Category: NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

KOBALT TOOLS 400

LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 6, 2011

Team Chevy Captures Two of the Top Three Spots in Today’s Event

Chevrolet Holds Three of Top-Five in Point Standings

LAS VEGAS (Mar. 6, 2011) – Driving the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, Tony Stewart dominated much of today’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS), leading a race high 163 laps. However, a pit road mishap at lap 155 of 267 cost him the lead and eventually the race. Stewart restarted at the tail end of the lead lap as the result of a penalty for the incident during his pit stop, but rallied to take the lead once again late in the race after pitting for two tires to earn valuable track position.

As the laps wound down under a long green flag run, Stewart would have to pit for four tires and fuel and ultimately gave back the key track position he earned under the earlier stop and would fall just short of running down the eventual winner – Carl Edwards (Ford). The finish was Stewart’s eighth top-10 finish in 13 races at LVMS and puts him in a two-way tie for the overall point lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Juan Pablo Montoya ran strong and up front all day in today’s race in his No. 42 Clorox Chevrolet. He came home in third position today and moved up an impressive five positions to fourth in the overall standings after three events. Today’s finish was Juan’s first top-ten finish in five Cup events he has entered at LVMS.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet started eighth and struggled for much of the race before rallying for a top-five finish of fifth. Newman also sits fifth in the point standings after three events.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet race team were searching for answers after the first practice but found their rhythm at the midpoint and raced their way to respectable eighth-place finish after starting in 33rd. “Junior” is 10th in the standings with 3 of 36 races in the record books.

RCR driver Paul Menard continued his impressive 2011 season by bringing his No. 27 Moen/Menards Chevrolet home in 12th and now is sixth in the overall standings.

Five-time and defending champion Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet race team struggled for most of the day, but continued to work on the car and brought home a hard-fought 16th-place finish. Johnson now sits 12th in the point standings through the first three races of the season.

Mark Martin also battled handling issues in his No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet and was only able to capture the 18th finishing spot. He currently sits 11th in the standings.

Last week’s race winner, Jeff Gordon experienced a tire issue and hit the outside wall late in the race while running in the top-ten, thus ending his day. Gordon finished in 36th position and fell to 19th in the standings.

After a weekend off, the Series heads for to the fast half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway on March 20, 2011

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2ND

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 CLOROX CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3RD

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We’re going to roll into our post-race for the 14th Annual Cobalt Tools 400. We’ve got our second place finisher and our third place finisher of today’s rate. Tony Stewart is our race runner up. He’s also our current points leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Tony drives the No. 14 Mobil One Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing. And Juan Pablo Montoya is today’s third place finisher, driver of the No. 42 Clorox Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi, and he’s currently I believe sixth in points in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Tony, talk about your run out there, certainly some ups and downs, solid second place finish, but I know you’ve got to be disappointed.

TONY STEWART: Yeah, real disappointed. I honestly think we had the car to beat today, we just gave it away. I don’t know what happened on the pit stop there, but we had a miscue and had a penalty and had to go to the back, and unfortunately it kind of dealt our cards for us. Darian made a good call getting us the track position back, but it also showed everybody else that they could do it, too, and we couldn’t run two and a half runs on a set of left side tires.

Just shot ourselves in the foot two weeks in a row now.

THE MODERATOR: Actually, Juan, you’re fourth in points, I misspoke there, but talk about your run today, a solid third place showing at Las Vegas.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It was good. As Tony said, he had the fastest car, but our car was very good all day. We battled between sixth and eighth place and then a little bit better and a little bit better. It was good; we were getting better, but we just never closed in. We could make the car turn through the middle, we just couldn’t touch the throttle and the other way around. It was just touch and go.

But it’s good. You know, we really needed a good result after last week, and it was nice to get it here.

Q. Tony, I know you’re disappointed, but can you take any solace in three races in a row you were in position, you may have had a shot to win?

