  Not very good at math.  Haven’t been paying much attention since the first one (laughter).

            We were real close to winning three of the seven races we participated in this Chase, that’s due to great preparation from Shane Wilson and everybody on this 33 team.  It was important to me to get my 33 pit crew guys.  A lot of people don’t realize how much work goes into this.  Those pit crew guys, the guys that build the bodies, build these racecars week in and week out at the race shop, to be able to win, it is redemption.  It finally puts that behind me as a racecar driver, as a person, and us as a race team.

            Q.  Have you heard from Shane yet?

            CLINT BOWYER:  I don’t have my phone on me.  It’s kind of a bittersweet deal.  I’m sure he’s probably sitting at home, celebrating as he always does.  Probably had a couple extras just for the depression side of it, as well (laughter).

            Q.  Richard, you said you were numb there while you were waiting.  Was there anything going through your mind?  You got two cars probably for the first time in your career, you’re involved where NASCAR has to make a ruling, but both of your cars are in it.  Does anything go back and forth in your mind?  I have a guy that can make a dent in this Chase standings things, but Clint has had a rough time.  Anything that goes back and forth about who has won this thing, about which would be better for you?

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  No.  We talked earlier in the year.  Although we’re racing for the championship, it comes down to a win.  It may be different at Homestead, but not really.

            If you have a chance to win a Cup race, you got to go after it.  I just told him, If it comes down to the win, you guys have got to do what you got to do.  I was just happy for both of them, especially Kevin and Clint.  Both of them got beat up a little bit in that one incident on the backstretch.  To be able to come back and run 1 2, I couldn’t be happier.

            Like I said, I was kind of wondering which one won and if it was real, because the scoreboard never went up to 188, it stayed at 187.  I was a little concerned about that.

            Q.  Richard, you’ve been doing this an awful long time.  Give us your thoughts on having a points race with three races to go where you have three guys who are virtually dead even.  What do you see the outcome?  Does anybody have an advantage?

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  All three races Kevin Harvick is really good at.  In the same sense, so is Denny and Jimmie both.  Those are really good racetracks for all three teams.  I think whoever can sit there and pull off some wins is going to be the team to win the championship.  We have to give everything we got.  Proud of our whole organization for putting us in this position.

            10 races to go when all three of them made the Chase, we all sat down and said, No matter who it is, when it comes down to the end, Clint, Jeff or Kevin, we’re going to throw everything at it we can to win this championship.  That’s what every one of our people have done.

            We had Clint in a position to win in 2007 and Kevin was right up in there in 2008 and we were off in 2009, we’ve been there contending for the championship.  This is the closest we’ve been in contending with three to go.

            Q.  Clint, you didn’t wait for NASCAR to say you had been declared the winner.  At this point of the season and Chase, did you say, What the hell, I got nothing else to lose?

            CLINT BOWYER:  Hell, yeah.  Claim that baby before somebody else does (laughter).

            Q.  Richard, to be this close in the championship, as far as off as you got for a while, as quickly as you’ve come back, your thoughts to be sort of kicked around like the old tin can for a bit?  You have a guy on a possible championship.

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  Again, like I said, I’m really proud of what everybody’s accomplished this year.  Everybody forgets where we were at.  You remember the bad years.  We had good years in 2007.  Like I said, Clint was a contender for the championship.  Kevin and Clint was right there in 2008.  We were just off in 2009.  But the end of 2009, the last 10 races in the Chase, our cars would have been right up there if you would have just took the points.

            But we felt good coming into this year.  Hopefully Kevin can pull it off.  We’re going to throw everything at it we can.

            Q.  Clint, you have two wins in the Chase.  The races after New Hampshire, you kind of threw away.  So much turmoil in and around the team.  When you see the fact you win at New Hampshire, win at Talladega, know how competitive your team is, do you wonder what if that deal didn’t happen at New Hampshire?

            CLINT BOWYER:  Absolutely.  If that hadn’t of happened at New Hampshire, you would have had your normal deal, what got us there.  I always look forward to the Chase because these are some of the best racetracks for me.  You go back and look at my stats.  These are good racetracks for our race team and for me as a racecar driver.

            You know, that deal was, I’m still frustrated.  Took the wind out of my sails.  The two races after that whole mess, it was a disaster.  If we had that back, we were along our normal routine, I don’t think we would have had those bad runs that we’ve had.  It’s pretty uncharacteristic of our race team to have those two wins here in the Chase and then three really bad races.

            So it has been very frustrating.  Haven’t had much to look forward to.  Didn’t have much to look forward to, other than the fact I knew my racecar was very, very fast going into this race.  I knew there was a lot of preparation put in place.  The engine boys were very happy.  When those boys are excited about something, you better get excited as a racecar driver because you’ve got something that is probably going to be an advantage.

            There was one time in the race, Richard was the    I was like, Hey, get Junior out of there.  There’s going to be five RCR cars in line.  Good picture for the engine boys.  Get him out of there.  Need a good picture for the engine shop.  He was the only one with the common sense to say, You’re pretty good right where you’re at.

            Maybe we can Photo Shop him out of there.  It would be a pretty good picture (laughter).

            Q.  Clint, when you and Kevin were sitting down there like two highway patrolman slapping hands, was that all y’all were doing?  Could you even hear each other?  Were you saying anything?  Could you even see each other?

            CLINT BOWYER:  We were celebrating the win.  The highway patrolman, they’re celebrating giving somebody an expensive ticket.

            No, just thrilled for RCR.  I mean, you got to think about all the hard work that goes into it.  It’s not just us racecar drivers.  When you’re at that race shop every day, you realize the passion for this sport, no different than you have as a racecar driver.  The sacrifices their families make for them to work day in and day out at the racetrack, the weekends.  Those guys are the hardest working people in this sport.  They get done here.  All of us take it easy for the week, and we go back to our job on the weekends.  Their jobs start 7:00 on Monday morning.

            To realize how much hard work and dedication goes into those cars, that’s what makes you the proudest, the pride in Victory Lane, to know what it means to those guys.

            Q.  Clint, the incident that damaged Kevin’s car, it looked like you got into the back of Marcos.  What exactly transpired?

            CLINT BOWYER:  You know I was pushing the 18.  I think he was a little bit on the apron.  I was kind of stuck pushing him.  I was like, Where the hell are you going?  It left me in a bad position, and the 47.  More importantly, it probably left the 47 in the worse situation.  He was four wide, tight corners.  Kind of checked up.  I was behind him.  When you check up at the speeds you run here, you know, I turned him around.

