Race Weekend Central

STP 400 Quotes

“We tightened up a little bit on that final run and putting two on, and zero, I knew we were going to be a little loose but didn’t think it would be quite that bad. Matt (Kenseth) was fast and I just did everything I could and he would go to those spots and I couldn’t make any ground. It was still a good race and I want to thank Farmers Insurance and 85 years of Farmers Insurance, Chevrolet, Time Warner Cable, Quaker State and everybody on my team. The team has done an awesome job and we fought back after a little bit of a disappointment with last week of 11th and came back this week.” Kasey Kahne, finished second

“Friday and Saturday weren’t fun. There wasn’t a lot of smiles around our group but everybody worked real hard to get the cars right and we had a great race car today. At times I felt like I had a shot to win with my Kobalt Tools Chevrolet and we just didn’t have enough for Matt and Kasey there at the end, but a very solid performance for our Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS.” Jimmie Johnson, finished third

“The guys on this NAPA team did such a good job this weekend. everybody at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) and the 15 (Clint Bowyer) was fifth too so it was a good day for us as a whole. Happy with that. We fought the car all day long—had to go to the back once for a pit road penalty and fight our way through there. All in all, I’m very happy with fourth place. It was a great day, we overcame a lot and the guys did a great job bouncing back after that pit road problem.” Martin Truex, Jr.

“We needed a turnaround after last week. Certainly you want to win it at homes, but a good top-5 finish is a great way to get things bounced back with our 5-Hour ENERGY Toyota. Proud of (Brian) Pattie (crew chief)—we weren’t very good in practice. The guys dug deep and leaned on all their tools and got us better. It looked like a wild race right there at the end—wish we had been a part of it. Nonetheless, it’s exciting to see good racing here.” Clint Bowyer, finished fifth

“Something happened where there was a check-up in front. I think somebody was wrecking and I slowed down and the guy behind me didn’t. He just drove through the quarterpanel and tore it all up and eventually the dirty air of cars being around me just sucked it apart. It’s kind of weird. I think that’s probably a really good aero lesson for everybody how dirty the air is that when another car gets beside us it literally blew the quarterpanel off of it, so it’s just part of the deal.” Brad Keselowski, finished sixth

“We just started off way too loose. I honestly thought we had one of the better cars in happy hour. From the drop of the green flag it was just extremely loose. We had to actually come in twice and lower the trackbar and make some adjustments. Then I thought we finally had some track position and I got turned sideways on the restart and went all the way to the back again, but it was a good recovery. We just had a fast car all weekend so really happy with that. Good job by our team.” Jamie McMurray, finished seventh

“It was a good day for us. We thought we had a great car at the beginning of the race, but then the track changed on us and we lost our track position. And then the handling drastically changed on our car, so we had to battle back from that and made a lot of adjustments. Todd Parrott did a great job rallying our guys making good adjustments, making great pit calls to get some track position and right there at the end our guys gave us a great pit stop when it counted and we got another top-10. That’s two top-10s two weeks in a row and I’m proud of that.” Aric Almirola, finished eighth

“Rodney (Childers, crew chief) just did a great job on the pit box, adjusting the car. We missed it pretty good but our best run of the day was the last run of the day. That’s the way you do it. I’m really proud of the guys and how hard they fought. We’ve got a little work to do to get a little better.” Mark Martin, finished ninth

“It was really hard to pass. We’ve got some of the best pit stops in the business. My guys do a really good job on pit road. So, we gained a lot there. The pace slowed down, which really caught us off guard from yesterday a lot more than we thought. So, we missed it a little bit but you’ve just got to look back and utilize the tools and do a better job of starting the race because we always end pretty good.” Paul Menard, finished tenth

“It was fun. We started up front, ran up front, lost our track position and then got it back and was able to lead some laps. We pitted under green and it really got us when the caution came out, but, all in all, I think we can take a lot of positives from this weekend. We were fast in practice, fast in qualifying and made the car better through the race and that’s what it’s all about is making your car better throughout the race and I think we did that today. The Zest Ford Fusion was the one to beat there at the end, but we didn’t have the track position to finish it off.” Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., finished 11th

“I’m just disappointed. We had a good car and were running around the top-10 all day and when the sun came out it changed. I didn’t expect it and spun out off of two and got some damage. We were able to stay on the lead laps, but that’s not the day we wanted.” Marcos Ambrose, finished 20th

“I was pretty happy with the car. Right before the accident on the run before that we were at our worst because we got a little too loose, but the guys did a good job and we were back on the lead lap and could run lap times within the top 15. I was rolling the top there and the 9 got loose. He was loose for a long time and I slowly, slowly checked up and the 38 never did and tagged the back of me. We probably would have just spun off into the infield, but we collected whoever spun with us and tore the car up really bad. It’s just a bad day.” Casey Mears, finished 34th

“Spun twice on our own. Just don’t know what to do with Kansas. Absolutely no grip for me. But, you know, you’re running third and doing fine, car a little tight and you spin out. I don’t know what to do with that and then we’re back in traffic all day. Traffic is way worse. Just trying to get back up to the front and making some gains, but car just snaps out from you every corner.” Kyle Busch, finished 38th

“We just got a little loose getting into turn three. The car was kind of darting around a little bit and I was just kind fighting the steering of it some. Just came around on me too quick — just ended a lot shorter than I wanted to. Need to thank all the guys for their hard work and ALERT for coming on board. Not the day that they wanted to have here today.” Elliott Sadler, finished 40th

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