38 41 #4 Scott Wimmer Chevrolet AERO Exhaust 49/0 196 Running
39 16 #99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 46/0 196 Running
40 39 #55 Michael Waltrip Dodge NAPA Auto Parts 43/0 195 Running
41 14 #07 Clint Bowyer * Chevrolet Jack Daniel's 40/0 194 Running
42 33 #45 Kyle Petty Dodge Kyle Petty Charity Ride 37/0 117 Out of Race
43 26 #8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 34/0 115 Out of Race
* Denotes Rookie
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Hamlin dominates to complete Pocono sweep
Victory returns JGR rookie to contention for spot in Chase
By Jenna Fryer, The Associated Press
July 23, 2006
07:54 PM EDT (23:54 GMT)
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) -- Denny Hamlin completed the Pocono sweep on Sunday, blowing away the field for an easy victory that pushed the rookie into championship contention.
While Hamlin was cruising around Pocono Raceway, teammate Tony Stewart nearly self-destructed and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took another hit in his pursuit of the Nextel Cup title.
Stewart, the two-time and defending Nextel Cup champion, was black-flagged early in the race for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer. Stewart had been pushed up the track and against the wall by Bowyer, and angrily waved his hand out the window as the cars separated.
He then swerved directly into the side of Bowyer's car, sending it into a spin that collected Carl Edwards. NASCAR flagged Stewart for aggressive driving, and pulled him into the pits for a one-lap penalty that dropped him to 41st.
Stewart refused to apologize in radio communication with his team, but vowed to make up his mistake on the track. He wasted no time doing so, quickly getting back onto the lead lap. But on the next round of pit stops, Edwards gave him a retaliatory shove that spun Stewart and earned Edwards his own penalty for aggressive driving.
Stewart still worked his way to a seventh-place finish, good enough to move back into 10th in the Chase for the championship standings. But he took little blame for the accident with Bowyer, and instead ranted about the aggressiveness of today's young drivers.
"Four guys ended up having a bad day because one guy couldn't be a little patient and use a little give-and-take,'' Stewart said. "There is only a handful of guys that don't get it but the problem that they are in good race cars and they don't run up front enough to learn from the rest of us how to race up front.''
Bowyer attempted to speak to Stewart out on pit road, but never made it past the front of Stewart's car because of the crush of people surrounding the champion. The rookie instead retreated back to his motorhome, scowling the entire way.
But Edwards -- who had vowed over his radio to beat up Stewart after the race -- was rather outspoken.
"I've got to choose my words carefully -- if it weren't for the respect of the sport and the people watching and his team, he'd be out there bleeding right now,'' Edwards fumed. "That's so frustrating. How can a person make it this far in life being such a jerk?''
Earnhardt, meanwhile, is out of the top 10 after a hit from Dave Blaney sent him into the wall and out of the race. He finished 43rd for the second consecutive week and needed almost 30 minutes to cool off before coming out of his transporter.
Third in the points two weeks ago, Junior is now 11th in the standings with just six races to go to qualify for the Chase.
"What am I supposed to do?'' he wondered. "My motor blows up [last week] and now I got wrecked. I don't know what else to do.''
Hamlin doesn't have such worries -- not after scoring his second career victory. The first came six weeks ago here when he recovered from a spin through the grass and needed to hold off NASCAR's heavyweights on a late restart.
This one was far easier, with Hamlin leading 151 of the 200 laps in what turned into a leisurely Sunday drive for one of NASCAR's budding young stars.
He's eighth in the points and if he can hang on another six weeks, Hamlin will find himself racing for the Nextel Cup title.
"We'll just keep plugging away. That's all we can do,'' he said.
Hamlin became the sixth driver to sweep the season at Pocono, and did it from the pole both times. Pretty impressive for a kid who had never seen the track before he showed up last month and used video games to learn his way around it.
"This is just a great car,'' Hamlin said.
Kurt Busch finished second and was followed by Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Kevin Harvick and points leader Jimmie Johnson.
Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top 10.
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Dodge NNCS Teams Post-Pennsylvania 500 Race Recaps
Clear!Blue Communication For Dodge Motorsports, Press Release
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) –
NOTE: 2nd straight runner-up finish at Pocono; gained one spot to 13th in the standings, 166 points out of 10th with six races remaining to qualify for The Chase. Gained 40 points on 10th place.
