Each week, we’ll go through all the media reports, interviews, PR and all our own stuff to find the best quotes from the Nextel Cup race, capturing the story of how the weekend unfolded. It’s the most original commentary you’ll ever find: the truth, coming straight out of the mouths of the drivers, crew members and the car owners themselves. This week, here’s a sneak peek at what a select few were thinking following the rain and darkness-shortened LifeLock 400 at Kansas.
“It was obviously a good day when we ended up in victory lane. We qualified well, and the car was pretty decent off the start of the race. I knew, five to go, that I was probably going to be all right, but I wasn’t looking for that caution, that’s for sure. What made me nervous, I didn’t know how good the No. 07 was on the restart… but we’ll never know.” – Greg Biffle on his first win of the season
“I don’t know where we finished. I thought you had to finish under your own power across the finish line. We maintained the pace car speed. I don’t know what the deal is. The bottom line is the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet was good, and we had a lot of fun today.” – Clint Bowyer, finished second… also complaining about Greg Biffle’s win, as the car appeared to run out of gas coming to the finish line
“We had a really good racecar. We were in the back a few times. We got caught a lap down with the rain when it came. All in all, we had a great car and I feel very good about second or third, wherever we end up. The biggest question mark right now is what goes on with the No. 16 car [Biffle]. He clearly ran out of gas, and I feel terrible for those guys. He’s been working so hard to win a race, and he was up there in position to win it.
“But if you don’t maintain pace car speed, you don’t hold your position. And it was clear to everyone that he couldn’t do it. ” – Jimmie Johnson, finished third
“I didn’t pull on the freakin’ fender. That’s a bunch of crap.” – Jeff Burton, after being penalized by NASCAR for pulling on his fender under the first red flag for rain
“It was a stupid move on [Junior’s] part. Obviously, I’m sure these guys he’s going to be working with next year don’t really appreciate this, because they’ve got a championship they can win this year and he doesn’t. I don’t know what he was thinking, really, or what the problem was. It’s very, very unfortunate. It’s unfortunate for them and myself and everyone on this team.” – Kyle Busch, finished 41st after getting wrecked by Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“I just run into the back of him. We put the No. 5 car out. That was an accident. I want to apologize to his fans and their team and Kyle. That was a bad mistake on my part.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished 10th
I think Tony had a tire going down, and he was doing everything he could to get out of the way, and Kurt got him there. Everybody’s doing the best they could. But, man, just it’s hard to keep a smile on your face after something like this. I guess we’ve got seven races left, but we’re here to win this championship.” – Carl Edwards, finished 37th
“I thought we had a really fast racecar… it just didn’t pan out on the fuel strategy. Around halfway when the rain came out, what it did is it took all the guys that were about 15th to 25th and put them up front, and we just got into Tony [Stewart] when he had a flat tire. That took our chances away at coming up through the pack. 11th is alright.” – Kurt Busch
“I mean, today was a lot of fun. Probably the most fun I have had in a racecar in a long time. These guys deserve a top 10. To get a top 10, two cars in the top 10 and three cars in the top 13 is a great day for Gillett Evernham Motorsports. We’ll just keep working on it and get better and better.” – Elliott Sadler, finished eighth
“We got a little greedy there at the end. When we got there in the top 10 or 12, I really thought we could finish up there. We were good. The track went from soaking wet to no rubber to a lot of rubber to as cool as we’ve seen it. We were off a little bit there at the end but still [snagged] a decent finish, a top 20… and we gained a few points. Not as good as we wanted, but we’ll take it and move on.” – David Ragan, finished 16th
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