Welcome to the first 2009 edition of Running Their Mouth! Each week, we’ll go through 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 Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway:
“The first thing I want to do is thank the fans. Man, if you don’t enjoy that… that was some wild racing. I have to thank Sprint, Shell, Pennzoil, Coca-Cola, Rheem. Let me make sure – I haven’t done this for awhile – SKS, Freightliner, Champion, Snap On, everybody for helping us and once again, the fans. It is awesome. What a race. That was wild as heck there at the end.” – race winner Kevin Harvick
“It was a good way to get our weekend started, for sure. When I saw the No. 29 [Harvick] coming, I moved up and I thought I was high enough. I didn’t think there was room between him and the wall and he just snuck in there. You feel like a sucker when you’re in the front of this deal. It was pretty wild.” – Jamie McMurray, finished second
“I’ll take that for a debut night. It wasn’t the prettiest third-place spot, but we were in the right spot at the right time finally. We know what we need to work on for the 500 and we have a good start on it. I had a blast tonight. I don’t know if we had the fastest car, but we had one of the best handling cars. We could put this thing anywhere on the racetrack we wanted to go tonight.” – Tony Stewart
“I couldn’t even tell you what was going on that last lap. We were four-wide coming off of turn 2. There wasn’t enough room to be four-wide. There were a couple of guys who thought they were on go karts out there instead of stock cars. But it was a heck of a race, it was just great racing out there. Just got a little bit too wild. I got to say, a very impressive run by Kevin Harvick.” – Jeff Gordon, finished fourth
“The Valvoline Dodge, it was good. We needed people to work with me. I really couldn’t do it on my own. I always needed a push, and we got left out a few times. That was tough. On that last restart, we were fifth. [Jamie] McMurray moved to the outside line and I couldn’t get to Carl [Edwards] to push him. We just needed some help.” – AJ Allmendinger, finished fifth
“It was a fun night. Our Budweiser Dodge was great. I had a fun time, a great racecar. I ended up sixth, not far enough up front, but I think we had a car better than that. I made one mistake when I pushed Kyle [Busch] too far out front and [Jeff] Gordon got a run on us and I ended up dropping to 15th. From there, I had to work my way back up to the front. I think we had a top-five car all night.” – Kasey Kahne, finished sixth
“It’s gonna be wild. That was exciting. I’m lucky that car is the same shape we started out with. We made it through at the end in seventh. It’s pretty wild. I don’t know if it’s just been a long winter or if that’s really as wild as it seems, but that seems like the wildest race I’ve been a part of.” – Carl Edwards, finished seventh
“There was so much going on I don’t know what happened from one lap to the next. It’s just crazy out there when you’ve got a green-white-checkered at a plate race. It’s gonna be four-wide and you know there’s gonna be a wreck. You just hope you’re not in it.” – Matt Kenseth, finished eighth
“I was just trying to regroup back there and figure out what to do. We were real good on new tires. We could drive right up to them. I want to thank my sponsors National Guard and AMP Energy. We got a good car, we got a good little package and we learned a little bit. Hopefully, we can take what we learned to the 500. It was a fun race, it was a wild race. I think it was good for the fans. But I just hate tearing them up.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished 18th
“You start in the back and that’s kind of what happens. It’s tough for the whole Home Depot bunch; they try hard. I felt like we had a decent car for the first couple laps. I was just trying to get a feel for it before we went up there and mixed it up with everyone. It sucks – it’s too early. I didn’t get to learn much at all with only five or six laps into it. We tried hard… I just have to thank everyone at Home Depot.” – Joey Logano, finished 28th
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