            But then I looked in the mirror and I saw Kevin was tore up.  I was just sick.  It makes you sick to your stomach.  You don’t want to be the guy, have all the people on the racetrack to take RCR and all the employees out of a championship.  I was pretty sick about it.

            But as soon as he got back up there, I pushed him, went right back up to the front, I was like, Well, thank God.

            Q.  Here are the numbers.  You’re only 60 points out of seventh place.  How incredible would it be to even think about that kind of finish when you spotted everybody 150 points?

            CLINT BOWYER:  I’ve never finished outside the top five.  So seventh is still very frustrating.  I’m disappointed that we’re in the situation we’re in.  Take a lot of pride making the Chase.  It’s very difficult.  That’s a very elite group of people that get a chance to be Chase contenders in this sport.

            I don’t want it to lose the impact of being in the Chase.  It’s very hard to be in the Chase.  The teams that are in it, it’s important to and special to.  Certainly when you are a part of that elite group, you don’t want to be the last guy in line.  You want to be one of the ones competing for a championship.  That’s the reason you’re in that thing.

            KERRY THARP:  Richard and Clint, congratulations.  Terrific victory today.  Good luck at Texas.

     FastScripts by ASAP Sports

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REALTREE/SHELL/PENNZOIL CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2ND

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3RD

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – POINT LEADER

KERRY THARP:  We’ll roll into our post race here at Talladega Superspeedway.  Our third place finisher is our Coors Light polesitter, Juan Pablo Montoya.

            Juan, talk about the race out there.  Certainly it’s a race that features a lot of different ebbs and flows, but talk about you were able to get back up there towards the front towards the end.

            JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  We tried to lead a lap early.  The plan was to run 90 laps on the back.  At least my plan.  We ran into lap 60, got a caution.  Nobody really wanted to run in the back.  I said, I’m not going to run back here, back of the pack, so I went to the front.  From there, pretty much ran top five all day.

            KERRY THARP:  Let’s take questions for Juan.

            Q.  Juan, take us through the last three or four laps.  You got behind Bowyer on lap 186, pushed him to the front.  Can you walk through how you set that up.

            JUAN PABLO MONTOYA:  There’s no setup.  You know, it’s what it is.  You know you got to hook two cars up.  At that point I was the pusher.  You know what I mean?  I couldn’t really wait for the guy behind me to push me.  It made sense to try to win the race.

            The best chance I had to win the race was push Bowyer up front, when we got to the line, try to make a move.

            I’ve been twice here, I’ve been running second or third, whatever.  Every time you’re there, a caution comes out on the last lap.  If you make a move, then it doesn’t come out and you finish 20th (laughter).  It’s what it is.

            KERRY THARP:  Juan, thank you.

            Let’s go to our second place finisher in today’s race, Kevin Harvick.  Certainly just a stellar performance bringing that wounded racecar up to the front.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Our guys did a great job.  We got a little nose damage when the 47 slid across us.  The cap came off the front.  It had a big dent in front of it.

            When it came down to the restart, I thought we were in better shape than we would have been just letting it play out.  I knew the 00 was a good pusher behind me.  I just got myself attached to the 56.  I saw cars start peeling away from the front of him.  I could feel him hitting the front of his car into my car.  You know, it was one of those deals where it was time to go.  You just got to keep pushing and hope for the best there.

            Cool that it came down to myself and Clint.  We didn’t know who won.  I knew that we had beat him to the start/finish line, but I didn’t know when the caution had come out.

            Great day for RCR, great day for our points position.  We’re headed to Texas.

            KERRY THARP:  We’ll take questions.

            Q.  Kevin, I know it’s every man for themselves out there.  There was so much talk about how Toyota was going to work together to help Denny, they wanted this championship.  Were you surprised to see the 00 push Denny’s main competition?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, main competition, I don’t know.  Maybe as we creep closer, we might be.

            It’s hard when you line all those cars up at the end.  There was a couple times, with 30, 40 laps to go, I pushed Clint all the way up there, kind of got detached, I got a hole.  He was up.  That’s just part of it.

            When you get down to the end, I mean, unless you’re just going to let off, I just don’t think that’s in many natures that sit behind the wheel of these cars.  You have to just push whoever’s in front of you and go for it.

            I’m sure that the 00 was thinking the same thing that happened in the spring, if he can wind up second coming into the tri oval, he’s going to have a good chance to win the race.  At that point it’s all about winning the race and seeing where it falls after that.

            Q.  You did not seem perturbed about the front end damage from the time it happened till now.  In the end, that split second when y’all crossed the loop over there and Clint was a little bit ahead, in the end did your front end damage make the difference in the outcome here?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, we drove up there and drove by those guys.  My car probably wasn’t as fast as Clint’s.  Definitely I was probably impeding the progress a little bit compared to that group.  So it definitely didn’t help.  But we still were able to get up in the right position with the 00 behind us.

            You knew it was going to come down to, especially after the restart, whoever got the breakaway there.

            Q.  You said you beat the guys you needed to beat.  Is it really a lot easier to lose even to a teammate when you’ve beaten the guys you need to beat in the points race?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, about six inches and we would have won every Speedway race there was this year.  It’s just one of those deals where we’ve won a few by a few inches and we’ve lost a few.  It’s hard to complain because you can wind up on the wrecker pretty easy.

            Happy we kept the trophy at RCR.  If you’re going to lose to somebody, it’s good to lose to your teammates and keep the trophy and the money in the right house.

            Q.  What goes through your mind when you have somebody come across you and your car gets damaged?  How long after you got back on the track did you know it was going to be okay?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  When I saw him start to spin, I didn’t want to spin out.  I didn’t want to come back up the racetrack.  I didn’t want to spin backwards and have a chance of getting in the wall.

            He just kind of rolled across the nose.  I was able to just kind of not keep hitting him.  I was able to just kind of go back on the gas and push him off of me.  That was the best way I knew at that point to minimize the damage on the nose.

            After that, the hood wasn’t wrinkled up.  I didn’t see any fender damage.  I knew I had flat spotted a couple tires.  My main concern was not popping the tires.  We came right into pit road.  The dent in the front was the biggest problem we had.  The cap blew off on one of those restarts.

            Did a great job fixing it.  Got the fenders pulled out.  As long as we were in the middle of the pack, we were fine.