TONY STEWART: I probably should, but that’s not in my makeup. I mean, I just it kills me to throw a race away like that, especially at a place we haven’t won at yet. This was a big deal today, and when you lead that many laps and have a car that’s that fast and you lose it, you I’m sure tomorrow when the emotion dies down we’ll look back and say it was a great weekend, but just man, it does not sit good right now.

THE MODERATOR: Tony did lead 163 laps.

Q. Can either or both of you talk about how difficult it was to run in traffic today? It seemed clean air was the only way, didn’t seem like a lot of close racing at the very, very end.

TONY STEWART: I don’t know what race you were watching. Juan and I raced pretty close at the end.

Q. You did catch him, yes.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I think his car was so good that he could pass anybody anywhere. I think mine was a little bit harder to pass in traffic. I don’t know, the cleaner the air but that’s normal; that’s not new, is it? Every time you’re in traffic, you suck; every time you’re in clean air, you look hike a hero. That’s normal.

Q. I meant after the pit stop, Tony.

TONY STEWART: I’m a driver, not a….

Q. Tony, two tires didn’t work here last year for Jeff and it didn’t work for you last week. Why did it work today? You went on two tires and took off. Was your car that much better it didn’t matter?

TONY STEWART: I just think we had a good car. I mean, my car was when we could get out front we were really good, and even when we weren’t out front, the guys that were at that time one of the fastest cars was the 16 car, and him and I ran through traffic together there. So guys could pass, it was just we had a really, really balanced car.

It didn’t seem like it mattered what we did. Our car was best on old tires. We were fast on the front, but the last half of the run we could just march away from everybody and leave them.

Q. Juan, as you go on season to season now in these cars, can you just talk about since you’ve been in here do you feel more accepted? What is your take in terms of being in this discipline?

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I think I’ve been accepted from day one. I think actually before I could have gone and asked people and they would tell me anything, and now I don’t think they tell me as much, so that has changed. That’s a positive, I guess, in a way.

But no, for me it’s just more comfortable. I think the last two, three years have been very comfortable with these cars, and it shows. When we can get the car working, it works really good. I think last year when they went from the wing to the spoiler I think it really affected me and we really struggled, and we did a lot of work over the winter with the new nose to make sure that didn’t happen, and I don’t know, here we are. It’s good.

THE MODERATOR: Guys, thanks a lot. Have a good open week. We’ll see you at Bristol.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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> .

Mooresville, NC (March 6, 2011) Carl Edwards drove his #99 Scotts EZ Seed Ford Fusion to Victory Lane on Sunday, capturing the second win for Roush Yates’ FR9 engine in only three races. Ford cars were the fastest on the track all weekend long. After posting a 1-2-3-4 qualifying effort, Roush Yates Engines and Ford Racing were thrilled to come home with the win.

“This is an exciting win for Roush Yates Engines,” said Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines in Mooresville, NC. “We ran great all week long. I think this says a lot about our program and how we plan to run at 1.5 mile tracks throughout the 2011 season. I want to thank Ford again for their support as we continue to excel with the FR9 engine.”

This is Carl’s nineteenth career Sprint Cup Series win and the seventh win of only fourteen races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Roush Fenway Racing. Fellow Ford drivers Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and Marcos Ambrose each lead during Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500.

“The key to winning today was my team,” Edwards said. “These guys are unbelievable. It means a lot coming off Phoenix. I went home last week and didn’t know how things were going to go. You don’t get a good race car like that often. We had another one today.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are off next weekend but you can still see powerful Roush Yates engines race at Golden Isle Speedway in Brunswick GA in the Super Late Model division with driver Scott Bloomquist. To learn more about Roush Yates Engines and how you can improve your race team’s performance with qualify race proven parts, visit www.roushyatesparts.com or call 1-877-798-RYPP.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

KOBALT TOOLS 400

LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES

March 6, 2011

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET – Sidelined with a blown right front tire on lap 194:

DISAPPOINTING FINISH FOR YOU TODAY, WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE? “The day actually started out pretty good for the DuPont Chevrolet. We were further up toward the front than I thought we would be based on practice yesterday so pretty happy with that. But, the track kept tightening up and we just couldn’t stay up with it so we started falling back a little bit on those restarts. We were definitely were fighting a tight condition right there, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to blow a tire like that going into three. Thankful for the safer barrier here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a safe race car.”

