Each week, we’ll go through media reports, interviews, PR and all of 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 car owners themselves. This week, here’s a peek at what the drivers were thinking following the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway:
“I can’t believe he (Matt Kenseth) gave me the bottom. But I’ll take it. Matt [Kenseth] is a guy you can trust. I’m so proud of everyone on this Office Depot/Old Spice team. They’ve been an awesome group of guys to work with, and that’s the most gratifying part about it. It’s about seeing those guys and seeing them celebrating and smiling in victory lane when I got there. There’s no check you can write in any amount that’s going to make up for that or take the place of it.” – Tony Stewart
“It’s sucks getting beat, obviously. I thought we had a shot. The tires held up for four or five laps. I just got too tight, and Tony [Stewart] was running up on me real fast there. It’s disappointing when you take two to go on the track, you’re in the lead and [then you] come home second. I feel bad that we got beat, but I think I could do it 100 times and I couldn’t hold him off.” – Matt Kenseth
“It was really a good effort all the way around for this Miller Lite Dodge team. I felt that the way our car took off on green-flag runs, the car just took too long to get going. Overall, I thought we had the best car on a 20-lap run, but that doesn’t pay the big bucks tonight. If anything, we learned some things for next weekend’s [Coca-Cola] 600 that hopefully we can apply and make our Miller Lite Dodge better.” – Kurt Busch, finished third
“Our whole FedEx team did a great job. The mile and a half tracks have been our Achilles Heel for the past 10 weeks or so and we definitely made big strides today. It gives us a lot of confidence. When we run like poo here on the All-Star week, a lot of times it transfers over to the 600.” – Denny Hamlin, finished fourth
“First off, congratulations to Tony [Stewart] and his whole team. They’ve worked real hard, and it’s cool to see them succeed. I think we’ve got something to build on for the 600, but I’d like to know what it feels like to be over there in victory lane at this All-Star Race some time.” – Carl Edwards, finished fifth
“I felt like we should have been further ahead in the standings than what we had right there. I think realistically we had maybe a fourth- to third-place car. We learned a lot for next week. The guys did great. We keep showing every week we’re getting better. That was literally one of the most fun races that I’ve ever ran in my life. We’re racing the daylights out of each other. It was really cool.” – Joey Logano, winner of the Fan Vote, finished fifth in the Sprint Showdown and eighth in the Sprint All-Star Race
“Fortunately, I didn’t hit anything and nobody ran into us [after my spin]. But we lose so much track position, and at that point we just kept coming to pit road and making changes to the car to try to get some more data for next weekend’s race. If you weren’t in those first two or three rows, you really didn’t have a shot. And I was there, but unfortunately got spun around on the back and lost all that track position.” – Jimmie Johnson, winner of segment one, finished 13th
“It’s the All-Star event. That’s just a bunch of guys racing really, really hard. I felt like Kyle [Busch] could have given me a little more room. Thankfully, nobody got into me. It was a good night for us until then. Oh, well.” – Jeff Gordon, winner of segment three, finished 19th after a wreck in the final segment
“We had a real good car tonight. What can I say? I’m tired of having to race in there. I’m just super happy to be racing for a million dollars. I’m really proud of this Mobil 1 Dodge.” – Sam Hornish Jr., winner of the Sprint Showdown, finished 16th in the Sprint All-Star Race
“He’s (Jeff Gordon) a bottom feeder. Tony [Stewart] is a bottom feeder.” – Darrell Waltrip on the two being able to run and pass on the low side of the track during the All-Star Race
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