            Q.  Now you, Jimmie and Denny are right on top of each other.  Three races left.  How do you see this thing playing out?  Can you beat the guy sitting beside you?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I really think it’s    one of the three guys is going to finish in the top five overall over the last three races.  If you’re not able to do that and be in contention to lead laps, you’re probably not going to win the championship.  You can’t be conservative.  You can’t go there hoping for a top 10 because, as you’ve seen over the past few years, top fives, leading the laps is what it’s going to take over the next three weeks.  I just believe it’s one of three cars that is going to do that and hopefully we can keep pace.

            Q.  How do you feel about giving yourself that opportunity?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I feel good about the last three tracks.  We run good here, about you just never know what’s outcome can be like.  We’ve ran well at all the last three tracks.  Hopefully we can continue that progress as we go over the next three week.

            KERRY THARP:  We’re also joined by Jimmie Johnson.  He’s still our current points leader, finishing seventh today.

            Jimmie, your comments about how things unfolded for the 48 team.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, all in all, great day.  I mean, we had a strategy.  Stuck to our game plan.  In the end, I had a shot at winning the race, which is what we were after.  Unfortunately, the 24 felt like he had an engine problem developing once we got to the front, kind of pulled out of the way so he wouldn’t blow an engine in front of me or the field.  In the end, he was pumping some oil out and didn’t have an engine problem.

            It didn’t necessarily hurt our race at that point, but I wish that he still had been up there in the pack because we were working so well together.

            Where things kind of went wrong for us was on that restart.  Things must have shuffled around behind the 77.  The 77 and I were the only ones in the middle lane, which was the outside lane at the restart.  The inside lane was well organized.  The outside lane, I think Kevin and some of those guys were hooked up and motoring on by.

            At that point we were just trying to get back up in there for a decent finish.  On my way sliding backwards, I found the 24 again.  He pushed me.  We made our way up through the center.  I got up into the top 10.

            Not a bad finish.  We’ll take it.  As Kevin was saying, it’s going to be an awesome championship battle all the way to Homestead.  I’m really looking forward to it.

            KERRY THARP:  We’ll open it up again for questions for Kevin and Jimmie.

            Q.  Jimmie, talk about the stress level that you felt today, not only holding back for so long, but in the closing laps you were in the middle of a hornet’s nest.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah, I mean, since we were riding in the back, I felt like our odds were better to avoid a crash.  You’ve always got to be a little concerned about losing the draft, which happened to the 11 at one point, be on top of that.

            I really didn’t have much stress.  I don’t know what it was today at all.  But from the moment I woke up to driver intros, getting in the car, I just didn’t have a lot of concern today, which was nice not to overstress things, be more in tune with kind of the flow of the race, what was going on.

            Did a very good job of staying at the tail end of the pack, not being in a position to fall off the end.

            At the end when you come around with two or three to go, you’re in the hornet’s nest.  At that point it’s cool.  I really I would like to be in it all day long.  It’s more fun to race like that.  If you wreck with two or three to go, that’s it, that’s fine.  But if you wreck on lap one or two, that’s kind of a bummer.

            It was a low stress day for me for the most part.

            Q.  Jimmie, in the past going in the last three races of the year you’ve had one guy chasing you.  Now you have two.  How does that change the dynamic for you?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  For me we’ve always really approached each race with the mentality that we needed to win.  You can go back to the Texas race a few years back where I worked hard to get by Matt.  We’ve been able to win at Phoenix.  Our Homestead performance has been getting better and better each year.  I felt last year we had a chance to run with the lead group of guys and didn’t need to, played it smart.

            It’s really the same mentality.  We need maximum points.  Of course, it’s a little bit more forgiving or easy on your team and yourself with a big points lead.  But we don’t have that this year.  We’re going to have to race, and we’re ready for it.

            Q.  Kevin, what was going through your mind sitting in the apron by the start/finish line and saw Clint doing his burnouts?  Did you think he was trying to influence NASCAR’s decision there?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  No, I was just waiting.  You know, it was so close because we didn’t know where the caution had come out.  I was pretty confident that I beat him to the start/finish line.  But you just never know where the caution flew.  Heck, I honestly didn’t even know the caution was out until halfway through turns one and two.  They probably told me on the radio.  But at that point you’re so in tune with what’s going on, trying to focus on when you got a guy behind you pushing you.  You got to hold the wheel straight.

            So it was just one of those deals where, like I say, we’ve won some that way and we’ve lost some that way.  When you come here and your car is still rolling, we’re definitely not going to complain about finishing second.  Sure, it would be nice to win.  But it’s a great day for RCR.

            Q.  Denny said he believes one of you three are going to have to win a race or two in these last three.  That’s the only way you’re going to get separation.  Do you agree with that?  Do you believe it’s going to take a win to get any kind of separation?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I mean, for me it’s all about not making a mistake.  I think if you make a mistake, obviously there’s three guys, of those three everybody’s not going to make a mistake.  You’re going to have to run in the top five and have a chance to win, in my opinion.

            Forcing it usually leads to mistakes.  So if it happens, it happens.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  The only thing I would add to that is the only way you’ll really get separation with three to go, three teams involved, is two of the guys having bad luck, having something go wrong.  I don’t think we’re going to get separated by much.  I think it’s going to be a small margin all the way to the end.

            Q.  With the exception of a couple relatively minor incidents today, it was a relatively clean race.  No giant wreck like there always is here.  What kept you guys on relatively good behavior throughout the race?  Does it mark some kind of philosophy change in racing here?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I really think that everybody’s just gotten better at the bump drafting and maneuvering their cars.  I think you could kind of see it in practice, the way it was going to be, there were going to be less cautions.  I think a lot of the guys in the back kind of realized after the beginning after the 11 lost the pack, a lot of guys riding around in that last group, the 1 and 42 were up there racing.

            It just had that feel of gonna be a clean race.  I’ve only been a part of one of ’em.  But we did run a whole race here several years ago that never even had a caution.  So it happens.  It has happened here.  Obviously with the bump drafting and everything, the reason it    didn’t seem tamer inside the car, it just seems like everybody is better at it.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Didn’t we have a big one at the end?  Didn’t we finish under caution?  Just wondering if I was at the same track at everybody else (smiling).

            Q.  Jimmie, you’ve said all along for the last three or four weeks, Let’s get through Talladega and with three to go I’ll develop a strategy.  What is your strategy now?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  All out.  We need to be as competitive and as fast as we can possibly be at this point.  We’re going to three tracks that are good for all three competitors.  As Kevin as saying earlier, you’re going to have to run in the top five to stay in the game.  Then obviously take advantage of things and win if you can.