WAS THERE ANY THING YOU COULD HAVE DONE TO KNOW THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? “No, there was no sign whatsoever. We need to free the car up. We’ve been trying all day long to get it freed up but just nothing we were doing seemed to be helping. It just seemed like we were getting tighter and tighter as the day went on. The day started out pretty good for the DuPont Chevrolet. We were up toward the front and better than I thought we were going to be based on yesterday’s practice so I was proud of Alan and the guys. We started losing the handling on it there those last couple of runs and that put us back where we were. No sign; just drove into turn three and hit the wall and I’m glad I had a safer barrier to hit and a safe race car.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH:

GOOD DAY FOR STEWART-HAAS, YOUR PARTNER (TONY STEWART) WASN’T HAPPY, WHAT ABOUT YOU? “I know he wasn’t happy for one reason but he could be happy for another. It was a good double top-five for us at Stewart-Haas Racing. Just proud of everybody on the Haas Automation Chevrolet and Stewart-Haas for giving us the opportunity. We fought back. We were really loose for 80% of the race and the last two runs when it cooled down and we could just kind of ride. We were three seconds behind or whatever, there was no sense in trying to catch up to the other guys.”

WAS THE CAR DIFFERENT HERE ON THIS MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACK WITH THIS CAR THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR ON THESE TYPES OF TRACKS?

“Not real different, no. I think the difference was just how the tires and everything worked out here. It seemed like track position was key and Tony proved that when he did those two tires. He had really old lefts and still hauled the mail. Track position was really important. I think when we get to some tracks where we have to handle a little bit more. I don’t know if it is those bumps and grip and forward drive and things like that, I think you will see the cars separate and racing a little bit better.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND:

ON TODAY’S RACE (STEWART LED 166 OF THE 267 LAPS): “We gave one away today. It is just unbelievable. The fastest thing on the planet and gave it away. But, we can take away today that we had the fastest car so take it.”

TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY.

“We just gave one away today. I don’t even know what to say. We just gave one away. This Mobil One/Office Depot Chevy was the baddest thing on the west coast today. Second sucks.”

JUAN PABLO MONOTYA, NO. 42 CLOROX CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD:

ON A GREAT RUN TODAY: “It was great. There was nothing for Tony (Stewart) I think Tony had the dominant car. I think I could have been a little further ahead after the pit stop, if I had been a little more aggressive. We needed a good result for the team. This Clorox Chevy has been amazing today. All weekend the guys did an amazing job.”

TAKE US THROUGH YOUR DAY BECAUSE YOU GUYS PRETTY MUCH EXPERIENCED IT ALL. “It was a good day. This Clorox Chevy was good all day. We were a little bit off the pace. We needed a little bit. Last run before we took the tires, I thought we were closer. To get a top-five here today in Vegas after what happened the last few years here its amazing. We had a really good Daytona, bad Phoenix and we ran good here. Three good finishes at least in points is good. We changed some guys on the pit crew and they did an amazing job. It’s nice to see.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET finished 8th:

ON THE DAY

“We made some great adjustments and the car just drove better and better. I just kept describing what I was feeling and what I thought I needed and (crew chief) Steve (Letarte) was really hitting right on it about every time. We got a little bit too tight there. We had a little bit too much air in the right front and took it back out for that last run. But I’m happy. It’s a fun team; a great group of guys. I’m proud to be a part of it and hope I can keep working well and keep doing well.”