“It was a good effort from our team. I was just told from our PR director that we didn’t have a pit stop that was out of the 13-second bracket. That was phenomenal to have that consistency in the pits and to be able to gain a spot when we didn’t quite pick the right strategy each time we came in. It was a nice, balanced effort. We really had to go off our setups from last time, and that really made it a Denny Hamlin charity race. We tried some things in our setup that were dramatically different from the first time we were here seven weeks ago from what we noticed in qualifying because of this left-side tire. The left-side tires made the cars tighter and we had to adjust for it. We kept trying to make the car better to catch that Fed Ex car but couldn’t quite get it. We made a mistake one time with our adjustments, but we were able to fight back. We were able to stay out and lead a few laps at the end before we came in and got those two tires so we could get those very important five points. The guy sitting next to me (Jeff Gordon) is working real hard. He’s moving up and we’re trying to move up as well. Everybody around us is running well, and there’s only room for 10 of us. It was a good day for us. We’ll take it and move into the off weekend with a great celebration around the wedding. All of our great sponsors are chipping in. Miller is happy to come on down to the wedding and Penske Truck Rental and all of our great people at Kodak. Some great times are up ahead.”
WERE YOU PUSHING THE CAR AS HARD AS YOU COULD?
“Overdriving the car when it counts is the most important thing. When you start to overdrive it you sacrifice a little bit of air pressure buildup. We built up a little bit too much air into the right front, just trying to push hard, trying to catch Denny. It was all we could do. We knew we were racing for second. We kept adjusting on the car all day to tweak it up or kick it in the rear to catch up to Denny. He had a great racecar and the rest of us were battling for second. If he wasn’t a rookie we’d have two wins at Pocono this year and three in a row, but we can’t talk about what we don’t have. What we can talk about is a great effort today by our team.”
TALK ABOUT THE LAST RUN
“We started with 16 to go and Gordon was in front of us. We worked underneath him in turn one after a couple of laps. It was just a matter of chasing him down. I chased him down a little bit overdriving it, but then I overheated the right front tire and we overheated it.”
COMMENT ON EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES TODAY
“I didn’t see what happened. I saw the 20 car held on pit road for a lap but don’t know anything about the incident. I don’t know what happened. I sit there and look out my windshield all day. I don’t live in the world that’s outside of it.
”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE 400-MILE RACES HERE?
“They do a good job here putting on two events and to have them both 500-milers is a question mark from the drivers’ aspect as well as the teams and crews and everybody that’s involved. We’ve heard Matt Kenseth joke that he raced in the 24-hour race at Daytona once, but the longer race was Pocono.”
DO YOU KEEP UP WITH THE POINTS DURING THE RACE?
“At the end of the day is when you look at who finished where. You have to put the blinders on and keep rolling. That’s what we do. Each race is its own separate race. The way you have to focus intensely the next few races and not have mistakes is the key to making The Chase or being outside.”
WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE RACING FOR SECOND TODAY?
“Maybe I didn’t mean to say it in that direction. For us we try to go win every race in the Miller Lite Dodge. When you’ve got a guy like Denny Hamlin that hits on it, your mind says ‘all right, you’ve got a car that’s pretty good, can you run for the lead?’ We made a ton of adjustments.on the car to go after it really hard to see if we could pressure Denny, but we never made it up to him. My mind didn’t really ever think we couldn’t win the race until about seven laps to go. That’s when our car got tight, and that’s when Denny started to pull away from us and that’s when I made the decision that we were a second-place car today. It’s more to congratulate Denny Hamlin than anything. We did a great job with our team, solid pit stops and it’s a nice solid finish for us. If we had won the race it would have been even better because it would give us 10 or 15 extra points to try to get into The Chase.”
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON THE CHASE
“To have a good points day at this point in the season with us on the outside looking in, it still gives us that motivation and drive to do it each and every week. With an 11-day break and the wedding coming up, man it’s great. The celebration begins tonight. It’s all week long and then we head off for the honeymoon for a few days. This momentum and feeling will carry on for the next two weeks.”
WHAT IS ALL THIS? IS IT PRESSURE?
“It’s the fact that covering drama is more exciting than covering the race anymore. We’ve already gone all over this, but now we’ve got the whole gang in here. Glad you guys could make it. It’s exciting out there. When guys are very adamant about gaining one spot versus the next, it heats up with each race closing toward The Chase. The first year this was around, it was fairly low key, but the intensity was there. Where I was before we thought we could make The Chase with no problem .We’ll get in and then we’ll attack. We did that to a tee and won the championship. Next season we had even a better car going into The Chase and it didn’t work out that well. We’re with a new team, piecing things together and we’re making a strong effort to get into The Chase. That’s all we can hope for. We can hope for no mistakes and hope other guys make mistakes. That’s when you jump on ‘em and gain the spots.”
