KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
Finished 2nd
"The team did a good job with our Budweiser Dodge. We had a good handling car, but lost the draft a couple of times. We needed to be in the middle of the draft. (Brian) Vickers was pushing me really hard there before the caution. I was just in the right place at the right time.
"It unfolded well for us at the end. If we got back in the pack, we'd lose the draft. We needed to have cars around us and tried to keep cars behind us mainly. If we were able to do that, we could race pretty decent. The car handled good which I think everybody's car handled good here. We just kind of shot up through there, had great track position on that restart and ran second. It was good for our Budweiser team."
WHY DO YOU THINK IT GOT REALLY CRAZY THERE AT THE END? "When all these cars are bunched up, just one little move by one car and the other guy moves the other way to block or just to go in another gap and that closes, the others wreck. That's just this type of racing and I think everybody understands that. It's happened at Daytona plenty of times. It's happened here. Or you just get up on the wall and kind of go until about 10 cars decide that it's enough of that and we want to build up a line and come back. I wait for somebody to do it because I'm not the guy that's going to jump out or I'll be the guy running 43 after that."
WHAT ABOUT THE BUMP DRAFTING IN THE CORNERS? "They (NASCAR) put a stop to it in the corners and that was it. You couldn't get all that speed built up that some of the guys were doing in practice. It seemed to work out just fine like that. I felt fine with it really. Down the straightaways you could still get behind a car and push really hard and build that speed up, that MPH and get off in the corners. I don't think there's anything wrong with pushing in the corners, but I think they (NASCAR) went there because the speeds went up so much. Myself and (Denny) Hamlin hooked up on Friday and went about six-tenths faster than the people drafting, or five-tenths. They just didn't want to see that. You could still do it on the straightaway which was fine I think."
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KENNY FRANCIS (Crew Chief, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
"The Budweiser Dodge was pretty good all day. It was an up and down day, but that's always the case here. The guys did a great job all day and unlike most Talladega races, fuel mileage played a factor there at the end."
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ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge Charger)
Finished 9th
“Man, it feels great (top-10 finish). I’m really proud of the car - it was fast and we were able to lead a couple laps, run up front and learn a lot of things that should help us for Daytona next year. I have to thank Max Jones and everybody at Yates Racing for giving me an opportunity to do this. We had a lot of fun today working with some of our future teammates. I’m proud of Jamie (McMurray), he’s a good friend of mine. Kasey (Kahne) also got a second place finish, so all around it was a good day for the Stanley car.”
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REED SORENSON (No. 43 Liberty Medical Dodge Charger)
Finished 16th
"We just stayed patient throughout the day, then there at the end we lost the draft. When you do that, you lose about two seconds a lap. The yellow never came out so we couldn't get back up there and race. I don't care who you are, if you don't have someone pushing you--you can't go. I'm just glad we missed all that mess at the end."
***
AJ ALLMENDINGER (No. 44 Hunt Brothers Pizza Dodge Charger)
Finished 33rd
"That was a tough day for us. We got down two laps and could never get back on the lead lap. I thought we were going to get the free pass, but the race went green. It was a strange race, but for us, it was about getting a break when we needed one and it never came. We were pretty fortunate to miss the two wrecks at the end."
Credit: Dodge Motorsports
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