Race Weekend Central

Running Their Mouth: 2008 Sylvania 300 at Loudon

Each week, we’ll go through media reports, interviews, PR and all our own stuff to find the best quotes from the Sprint 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 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon:

“This Turbo HD Ford really wanted to go, but I was holding back at the end there – at the middle part of that run – and then we got those cautions thankfully. That’s what my plan was inside the car – close us up to Jimmie Johnson and get me a shot at him. I can’t describe it. I needed a lot of help to get here and all these guys behind me and the engine department, everybody has just given me so much help and support. All of my friends and family at home just keep telling us we can do it.” – Greg Biffle

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“Second anytime is no fun, but with the big picture… and you look at the guys who had bad luck today. Great effort for this Lowe’s Impala. I’m very proud of these guys. We had a shot at winning. My weakest point all day long was on restarts, and Greg [Biffle] was a little stronger then and I’d pull away after 10 or 15 laps. But a great performance. Great fun racing these guys today and we did what we needed to.” – Jimmie Johnson

“My guys did awesome. Everything worked. The Vitamin Water even tastes good right now. It’s cool to be leading the points. It’s awesome for Greg Biffle and great for Office Depot, Ford, Aflac, everybody.” – Carl Edwards, finished third

“It was good. We were solid all day. We didn’t have quite the speed those guys had. There were times in the race we did. I could see them coming back to us. But there were times in the race they were better than us. It was a solid day. We ran pretty much top five most of the day, and that’s what we ended up getting. Proud of everybody. We had no idea what we had coming into the race today, and the guys did a great job getting us ready. One down, nine to go.” – Jeff Burton, finished fourth

“It was pretty good. We were real, real good at the start. Got out to the lead there, and felt like we were going to be a good car the rest of the day. I got to thank my pit crew; they’re an awesome bunch of guys. They did a good job today to get us a top five. I’ll feel good when I’m holding that trophy [at Homestead].” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished fifth

“It was a good run for the Miller Lite Dodge. We felt like we had something good from last week, and we tried it again this week. It (the car) ran better. We’re still struggling at the end of the race keeping up with the racetrack. I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault. We just have to work on something different, but [compared to] what we’ve been having lately, it felt good the last two weeks.” – Kurt Busch, finished sixth

“I’m real proud of the guys. They got us track position to get us in an opportunity to get back on the lead lap with the Lucky Dog, and that was because of the guys’ great pit stop before that. Last week it was a mistake in the pits, and this week it was a mistake on the driver’s part. I got a drive-through penalty that got us way behind. We had some bad luck and then I made our problem worse with the speeding penalty. To fight back to eighth – I’m pretty happy with that.” – Tony Stewart

“We were better than 14th place. I had to avoid the No. 10 (Patrick Carpentier) when he wrecked. Lapped cars were just horrendous today. We had a lot of trouble in the pits with the No. 7 (Robby Gordon) car. Try to talk to him about practice and trying to get in to this pit stall this week. Once we lost that track position, just couldn’t ever get it back. Just fought hard, it was a great fight by our team, kinda the way our season has been, the results don’t show for it.” – Jeff Gordon, finished 14th

“Not what I wanted – that’s for sure. It was a tough one. We tried hard, but it just wasn’t there the whole time. It seemed like the end of the race we were getting it close. If we could have worked on it from there (as if it were the start of the race), then it would have been a lot better. We started so back in the hole trying to get this car good and we just got close to it too late.” – Joey Logano, finished 32nd

“He just needs to go home and forget about it for the week. He’s been the dominant force all year, and today was one of those odd days for him. You feel bad for him because you know they’re better than that. But you know if there’s anybody that can rebound from a day like today, it’s that 18 (Kyle Busch) car and Kyle [Busch] and Steve Addington [crew chief] and those guys. They’re not out of this yet.” – Stewart’s advice for Kyle Busch after a bad start to the Chase

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