[This week: Nemechek has been looking forward to the return trip to California Speedway since his strong run there in February. He led the most laps (63) and was enjoying a comfortable lead when his engine failed with 70 laps remaining.] I feel like a heavyweight fighter who got knocked out and is anxious to get on with the rematch, ... We had victory in sight, but in an instant we went from domination to being stunned in the garage with a broken motor. |
[Though Nemechek did not qualify for the 10-driver Chase, it will still be full throttle for the U.S. Army driver.] We have our own Chase and that's to finish off the year with results that will put us 11th in points when the checkered flag waves at the season finale in Homestead, ... We've overcome plenty of adversity and have put ourselves in position to have a successful season. |
Any time we have a new car, I'm encouraged. When the highly-skilled engineers and fabrication department at MB2 build a car, it's on the cutting edge of technology. I am very confident that we'll have another stout hot rod in California. |
As a driver, growing up in Lakeland, it would mean a lot. I'm in my prime and ready to win. |
As a driver, it would mean a lot. But I don't think it defines a driver. Daytona is a big race, but any Nextel Cup race you can win is big. |
As I keep on saying we're like our soldiers -- we will never allow adversity to get us down -- we keep on coming back. We know we're a front-running team and this could be the lift we needed to get us on a positive streak. |
At first I thought I was going to get robbed, ... That's the way our season has gone. I'm looking forward to (tomorrow). We're good. |
Before that incident, we still had some hope of getting the Army car fixed and back in the hunt. But when I made contact with Green's out-of-control car, I thought we were done for the day and ready to load the car into the hauler. We had significant damage. |
Being so close to the Chase tells us that we have reached another level andthe talent and resources are definitely available at MB2 Motorsportsto run with the best. I keep on saying -- just give us the finishes we deserved in California in February and Atlanta (in March) and we would be sitting comfortably in the Chase. |
Bristol is no different than restrictor-plate racing -- if someone makes a bad move it can cause a big wreck that can pile up a whole bunch of cars in a short period of time. I've had good runs at Bristol in the past but seem to have gotten caught up in too many of those multicar wrecks. |
Considering what we went through tonight, we'll take the top 10 and head to Richmond. We've had pretty good results in the last four races. We need to build on that momentum for the season's homestretch. |
Dale Jr. and somebody got together and shot up in front of me and I got into the back of them. My brakes locked up and the impact crunched the nose in. The Army car never drove the same after that. It was a pretty frustrating deal to have a car drive that good and then all of a sudden get wounded. For a while we had an easy top-10 car. |
Everything was right today. We got behind early, but the Army Chevy was so good that we were able to fight our way back to the front. We were looking for a better finish, but considering all of the bad luck we've had recently it feels good to come away with a top-10 result. |
Except for only a few races this year, we've had good cars at every Nextel Cup event. We've had our share of bad breaks, but we continue with the fight. Like our soldiers, we never give up. Never! |
Going fast down here at Daytona is about the team. |