            10 extra points from first to second are going to be important.  Leading laps, leading the most laps, you’re going to have to be on your A game from here on out.

            Q.  Three great teams.  Any one guy have an advantage?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I don’t think so at this point.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I mean, we’ve gone through seven races, and you can throw a blanket over the three of us.  It’s really going to just come down to dotting the Is, crossing the Ts, keeping that performance level where it needs to be.  If you go to one of those three tracks, if it’s your off week, you’re in trouble.

            Q.  Jimmie, I know you said it was a non stressful day.  Was there any extra thought because this is the first time you raced here at Talladega since becoming a dad?  Did that at all weigh on you?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No, no.  My little girl was dressed as an angel today, so I was hopeful that that brought some good luck.  Everybody else was wearing scary costumes.  I had a halo and wings on my little girl before the race.  I hope that brought us some good luck.

            Q.  Jimmie, if at the beginning of the Chase somebody was to tell you after seven races it would be this tight with two drivers, would you have picked Denny or Kevin as those two guys?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Yeah.  The way the 29 ran through the first 26, I would definitely have picked the 29.  I mean, a lot of people argued the point that us and the 11 were kind of out of sorts when the Chase started.  I think inside the garage area, we all expected the 48 and the 11 to be where they needed to.  We ran good the last couple races to show that before the Chase started.

            These guys have been so consistent all year, didn’t matter if it was a short track, big track, superspeedways.  I’m not surprised to be racing these two.

            Q.  Kevin, when it comes to you and Denny, no offense to Jimmie, but he’s won four in a row, there seems to be at least some fans who are going, Somebody get up there and beat this guy.  It looks like the two of you will have at least some extra fans in those final three races.  Your thoughts?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  No offense to him, but somebody else needs to win.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Says who (laughter)?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Everybody but them wants somebody else to win.  I like Jimmie as good as anybody.  But for the sake of the sport, one of the two of us needs to make something happen.  I can promise you that (laughter).

            But, you know, when these guys have done what they’ve done over the last four years, the Chase started, they’re right back on track, it was important for the two of us as teams, speaking of the 29 and the 11, to go out and knock those top fives off and not make any mistakes.  When you go back and look at the stats over the last four years, top 10s do not cut it.  You got to be in the top five and being up front every week.  It’s the same pace that he’s had this year, it’s just the two of us have done a lot of the same things.

            You know, it’s important to continue to do that over the next three weeks.

            Q.  Kevin, you run a full lap without knowing who wins.  That’s 15 extra points sitting there.  What was that like for you waiting on that decision?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I just waited.  I mean, there’s no reason to worry about the things you can’t control.  You go up and you wait.  They make the call.  Doesn’t stress me out at all.  Just part of it.  You just go along with the flow.  You take the points as you can get them.

            15 points is great.  But they weren’t ours.  It was just a good day for us.

            Q.  Jimmie, the last four years you’ve gone to Homestead and you didn’t have to win.  Do you think that’s going to change this year?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  That’s the way I’m going to prepare for it.  The way it’s gone, I better be prepared for that.  If I’m not, then we aren’t doing our jobs.  The last couple years down there, we have made sure that we had pace in our car and speed.  Last year we won the pole, finishing sixth.  Ran good, had a strong night being conservative.

            I feel like coming to Homestead, we need to race for this thing, which I’m pretty confident we’re going to have to, that we’ll have a good shot at it.

            Q.  Kevin, did we ever figure out where exactly the last loop where they actually said, This is the snapshot?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I would assume it didn’t go to a loop.  I would assume it went to video.

            KERRY THARP:  I believe it was video, but I’ll confirm that.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  They usually sync the video with the caution lines.  Probably didn’t come to a loop.  Usually it goes to video at that point.

            Q.  Kevin, Gil said that one of your tires was flat by the time you got in.  Did you know it was flat?  If it had gone green, do you think you would have been able to keep your position?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Didn’t know anything about it, so it didn’t bother me.  It must have been flat coming in or something.  I don’t think it was flat as we were going along.

            Q.  Kevin, what is the tape that goes on the front?  What is that?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  It’s Bear Bond.  A sticky patch they put on there with like glue.  They put, what do you call it, green tape over the edges to keep the edges of the bond to stay down.  Just realistic can I glue basically on the tape.

            KERRY THARP:  Got the official points for the top three now.  Jimmie has a 14 point lead over Denny Hamlin and a 38 point lead over Kevin Harvick going to Texas.

            Guys, great show today.  Good luck this weekend at Texas.

     FastScripts by ASAP Sports

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

AMP ENERGY JUICE 500

TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE AND POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES

October 31, 2010

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 BB&T CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: YOU GOT IT TO VICTORY LANE, WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT, DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE THE WINNER? “I felt pretty good. I knew I had Juan behind me. I just wanted to have ECR power pushing me and I knew I had a good shot at it. Certainly we did that with Juan (Pablo Montoya). I didn’t know if his motor was going to last but we were fixin’ to find out. He wasn’t going to let off of me and I appreciate his help today. Kevin (Harvick) coming up on the outside.

“I thought we were good and gone and nobody was going to come and here they came on the outside. I hope the fans enjoyed it. We sure enjoyed it in the car.”

WAS IT MIXED FEELINGS FOR YOU THERE? “Oh yeah; I thought we had it for sure. When two cars hook up, they just drive off from them and they were coming on the outside and ran us down and then I quit dragging my brakes and we kind of took off again. Door to door there and all of a sudden Dillon (Mike, spotter) is yelling at me in my ear that the caution was coming out. I looked over to make sure I was ahead of him. I thought I was, but I didn’t know.”

WHAT WAS THE PLAN FOR THE END IF THE CAUTION HADN’T COME OUT? “There is no plan. It is a keep digging there and hopefully Juan stayed on my back and everything worked out. At these restrictor plate races, there is no plan.”

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET THAT FIRST RESTRICTOR PLATE WIN? “I tell you, I love restrictor plate racing. This is what it is all about. This feels awesome to come out here and do this.”

FIRST-EVER RESTRICTOR PLATE RACE WIN.  WHAT WAS IT LIKE ON THAT LAST LAP—THE BACK AND FORTH WITH TEAMMATE HARVICK?