BOBBY LABONTE (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Charger) – 8th
“I spun out there on pit road and it got us back, but that kinda played in our favor. We were a little further back and those guys came in and got two tires and gas. We decided not to and then the caution came out and we came back around and we had good fortune by that. We came in and put tires on it and it was better. I had to be real careful, too, because I didn’t want to mess it up. On that pit road deal, the 24 was sitting there and he was fixing to take off. I tried to charge it real fast to get in there, and I had a lot of rear brake in it. We’ll take the other car to Indy. This one was OK, but our other one is better.”
KENNY FRANCIS (Team Director No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) –
31st, Kasey Kahne dropped to 7th in standings, 53 points ahead of 11th place, 48 points behind 5th
“We struggled a lot during the day, but there at the end we got it going pretty good. He was moving back up. He got up to 13th (from 20th on final restart) and was really coming strong. Something in the engine with about 10 to go let go, no warning at all. All of a sudden he showed up there on pit road and we barely made the finish. We’ll just have to regroup. I think we’ve got a good car for Indy. We’ll have to go win it.”
RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Mobil 1/Alltel Dodge Charger)
“We kept trying, but we never got the car balanced today. The team kept trying and no one gave up, but we never hit on it.”
SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Stanley/Valvoline Dodge Charger)
“We were tight center for most of the race so Rodney (team director Childers) kept adjusting on it and by the second half we were pretty good. Just before halfway, I made contact with a tire on pit road, and we had to make an unscheduled stop after that, which put us at the rear of the field. I think we made the right call on the last stop to take two tires. We were better on two tires, but for some reason during those final 15 laps the car was way tight.”
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Chevy NNCS Teams Post-Pennsylvania 500 Race Recaps
GM Racing Communications, Press Release
DENNY HAMLIN, NO 11 FEDEX MONTE CARLO SS FROM VICTORY LANE
ON TODAY'S RACE
"Pretty uneventful for once. It was really great to come here and do this again. Man, the car was strong. We did just quarter-turns and this that and the other all day. It was just a pretty good day for us."
ON WINNING AT POCONO AS A ROOKIE
"It is just a great race car. This is more about the team than it is anything else. I am proud to be with all the people I am with at Joe Gibbs Racing and I can't help that Mike (Ford) is such a great crew chief. He prepares the car perfect every single week and it is up to me to get the job done."
ON RACE STRATEGY
"Our FedEx Chevy was so good that no matter what we did, whether it was two tires, four tires, no tires, it was the best car on the race track. At times other cars started to catch up to us a little bit and tune in on us but we were good."
ON NOW BEING EIGHTH IN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS CHASE
"We have to keep plugging along. That is all we can do. Fate is going to decide this Chase. It is just going to happen. Some guys are going to have bad luck and we are in right now, we are just going to try and stay there."
MIKE FORD, CREW CHIEF NO. 11 FEDEX MONTE CARLO SS:
ON SWEEPING POCONO
"Man for Denny's first two times here, undefeated is pretty incredible. Two poles, two wins, he really adapted to this track well. We had a really good race car and the team really excelled today. We didn't have the dilemma we had here in the first race to overcome, it was really a pretty smooth day all in all. Hats off to this whole crew. We came to Pocono and believe we got a pole and a win. Turned around and took the same car to Indy and won there with Bill Elliott. This car is going back in the truck to Indy."
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 6TH:
YOU HAD A GOOD DAY, BUT SOME BRAKE ISSUES THERE NEAR THE END?
"We had an issue with an official on pit road. We went to take two tires and we were running third or fourth and he was standing in front of the car and I actually hit him. So I'm glad he's all right. But it kicked the fender in and we lost probably 15 spots on pit road. We recovered from that and got up into the top five and ran there throughout most of the day and then had brake trouble at the end. It looks like I just wore the brake pads out."
DID YOU NOTICE ANY OVERLY AGGRESSIVE DRIVING TODAY?
"No, I didn't see anything. I raced with Tony Stewart through a lot of the day. Sometimes things are an accident and things happen. I hope that people aren't over-reacting. There's a knee-jerk reaction when there's contact thinking that somebody is mad at someone..paybacks..or whatever it may be. I didn't see anything where I was today and I came through the pack once or twice. There was just some hard racing. We had a good day."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 7th
DID IT FEEL GOOD TO COME BACK THROUGH THE FIELD AND GET A GOOD FINISH TODAY?