ANOTHER STRONG RUN TWO WEEKS IN A ROW WITH TOP 10’S. WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THIS TEAM THAT YOU’RE DOING SO WELL?

“We’re just doing what we’re supposed to do, I reckon. We didn’t have too bad a car in practice and I just didn’t nail it in qualifying. I didn’t drive good. I thought guys were running on the top and that maybe I needed to run there in qualifying and so I ran there and that wasn’t the thing to do. But I guess the best thing that we did all day long was the adjustments. I kept telling Stevie what I thought I needed and what the car felt like it was doing wrong and he was hitting on it every time. We were kind of working together on some ideas and we hit on one idea that was really good and it really woke the car up. We had some great late run speed and we needed to move that toward the beginning of the run. That’s what we did. We got good track position and was able to get up there and race with them guys. We put a little bit too much air in the right front (tire) on the second to last run and got the car a little bit too tight and it took off too good you know when we was racing (Martin) Truex and got a little tight too fast. We decided to take four (tires) at the end and I’ll back Stevie’s call there. It might have cost us a spot in hindsight, but we just need to run good and get good finishes under our belt and keep their confidence and keep my confidence up. Mid-way through the race was the first time in a long time I actually was feeling like I could beat them guys, you know? That I was around. It gave me a lot of confidence today; we just need to keep doing that.”

ON THE IMPROVEMENT FROM PRACTICE ON FRIDAY TO RACING ON SUNDAY

“That happens all the time in this sport. We used to practice like garbage and qualify terribly; I ain’t too surprised when I see that. Me and Tony (Eury) Jr. used to do that all the time. We’d be so worried and feel like we were junk in practice and I knew the track was going to change tremendously from how it was yesterday after that Nationwide race. I felt like we had a good chance that the top 20 cars backing up to us and we had a good feeling car, we just didn’t have the true speed. The car drove really good in practice but it just wasn’t fast. Every time we’d try to make it fast it just got out of control. We had a great package. We worked last night with Stevie and the engineers to really decide what we wanted to do. We made several change on the car before the race that we thought we needed to make and it was great. The car was good and the guys did a lot of great work today and I want to give them a lot of credit.”

HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU PUT IN AFTER QUALIFYING YESTERDAY?

“It’s fun in this hauler, man. When you’re running good everything is easier to do. But I really enjoy brainstorming with Steve and I think having worked with him, I’ve become better at helping him just in a short period of time. But it’s fun to brainstorm with and work with him and I just want to do go.

“Failure at this point is completely unacceptable and I’ve got to put it all out on the line and do everything I can to make this work. If it don’t work with him, I got nowhere else to go. I got no other options, really other than just to race myself into oblivion with my own team and Tony Jr. and them guys. But I want this to work. I want to be in a CoT the rest of my career as long as I can and I want to be successful and so I’m just trying to work hard man. We’re getting better. It feels like it’s working.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S / KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – Finished 16th

IT WAS A LITTLE HAIRY THERE AT FIRST, CAN YOU WALK ME THROUGH YOUR DAY?

“Yeah, we started pretty far off but we made some real smart adjustments and got the car real close and then at the end we had a couple of bad things go our way..a bad stop, and lost track position. We didn’t adjust on it on one stop when we needed to and just started slipping back at the end. But for a while we had momentum going our way and we worked our way to a decent finish and then had a little trouble late.”

WE SAW A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH MANY TEAMS ON PIT ROAD TODAY INCLUDING SPEEDING, FUELING…WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT IS GOING ON THERE?

“Well we are pushing them as hard as we can. It’s so much easier to pass a car on pit road than on the track. The new fueling thing..it’s going to take a while before everybody gets that situated and speeding is speeding. They have the computer and it’s just guys getting greedy there.”

