ins NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship with a second-place finish in Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500.
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Taurus (Finished 42nd) – “We broke something in the engine. We broke a connecting rod or something like that. It’s kind of uncommon at a plate race. Unfortunately, it’s the second one we’ve lost this week, so I don’t know. Our motor program is awesome, but we just seem to have some bad luck right now. We blew a couple at the end of last year and blew a couple to start off this season, so I’m definitely disappointed. It’s the best car I’ve ever had for the Daytona 500 and I really thought we could have been a contender.” HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT TO BE OUT SO EARLY? “I’m kind of disappointed, but you realize that this type of thing can happen. We’ve had a lot of good times, too, but there are gonna be days when things go bad and this is just one of those days.” JOHN ANDRETTI – No. 14 VB/APlus at Sunoco Taurus (Finished 31st) – “The first time somebody turned down on me. I was in the middle of three and four and turned down and I got spun around. Then I got hit in the side. On this last one, I was trying to keep up because we had a torn-up race car and I wanted to keep up with the pack for the last few laps. Something happened in front of us. They were yelling at me, ‘Go low. Go low.’ So I kept turning down. I had somebody to the left of me so I couldn’t go any lower and Mike (Skinner) rolled down and I hit him head on. It was a pretty hard blow for both of us, but I just want to thank VB and APlus at Sunoco and all the people at Ford. We had a good race. We need to make it the rest of the way.” WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CAR OVERALL? “Yeah, at times we had a pretty good handling car. I really felt like we got the car handling pretty good and then we got spun around down there. We had to fix the car and were just hoping to have a decent finish and, unfortunately, that last incident happened and ended our day.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus (Finished 25th) – “It was an alright day. We got the car running pretty good, which is positive. It was gonna be a good day and we were probably gonna get a top 5 or top 6 maybe, but we got wrecked. I don’t know what happened. I’m really, honestly gonna have to watch the tape because I don’t even know what started it or what ended it. I’ve got no idea. Sometimes when you’re scuffling for a position like that, but my spotter thinks somebody got me in the left-rear quarter panel or got me in the back, so I’m not real sure.”
ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 M&M’s Taurus (Finished 11th) – “We struggled with the handling a little bit and then coming from the rear dodging wrecks. It was a good day. We really wanted a top 10, but we’ll take 11th. I’m happy with my guys. They did a great job.” YOU WERE ONE OF 11 GUYS CAUGHT SPEEDING ON PIT ROAD. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THAT? “I’m gonna have to go back and look at that. I don’t know if I was speeding or not, but with this new system we have to adjust the way we get on pit road a lot. We’ll work on that in the future.” HOW WAS IT AT THE END OF THE RACE? “It was pretty hectic at the end because the cars were sliding around so much. It was cool. The guys were being real aggressive, especially there at the end. The car is unscathed. We might have to fix the bumper a little bit, but we can do that.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Taurus (Finished 12th) – “With all the run-ins we had with different people, it was awesome to end up 12th. I mean, I thought we’d end up on the two truck, so that was pretty neat.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE WRECK? “Mark Martin was waving his hand and I thought, ‘He wants me to slow down,’ so I slowed down a little bit and he just stopped. I ran into him and somebody ran into me and I almost hit the flag stand. The car actually ran faster with the front end narrowed up, so I think that helped us a little bit. I think maybe without that we would have been close to the top 5, but even with it I expected we could have been in the top 5 if the cards would have fallen a little differently.” YOU FINISHED 12TH. “That’s a blast. There are 31 other guys who would trade positions with me right now and that’s saying a lot in Nextel Cup.” IT SEEMED LIKE A WAR OF ATTRITION. “It was today. We came out limping around there, the last car that wanted to race and they said, ‘You’re 18th.’ I thought, ‘That’s cool. We’ll race 17 guys for a win, so it was fun.” YOUR EXPERIENCE IN YOUR FIRST DAYTONA 500. “It’s a blast. You’re racing out there for a million-and-a-half dollars to win and you’re racing the nicest race cars in the world in front of 200,000 people live. My crew worked really hard and we overcame some really bad luck. I just had a good time. I really enjoyed it.”
DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Taurus (Finished 15th) – “We pulled the wrong gear. They were running over me. Junior knocked me off the race track early in the race because it wouldn’t run at the end of the straightaway. We finally got it to where I could drive, but it was just so frustrating because it wouldn’t go. On restarts and stuff they would just run over me. They worked their tails off to get us where we got to and we came out with a reasonable finish. It could have been a lot worse. We could have been in the middle of those wrecks.”