"Oh, yeah. It's just like I told everybody last week, just because we're outside of the top 10 for a week, don't get too upset because we're going to get ourselves back in the top 10, so don't even worry about it."
ON THE PENALTY, DID THAT MAKE YOU WANT TO MAKE IT UP TO THE TEAM?
"I didn't even want to have to get the penalty, but if we get some of these young guys. If the run the Busch Series on Saturday and they race that way on Saturday, if we can ever get it into their head that Sunday's a totally different deal with these 500 miles races..all we had to do when we got to him was let him go. I mean I didn't have any problems with Jeff Burton or Bobby Labonte or any of the rest of the guys all day who have been here doing it a while. All of a sudden these that are one and two year drivers that think they know everything about Cup racing. They've got a lot to learn."
WHAT HAPPENED ON PIT ROAD WITH CARL EDWARDS?
"That was only one of two times he run into us. I don't know. We never touched anybody. I don't know why he's running into us. If he's mad about something, he should have said something after the race instead of trying to take our race car out. We never touched him."
CARL EDWARDS GOT CAUGHT UP IN THE ACCIDENT WITH CLINT BOWYER AND MAYBE THINKS YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE
"What happened with me and Clint had nothing to do with Carl. I'm sorry he got into it, but it all started with the 07 car. If he would have just used a little give and take at the beginning of it, none of us would have been in that position in the first place. So instead, we had two guys that had driving penalties and two other guys that got their cars tore up. So one guy that's not being patient and using give and take cost four guys a rough day."
WAS THERE A POINT WHERE (CREW CHIEF) ZIPPY WAS FRUSTRATED?
"No. We all stayed calm and we all did what we had to do. We're a pretty good team about doing that and we've been doing it for a long time.
All I know is if the No. 3 car was here (Earnhardt), a lot of these problems we have with these drivers wouldn't be happening because he'd have had it all settled by now and we wouldn't have to worry about this now."
YOU APOLOGIZED TO YOUR CREW ON THE RADIO AND SAID YOU'D MAKE IT UP TO THEM WITH A GOOD FINISH. DO YOU THINK YOU DID?
"Yeah, I think this was as good as we were all day. But it was an awesome job by Zippy and the guys had awesome stops all day getting it back to the front there. I just wish we wouldn't have had to race that hard that early in the race to have to get ourselves in position to do that."
TALK ABOUT THE 07 RACING HARD
"He was racing too hard at the beginning of a 500-mile race. The problem is they don't learn give and take in the Busch Series and they run the Busch Series on Saturday. They came from Martinsville yesterday and they come here to Pocono today and they're still racing like they're at Martinsville in the Busch Series. This is the Nextel Cup Series. If they would all learn a little give and take, none of us would have been in this position. Carl (Edwards) ended up with a bad day because of it. The No. 5 car ended up with a bad day. I ended up with a bad day. Four cars ended up with a bad day because one guy couldn't have patience and use give and take like they talk about at the drivers meeting every week."
ON WORKING HIS WAY BACK INTO THE TOP 10
"I never doubted we'd be in the top 10 one week after we got out. I'm not worried about it. Everybody else seems to be more worried about the top 10 than we are because we know we're a top 10 team. We just need to do what we did today and keep digging and we'll be where we need to be at the end."
BOTTOM LINE, AT THE END OF THE DAY, SHOULD YOU HAVE BEEN MORE PATIENT?
"Should I have been more patient? I don't think so. I think if the No. 3 car was here, I don't think we'd have as many problems in the series as we have because he always had a way of letting the drivers know where they stood and when to be patient and when to move and when not to move. So I'm not saying that everybody's got to get out of everybody's way, but when it's a 500-mile race and they guy behind you comes up faster..Mark Martin and the rest of those guys let everybody go it just the first year and second year drivers that can't seem to get into their heads to do a little give and take."
AND YOU ARE BECOMING ONE OF THOSE VETERANS NOW..MAYBE SHOULD YOU PUT IT ON YOURSELF AND MAYBE INTERVIEWS LIKE THIS WILL HELP YOU GET THE MESSAGE OUT?
