Race Weekend Central

Running Their Mouth: 2009 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

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 Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

“That was unbelievable. I hope the fans enjoyed that race. I can’t say enough about this team and all of Hendrick Motorsports. It was a fun battle with my teammate Mark Martin. Damn is he fast. For an old guy he had me pretty worried. It’s great to work with him and work with Alan [Gustafson] and work with all my teammates at Hendrick Motorsports.” – Jimmie Johnson

“He’s (Jimmie Johnson) the best man. That guy is superman. It was a great race. He was better than I was off of [turn] 4, and I was better than he was off of [turn] 2. So I knew I had to make it happen off of [turn] 2, but wadding it up wasn’t a great idea either. Both of us are driving for all we are worth and I couldn’t get him.” – Mark Martin, finished second

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“You want to win this obviously, but I’m really proud of our team. In a perfect world, we all want to get those extra 10 bonus points for winning. 43 cars and we ran third today. There’s no shame in that. To come here with a new package, a new crew chief and to run third in our first time here together, I think that’s a lot to be proud of.” – Tony Stewart

“We had a really good car. It was just too bad we had to let up and save fuel at the end. We only lost one spot, but I had to let Tony Stewart go by there at the end to save fuel. I was thinking it was going to be Michigan all over again where we ran it out with half a lap left. So I had to let him go and finish fourth, but it was a good day for us.” – Greg Biffle

“It was a good day. We had a little bit of trouble on pit road for a few stops. The last stop was good. The car was good all day. The Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet has run like that the last few weeks, but we just haven’t had anything to show for it. The guys did a good job all day and the car was fast. It is going in the right direction for us.” – Kevin Harvick, finished sixth

“At times, I thought we were pretty quick today. We had speed on green-flag runs. The tires performed well. We had no issues. I kind of like it if they fall off a little more so we can do different things with the back of the car. I was too tight to pass cars there at the end, so I just made sure I was saving fuel and not let the car behind me catch me. It was another good finish and a good points day.” – Kasey Kahne, finished seventh in his 200th series start

“To finish 10th exceeds my expectations with the way we have been running and finishing lately. We finished a little better than we ran today. I’m certainly happy with 10th the way we’ve been doing lately. I never got [the car] to drive exactly the way I wanted. You can’t blame it all on power; we just have to make our overall package good” – Matt Kenseth

“I never bad mouth NASCAR, but if they do this to me I’m gonna kill them. There’s no way. Thank you NASCAR for screwing my day. We had this in the bag and they screw us because I was not speeding. I swear on my children and my wife that I wasn’t speeding.” – Juan Pablo Montoya on his radio after getting caught speeding on pit road with 35 laps remaining, finished 11th

“I just wish we would have started up closer to the front. We were running with the top-10 cars and we were as fast as anybody on the restarts. In the end, I just started over-driving it and giving it all I had and killed the car.” – Raybestos Rookie of the Race Joey Logano, finished 12th

“We haven’t had engine problems, so I assume it was driver error. I broke the valve train on the last pit stop and a couple of the pieces dropped to the bottom of the motor. I thought we had a good car, one of the best there for a while. We could have finished anywhere from fifth to 10th if things had gone right. I felt great today. I’m back to 100%.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished 36th

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