In our sport, this is the big one. It's what we think about all winter, and it's the one race we spend months preparing for. They are all important, but the Daytona 500 is the most important race we run. |
It caught me off guard because no one called me and told me I was supposed to go. If they'd called, I would have gone. You have to take care of those who take care of the sport. |
It makes us want to work harder. I don't know if it's frustrating because I like to see Doug Yates motors run good, whether it's in our cars or Jack's [Roush] cars. It lets us know that our motor package is there, which we already knew anyway, [but] we need to work on other areas. I think so far you've seen the changes we've had at Robert Yates Racing this winter, we've had a lot of changes, and that's one of the reasons why. Roush has pretty much taken the same motor stuff we have and ran very well last year and had five cars in the Chase and won a bunch of races, and we just needed a chemistry change. |
It scared me half to death. |
It was a wild night, ... This was by far the best car I've had in seven years of racing in the Nextel Cup series. |
It's a great feeling, my guys have worked so hard this off-season. We've had the best pit crew in the garage the last couple of years and they showed it again today. |
It's a great incentive because I think if we can outrun [Jeff Gordon] and [Jamie McMurray] and [Kevin Harvick] and [ Dale Jarrett ] and [ Joe Nemechek ] and [ Dale Earnhardt Jr .]. The list can go on and on for great race teams we have to out-run for 11th, |
It's by far the hardest thing I've ever been a part of, ... ... I think it adds a lot of spunk to the sport and I think it's neat. |
It's fun, isn't it? |
It's fun, isn't it? ... There's not enough pieces of pie. I love racing against Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth. We've got a lot of great names that are on the outside looking in, and a lot of great drivers that are on the inside that are really becoming the hunted, so it's gonna be fun. |
It's going to take a lot to beat him. I think Jimmie is the best race car driver at this race track. He's got a beautiful line. He knows what his car needs. ... Before it's all said and done, we're going to have to outrun them. |
It's hard to put into words right now the feelings I've got. I feel like I've got to come in and carry my load this week and do my job to get the car as close as I can. |
It's just real tough. You can't see anything going into (turn) three, and then you can't see anything in your rearview mirror on the front straight. |
It's just real tough. You can't see anything going into [turn] 3 and then you can't see anything in your rearview mirror on the front straight. |
It's no big secret how important these last three races are for our team in regards to making the Chase, |