“Unbelievable day.  I want to thank ECR—all you guys back at the engine shop, you’re back on top.  I’m so proud of you guys.  That was an ECR win right there.  Kevin [Harvick] coming on the outside, Juan pushing me; I want to thank Juan [Pablo Montoya] because I couldn’t have done it without him. The BB&T Chevrolet was strong all day long—Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, The Hartford, everybody involved with this thing.  I’m just so happy with everybody.  To have Kevin come home second.  I want to thank Sprint and all you fans out there—Hell yeah!”

EVERYBODY KEEPS ON TALKING ABOUT THE DAMAGE THAT KEVIN HAD TO HIS CAR, BUT YOU ACTUALLY HAD A HOLE IN YOURS.  CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT AND HOW IT AFFECTED YOUR CAR?

“I got into that 47 that was tight back there, turned him around and caught up my teammate.  I was sick about it; I didn’t know how bad I tore up his car.  As soon as I saw him on the outside again I helped him push back up through there.  Just very strong cars; the guys in the fab shop and especially those boys in the ECR Engine shop—thank you guys.”

YOU WON AT TALLADEGA, WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?

“It feels awesome.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REALTREE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: WHAT A FINISH, THAT IS ABOUT AS CLOSE AS IT GETS: “I knew it was close. We came to the start/finish line, I thought I had beat him but I didn’t know if the caution had come out at that particular time. Good day at RCR. I just want to thank everybody on this Realtree Chevrolet. All the repairs and work. You just never know how it is all going to wind up here at Talladega and today we were on the good end of it.”

YOU HAD A COUPLE OF CLOSE CALLS, HOW DID YOU REMAIN PATIENT AND CALM? “I knew we had some damage on the front. The side-skirt, I just saw the cars wrecking in front of me and we were able to just jerk left and try to stay out of the wreck. As the say went on, I could see the barer bond and tape start to fly off the front so I knew we had a big dent up there. It is a little bit worse than I thought it was actually with the hood detached from the nose. Good day for us. They did a good job fixing it.”

CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATION, IS THIS THING WIDE OPEN NOW? “We are getting closer. That is all that matters.”

DID YOU THINK YOU HAD IT WON? 

“Yeah I didn’t know when the caution came out, but I thought we beat him to the line.  It was really close.  I just have to thank David Reutimann.  He pushed me all day and he was really good behind us.  Our car was kind of beat up in the front there, but it was just going to be a drag race there to the end.  We did what we needed to do and we kept it one-two in the right house there.  Just a great day for RCR, a good day in the points; and I’ve just got to thank everybody from Realtree and Chevrolet. 

HOW DID YOU GET BACK TO THE FRONT WITH YOUR CAR AS DAMAGED AS IT WAS?  YOU COULD GET HELP IN THE DRAFT, BUT YOU COULDN’T PULL OUT AND GO BY YOURSELF.  HOW DID YOU FINALLY PULL OUT AND GO?

“Well, I just attached myself to the back bumper of the 56.  As we were shoving our way through there, we knocked a couple of them out the way, and wound up in our lane and then I backed up to the 00 and we were able to get a good run there.  Just a typical Talladega day with a few dents here and there.”

TALKING ABOUT THE POINTS, 34 WITH THREE RACES TO GO—YOU’RE RIGHT THERE. 

“Yeah, I mean that’s what we came here to do.  We came here to obviously lead some laps, run up front and try to win the race.  Obviously we came up one short of that, but we beat the guys that we needed to.” 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 7^TH

“We felt like we had a shot to win the race today. We did a good job today. We played our strategy out right. We got into the lead with four or five (laps) to go maybe a touch to early, but I had a good shot at it. The No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) thought he had an engine failing and got out of the way because at that point I didn’t have any teammates in front and it just really didn’t work out for me. But it was still a great finish and we’ll take it.”

ON THE STRENGTH OF KEVIN HARVICK AND DENNY HAMLIN

“We’ve known all along that the No. 11 (Hamlin) and the No. 29 (Harvick) would be strong in all the Chase races; and my good tracks are their good tracks as well. These final three tracks I consider all good ones for the No. 48 team and I know they are for the No. 11 and the No. 29. I think the fans are going to have something exciting to watch and it’s a very, very small points margin right now. I’ve just got to go out and lead laps and win races.”

DENNY HAMLIN SAID HE HAS LEARNED HOW TO RACE FOR THIS CHAMPIONSHIP BY WATCHING YOU. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?

“That’s certainly a big compliment; I wish he wouldn’t pay too close attention and would go about his own business (laughs). It is a compliment for sure. What’s worked the last three or four years for me might not work this year. I think there’s a level of taking chances at the right time that I’ve always done a good job with in the Chase and I see the No. 29 and the No. 11 doing that as well and it’s going to be a race from here on out. It will be interesting to see how each of us deals with the pressure of these final three races.”

WHEN IT WAS ‘GO TIME’, YOU ROARED UP TO THE FRONT. TELL US ABOUT THOSE CLOSING LAPS

“Yeah, we knew we had a great race car and a car that we could win with. Our strategy was just to play it smart and make sure we had a race car to race with at the end and Jeff (Gordon) and I got hooked up and got going and got to the front and unfortunately he thought he had an engine failure and he got out of the way and waved me off. At that point I was kind of left up there without a teammate and really wished that he didn’t have those troubles. In the end I guess he didn’t have any problems. It was a good day. The No. 56 (Martin Truex Jr.) worked with me really good and got me back up in contention and then I had somebody throw a crazy block on me and broke our momentum and I started falling back in the pack again, but there was the No. 24 (Gordon) there to help me out and bring me from like a 15^th place finish up to 7^th. So it was a good day all in all.”

IT LOOKED LIKE THE NO. 29 (HARVICK) AND THE No. 42 (JUAN PABLO MONTOYA) WERE GOING TO RUN OFF; DID YOU THINK THEN IT WAS PRETTY MUCH DONE?

“I was in the middle of a three-wide situation. I couldn’t see what was going on up there. I knew that a bunch of cars got by me and I couldn’t tell what was really taking place up front. And then we all started wrecking over here at the white flag I guess it was. It was just an exciting race. When everybody is so calm and smart all day long, you know the end is going to be wild.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE DAY IN GENERAL HERE AT TALLADEGA?