RICKY RUDD – No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (Finished 24th) – “We didn’t even get a chance to get going. I don’t know. We cut a tire, blew a tire, a tire came apart and I’m not really sure what happened to it, but it happened all of a sudden. It just went and when it went I did a 360 in front of everybody. I think we were about 15th when it happened, so it could have been a lot worse.” WHAT ABOUT THE LAST PART OF THE RACE? “It was amazing. We were in the thirties for a long, long time just trying to survive and get some points out of it. At one time we were three laps down and the way the lucky dog thing worked out, we ended up being one lap down. I never would have believed we could have come out of it with the finish we did. It’s a shame. We had a really good car here, but what are you gonna do? You’re down here for nearly two weeks and you’ve got all the testing that goes into it massaging the car, but I’ve been in these deals where I got swept up in somebody elses wreck. Unfortunately, we were the guy that wrecked today and took some guys out. We didn’t have much to do with it. The tire came apart, but, still I was looking forward to a good finish like everybody here and it just didn’t work out.”
KURT BUSCH – No. 97 Sharpie/IRWIN Taurus (Finished 2nd) – “Unbelievable day. Just a ton of team effort, just to be able to work on this car to get it capable enough to finish in the top five. To finish second, I wanted to take Gordon on the outside going into three, but nobody would’ve went with us, we didn’t have the momentum to carry it through so I had to follow in and there’s only so much you can do if you don’t have anybody behind you. Congratulations to Jeff Gordon. Today we finished second but it’s a great way to start off our year defending our title.” WAS IT FRUSTRATING OUT THERE NOT GETTING ANYONE TO GO, TOO? “You have to protect the bottom and our Sharpie Ford was going to stayed glued to that yellow line, and of course with the way the Goodyear tires were handling we did the best we could with what we had, and I felt like we did an awesome job to build this great race car and then to work on it in the pits, and then I did my best job driving. So, I had a lot of fun, and I hope the fans did as well.” ON THE END. “We had a great run. To come from fourth to second on the green-white-checkered, we had to run with the 10 car, we had to block him, that pushed us past the 48 and the 8. A great day. The Sharpie Ford was off a little bit early and we had to adjust on it and that’s what the key was. Jimmie Johnson and I got caught speeding on pit road with their new device, so I’ll have to double-check how that all works, but we had a great day to catch back up from that.” EVERYONE PAIRED OFF, IT SEEMED, BUT YOU. DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE ON AN ISLAND? “It seemed like that Ford was all by itself, and I had to use different pushes from people, different side drafts from others, and we did a great job as a team to build that great car to put us in position to get us that second-place finish. I had a run on the 24 but I couldn’t clear him.” ON THE KEY. “The key to success was today was really whoever got off the yellow line I filled that hole.”
MARK MARTIN – No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 6th) – “It was pretty wild. We had an awesome car there. I shouldn’t have let Gordon get up on the inside of me there on that one restart. I was sitting there thinking we might have a shot to contend for this thing, and we did right down to the end. But I just didn’t have myself in the right position at the right time.”
YOU WERE STRONG ALL DAY, FROM LAP ONE TO LAP 200. “Pretty strong. Credit the Viagra team here, this Taurus’ big engines, great effort. This guys have big hearts, and all of ’em.”
THE DECISION TO FIX THE CAR WAS THE CORRECT ONE, WASN’T IT? “Oh, it was the right one, all right. And they did it right, too.”
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN YOU AND RUSTY WALLACE WERE RUNNING TOGETHER. “Rusty and I had a pact. We’ve been racing 30 years. We had a little problem at Talladega a year ago where he said he was going to go with me and didn’t, and I didn’t think that was going to happen today. Rusty and I knew this was our last shot and I would’ve helped at the end and he would help me. I figured that was probably the most loyal friend I had on the race track at the end of the race.”
DID IT MEAN EXTRA TO BE OUT THERE AT THE END WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN RACING AS LONG AS YOU? “I love Rusty. I’ve raced with him for 30 years, and we fought for the same turf for 30 years and we never once had a problem, and that says a lot.”
YOU CERTAINLY MUST BE PROUD? “I’m proud of this race team, Pat Tryson, this Viagra team. These huge engines we’ve got under the hood are incredible and this Taurus worked good, and these guys fixed back right, better than right. It was an awesome run for us. I had a great car, I had a car that could contend and so did a lot of other guys. We fought our way back from the back a few times, and we did what we did. It was a good outing for us. I would’ve liked to have won the race, but we didn’t have it hand and let it slip away.”
