.ROBBY GORDON – No. 7 Jim Beam Ford Fusion (Finished 41st) – “It was my spotter’s fault. He didn’t tell me somebody was on the outside and I drifted up. I had the 41 on the inside. I saw him, but I never saw Bowyer come around the outside. About the time I hit Bowyer, he was like, ‘Somebody is on the outside.’ I was like, ‘It’s too late.’ I had a good race car. It was really good 10 laps in. We weren’t very good for the first 10. We were too loose, but once the tire temperatures got up and stuff got going, we were fine. That last run there we almost passed Tony for 10th, so we could easily run in the top 10. It’s just unfortunate that we’re gonna take a big hit in the points like this today.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – PRESS CONFERENCE -- “I was really looking forward to this race. We were so fast in happy hour, I felt like the stuff Bob has been doing has been great, and then on the first pit stop when they dropped the jack, the 42 was coming in in the pit stall in front of me and we pulled right out in front of him and wrecked our car up just a little bit. We fought back from that all day and I was really proud of my guys. The pit stops were awesome. At the end, it was really fun racing with Kyle. We were running on the fence. One time I looked up and he looked like a dirt late model, he had the right-rear sparking off the fence and standing on the gas. It was just a lot of fun there at the end. I wish we could have caught Jimmie. He was fading. For a while I thought we were gonna catch him and then we just kind of all evened out and we needed a caution or something, but I’m very proud of my guys.”
WHO’S FAULT WAS THAT? “It’s Bob Osborne’s fault, you know what I mean? That’s who’s fault it was. He apologized to all of us after the race and it was just a mistake. Bobby Hudson said to watch the 42. I was looking in my mirror and the way the sun was kind of setting, I don’t think Bob could see which one was the 42 – I know I couldn’t. He said, ‘Just go on the jack,’ and they dropped the jack and it was just at the worst time. Bob is such an awesome guy and I know he’s beating himself up over it, but I know we all make mistakes and he doesn’t make hardly any. I’m behind him 100 percent and it’s just a fluke deal. I don’t think it will ever happen again as far as Bob making a mistake like that.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL AT THIS TIME NOW VERSUS LAST YEAR? “I feel a lot different, but I’ve learned a lot. They say you learn the most through your toughest times. Last year wasn’t a disaster by any means, but we didn’t live up to the expectations that we all set. This year is definitely different. I’m sure this week last year I didn’t have a smile on my face right now, and now I do. That’s all you can ask for is to enjoy it, but any of the drivers can tell you that you live and die by this stuff. It’s tough. One week you can be a hero and the next week you’re nothing. It’s a really tough sport on you mentally and I think that having that bad year right off the bat kind of galvanized me a little bit and made me a little bit stronger person and a better competitor.”
DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO CATCH JIMMIE OR WAS HE JUST DRIVING AS HARD AS HE NEEDED TO DRIVE? “It looked to me like he was searching and he was a little slow. I thought he was gonna be a sitting duck. I even said to Bob on the radio. I said, ‘I feel like it’s me and Kyle racing for the win here.’ You know Jimmie better than I do, but I don’t think on the last green flag run you’re gonna lay back. He goes pretty hard.”
HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR WAS THE HEAT? “I felt pretty good. My guys worked pretty hard on our car. When they’re easy to drive you don’t sweat as much. This could have been a 600-miler and I would have been just fine with that. I needed some laps at the end. I don’t think that was as big of an issue as we thought it was gonna be. In practice it was unbelievably hot, but it wasn’t that bad tonight.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 17th) – WITH ALL YOU WENT THROUGH TONIGHT, 17TH IS NOT TOO BAD. “Yeah, we just missed the setup again. It’s frustrating. I don’t know what it is, but we’ll keep working on it. We’ve only got a few more races with these cars anyway, but we’ll keep working at it.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY – No. 26 Sharp AQUOS Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) – “We haven’t finished without me running into the wall in about five weeks, so it wasn’t a bad night. The car was really fast in the beginning and then we didn’t keep up with the track or didn’t make the right adjustments, but Larry did really well making some good pit calls and kept us on the lead lap, and then made some good decisions and the car was about as good as it was all night at the end.”
HOW WAS THE HEAT FOR YOU TONIGHT? “All the cautions really helped in the beginning. If it would have gone green at the beginning, it would have been really hot, but it wasn’t that bad.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “We had a great car. Other than my mistakes speeding on pit road and blending a little too early, we might have had a car that could have finished in the top five or contend for a win, but just a small mistake hurt us like that.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SPEEDING PENALTY? “I just gassed it a little too early. We had a good stop and when you’re right there on the speed limit going down pit road, and if you hit it just a split-second too early, it reflects on your speed there at that last mark and that’s where we got busted at.”
HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH THE HEAT? “Not bad. I had an ice pack the first half of the run and then just a lot of water throughout the run, but once the sun goes down it’s 100 percent better. When you have a good handling car, you kind of forget about the heat.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 R&L Carriers Ford Fusion (Finished 7th) – “No matter where you finish, unless you win, you always hope for better, but it was kind of frustrating. We took off at the beginning of the race and pretty much drove to the front and thought we had a pretty competitive car and as the track changed and the day went on, we just kept getting farther and farther off and couldn’t figure it out.” HOW
DID YOU HANDLE THE HEAT? “It wasn’t really bad until my alternator went out and then I had to shut all my fans and blowers and air conditioners off and then it got pretty toasty.”
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT? “With about 90 to go.”