WAS THE CAR DIFFERENT HERE ON THIS MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACK WITH THIS CAR THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR ON THESE TYPES OF TRACKS? “Not real different, no. I think the difference was just how the tires and everything worked out here. It seemed like track position was key and Tony proved that when he did those two tires. He had really old lefts and still hauled the mail. Track position was really important. I think when we get to some tracks where we have to handle a little bit more. I don’t know if it is those bumps and grip and forward drive and things like that, I think you will see the cars separate and racing a little bit better.”

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> .

Martin Truex Jr. (sixth) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Camry driver Denny Hamlin (seventh) and 10th) also earned a top-10 in the 400-mile event.

Other Camry drivers in the race at the 1.5-mile oval included David Reutimann (13th), Kasey Kahne (14th), Joey Logano (23rd), Bobby Labonte (24th), Casey Mears (25th), Kyle Busch (38th), Michael McDowell (41st), Joe Nemechek (42nd) and Landon Cassill (43rd).

Toyota drivers unofficially in the NSCS top-15 point standings after three of 36 races include Truex (seventh), Hamlin (eighth), Kahne (13th), Busch (14th) and Labonte (15th).

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Finishing Position: 6th Are you pleased with a sixth-place finish? “This team has been on it this year. We really hit on some things at the end of last season. The communication is going great, Chad (Johnson, chief engineer) and I are really on the same page as far as getting the car setup. We had a good car in practice all weekend, we had a good run last week. It’s just been good — the communication has been going really well and we’re building a lot better race cars. He’s really learning what I need in them — there’s going to be a lot more of this, this year.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 7th How was your race? “It’s commendable, anybody that was out there today knew that passing was nearly impossible — it was so hard. I think it just has a lot to do with the speeds that we’re running and as hard as the tires are. We’re just so dependent on the air. When someone is in front, it takes it away and we can’t do anything. Hopefully when we come back here, they’ll soften the tire up and that’s when you’ll see a lot of side-by-side action.”

Did you have any concerns about your engine after seeing what happened with Kyle Busch? “We definitely have not gone each week yet without an engine issue. Hopefully we’ll get that all together and everything and get TRD (Toyota Racing Development) on it to figure out what’s going on.”

What was wrong with your engine and was it similar to what happened to Kyle Busch? “No, his was the bottom-end and mine was the top-end, it’s two totally different deals. Really, luckily for us, stuff is happening in practice and things like that. It’s not biting us in the race yet in talking about the 11 team. Hopefully we get all this stuff figured out and the team gets it worked out before the Chase.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 10th How does it feel to finish in the top-10? “Today was finally the good start to our season we have needed. We have to keep it up and chip away at the points inch by inch each week. We made the most of everything today and got every drop we could out of the car — the guys did a great job in the pits and with adjustments. Everyone gave 100 percent and that’s all you can ask for.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Tums Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position: 13th How was your race? “We had a fast race car today, but every time it seemed like we were going to break into the top five , something put us back. We kept battling back and ended up with a decent finish. It isn’t what we wanted or think we deserved, but it moved us up in points and we’ll try to gain even more at Bristol.”

KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position: 14th

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 23rd

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kingsford Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position: 24th

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 25th

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 38th Was there any warning with what happened to your car? “No, there wasn’t. It’s really unfortunate. We had a great race car. That Snickers Peanut Butter Squared Camry was fast today. We chased down (Tony) Stewart there and unfortunately the air is so sensitive today that you get within a five car length cushion and you just can’t close anymore, I kind of got stuck behind him through traffic. The car was running awesome before that and then unfortunately we had a tire go down there. It got us a little behind. The guys did a great job changing tires. We got out and we were the ‘lucky dog’, fortunately — lucky us. Then, on the restart there, I was going to bide my time and try to get back through traffic with plenty of time to go and ‘kablooey’ — it just broke. I really hate it for these guys, they worked really hard. Hopefully the 20 (Joey Logano) and the 11 (Denny Hamlin) don’t have the same problems today.”

