Month: June 2011

Roush Fenway leads over 115 laps at MIS; Edwards increases Sprint Cup Points Lead

BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 19, 2011) – Roush Fenway towered above the field for the bulk of Sunday’s 400-mile Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway, leading 115 of 200 laps and making a strong run at victory. In the end, the team would battle through a myriad of circumstances, with Matt Kenseth’s wild last-corner desperation pass of Denny Hamlin coming up short and the team settling for the second-place finish.

Carl Edwards looked to have the race win in sight, leading with a handful of laps remaining, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran into the wall, forcing a caution with only nine laps left. Edwards and the No. 99 team lost the battle off of pit road; finishing fifth in the race.

Greg Biffle led a race-high 68 laps, but got caught off sequence with a late caution and fuel mileage and finished 15th. David Ragan was hit early in the race on pit road by the No. 88 car, but rebounded to finish 20th.

“The Crown Royal guys did a great job. We had a really fast car and thought we were going to have a chance to win,” said Kenseth, who actually slid sideways while attempting a last corner pass of eventual winner Denny Hamlin. “I got a bad restart, but Carl pushed me back in there. I got back to Denny (Hamlin), but I could not get back around him. The car was slower for the first 10 laps and then it seemed like we were the best car. I just didn’t have time to get around him. I tried everything I could, but I just could not figure out how to do it.”

Edwards used the top-five finish to increase his Sprint Cup points lead to 20. Roush Fenway leads the points in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series point standings.

The Sprint Cup Series returns to action next weekend at Infineon Raceway for the season’s first road course race of the year. Roush Fenway has won once in the Sprint Cup Series at Infineon and four times in road course action in the Cup series.

More information to come at www.roushfenway.com http://www.roushfenway.com/ .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

HELUVA GOOD! SOUR CREAM DIPS 400

MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES

June 19, 2011

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 PITTSBURGH PAINTS/MENARDS CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: TALK ABOUT THE END OF THE RACE AND A GREAT FINISH FOR YOU: “Track position is so important. The guys gave me some good pit stops and the last one we kind of went back and forth about whether to take two (tires) or four and ‘Slugger’ (Labbe, crew chief) made the right call to take two. Clean air is so important. I was still a little bit too tight at the end but we definitely needed a good run and we got one today.”

YOUR FIRST TOP-FIVE FINISH HERE AT MICHIGAN AND YOUR BEST FINISH OF THE YEAR, THIS TEAM JUST KEEPS PICKING AWAY AT IT WHAT’S MAKING THE DIFFERENCE? “We’ve had a rough month, no doubt about that. My guys needed a good run. We’ve had a fast car for the most part, just been struggling to put together a full race. Wasn’t really sure what we had in practice. The car drove good, it seemed like we lacked a little bit of speed. Qualified in the top 10 and that’s so important at these intermediate tracks, track position. Slugger made a good call to take two tires at the end. Kind of went back and forth, two verses four. A lot of people took two, we did. A little too tight at the end but the Pittsburg Paints/Menards Chevy was just a really solid weekend and that’s what we needed.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 US ARMY 236 BIRTHDAY/BUD MOORE TRIBUTE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: A GREAT 6TH PLACE FINISH, TELL US ABOUT IT: “It was a good finish for us. After our practice on Friday we really didn’t have much to look forward to but the guys did a good job of giving me a better U.S. Army Chevrolet and we fought back hard. We struggled a couple pit stops and we took two tires at the end and the guys nailed it and I got some decent track position and was able to hold on. So a good finish for us that we typically don’t have at Michigan and I look forward to the road course next week.”

SO WAS TWO TIRES AT THE END THE RIGHT CALL TO MAKE?”Well, two tires just basically because of the amount of laps the other tires had on them. We did no tires earlier in the race and held them off a lot better than I thought they would. You never know. We just proved two tires could win.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: THE CAR CAME TO LIFE WHEN YOU PUT THAT SPRING RUBBER IN: “Yes, just proud of Darian Grubb (crew chief) and all the Office Depot/Mobil 1 guys. They did an awesome job. We weren’t very good at the beginning of it, but we kept working at it. Kept making changes and got us a lot better there at the end. We just needed track position to get further forward.”

HOW CRAZY WAS THAT LAST RESTART? “I’m glad we didn’t have too many restarts because everybody drove like idiots today. I lost a lot of respect for a lot of drivers out there.”