"I talked to Ryan Newman last week. Ryan and I got in the wreck last week and that cost us (from) being in the top 10. Ryan gets it. Kyle Busch gets it. There's only a handful of these guys who don't get it. But the problem is they're in good race cars and they run up front, but they don't run up front enough to learn from the rest of the veterans to learn how to race up front. When we got up front with everybody that is used to running up front, we never had a problem like we normally don't have a problem. It's when we get around the guys that we don't normally race with."
DID EARNHARDT EVER COME TO YOU WHEN YOU WERE STARTING OUT AND GIVE YOU ADVICE?
"We just need to do something a little different here and that's how you learn things. You learn from guys who are veterans in the series. You've got so many of these guys who are running Busch on Saturday and Cup on Sunday and they don't use their heads on give and take and then we end up in the wall because a guy won't let us go and then he ends up in the wall. It's the same thing the guy in the No. 3 car would have done. He'd have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. Eventually these guys figure out you know, hey, I had a bad day because I didn't use my head. It just sucks when you got to have a bad day yourself and get penalized for it. I don't know what point does NASCAR step in and say listen you guys either got to learn it or they've got to learn it from other drivers on the race track. But it's kind of tough when you're babysitting all day long."
IS THERE A WAY TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS?
"Do you have any ideas?
NO
"I'm asking you. I don't either then. I don't know. Go sit with them next week and go talk to them and tell them how it works because I'm so tired of talking with guys. I'd sit down and talk with them all day long but the thing is, they look at you like you've got three heads and they don't pay attention and they don't care. They just do it their way. If Earnhardt Sr. was here, you wouldn't have any of the problems that we have in the series right now with the drivers who are first and second year drivers."
WOULD IT BE EASY TO SAY I'LL JUST LAY LOW?
"Let me ask you this. If Clint (Bowyer) was faster than me, I'd have let him go. That's the way I do everybody. But is it fair for me to let him go but then not let me go coming up there. I just want to be raced..I expect to be raced the way I race other people. And I think I'm pretty fair. Ask some veterans and ask the guys that I run up front with every week and I think I'm a pretty fair driver to those guys. If I'm wrong on that, I'll quit. I'll give you my hard card and retire tomorrow. But I'm pretty sure that those guys are going to say I race pretty fair 99 out of 100 times. When it comes down late in the race like this, you've got to race hard. I didn't expect Jimmie (Johnson) to give me anything at the end.
"I didn't expect Harvick to give me anything. At the end you've got to race<> hard. But it's 500 miles, guys. When you're 40 miles into it.you're got 460 miles..you've got all day to work on your car you know. So what are you accomplishing when you're going to pit five or six or eight times, you know?"
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 5th:
"It was a good race today. We had a solid car all day. We got really loose there at the end for whatever reason but we were able to stay in the top five there. So it was a good day for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet.
ON TODAY'S RACE
"It is pretty big for us. Our GM Goodwrench Chevrolet was good all day long. Coming to Pocono, we always wonder what is going to happen. Today we had a really good car all day long and were able to run up front and keep the brakes underneath the car. We made good adjustments all race long. Good day for us. Hopefully we can do six more just like that."
ON BEING A GOOD OMEN HEADING TO INDY
"I think so. Our test there went really well. Everybody still have a question about the tires, you know, are they going to run far enough and are they going to wear out. Our car seemed to be pretty good compared to others. I am looking forward to the Brickyard and also having only one race next weekend. It will be fun."
ON MOMENTUM IN POINT STANDINGS
"I think we have been consistent performance wise all year. We have a lot of things go wrong for us, a lot of crazy things happen - a rock through the radiator at Darlington and just a few things like that. But all in all, the performance has been there week in and week out and that is what we have to keep doing."
BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 4th
ON TODAY'S RACE
"We were a second to third place car all day. We ran in the top group. We lost some track position one time, that hurt us, it was real important today. There were times when we had the balance spot-on. But we were still lacking a 1/2 of a tenth to a tenth on the 11 car, he was just dominant all day. That is the kind of speed you have to find in practice, you can't find it during the race. The guys made good calls in the pits. We had a good solid day, moved us up in the points. It was a good day for us."
ON NOT HAVING PRACTICE ON SATURDAY
"I felt like we obviously had a good base setup to start with. We ran well here in the past and ran well here in the first race in June. Obviously the 11 had a better starting point than we did. Practice probably would have helped us, but we were still ok."