Does it matter that this happened in your hometown of Las Vegas? “No, it wouldn’t be any different if it were any other race. Fortunately it’s early enough in the year that we can still bounce back and rebound to get ourselves in contention and solidly in the Chase before we get to race number 26.”

What do you think about your weekend in Las Vegas? “I’ve been blowing tires, mowing grass, knocking walls down and setting balls of fire down the backstretch and Kurt (Busch, brother) has been doing ‘loop-d-do’s’ through turn four today. We’re having problems of our own in our hometown – it might be good just to get out of here and come back and try again next year.”

Is there concerns your team is having engine issues? “Obviously we have some sort of problem that we can get through and work around. We’re trying to make the best horsepower we can to keep up with some other teams that we know have better horsepower than we do. The guys keep trying to find every ounce they can and unfortunately sometimes we push the limits. The pieces that break sometimes are smaller than your pinkie fingernail. It’s hard on them.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing LLC Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Finishing Position: 41st

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position: 42nd

LANDON CASSILL, No. 60 Big Red Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 43rd

LAS VEGAS (March 6, 2011) — For the second week in a row Regan Smith experienced the ugly side of auto racing.

Last week in Phoenix Smith got collected in an early multicar accident. And in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway it only got worse for the Furniture Row Racing driver, who was forced to retire from the Kobalt Tools 400 due to an engine issue in his No. 78 Chevrolet. He was credited with a 39th-place finish.

“No doubt it’s been a disappointing two weeks after a great start in the Daytona 500,” said Smith. “We’re taking some licks right now, but this team knows that we’re not having a performance problem. As we did in Phoenix last week we were once again strong in our practices and in our qualifying effort. But as was the case in Phoenix, we were not able to show what we had in the race due to issues out of our control.”

Smith, who qualified 12th, reported that his car was losing power on Lap 71 of 267. He was instructed to bring the car to the garage where it was determined that whatever malfunctioned in the engine could not be immediately fixed.

“This is the part of racing we all hate,” stated Smith. “Our guys on the road and at our Denver shop have worked so hard to get us to a new level of competition and I feel awful that we haven’t had the opportunity to capitalize on our potential. Our luck cycle will change and when it does, it’s going to be good. We’ll keep our heads up and bounce back.”

The Las Vegas race winner was Carl Edwards. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Marcos Ambrose and Ryan Newman.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has the coming weekend off and will resume competition March 18-20 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Kobalt Tools 400

Post Race Quotes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

http://twitter.com/teamdodge www.media.chrysler.com

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Pennzoil Ultra Dodge Charger R/T) Finished Ninth “We gave it all we had. Steve (Addington, crew chief) made a great call to put us up front early and we were running , just biding our time. On a restart, I got too racy. I wanted the lead and get the bonus point and you can’t do that. You have to race your race, let the race come to you. I was a little loose, had some rear brake in it, (Juan Pablo) Montoya was close and I spun it around. The Pennzoil Ultra Dodge Charger had a great run today. I appreciate my crew for giving me a great car. We’re right up were we need to be in points (currently tied for first) and really excited about today’s finish.

“We wanted to win this thing for sure. I came up just a little bit short in my hometown. I think I may have pushed a bit too hard early driving the car as hard as I did. After I got loose in Turn 3 and spun the car, I just settled into the race and tried to start picking off as many spots as I could. I’m not sure we had the winning car, but we were good enough to be top 10 and get as many points as I could. Man, once you get stuck back in the pack here, everybody is running the same speed and it’s just really hard to gain spots. The only way that you can do so is on pit road and have the confidence that your guys are going to do their job (in the pits) This place is just fast and you’re on the edge every lap of the race.”

STEVE ADDINGTON (crew chief, No. 22 Pennzoil Ultra Dodge Charger) “I’m really proud of this race team considering how we started the weekend. We made big changes from the time that we unloaded up to the race. We really didn’t have to make big changes during the race, maybe change the track bar a little bit and some wedge, which was about it. I just want to thank everyone’s effort here at the race track. They busted their tails to give us a great race car and it showed this afternoon.”