ON HIS RACE: “I’ll take it. Can’t complain. We had to take some pretty big swings at it today. Really proud of Darian Grubb (crew chief) and all the guys on the Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy team. They did a real good job of just staying with it and kept fighting. We kept working our way back up at the end there,, we just had to deal with all the weapons out there today.”

WAS IT A TWO-TIRE CALL THERE AT THE END? “Yes. We were on the same strategy that everybody else was there at the end. We were just a little bit tighter on the restart than we were before.”

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: IN A SITUATION LIKE THAT (WITH DALE EARNHARDT, JR.) DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT IS PRETTY EASY TO TALK THINGS OVER AND GET THINGS SORTED OUT? “I don’t have a history of having problems. I don’t think I have one now. I think we will get it sorted out. I feel like I give everybody on the race track respect. I made a mistake.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR RACE: “Our car was much better today. We had a pretty good run. I think we can take it and kind of build on that going forward. It was a good day for us after what we have been having happen.”

LANDON CASSILL, NO. 51 SECURITY BENEFITS/THANK A TEACHER TODAY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: YOUR BEST CAREER FINISH TODAY HERE AT MICHIGAN. HOW WAS THE CAR? “It was great and we were really fast at some parts of the race and we kept getting the balance on one side or the other and we had a little bit of racer luck there that put us in position to put us on four tires there at the end and that is what made it for us and that was awesome. Great call on Nick Harris’s part.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: ON THE RACE

“We just got really loose at the end and I should have just packed her down a little bit and wound up getting the car into the fence. But they still did a good job of fixing it and we did what we could with it at the end and were able to come home okay. But it was my fault. I drove it right into the fence. I knew I needed to back down and just didn’t.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: ON HIS RACE: “The defining moment probably was getting run into the wall by Mark (Martin). We had fixed the car, we were moving forward and we were doing pretty well at that point, but, you can’t do nothing about getting run over or getting run into the wall.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED? “I perceived that he didn’t know I was on outside. He come up there, he knew I was up there, but, he was just running hard. If they tables were turned, I would have been smarter and give him plenty of room than he did me. He is older me, been racing forever and knows a lot more than I’ll ever get or he has forgot more stuff than I’ll never know. Still, I take better care of people than that.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED? “I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know. I just do a better job; I take better care of people than that. Hopefully, now that I know what to expect in a situation like that. I will still drive on the outside of him and hopefully he won’t run me in the wall.”

WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE? “I got on the outside of Mark and he just came on up and drove us into the fence off the corner. I don’t know if his spotter wasn’t spotting good or whether he just couldn’t see good or what but just ran us slap into the wall. I don’t know how else to explain it other than that. It blowed the right front tire out eventually. We had got the car pretty good at that point and were kind of moving forward. I don’t know man, you know. The car went away from us in the middle of the race. I guess we can try to get our stuff together and go back the next week and try to see what we can do.”

AT POINTS THIS DID FEEL LIKE A TOP-FIVE CAR TO YOU AND THEN THAT KIND OF ENDED THE DAY FOR YOU? “I never gave up. I mean even at the end when the car was beat all to hell we still wanted to try to get what we could at the end of the race. We tried to get as many spots as we can. Every point is a big deal out there. I try really hard to take car of people and try not to be careless and I don’t like putting up with carelessness and that really pissed me off what happened out there.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET, FINISHED 27TH: TOUGH DAY OUT THERE FOR YOU GUYS TODAY: “Yeah, tough day. We got turned around early and ground the sway bar off the right front and we lost a couple laps from that and we were just kind of in a hole at that point and couldn’t get caught back up. Its just part of it.”

REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET, FINISHED 33RD: ON HIS RACE ENDING BECAUSE OF CUT TIRE WHILE RUNNING NEAR TOP-10: “I believe we were running 11th or 12th on the final restart and things just started to go south in a hurry. I got trapped in traffic on the restart and near the end of the race I got tangled with the No. 21 (Trevor Bayne) and cut a right-front tire. Instead of a top- 12 or top-15 result, we finished 33rd. That was a lot of points we lost out on. The good side of the coin is that we fought hard all day and put ourselves in a solid position at the end, but couldn’t finish it off.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Dodge Motorsports PR

HELUVA GOOD! Sour Cream Dips 400

Michigan Int’l Speedway

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NSCS Race Final

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 11th “A really up and down day for us. It’s always tough when you earn a pole position and can’t take advantage of it during the race. Our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger was just too inconsistent today to contend for a race win. We were a solid top-10 race car, but just couldn’t get (it) dialed in enough to run with the leaders. We ran 198 laps inside the top 10, finished 11th after getting nudged out on that last restart. It was really a seesaw day for us. It seemed like our car would be good for the first five laps of a green flag run, and then once the track would rubber-in, we would run tight. Our first lap was awesome; the last 199 were a challenge. You have to be rock-solid on these two-mile race tracks. You need a good race car, solid pit stops and good changes to keep up with the track and we just were too inconsistent today. A solid points day for us and that’s important in the big picture.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 25th “Obviously we had a poor qualifying effort that forced us to start at the rear of the field. Once the green flag flew, our Miller Lite Dodge was a rocket. We were able to make our way up the field and raced as high as 18th. I was just trying to move around on the race track, trying to get us to where we needed to be. I just pushed too hard and hit the wall and that led to a flat tire that totally changed our day. From there, our day went down hill and we just had to battle. Later in the day, we started to make our car right and had an opportunity to make a good run out of if and get a good finish, but had some engine issues on the restart. It’s tough. This track and race means so much to me. I really wanted to have good run and we just didn’t make it happen today. It was just one of those days where it didn’t matter what we did, we were going to have a bad day. We’ll just keep working at it.”

YOU STARTED 41ST YET WERE RUNNING 20TH BY LAP 15. WAS YOUR CAR THAT GOOD EARLY? “Yeah, our Miller Lite Dodge was really fast. Our first run was really strong. Then we started to stall a bit, scrubbed the wall and it went downhill. All the track position that we gained we gave back and you just can’t do that on a track like Michigan where track position is so important.”

TEAM CEVY DRIVERS CAPTURE FIVE OF THE TOP-10 FINISHING POSITIONS IN SUNDAY’S HELUVA GOOD! SOUR CREAM DIPS 400 AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Brooklyn, MI – (June 19, 2011) Paul Menard, No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet, scored his best finish of the 2011 season after starting ninth and coming home fourth in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup series event at Michigan International Speedway (MIS). Four other Team Chevy drivers came home in the top-10 in a race that saw several long green flag runs and another potential fuel mileage finish quelled by a late caution and gambles on pit road.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 U.S. Army 236 Birthday/Bud Moore Tribute Chevrolet was one of those to roll the dice late in the event, taking two tires for valuable track position and bringing his Chevy home in sixth position. Newman now sits eighth in the standings. Ryan’s teammate Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet came home right behind Newman in seventh position and fell two positions in points to 11th place.

Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet came home eighth and was followed by Hendrick Motorsports veteran, Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet who finished in ninth place. Bowyer also dropped two spots in points to 10th and Martin moved up one and now resides in 14th position.

Five time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Chevrolet had a tough day that began with a spin early in the event. The spin caused front end suspension damage that put the team in a two-lap hole they could never dig out of. Johnson finished 27th in the event and fell three positions to fifth in the standings.

Denny Hamlin (Toyota) won the Sunday’s race. Matt Kenseth (Ford), Kyle Busch (Toyota) rounded out the top-five finishing order.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, rallied from contact with the wall to finish 14th and moves up into second place in the points after today’s race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, had a disappointing day after contact with another car that forced him into the outside retaining wall. He finished 21st but still holds down third place in the rankings.

Jeff Gordon, No.24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, after starting 31st, he battled an ill-handling race car most of the race to finish 17th. The four-time champion now sits 12th in the points order.

The series now moves on to the first road course race of the 2011 season at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California next Sunday.

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

Michigan International Speedway – Helluva Good: Sour Cream Dips 400

Sunday, June 19, 2011

TNT NASCAR: Countdown to Green delivered by Pizza Hut

Lindsay Czarniak (host), Kyle Petty (analyst) and Larry McReynolds (analyst)

During TNT pre-race feature on A.J. Foyt talking about his experience in NASCAR racing: “I wasn’t some big-time hero coming in here, I was just one of the boys.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. during a TNT pre-race feature on his prospects for a win in Michigan: “Wins are around the corner.”