“Man, it went really well.  Our strategy played out—the cautions kind of fell and didn’t really help us out at the end there and really probably would have, but I don’t know what happened there on that last restart. Every car behind the 77 abandoned the 77 and myself and we lost our momentum at that point and got out of sequence.  The 56 gave me a great push and I had a couple guys trying to block the huge runs that we had coming and it would get me disconnected from the guy pushing.  All in all, a decent day.  Wish we could have finished a little better, but we’ll take it.” 

YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE JEFF GORDON SEEMED TO HAVE A GREAT RUN GOING UNTIL HE HAD A MECHANICAL FAILURE.  DID YOU THINK THAT WAS GOING TO BE THE RUN THAT PUSHED YOU TO THE WINNER’S CIRCLE?

“Yeah, we were planning on that all day long and I was content running second.  I just wanted a guy that I could trust.  You can’t see out that windshield when you’re pushing a car like that.  You need someone who knows how to use their brake correctly to stay on the front.  I thought we had this thing in control; maybe we got to the front a little early, but I thought we were both smart enough to hold on to it.  Then he thought the engine was blowing up and had it pulled out the way so it wouldn’t screw my effort.  At the end, it just ended up being something that—I don’t know, maybe he had an engine problem.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3^RD

“The Target Chevy was pretty good. The ECR and the Chevy motors are amazing. We finished 1-2-3 again and it’s pretty cool.”

IN THE FINAL LAPS, ARE YOU MAKING DECISIONS ON WHO YOU’RE RUNNING WELL WITH OR JUST WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES ARE THROWN IN YOUR LAP?

“A lot of it is in most of the races it’s whoever you’ve got around at the end, people that help you. There are circumstances like there, I had Clint (Bowyer) in front of me and I was pushing him.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE THE NO. 48 (JIMMIE JOHNSON) COME UP BESIDE YOU THERE IN THE END?

“I didn’t even see it.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8th: TALK ABOUT THAT LAST PUSH YOU AND JIMMIE JOHNSON HAD THERE: “There is just a lot of crazy stuff that goes on here. I’m just happy to have a car that finished in one piece to be honest with you. We haven’t had that for a long time. That got us it looks like a top-10 finish. Me and Jimmie got hooked up together and drove all the way to the front. I started experiencing some weird things inside the car. It was kind of vibrating. There was a lot of smoke and it smelled like oil. I thought the engine was getting ready to blow up so he shuffled me out. From that point on, we just kind of fought back. From that restart I just couldn’t get anybody to go with us. I just couldn’t get anybody that could get on my bumper and make anything happen. But we still held our own and there was a lot of accordion effects going on. Guys pushing and shoving and getting out of control, so we held our own.

“I was kind of stuck there in the middle three wide and the No. 48 got shuffled out. I didn’t really think I had any choice, but certainly happy to help. I pushed him and we both forward from that point on. I would really like not to have seen the white flag for it to end that quick because we had a lot of momentum at that point.”

WAS TO GO TO THE FRONT WITH 16 OR 17 TO GO, WAS THAT YOUR STRATEGY? “I didn’t think it was going to happen that early. We were sitting there in line and basically my strategy was if I felt like our line was moving cleanly to the front, then I would go with him. One time that started happening and the No. 47 (Marcos Ambrose) spun. Other than that, I felt like we were right in the middle of it. Guys were just being too out of control too early. On the third lap of the race, the No. 7 (Robby Gordon) started running into the back of me and I thought this is too early so I just went to the back. Every time that happened and I saw that happening around me, I just went to the back. There is no safe place out there, but you know inside 20 to go. But you have to at least start getting yourself close to the front so me and the No. 48 hooked up that one time and I wasn’t expecting us to go all the way to the front, I was expecting us to get to sixth or seventh or 10th and  we went all the way to the front. Unfortunately I didn’t stay there. Things worked out pretty well for us. I really was expecting us to go much later than that but I think we were just a little bit too far back so we had to go sooner than we wanted to.”

WHY DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS WERE ABLE TO GO TO THE FRONT? “We could have gone to the front at any time, any moment during the day. It is just getting your two bumpers hooked up and to me it doesn’t make any sense to beat the rear bumper off or your front bumper and heat up the engine and put yourself in jeopardy to having an engine blow. I was just waiting to see who I was going to push or who was going to push me. Luckily me and the No. 48 were together at that moment and we went.”

WHAT WAS THE MECHANICAL PROBLEM? “I don’t know, we have to get in there and find out. I was out there leading, the No. 48 pushed me to the front and all of a sudden it just felt like the engine was blowing. I smelled oil and saw a lot of smoke inside the car and I think the No. 48 saw it too so that is why I got shuffled out.”

WHAT DO YOU SEE GOING ON THESE LAST THREE RACES? “This is the tightest we have had among three different guys that I can ever remember. It is going to be exciting. We really have kind of been out of it the last few weeks anyhow, or at least the last couple. So I feel like you are going to have guys like us trying to win and then you are going to have those three guys really battling it out. All three of them run good at the remaining tracks. It is going to be very interesting to see.”

DARIAN GRUBB, CREW CHIEF, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19^TH:  “Well, we had a really good car, but then we had some bad luck and got a flat tire right off the bat. We drove over a piece of debris on lap 21, came in, went three laps down, then came back and still had a chance to win this thing with four to go. I can’t say enough about the guys and how hard they worked. I just don’t know how long we can keep coming to this place, where you can have a one-lap race and have the same drama you have in 188. We had a chance to win. We were 11^th when we crashed on the last lap. We were moving. I think we could’ve been in the top-four, top-five. We were on fresh tires and started from the back of the pack. But, as is the case here, the way it ended up for us is not really racing. That’s just luck of the draw.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CAT FINANCIAL CHEVROLET – INVOLVED IN CRASH, LAP 133

“It’s just racing. Junior and I work really well today and pushed each other a lot; we just didn’t get lined up that time and I guess he got me in the right-rear quarter panel and got me turned around. It wasn’t anything on purpose; we just didn’t get lined up. It’s going to happen some more and things are going to start to get busy right now. It all got started going into Turn 3 and it got three-wide and it kind of changed everbody’s line a little bit and I think I moved a little different than he thought I was going to. He didn’t do anything wrong; it’s just plain and simple racing.”

WHAT DALE, JR. SAY WHEN HE CAME INTO THE INFIELD MEDICAL CENTER? “He just said he didn’t get lined up and just caught me in the quarter panel wrong. When you push like that and draft like that, it is going to happen. I did it all day long. Had a few times when I thought I was turn somebody around and didn’t. It is just the nature of the beast. He did not do anything wrong. I’m not mad about it. That is kind of like how our years has gone. Fast race cars. Put ourselves in position to win races and then stuff seems to happen. Been that way all year.”