ON NOT WINNING. “It ain’t no big deal right now, I’m telling you. I don’t have any major love for this place. Check with me at Charlotte. I’ll have a tear in my eye there.”
DID YOU EVER FEEL YOU HAD A CAR STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE A MOVE? “Well, I thought we were sitting pretty good when we were second and third, I really, really did. I should’ve never let Jeff get on the inside of me there. It happened so quick, I couldn’t do anything about it. It was my mistake. Had I been up there, no telling what would’ve happened. Stewart was a shoo-in to win and didn’t, so what are you going to do? I mean, you just got to do the best you can and we got a great team, fought our way back twice and everything else.”
WITH THE IROC VICTORY AND TODAY’S SIXTH-PLACE FINISH, IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD WEEKEND. “It’s a better start than 43rd last year. This is a good car and I could’ve had a chance to maybe do a little bit better, but I sure could’ve done a lot worse.”
KURT BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE – TALK ABOUT THE LAST FEW LAPS. “We were in great position to be able to win the race. We were able to run up front most of the day. Our Sharpie Ford was off a little bit and we had to keep adjusting on it with big cross-weight changes and air-pressure changes and that enabled us to move to the front each time. We had very timely pit stops with the other groups and we were able to stay in the lead draft, except for when Jimmie Johnson and I decided to go speeding down pit road. But we worked together to get back up. With a green-white-checker restart at Daytona you always look for where anybody isn’t out on the race track, and they left the yellow line open. I got a rearview mirror full of the 10 car and Scott Riggs pushed me. He was gonna go by me if I didn’t block him, so I blocked him and he pushed me by the 48 and the 8, and he caught me again coming off of turn two. He gave me another bump, but that momentum, when I broke away from the 10, wasn’t gonna pass the 24. I wouldn’t have cleared him coming off of turn four. It would have probably been three-wide, four-wide, there probably would have been a six-car pileup at the start-finish line and I wouldn’t have ended up in the position that we were in. I just didn’t have the 10 car behind me to help me clear the 24. Then the 8 car got in there on the low side and I knew I had to just get on the binders and hold the bottom groove so that we could finish second. It was a great day for our team. We built a great car during the off-season. I’m very pleased with what our effort was this year at the Daytona 500.”
IS THIS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT? “Going through those final 10 races last year, I felt it every single lap and every race – being able to perform at our best capability without making a mistake. I had a run on the 24. I had that butterfly in the stomach feeling of, ‘I’ve got a shot at winning the Daytona 500,’ and I wouldn’t have cleared him if I would have gone to his high side. I know I wouldn’t have and I’m gonna stick with that in my mind. I’m gonna be happy with that decision. I’m not gonna kick myself. I finished second today. Our Ford was in a group amongst a bunch of other Chevys and we didn’t have quite the commitment from the guy behind to clear the 24. That was the moment, though. That’s what you live for. That’s what keeps me coming back every race is to be able to have the opportunity to go for the win on the last lap and steal it away. But we ran competitive all day and to finish second was a good effort.”
DID THE CAUTIONS HELP OR HURT? “I had to use the restroom beyond belief. Yes, it did (laughing). We were out there for five hours in the car. I think we sat out there for 45 minutes after driver intros with nothing to do, except watch everybody walk by and enjoy the atmosphere. The cautions actually helped us a little bit. The handle on our Sharpie Ford would go away about lap 25 or lap 28 of a 33-lap run, so we were kind of stretching it the last six laps of a run, just trying to keep the car on the bottom of the race track because we went for all-out speed.”
HOW DID IT FEEL TO GET BACK IN THE CAR AFTER THE OFF SEASON? “It was a great feeling to be able to jump back into the comfort zone of my Sharpie Ford, behind the wheel of the biggest race of the year, and coming off one of the greatest moments in my life. Just to start off with something fresh and new, but yet it’s still the same – the Daytona 500. We had to focus on what we had to do to win the race today and it was great to get back in the car and use my brain for something else other than talking with sponsors or the car owner during the off-season about changes with the crew. And, of course, all of the media things that we’ve done as the champion. NASCAR has spoiled me to death and it was a good feeling to have during the off-season. We were busy, but it was good to get back in the car.”