TNT analyst Larry McReynolds on Jr.: “For the first time Dale Jr. is engaged with his race team [Hendrick Motorsports].

TNT NASCAR Summer Series – Post-race remarks

Denny Hamlin on his win at Michigan on TNT: “I’m happy for this team. We got it working at the end. This is the point of the season we need to get it going.”

Carl Edwards during TNT’s post-race interview on his hope for NASCAR to evaluate downforce (aerodynamic characteristics of a car): “I hope NASCAR has an opportunity to look at this race and change and take downforces away with this 2013 car that’s coming. The track position shouldn’t be as important as it is. It would be nice if it was race cars [that determine the course of a race] instead of downforce.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. commenting during TNT’s post-race on being pushed into the wall near the end of the race by Mark Martin and being forced to pit road for new tires and no chance to make a final run at the end of the race: “I don’t like putting up with carelessness. I try really hard not to be careless and that really pissed me off what happened out there.”

Ford Racing Finishing Order:

2nd Matt Kenseth

5th Carl Edwards

13th AJ Allmendinger

15th Greg Biffle

16th Trevor Bayne

20th David Ragan

23rd Marcos Ambrose

29th David Gilliland

31st Travis Kvapil

32nd Mike Bliss

36th Andy Lally

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 5th) “I was going to go all the way to the top of the grandstands today. I just appreciate all the fans coming out here. This is a great race track and track position is so important. Sadly, down force is such a big factor in these cars and I am really hoping that NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take down force away so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race down force. That would be cool.”

WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE IN LAYMAN’S TERMS? “All the cars are very close. So let’s say all of the cars are a tenth apart and you are behind two or three cars, your car is two-tenths of a second slow. You can’t make up. I am not whining. Denny earned this win and those are the rules we are under. Track position was huge and I just wish it wasn’t like that.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) “I just couldn’t quite get Denny. After restarts we were kind of slow and tight in the middle which isn’t a good thing to be in a short shootout. We had a great car in the long run though. I tried what I could to get around him but I slipped on the restart. I just needed more laps to get it going.”

LOOKED LIKE YOU GUYS HAD THE RIGHT SETUP ALL DAY, HOW DID THE TRACK CHANGE TODAY? “We had a great race car. The Crown Royal Ford was really fast. We got behind a couple of times and when we were going to be short on fuel I had to slow way down to save fuel. When you have to do that it is hard to figure out the balance of your car because you change your driving style so much and what the car feels like. I didn’t know what to do for adjustments at the end. So we just left it, threw a couple tires on it and tried it.”

GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 15th) “The car drove great. The pit stops were great. Everybody did a great job. Everything is perfect.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) “That run was a credit to the Ford team in general. We struggled really bad. We were okay Friday and started struggling at the end of the day and we were really bad in qualifying. We looked at some notes and went off the other Ford cars, a different direction than we had been before and the car was great all day. I am going to blame Dale Inman, I think he did something in his past life to give us all this bad luck on this team (laughter).”

DOES LOSING A CHANCE TO GAIN POINTS THIS WEEK MAKE NEXT WEEK MORE CRITICAL FOR YOU? “No. Points don’t matter right now. We have to get better. We aren’t a Chase team right now. Points to me, obviously you want to score every point you can but we need to be better before we worry about making the Chase. Today was a big step. We were never really good here and we were a top-five car all day. Thirteenth sucks in the end compared to what we had, but I am proud of what we did today instead of the points.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) – “Right from the get-go, nothing was really going our way. Our UPS Ford was a top-10 car, but after our first trip into the pits, the No. 88 and No. 51 got together and ran us up the race track and we had to come back in and fix our fender. We went back out on track in the high 30s and drove back towards the front and we had the speed, but we didn’t catch the cautions right. We tried short pitting to get back on the lead lap and it just didn’t work out. I think we had a top 10 or top-five car; we could just never seem to get up there. It’s just very disappointing. Everything that could go wrong did and we’ll just have to regroup.”

TREVOR BAYNE, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) – SO IT’S A 16TH-PLACE FINISH FOR YOUR FIRST RACE BACK IN THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES. HOW DID THE 200 LAPS FEEL FOR YOU? “Good. I feel fine, so I’m ready and I’m back and it was good to finally get back in this Cup car. It wasn’t too bad for our first run back there, 16th-place finish. This team is doing a really great job this year. We struggled on pit road there for a little while, but we finally got that figured out at the end of the race, so that helped us. Then, the car was really tight into the center and loose off, so we fought that all day long up until the very last lap.”

WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU LEARNED TODAY THAT YOU’LL APPLY? “I learned a lot about just applying, how to apply the brakes to keep the car turning all the way through the center of the corner and I think that’ll transfer to everywhere, every race track we go to. So I’m going to keep trying to use that. I’ve got to get better at figuring out what this thing needs in practice, and telling exactly what it needs so we can get better in the race. But we’ll keep working on that as well. It was a pretty hard-fought 16th. We got a couple of them there at the end. At least we were moving forward there at the end of the race. The No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion still looks good. There are not too many bumps and bruises on it, so we can keep running this thing.”

THIS WAS A HOMETOWN RACE FOR YOUR SPONSORS, MOTORCRAFT AND QUICK LANE, AND FORD. HOW DO YOU BALANCE PLAYING HOST AND DRIVING? “It’s good. I love the Ford people being here in Michigan (including Frederiek Toney, Vice President of Ford Customer Service Division and Brett Wheatley, Director, Marketing, Ford Customer Service Division). That’s the easy part, is balancing that. Because once I get in the race car, it’s all what I do anyway. I don’t really have to think about it.”

MATT KENSETH PRESS CONFERENCE

TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY. “It was nice to be able to race but I didn’t do a great job in the restart and I spun my tires. Denny saw me hanging back a little bit and took off. Once he was clear it was really hard to pass, especially on a short run like that. The track gets all black and slimy from this new tire. My car wasn’t real good on a short run anyway. I didn’t have enough to get around him once he cleared us there.”

CARL SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THE 2013 AND TAKING AWAY DOWN FORCE. WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT? “I have no idea. I honestly know nothing about the 2013 car. That is not a lie. I know nothing about it.”

HOW FRUSTRATED WERE YOU TODAY? IT LOOKED LIKE FUEL WAS GOING TO BITE YOU. “Yeah, you try to not get too frustrated because it is a team effort and I made tons of mistakes so you try not to get too frustrated but it is at least the third time we haven’t gotten full of fuel, or the fourth time or something like that. We recovered at Texas but not at Charlotte which cost us a win. We did it again here today and got lucky to get a caution so it didn’t cost us but it could have. We had a slow pit stop that put us behind. That was hard to overcome. I am happy we got second.”

TO CLARIFY ON THE DOWN FORCE QUESTION, CARL WAS SAYING THIS RACE WAS TOO MUCH ABOUT TRACK POSITION AND NASCAR SHOULD LOOK AT TAKING DOWN FORCE OFF FOR THE 2013 CAR. DO YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ON THAT? “I don’t have any suggestions for what NASCAR should do, but it has been more difficult to pass I think lately. I like this new nose on this car a little better but it seems like it is a little harder to pass. I honestly think that is the tire more than anything else. It seems like the tires we have been running this year lay down a lot of rubber, which is nice, but on that restart it was slime from bottom to top and you are up there sliding. That is how it feels to me. I don’t know. I just race what they give you and do the best you can. It is definitely an advantage to be in front because it is hard to pass that is for sure.”

IF THAT LAST CAUTION HADN’T COME OUT, WHAT WHERE THE SCENARIOS YOU WERE CONTEMPLATING? “I thought I was going to run out of gas, so I was running around half throttle which isn’t fun because you don’t feel like you are racing. I was just riding around real slow because they said we were two laps short, and I didn’t think I would save that, but I sure as heck wasn’t going to pit either. I was trying to save gas, running slow and hoping for a caution.”

YOU HAD FUEL ISSUES, DO YOU HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THE FUEL SITUATION YET AND WHAT IS THE STATUS OF CROWN ROYAL FOR NEXT YEAR? “The fuel thing, the rules are the same for everybody on pit road. They all have the same piece of equipment to work with. I think we have a problem getting it plugged in right away and making the exchange fast enough. Our tire change is much faster than the fuel and everybody else on pit road doesn’t seem to be waiting for fuel and we drop the jack before it is full. I think that is a problem we have to keep working on internally. I don’t think that is a NASCAR problem. Everyone has the same rules and same pieces. It is up to us to figure out how to do that as good or better than everybody else. The status for Crown Royal, I am not really sure what it is right now.”