ANYTHING SURPRISE YOU WITH THE RACING OUT THERE? “I know the fans are probably upset about the single file, but you have to understand, when you get real aggressive, the thing that just happened, are going to happen. From a driver’s standpoint, it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be crazy aggressive with 100 laps to go because you are going to get into incidents. It’s not the rule package. It’s not the spoilers, it is just we all try to be a little bit smart because you know when it breaks out, it is going to get crazy. It is what it is, it is Talladega.”

TALK ABOUT YOU AND MATT KENSETH TOGETHER EARLY IN THE RACE? “We got that working really well, but we couldn’t replicate it. There was one time when he couldn’t get back to me and push me. I tried to do that in practice a lot of times and it never works. For some reason it worked for him and I today. But then all of sudden it quit working and I have no idea why. No matter how slow I got, he still couldn’t catch me. Why that is, I don’t know. It is a really interesting phenomenon. It is hard to put your finger on what to do.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 LEGEND OF HALLOWDEGA/AMP ENERGY JUICE/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – INVOLVED IN CRASH, LAP 133

“I got in the back of (Jeff) Burton and got him out of control. We’ve just been pushing each other all day long and I got into him the wrong way. I seen him in the Infield Care Center and he’s all right. But I had a real good car and awesome engine and just kinda having fun out there running around seeing what you can do, and got a little too excited and ended early.”

“I got into Jeff and didn’t hit him square and turned him down the race track and ended up wrecking him. We just didn’t hit him square, misjudged the push I was going to give him and did it incorrectly. Cost his crew a great race car and opportunity to win. He had a really fast car, I apologize to Richard (Childress) and all of those guys over there. My boys too, they worked really hard on my car. We had a terrific engine today and a real fast car. We were racing along there, probably more racing than we should have been doing, but it is fun.  I just kind of caught up and got a little over zealous there getting ready to push Jeff there.”

WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE? “It is hairy stuff but it is what you have to do if you want to get up to the lead. You want to be up front and you have to put your car toward the front for your sponsors and your fans. You have a lot of people here to please and you feel that responsibility to be up there all the time every lap you can be up front. Everybody has that same mentality. We are all just kind of racing around. It is fun and pretty exciting. Just times as you seen with my accident and I guess the last couple that we have had, just sometimes you make mistakes and I made one today.”

WHAT DID YOU SAY TO JEFF BURTON WHEN YOU WENT TO THE INFIELD CARE CENTER TO TALK TO HIM? “I just wanted to apologize to him. Man, he’s one of the ambassadors for our sport and I have so much respect for him. When you are out there racing, you aren’t considering all those things. As soon as I turned him, I felt terrible about it. I just respect him so much. He’s taught me a lot in my career. I didn’t show him as much respect as I should have but I didn’t have any intentions of spinning him out. I was racing a little bit hard out there.”

HOW FINE IS THE LINE TO HIT SOMEONE SQUARELY? “Whenever you push somebody, you think you know what you are doing. They’re moving and you are moving and the cars are dicing around in the air so you are always sliding across the back of each other. It just so happened it was the perfect storm. I was coming up the track and he was sort of moving down and at the right time we touched to hook him. We had done it all day long and not had any problems. You saw a lot of other guys do the same thing and not have any problems. I just incorrectly did it and misjudged it, or whatever you want to call it. It’s a necessary part of this package. The fans don’t want to see us all running around the top. I mean we have run up there sometimes because you are going to go to the back if you pull out. When you have the opportunity to race, you want to race. We were just racing a little bit there and just got to racing a little bit too hard.”

TALK ABOUT THE TWO-CAR BREAKAWAYS: “Well, we’ve seen it happen for the last three or four trips here, we’ve been doing it. The spoilers are so tall on these cars, the spoilers are way too big and the second car sort of gets sucked up in there like a vacuum and you can feel it as they are getting ready to hit you, you can feel you car get pulled back into to because he gets underneath that air coming off the spoiler. It just makes two engines going faster just like a train.

“It just makes it quicker. Makes it easier for each car to run a faster speed. That will be the way this car runs and reacts and acts and that is what we will do here until more things evolve. It cycles around. The racing changes all the time. It is just the way it is all the time. It’s okay. You get so comfortable doing it and you feel like you have it covered and then you go out there and do something like I did and it reminds you that you can get in over your head a little bit.”

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010

Dodge Motorsports PR

Talladega Superspeedway

AMP Energy Drink 500

Post-Race Quotes

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Tweets by TeamDodge

www.media.chrysler.com

SAM HORNISH JR, (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Finished 15th “Today was awesome up until the last four laps. The Mobil 1 Dodge was really good all day long. I could push well and get up to the front and lead. I got caught speeding on pit lane, fell back and made our way all the way back to the front. For some reason on that last restart, we just didn’t go. I was really happy with the Mobil 1 Dodge. I just wish that we had a couple more laps there at the end.”

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU COULD PUT YOUR CAR WHEREVER YOU WANTED ON THE TRACK TODAY? “Our Dodge was really fast. We could run up front, fall to the back and power our way back to the front again. There were times when the run I could get in front of guys and get a great push. And then there were times where I would run up on someone and give them a huge push to the front. It was like that all day. I was trying to make friends all day, hoping we could get some help there at the end. Unfortunately, a couple of guys that I had worked with all day weren’t in position at the end to help us out. I wish we had one more lap because our car was that good. We just weren’t able to get a run there the last four laps and that was the deal. Our car was fast. The engine shop did an awesome job giving us fast cars. You just never know how these plate races are going to end.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Crew Chief, No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) “A really solid weekend overall for the Mobil 1 Dodge. I think the end result could have been a little better. We restarted fourth with four laps to go and had a great feeling that our day may end up in victory lane. A 15th is still a solid run for us here at Talladega. That’s just the way plate racing shakes out. You never know what lane is going to go or what line is the one to be in. We got caught in what might not have been the best line and had to work our way back up to the front. Sam (Hornish) did a great job today. The guys at the Penske engine shop gave us great horsepower this weekend. Great stuff from the Dodge power plant under the hood.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (NO. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Finished 10th “A solid day for the Penske Dodge. I thought that we would be a little stronger. We’re missing a little bit of speed to make our car draft better. This was the last run for this front end, so hopefully we can get a little stronger with the new nose before Daytona. We got a solid finish out of it and I’m proud of everyone at Penske that helped build this car.”