TALK ABOUT THE CALL TO STAY OUT AND LEAD A LAP LATE IN THE RACE? “I told Kurt that I thought we were off a bit yesterday and reminded him that we just need to have a solid day today and get as much as we can out of the race. I think our race car was better than ninth-place, but we’ll take it. We’ll keep fighting.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 26th “We missed something all day. I’m not sure what. Kurt (Busch) was a little bit better, but neither of our Dodges were where we wanted them to be. We’ll go back to the drawing board. These rough race tracks seem to be our Achilles Heel last year and so far this year, it’s the same. We tried a lot of different things and just never hit on anything.”

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 31st “We were supposed to be good to go to the finish (on fuel), but ran out and turned a 27th-place finish into a 31st. The 27th would have been a decent day as bad as our race car was. We just don’t have a handle on it. We haven’t caught on to what it takes with the new nose. When you run with the leaders, you can almost run their speed; when you run with the guys in the back, you run their speed. It’s all relevant to the cars you have around you.”

EDWARDS CAPTURES FIRST WIN OF 2011

. Carl Edwards captured his 19th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win with today’s victory.

. The win was the 121st all-time NSCS win for Roush Fenway Racing. . Edwards now has a three-race NSCS winning streak after capturing the last two races of 2010.

 . Roush Fenway Racing has now won half of the NSCS races at Las Vegas (7-of-14).

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts/Kellogg’s Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) – “The key to winning today was my team, my Ford team, these guys are unbelievable. Roush Fenway is great. I have to thank Aflac for being with us, Scotts and Kellog’s. Scotts easy seed you can grow grass anywhere with that stuff. Sprint, Subway all the fans. It is unreal. When you are a kid you dream about this and how cool it would be to go to Vegas and fly a bunch of women there in a private plane and race cars and I did it. I brought my mom, my mother-in-law and my daughter and we came here and raced and I am having a blast.”

DOES IT MEAN MORE COMING OFF THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF PHOENIX? “Yeah it means a lot coming off of Phoenix. I went home last week and I had no clue. I just didn’t know how things were going to go from there. You only don’t get a good race car like that very often, but we had another one today. I got to thank the Air Force, the Thunderbirds, they let me fly with them on Thursday and this trophy is going over there in their hanger. They taught me a lot about discipline and believing in what you do and I can’t thank them enough and all of our armed service personnel who serve everywhere. This is a great day.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion (Finished ) “It was a great day. It was a great first top-five for RPM. I have to thank Richard Petty for believeing in me and giving me a shot and Stanley and everybody. It is going to be a great year. We had great pit stops and a good crew today. There was a ton of good energy out here today, just a ton of good energy. I am really happy with the finish.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 11th) – “We just had some issues that got us behind a lap and three-quarters. The way the race went and the way our car was in traffic we weren’t as close as we wanted to be and couldn’t get the lap back. Finally we got it back with 70 to go and couldn’t do any better than what we did there.” DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE TIRE? “I assume we ran something over. It was a flat after a caution so I can only assume we ran something over.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion (Finished 20th) – “I am proud of our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford team today. We had some minor things out there like hitting that wall early, but they did a great job to keep us in the race, get us back on the lead lap. I am just really proud of my team today. We will learn from it and head to Bristol in a couple of weeks and I am really looking forward to that.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 37th) – “We just blew a right front tire and we hadn’t had any tire issues all day. For some reason we just blew out. We didn’t have any signs of it at all. It is a tough day for our Taco Bell Ford Fusion. I don’t think we have seen a whole lot of tire issues through the weekend. That last lap we ran on the race track was as fast as we had run. We didn’t see anything unusually. It just blew out.” THAT WAS A HARD LICK. “Yeah, it was tough, definitely a hard hit. I am thankful for those safer barriers.”