LAST YEAR YOU WERE RUNNING UP FRONT BUT WERE A LAP DOWN. THIS YEAR, OBVIOUSLY, THAT WASN’T THE CASE. CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE DIFFERENCE? “Last year we had an unscheduled pit stop. I ran into the 8 car coming through the tri-oval and that put our fender on top of the tire. So we had to come in, unscheduled pit stop, and fix that, and there wasn’t any other cautions for the rest of the race. I think there was over 300 miles last year of caution-free action, and that wasn’t the case today. The year before that, I think, we finished fourth; 2002, was it, when we had the rain-shortened race, I finished second behind Michael Waltrip, so this feels great to get our car back in the top five, and this was the first sniff of victory that we’ve had with our Sharpie Ford, legitimately. I mean, we finished second, third, fourth before, but this was our first opportunity to go for the win and we came up a bit short.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FORDS? YOU SEEM TO BE A GUY ON AN ISLAND. “I didn’t see to many of them up there throughout the race, but if Mark Martin was there today I would’ve jumped behind him and pushed him as far and as fast and as hard as I could’ve, being as this was his last race. From what he’s built at Roush Racing and his legacy. Dale Jarrett was on the pole, but we just didn’t see many Fords up front and I was hoping Mark Martin would have a better opportunity at the end, but he was caught out once, he caught back up, I think he gained a top-six position today, but it seemed like it was all kinds of Chevys surrounding me and I was just finding a hole when they left it open.”
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR CONVERSATION WITH JEFF GORDON THIS MORNING? “Jeff and I, we’ve developed a little bit of a relationship, with me coming to him as far as advice, on what to do with a championship frame of mind and how to balance things out. I was very anxious in our 150 to go to the front, I gave him a little bump, he didn’t like it, we both ended up finishing sixth and seventh in our 150. At the starting grid today I told him, ‘I’ll work with you today, just as long as you don’t run into my front bumper like that anymore.’ I told him today that I had an opportunity to pass him at the end, I told him that we would’ve ended up probably two-wide, three-wide, four-wide coming off of turn four and that I decided to stick in behind him because I knew my chances of winning weren’t all that great of clearing the 24, and so I protected him at the end, and I just wanted him to feel relieved that I helped him out, and that he owes us one, I guess.”
DID YOU FEEL “WRONGED” FOR GETTING CAUGHT SPEEDING ON PIT ROAD? “I didn’t. I saw the 48 inching ahead of us on pit road and so I just kept the speed with him You’re always trying to make sure that you stay within the lead draft and I was going to be the last car off of pit road in that group, which I was. And I was going to have a hard time keeping up with that group. I just thought that I was still within reason on pit road. They have a new device as well as their back-up device on checking pit-road speed, and it was a great save for us to come in with the 48 because the two of us helped each other out and we both knew we were speeding and we got back up in the front later in the day.”
WERE YOU IMPRESSED WITH HOW MARK MARTIN RALLIED TO GET A SIXTH-LACE FINISH? “Yeah, I felt sorry for him after his 150. With all the people around him and the interview that he gave. He just flat-out said, ‘My chances are done. I can’t win it without this car.’ And the team believed in him, and the team put together an effort where I think there was a right-front fender missing, they completely sawed it off. They went above and beyond the call of duty to repair that car, and pulled all the guys that normally do the fabrication from North Carolina, brought ’em down to Florida. That’s a team effort. That’s something to give something to Mark Martin on his last Daytona 500 – if this is his last one. They gave 110 percent effort and I would’ve done the same if we would’ve had the opportunity to draft with Mark Martin. He’s great guy, a great legend already in my mind, just he finished sixth today and it’s fitting. Six, that’s his number.”
THERE WEREN’T ENOUGH FORDS AROUND YOU AT THE END OF THE RACE. WHAT’S MISSING FROM FORD’S PROGRAM? “I think if we look at just the straight-up lineup of NEXTEL Cup racing that the quantity of Fords is lacking, compared to the Chevrolets. I believe that we’ve got the smallest group of cars. It’s Roush Racing, it’s Yates Racing, and you’ve got the Wood Brothers. I would guess that that’s eight, nine competitive ars, whereas the Chevrolets it seems like there’s 18, 19 competitive Chevrolets, with Hendrick, with Gibbs, with RCR and I’m going to miss somebody. And then you’ve got about a dozen Dodges. So I just think that we’re outnumbered and it would be nice if we could get a competitive two-car team to swap over to Ford and just add a number to us because we’ve got great motors, Jack Roush gives me great cars. It just seems like we’re outnumbered all the time.”