TAKE US THROUGH THE LAST FOUR LAPS: “You just try every line and everything you can think of to get to the front. I picked a couple of good lines and gained a bunch of spots. If we would have had one more lap, I think we could have run up to the front. It’s Talladega. We survived. The car is one piece and we ran strong most of the day. We’ll take it.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Operation Home Front/Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 30th “Typical Talladega. We were looking to draft to the front with the 56 car (Martin Truex Jr.) before the last caution. On the restart, we were stuck on the outside. The first two rows broke away, then it got three wide and we got shuffled back because the cars in front of our line just didn’t go anywhere. It’s disappointing. We ran in the top 10 all day and ready to make a run at the end, but never got the chance. Typical Talladega.”

STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Operation Home Front/Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“We had a really fast Miller Lite Dodge, a lot of speed in the car. All weekend, we were pretty happy with the car. After that last caution, we got in that situation where we were in a line and it didn’t go on the last restart. We were better at pushing; we pushed cars to the front all day long. We would have been alright if we had somebody that could go in front us. We had drafted with the 56 earlier and when we hooked up, we could really move. Throughout the race, it didn’t matter if we got shuffled out, Kurt (Busch) could drive right back up there.”

BILL ELLIOTT – No. 26 Air National Guard Ford Fusion (Finished 40th) – “I checked up because I guess Ambrose got turned up ahead of us and somebody nailed me from the back. I tried to get turned off the wall, but I hit the inside of the wall. I told them in there (the care

center) they better be getting ready.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Valvoline Ford Fusion (Finished 32nd) – “I’m alright. It’s not the most fun run I’ve ever had, but it’s Talladega.

It’s one of those things. I hate this place. I always have and always will. I don’t know. I’m not really sure. I wish I could give you a description of what happened. I was just in the middle four-wide, I was getting shoved and I got in the right-rear of Michael, but I was on the brakes as hard as I could be getting pushed as hard as I was. It was just one of those things.” HAVE YOU EVER FLIPPED LIKE THAT BEFORE? “No, I’ve never flipped in anything like that. I guess there’s a first for everything, but that’s the first I never wanted to have.” HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR RACE BEFORE THAT?

“It wasn’t very good. I just hate this place. I’m proud of my guys.

They fought hard. We went two laps down and we’ve got something with our shocks with the compression in it. It just doesn’t allow us to change the right-front very fast, so we got a lap down and we lost the draft, and then we got bundled up and I got hit once and spin to go two down, so I’m just proud of the guys for fighting so hard. We got back on the lead lap and I thought maybe we had a chance to get something good out of it, so I’m sorry for that. Honestly, like I said, I hate this place but I’m just proud of my guys. They keep fighting in a lot of tough times right now.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 19th) – YOU AND PAUL WERE RUNNING 1-2 LATE. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? “I was hoping we could stay on the top and stay lined up and hoped those guys wouldn’t be able to get such a good run on the bottom. The caution came out that’s what bunched the field back up. On the restart there, the 55 was a little slow and the 2 committed to pushing me, but then I just got stuck on the top. The 55 was slow getting into two, so I tried to go around him and we didn’t have enough momentum. There weren’t enough cars lined up behind us.” WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE DRIVING TODAY? “I was pleasantly surprised and I’m just happy I wasn’t involved in anything. We escaped that, but we wanted a better finish than where we ended up.”

PAUL MENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “We struggled in the pits. We struggled getting the tire off because of the rebound, so it’s something we’ve got to look at, but I think we ran something like 300 miles on the left side tires. We just kept taking two tires and gaining track position. The car sucked up really well. We struggled on restarts, but once it got wound up it was pretty quick.” BIFFLE PUSHED YOU INTO THE LEAD LATE. DID YOU FEEL YOU WERE IN POSITION TO WIN? “We were working pretty well together.

I think we were both hoping it was gonna run out to the end. We were kind of formulating a plan to do that again with a lap or two to go and then a caution came out and kind of ruined that idea. It was just wild at the end. Everybody was pushing the hell out of each other.

It was a lot of fun.” WERE YOU SURPRISED THERE WASN’T A HUGE MULTI-CAR WRECK? “Yeah. There were a couple wrecks that I thought would collect more people, but everybody did a good job. I knew with that last restart it was gonna get wild. Everybody kind of kept their heads until it was time to go, so it was good.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Subway Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) – “Everything was going as planned that last lap. We needed to run that last lap because we were marching forward, but we didn’t wreck the car and that’s OK, but we just needed that last lap.” HAPPY THE RACE WAS RELATIVELY CLEAN FROM A MAJOR ACCIDENT STANDPOINT? “Yeah, it was just plain luck, but everybody did a pretty good job. It was good.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) – “Things just didn’t go our way there at the very end. It seemed like we could be pretty competitive in exactly the right spot, but I had a real hard time maneuvering and I’d get stalled out real bad. Paul gave me a great push on that last restart and I was really trying to stay to his bumper. I was trying to drag the brake and I looked back and somehow he got too far behind me. I was losing all my speed and all the steam was coming on the top, so I went to block the top and tried to get up there. Of course, they just hung me in the middle and I was done, so I guess I should have just stuck it out and waited for Paul to catch back up and maybe it would have been better.” AS FAR AS THE RACING OVERALL. WERE YOU HAPPY THERE WASN’T A MAJOR MULTI-CAR WRECK? “You never like to wreck, but, overall, it was the same racing I think we have about every time. It seemed about normal to me.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 21st) – “We had a fast UPS Ford today. Early on, we just were in the wrong place at the wrong time and we lost the draft and our track position. We had a fast enough car to be up inside of the top 10 when we got back up on the lead lap, but to get up to the front, you’ve got to be in the right group to get there. When that wreck happened there at the end of the race, I was right outside of Kasey Kahne and had nowhere to go and we knocked off our left-front tire. We’ve had some good luck here in the past, but with the way things went today, I’m pretty excited to go to Texas.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 37 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 33rd) – “That was disappointing. We had a great Taco Bell Ford Fusion all day and were looking at a good finish. My guys did great work on pit road all day and my spotter did a good job steering me through the pack. But, this is what happens at Talladega. Anything can happen to anybody and, unfortunately, it happened to us on the last lap.”