Talladega Post-Race Quotes

AJ ALLMENDINGER -- No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion
Finished 19th
“I’m really proud of this Insignia/Best Buy team. My guys worked really hard and gave me some really good stops. You never know what Talladega is going to bring. This place is so crazy. Our Ford Fusion was really fast. My crew chief Mike Shiplett and spotter Tony Hirschman were definitely key in keeping me calm and out of those accidents today.”

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KASEY KAHNE -- No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion
Finished 21st
“We seemed to get in everybody else’s mess today, but I was the one that missed pit road and got us back there. We were pretty quick the whole race and I just misjudged pit road. I hit the brakes and thought I could beat a bunch of guys in, but the car in front of me hit the car pretty strong and got slowed up way early, so I had to go around him and keep going. To me though, NASCAR let us do our thing today. It was pretty wild and pretty crazy. There was a lot of pushing, but not too many wrecks. It was no worse than any other time and they just left it up to the drivers, so I actually thought it was pretty cool.”

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PAUL MENARD -- No. 98 Turtle Wax/Menards Ford Fusion
Finished 25th
“Our Turtle Wax/Menards Ford Fusion was pretty good at the start. We were racing hard, but we were also trying to race smart. You knew even before the race started that there were going to be problems and all you could do was hope you could somehow avoid them. Everything just happens so fast in Talladega and once that wreck started, I just wasn’t able to get out of the way. There were cars coming from every direction.

“The car was still driving pretty well after the wreck, but when we were in line for the Lucky Dog award, we couldn't seem to get a caution. The guys worked really hard on pit road today and I’m proud of them. It was a day that could have been a lot better, but I suppose it could have been even worse. That’s just Talladega racing for you.”

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ELLIOTT SADLER -- No. 19 Stanley/Bostitch Ford Fusion
Finished 33rd
“It’s definitely wild with this new spoiler. It’s definitely wild racing and bump drafting and it’s just Talladega at the end. I’m not sure what happened. I felt like I got hit in the right rear and turned up in the wall, but I don’t know what happened. I feel sorry for all my guys with Stanley and Bostitch that came on for this weekend.

“You know the wreck’s gonna happen. It’s Talladega and you can’t change it. You just wish that one day you’d be on the good side of it instead of the bad side, so I hate that we got in the wreck. We got in one wreck and made a bunch of repairs to it and made it better. We were just trying to get in line there at the end, but I’m not sure what happened. We’ll just try to regroup and go to Richmond.”

Credit - Richard Petty Motorsports PR