Race Weekend Central

Running Their Mouth: 2007 Sylvania 300 at Loudon

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 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

“Well, it must have been the burnout. I think I blew [the engine] up. That’s what it’s all about [though]… this is unbelievable. I can’t believe it happened here. This has always been a good track for us; we just could never get the finish. I’m just so excited to celebrate with all these guys. They deserve it.” – Clint Bowyer after his first career win

“It was a real good day. I’m so proud of this race team. That was a great effort to come from 18th and fight our way up to finish inside the top five. Clint Bowyer, my congratulations to him. He was the class of the field today. I’m [just] very happy to get the Chase started off like this. I was having fun racing with Tony [Stewart]. He’s a great driver and a class act, and we were mixing it up for sure there a couple of times. It was a good race.” – Jeff Gordon, finished second

“We got going there. We really just got settled in and we got by Kyle [Busch] and we could close in on Jeff a few times, and then he would get away from us. But we can’t be disappointed with a third-place run here today.” – Tony Stewart

“I wish the race was longer. I usually don’t say that. But we had a good car at the end of the race. It was a great day for the Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet, though, to come home fifth at one of my favorite tracks. We love coming up here to New Hampshire. I’m just proud of my team; they did a good job. We did what we needed to do: we didn’t have the best car today, but we got a great finish.” – Martin Truex Jr.

“We had a really good car at the beginning of the race, then we kind of outthought ourselves on the adjustments and the car just went away. It got it so loose I couldn’t hang onto it… and I spun it out. We got it a lot better toward the end, but there was just too much track position to make up and not enough time. I am real proud of my guys [though], because no one on this Budweiser team has given up at all.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished 16th

See also
Bowles-Eye View: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Refuses to Stop Doing His Job

“We were trying to get a good finish for Lumber Liquidators and this was probably our third- or fourth-best run of the year, so we’re pretty happy with that. You can’t pass anybody because everybody is the same speed. Everybody is the same (with the Car of Tomorrow), but that’s what NASCAR wants is for everybody to be the same. It’s so hard to fight for track position out there that it’s tough to gain spots.” – Greg Biffle, finished 13th

“I thought we had a better car than that in practice. I was pretty excited about our car. I chased the No. 18 and Greg [Biffle] chased me for about 150 laps and we were all about 10 feet away from each other [but couldn’t pass]. I couldn’t get away from Greg and I couldn’t catch the No. 18, so I don’t know. The [CoT vehicles] certainly don’t seem to be as raceable as the other cars.” – Jamie McMurray, finished 11th

“We had a strong car there in the beginning and then had a motor problem. A later diagnosis left us with a problem with our carburetor. It left us without the power that we needed. It’s kind of a bummer, but we worked hard to get in this Chase and we’ll still work hard. This one is a big lump, but it didn’t hurt us so we’ll see what happens.” – Kurt Busch, finished 25th

“We just have to get better. The only thing I can take away from the day is that we finished the race. My guys – my pit crew, my road crew and the guys that build these cars – everybody here at Team Red Bull work their behinds off and deserve to finish better than that. I hope they understand I appreciate how hard they work, and I wish we can do better than we did today.” – AJ Allmendinger, finished 33rd

“Boring day. It’s hard. We didn’t have a great car in practice and we didn’t run Saturday. I was junk Friday and I was junk today. It was really hard. I made a lot of progress through the day, but it’s really hard to catch up when you start so far back. Last time, we were good here. They changed the car a little bit, and the last time a couple of things failed and we just couldn’t figure it out.” – Juan Pablo Montoya, finished 23rd

About the author

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.

Share via