I knew we were in good shape once we got going on a long run, ... Chad said four was going to be better, and it worked out. |
I know how hard they've been working for a win. |
I know in the back of my mind that we can be leading or in fourth or in sixth and it bounces around, |
I know it looked fishy and drew a lot of concerns in everyone's eyes. How can something be perfectly legal and then it's not allowed? |
I know my team believes that. I believe that. We knew we would round the corner eventually and thankfully we've done it earlier in the Chase rather than as late in the Chase as we did last year. |
I know right now that Chad is probably kicking his TV in back home (in Charlotte, N.C.). |
I look at Mark Martin and ... he's been competitive and has been fighting for championships for really the majority of his career, |
I look at that and wish maybe we played the strategy that (Dale Jarrett) did where he sat at the back and stayed out of trouble and then came through and was even able to win the race, ... We considered a lot of things at Talladega and we felt like the best thing for our team was to race for the win and to be up front and stay out of trouble that way and it didn't really play out. |
I looked up in the mirror with two [laps] to go, and I thought he was wrecking and spinning out behind me. But he still came back and passed me. |
I lost a lot more in the big picture running out of gas and going down a couple laps. Coming down pit road without your tachometer, you have a pit road speeding violation, so I think it's a worse feeling to run out then play it conservative. |
I love coming here. I love racing here, and I love leaving here. Then it's behind me and the stress is gone. It's a tough track. Anything can happen. |
I need to thank the [No.] 5 team (Busch's) for all the testing they did, ... We used that information and took advantage of it. We use all our resources. |
I needed to see the video to really understand what took place. |
I personally am not a huge fan of this new testing plan. I understand the reasons behind it, but I hate that if a team is in need, they can't go out and try to better themselves. If you're off, I don't really see a lot of chances where a team can pinpoint its problems and work through them. |
I personally think it has a lot to do with Jeff Gordon and what he's done here over the years. |