ON WHAT THIS FINISH MEANS TO THE TEAM
"It feels really good. We had a good car last weekend, just being a little off on pit strategy kind of hurt us a little and then getting caught in some wrecks. We have had some really good cars here lately and to finally get some good solid runs to show for them and move up in the points, that always helps a team. It makes you feel good when you run well."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS: Wrecked on lap 88
YOU SEEMED AWFULLY CALM ON THE RADIO, BUT YOU SEEMED KIND OF UPSET AND NEEDED SOME TIME TO COOL DOWN
"Well, I really didn't know who wrecked me and then I found out it was Dave Blaney. I didn't do nothing to him on the race track. I don't think he meant wrecked me. I don't know why he would do that; he's a pretty nice guy. We always got along as friends. But it's a pretty weird deal. I just got run over on the straightaway and I tried to save it but just got too far behind on the wheel there."
AFTER LAST WEEK, YOU DIDN'T NEED A POOR FINISH AGAIN THIS WEEK:
"You're are telling me. But what am I supposed to do? My motor blows up and now I got wrecked. I don't know what else to do. I mean, we didn't have a great car. We didn't bring a good race car to the race track, not a good product. I am disappointed in my team on how the car drove, but we will just have to keep tryin."
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Ford NNCS Post-Pennsylvania 500 Race Recaps With Edwards, Leicht, and Doug Yates
Campbell & Co., For Ford Racing, Press Release
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Finished 39th) –
“Man, I’ve got to choose my words carefully. Let me just say this, if it weren’t for respect of the sport and the people watching and his team and everything, he’d be out there bleeding right now. That’s so frustrating. How can a person make it this far in life being that much of a jerk. He ran into Clint (Bowyer). I saw it on the big screen. He turned into Clint and took both him and I out and probably made it just about impossible for us to make the chase, and then when I pull up beside him and wave my hand like, ‘What was that about?’ He gives me the finger. I mean, what a jerk. I don’t even know what to say. It’s amazing to me that someone can be that special.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT BECAUSE YOU LOOKED LIKE A STRONG CONTENDER AT THE START OF THE YEAR.
“There are a lot of things you can’t control and I guess we just have to chalk the driver of that 20 car up as one of them.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT NASCAR PUTTING YOU IN THE PENALTY BOX?
“That was the right thing to do to give us the one lap penalty. What I did wrong there was I put those guys on pit road at risk. I made sure to spin him out so he went to the right, but, still, I shouldn’t have done that on pit road. That was a justified penalty and for that I apologize.”
YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO KICK HIS BUTT ON THE RADIO.
“Yeah. It’s just too bad. There are penalties for everything I guess.”
YOU SEEM TO BE SO CALM ABOUT THIS TYPE OF THING.
“I don’t know. I want to like Tony. He’s a hard racer and all that, but how can you like somebody like that. It’s just amazing. If you hold that guy up, like if he thinks you held him up, he gets so upset and then he can wreck two guys and give you the finger. That’s spectacularly self-centered. I can’t imagine being like that.”
STEPHEN LEICHT – No. 90 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion (Finished 33rd) –
“I feel like I did the best I could for my first time. It’s hard to get a handle and have any expectations at all when you only get 16 laps of practice at a track you’re not familiar with and in a series this big. These guys run hard every lap and it’s definitely the most competitive racing I’ve ever been in. I feel like moving forward, if I was to come back here and race again tomorrow, I’d be that much better.
”
DID YOU GET COMFORTABLE AT ANY POINT OR WAS IT A LEARNING PROCESS START TO FINISH?
“From start to finish it was a learning process. I thought I would probably get to a smoother and more comfortable rhythm and I didn’t really get there. I don’t know if that was me or the car not being where it needed to be. Obviously I didn’t have the experience, but the car was a little bit off but we’re fine. I’m proud of the guys. Everytime I came in for a pit stop we gained spots. We never lost a spot on pit road. They did an awesome job and I want to thank our sponsors for this race – CitiFinancial. It was a great team effort.”
DOUG YATES, Co-Owner – Robert Yates Racing –
WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON STEPHEN’S PERFORMANCE TODAY?
“I think Stephen did an excellent job. For his first Cup start in a long race at a challenging race track, he stayed out of trouble and raced hard. He raced some good guys out there and I think he did an excellent job. We probably have more work to do on our equipment than he does on his driving right now, so we’re very pleased. It’s exciting. Anytime you start a new program like that it’s exciting for us and obviously exciting for him. The guy is very talented. He needed exactly what he got today, a lot of laps and a lot of miles. Every lap he ran today is very valuable.”
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Hamlin Sweeps Pocono!
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