After Indy it was like 'engrave the trophy and give it to him,' ... We just wanted to keep working real hard. It's very seldom that a driver gets good luck all year long and we still had the capability to come back. |
All I saw was an opportunity to try to pass him but it was the white-flag lap and if I had passed him it wouldn't have mattered because of the caution freezing the field, |
At Loudon, things can go one way or the other. It's very difficult to pass, and track position means a lot. Pit strategy means a lot too. We're going to concentrate on being as consistent as possible throughout the race. At a track like this, you want to work to make sure you come out with the best finish possible, which will help the team at least maintain their current position in the point standings and possibly pick up some more points as well. |
Dennis and I and Crawford had a heck of a race, |
Dennis and I and Crawford had a heck of a race. One minute, I thought Dennis was going to win. Then I thought Crawford was going to win. Then I thought maybe I could win it. It was fun. |
I just got blind-sided. That was the biggest thing. Nobody really had an inclination of it shutting down. Everything looked to be in order. The timing was wrong and the way it was handled was wrong. You just pick the pieces up and you run with them. |
I think she'll be a very good contender. I don't think she'll win the championship — I don't know if I can win it — but it's great to see somebody like Erin coming in. It gives us notoriety and shows the diversity we have out there. |
I'm excited to not have to drive seven hours to race at Birmingham or Montgomery. The tracks that we're going to be running are short enough that it's not going to be all about horsepower. I'm excited to go to these tracks that are close to home and not have to travel all over the place. |
It just goes to show you that nobody's superman. I know what he's going to be going through, to some extent, and I feel for him. It's a shame he can't run while he's receiving treatment like I did, because sometimes the best medicine is getting to do what you love. But there are so many different types of cancer, and the treatments are all different, and evidently he's not able to do both. |
It was almost like you died and everybody went into your house and just ransacked it and got everything they wanted. You're favorite this. You're favorite that. You just see it all disappear. |
It was really weird. You win the championship, and you're all happy. Your team is put together. Everything you've worked for is finally in place. Then to kind of have that thrown away and have everyone scatter ... it's more or less like you died and someone went into your house and ransacked it. |
It's not supposed to happen that way. |
It's one of the strangest things I've ever been involved in. |
Mark got his Christmas present because we had a plan. It's a last-lap deal where you just use the brakes real quick, let him shoot out, and then we come charging like a freight train. |
Our truck was decent, but it wasn't anything like his. He won the race. I could not accelerate off the corner like he could. |