MATT KENSETH, press conference
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 R&L Carriers Fusion (finished 11th, series points leader) – “We didn’t run very good. We kind of did the pit thing, I thought, right at the end, and got tires and we were decent there. Whatever the heck we’re doing not racing back to the cautions lost us two spots. Harvick passed two of us through the wreck – which isn’t his fault, he had a hole to go through there. They left him in front of us so they just gave him two free spots, so that was frustrating. And then when it was time to pass him, I got ran into the fence twice, so that was frustrating as well. We didn’t have a great car and we didn’t get a lot of room out there. Toward the end I just did the best I could with it, and the guys on pit road did a great job, and we salvaged something out it.”
WERE YOUR STRUGGLES HERE TODAY THE SAME AS IN THE PAST, OR SOMETHING DIFFERENT? “We had our balance halfway decent a couple of times. We couldn’t get any speed out of car all weekend long, really. So, it was about what we expected. We did a good job on pit road. We kept our nose clean, basically, on the track, and got something out it. We didn’t run very good. We didn’t run as good as them guys who had better tires at the end, and if we could’ve not had a caution every four laps we probably could’ve gotten something a little better out of it.”
YOUR LEAD IS 36 POINTS WITH FOUR RACES TO GO. DOES THAT MEAN MUCH? “It means we’re 36 points on the other guy. We’ve still got to go four more weeks and we’ve got to run good. You know, we haven’t run good in this Chase. We ran good at Dover, we ran good to win, we ran good at Talladega and other that we haven’t looked like a championship team. So, I’m more than excited about the point lead, I’m disappointed with the way the end of the race went – the way I got raced there a little bit. I couldn’t have expected more of a performance here. The guys did a great job on pit road, we just didn’t have a fast car all weekend. It’s great to be the leader, but we’ve got to go start running good. All year we could run with the 48 and the 24 and them guys – we haven’t been able to do it lately, and we got to go do it at Atlanta and the next races after that.”
WHAT ABOUT THE CAUTIONS TODAY. DID ONE BREED ANOTHER? OR WERE SOME DRIVING OVER THEIR HEADS TODAY? “I don’t know. The only wreck I saw was when I got spun out. So, other than that, I didn’t see any of them so I don’t have any idea what caused them all. When you get to the end of the race, a lot of times a lot of cautions.”
DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANYTHING GOING IN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP? IT LOOKED LIKE JEFF BURTON DID, BUT HE HAD PROBLEMS AND OPENED IT ALL UP. “I don’t know, it’s been pretty sloppy so far. There’s been some guys who have run real good, but everybody’s had a little bit of trouble. We probably had the least amount of trouble, but we just haven’t run as good as we know we’re capable of – that we did the first two-thirds of the year. So, it’s still pretty wide open. It’s going to be exciting, I think, coming down the last race. I’m glad we’re in the lead and if we can get going back on these last four tracks like we were earlier in the year I think we’ve got a shot at it. But, we’ve got to get running better.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Fusion (finished 12th) – “That’s the best we ever ran here. It was a lot of fun. The crew did a great job and set the car up real well. We had about a fifth- or a seventh-place car, and all day we fought for track position. It ended up great. It was a good day for Matt. Big picture, it was fun.”
YOUR CAR DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE ANY DAMAGE. “We just didn’t get in any bad situations. Everybody raced me really nicely, and it was real awesome.”
EARLY IN THE RACE, WHEN THERE WERE FEW CAUTIONS, HOW WAS YOUR CAR ON THE LONG RUNS? “We were pretty good on the long runs, we just started so far back, so we had bad track position.”
DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Fusion (finished 16th) – ON GETTING TOWARD THE FRONT. “That was just a by-product of everything else that went on. We had an eventful day. We got in a couple of accidents – the second one knocked the front end out, and we got a lap down there. The guys really did a great job of adjusting the car back to where we could race, and we got the Lucky Dog and managed to hang on there. We got in the top 20 somewhere, so it was a pretty reasonable day considering everything that went on. Actually, the car was pretty good – we just never got in a position to really show that until after we were in the accidents and the car wasn’t quite as good. All in all, not a bad day.”
YOUR CAR LOOKS PRETTY BEAT UP. DID THE DAMAGE AFFECT THE CAR AT ALL? “The car was really, really good early in the race, until I got in the second accident and that hurt it. That was just unfortunate. But, yeah, the car was tore all to pieces, so it just shows that if you keep the working parts in order at a place like this, you can go.”
MARK MARTIN – No. 6 AAA Fusion (finished 24th) – “We had a great car today. I was real proud of our effort. We survived it, luckily. Of course, at the end we had a hole in the radiator, so we didn’t get a good finish. These guys did a super job. We had a fight – good race car.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 06 Roush Racing Fusion (finished 25th) – HOW DID YOU END UP ON THE LEAD LAP? “Just some great pit work from Frankie Stoddard and all the guys on the team. They knew what to do and they knew how to play the system. And if we could’ve got a little bit of help from some of those other guys that were three or four laps down, I think we could’ve got back on with 100 to go, maybe. But it’s tough being a new team, a rookie driver. We don’t get a lot of respect out there. But that’s something we did come here this weekend to do, and I think that we accomplished our goal – finished on the lead lap. We would’ve liked to have been up there in the top 15 or 20, but all in all a decent day.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE INCIDENT WITH THE 21? “He got around me getting out of four, and then I just was trying to race DJ getting into one, and just flat-out overdrove it and locked up the brakes. Didn’t have anywhere to go, and I feel sorry for him – I know he’s a true competitor. That’s the last thing I need to do is make enemies out here. It was just one of those deals, it was my mistake, all 100 percent, and hopefully I can make it up to him in the future.”
KEN SCHRADER – No. 21 Little Debbie Fusion (finished 41st) – “I moved him earlier, I moved him, because you can’t run like that two laps down. Got back around him and he just paid me back for moving him, but he was two laps down.” HOW WAS THE CAR BEFORE THAT? “It doesn’t make any difference.”
LEN WOOD – co-owner, No. 21 Little Debbie Fusion – HOW WAS THE CAR BEFORE THE INCIDENT? “We had a really good car. We had stayed in the top 10 almost all day long. We gave up a good day right here.”
