Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet
"Yes, I am ok. Not completely sure what happened out there. All of a sudden it took off on me. I haven't seen it on film, so I am not sure what happened. Pretty impressive to go all the way to the back and come up all the way to the front of the field like that. I was really happy about that. The Home Depot Monte Carlo was awesome today. We fell back and came back. We were kind of in a bad position that one pit stop, when Robby Gordon was coming and I stalled it trying to get out ahead of him. Then him and the 38 get together and wreck on pit road and I was just in a hurry to get out of there and wasn't paying attention to pit road speed. That was my fault and I got us behind."
Mark Martin, driver of the NO. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet
TAKE US THROUGH THAT LAST LAP. IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD THE NO. 5 (KYLE BUSCH) COVERED AND THEN OUT OF NOWHERE COMES THE NO. 29 (HARVICK) "Well, we saw him up there. We were just doing everything we could, you know. It was the Daytona 500 man. I just want to thank Bobby Ginn and especially the U. S. Army team. I'm so proud to be a part of this team. They gave me a chance at the Daytona 500 and that's all I ever asked. I really hate that I let them down. I gave it what I would, but I didn't get it done. I really thought they were going to throw the caution. I was still ahead; then they were wrecking behind. If they would have thrown the yellow, it was in our fingers. But they waited and waited and they waited and I didn't have any pusher there at the end and he was in the preferred for second back forward. But I just want to thank everybody for all their support. I wanted to win that thing and they were going to have to pry it out of my fingers, man. I was looking back to see if we had any help, but I didn't see any back there. It was just short."
DO YOU THINK MAYBE THIS IS THE YEAR? "Hey, this is a green-white-checkered at the Daytona 500. I knew the race was on. And man we got so far down the line. I saw him (Harvick) get that run. I tried to block it. And then I got back down and you know, minus the wreck and everybody coming through there good with a good pusher, we would have still had it done. I really still thought, as we entered Turn 3, that we were going to get it done. And then they started wrecking and we were still ahead of him. But it just wasn't meant to be. I didn't get the job done.
"I've got several things I want to say before I talk about the race. First of all, I want to thank the race fans for supporting me so much because if it wasn't for them, I might not have got my dream ride with Ginn. And I also want to thank, you know, that team that worked so hard to give me this deal.
"It gives me such great pride to represent the U.S. Army and to work with people who want to win so bad as this group and who gave me a chance to do it the way I wanted.
"I also want to say that I didn't ask for a win in the Daytona 500; I asked for a chance. Those guys gave me exactly what I asked for, and I let it slip away, slip through my fingers, and I'm fine with that. I did my best.
"When I looked up there at the end, I was minus any pushers. I didn't have any help to get it done, and that's the way it goes. It was really looking good. I told this team through Speed Weeks when we qualified 35th, that we still -- we came down here for Sunday. "We came down here to win this race. Ryan Pemberton and all these guys, they got it done. They got it done on Pit Road, they gave me the car, huge horsepower with Hendrick Chevy horsepower, and they gave me the tools to get out there, and we came up a little bit short."
Kevin Harvick, driver of the NO. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
WHERE DID YOU GET THAT HEAD OF STEAM AT THE END OF THE RACE TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500? "I had Jeff Burton behind Matt Kenseth and Kenseth just pushed the hell out of me there. This Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet got a little hot. We had to come in and take some tape off. We had a hole in the nose. Man, my go-kart experience over the winter paid off. We were just bouncing off everything. But man, this is the Daytona 500."
CAN YOU BELIVE IT? "I can't believe it. We were 30-something there with 15 laps to go and we came up through there. I've just got to thank Richard and everybody for an awesome race car."
Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the NO. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet
"I was behind the No. 88 and couldn't see what caused the wreck, but I had nowhere to go. The No. 88 slowed down and I ran into him and got ran into. I don't know. We just wrecked. I couldn't see what was happening in front of me. We were coming off Turn 2 and I just saw sparks on the wall. I couldn't see what was happening in front of me because I was tucked in behind the No. 88."
DO YOU THINK YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD SOMETHING FOR THE LEADERS HAD THAT NOT HAPPENED? "No, I don't think so. We were trying everything we could try. The race wasn't over with, but we didn't bring enough bullets tonight."
He just kept looking at me saying, Man, this is the Daytona 500, can you believe it? It's the Daytona 500."
David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 AAA Ford
"I think a top-five finish is great. We want to be the top rookie, we want to be one of the top contending Roush cars week-in and week-out. It's a pretty special day down here. It's been an up-and-down week has been an understatement. All in all, it ended up a good day. We've still got a lot of hard work ahead. We've got to go to California."
WHAT DID YOU LEARN OUT THERE TODAY?
"You just can't push the issue. And luck is really a lot here. There, a few times, I was on the outside and it really worked out good for me there, and at the bottom at the end. You know, we could've been Earnhardt, Jr., getting our hood ripped off with 10 laps to go, but it just worked out, and it makes me look like I did a little better job than I did."
Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge
"We had a good week until about 50 or 60 laps to go. We were running behind Stewart and I got him aero loose. He checked up in front of me, and I bumped into him. It looked awful, but I did all I could to stay off of him. It ruined both of our chances to win the Daytona 500. I feel bad for him. He's been a good ally on the plate tracks. I feel bad for my team and my sponsor Miller Lite and Dodge and everybody that's involved. We led the most laps, but we don't have much to show for it. We'll get some big shovels and dig out of this hole. We go to California next week and we'll look to be strong there."
Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 44 UPS Toyota
"We got strung out when the sun was out - it wasn't a bad car and it handled pretty good. We were kind of making our way along. As it got cooler and there were cautions and it bunched everybody up - we weren't as good. The car wasn't bad. There are a few areas that we'll work on. For our first race - not too bad. There was just stupid racing at the end, that's all that's good for - the green-white-checkers are terrible and tear up bunch stuff. We managed to come out of it unscathed, get us a few points - that's what we have to do here for the first five or six weeks."
