Homestead Post-race Quotes

AJ ALLMENDINGER (No. 44 Ford Drive one. Ford Fusion)
Finished 10th
"I'm just proud of everybody on the 44 team to get two top-10s and three top-15s in three races. That's good. I wish we could've had this all year. It was a lot of fun. I thank Ford for allowing this to happen, and everybody that sponsored this 44 car to keep us going, and I'm looking forward to next year."

YOU SEEMED TO GET STRONGER AS THE RACE WORE ON. "Yeah. We just worked on it. It seemed like we got a bad set of tires one time. We didn't change anything, and then put another set of tires on and one adjustment and we were fast again. Other than that, we just kept picking them off. I wish our car had been just a little stronger late, like 10 laps to go on our tires, it really started to fade there. But. I'm proud of everybody."

WHEN YOU END A SEASON ON A HIGH NOTE LIKE THIS, DO YOU KIND OF WISH THERE WAS ANOTHER RACE NEXT WEEK, TOO, OR ARE YOU READY FOR A BREAK? "I'd rather run every week, but this team needs a break. We need to get everything in order and be stronger next year."

BIG ADVANTAGE TO GET IN A FORD THREE TIMES THIS YEAR BEFORE STARTING 2010? "Big time."

***

RICHARD PETTY (Car Owner, No. 44 Ford Drive one. Ford Fusion)

CAN YOU COMMENT ON AJ ALLMENDINGER'S THREE RACES IN A FORD? "It's been good. Hopefully, this is just what's in the future for us with Ford because he stepped up about six, eight positions by just getting into a Ford. So, hopefully, in the future, we'll be able to make it even better."

HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO GET THOSE THREE RACES IN BEFORE STARTING 2010? "We don't go in completely blind, just partly blind. At least we've got a little bit of experience with it. It helps the driver and the crew and they'll be able to translate it better to the rest of the crew."

***

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
Finished 17th
"It was a hard-fought night for our Budweiser Dodge team. We fought a loose condition all night and every time that we tried to tighten it up, we made the front-end tighter and just couldn't find the balance in the car that we needed. We thought our car may change to the good when the race went from day to night, but it just didn't happen. I'm proud of all my guys. We made the Chase, finished 10th in points and were able to win two races. We got our first road course win (Sonoma) and ran strong throughout the season. Kenny (Francis, crew chief) and the guys did a great job all season. I just want to thank everyone at Budweiser and Dodge and all sponsors for their support.

***

REED SORENSON (No. 43 Siemens Dodge Charger)
Finished 40th
"Wow, I'm not sure what happened. We were coming to pit road and all that you can see is the guy in front of you, so I was pretty close to the 98. I saw him check up and I got on the brakes hard. Elliott (Sadler) was behind me and it looks like he got hit from behind, then he hit me from behind and I was a pinball in the middle. Elliott told me that the 96 was trying to come into the garage. It's a shame that something that stupid had to wreck this many cars."

***

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Best Buy Dodge Charger)
Finished 41st
"That was crazy. We were coming to pit road and the 43 looked like he stopped right in front of me. It looks like the 96 was trying to get into the garage when everyone was pitting. I'm not sure what they were doing or why they were doing that right in front of everybody. That's tough luck for our race team. That's kind of how our season has gone. I hate to end the season like this. It's just a tough deal. A lot of people from Best Buy and Stanley are here today and getting wrecked on pit road is just weird."


Credit: Ford Racing
Credit: Dodge Motorsports