PAUL MENARD - No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion
Finished 7th
"Our Menards Ford Fusion was pretty good all weekend. We struggled a bit with a tight condition today, but it wasn't so much that I couldn't work through it. Getting a good finish at Dover is a big deal because it's a tough track and I'm really proud of this team. Slugger really only made minor adjustments all day and we were pretty good at times. All in all, it was a decent weekend for us."
***
RICHARD "SLUGGER" LABBE, Crew Chief - No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion
"That was good. It's probably the best we've been all year from the time we unloaded to the time they threw the checkered. We had good practices, good qualifying runs and a good race run, so that's promising. No one is giving up. We're trying hard and it's good when the whole team gels. The last couple of weeks have been pretty brutal and to come back and run competitive means a lot."
***
AJ ALLMENDINGER - No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion
Finished 10th
YOU HAVE FINISHED BETTER BUT YOU HAVE NEVER RUN AS WELL AS TODAY. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE TODAY? "A fast race car and starting up front. It was fun to lead. No wonder Jimmie is smiling so much. It's actually a lot of fun to lead. Everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports is building great race cars and Doug Yates and all those guys are bringing a lot of horsepower. The car was dialed in and just a stupid five-cent washer got inside the tire. I'm not sure when. It must have been right when we pitted and left the pits. As the run went on the car started freeing up and then I asked how long it was before I was supposed to pit and he said, 'Twenty laps,' and I'm like, 'I'm not gonna make it.' I knew something was wrong. I knew the right-rear was going down and after that you're just fighting back the rest of the day. We're getting really good at fighting back and making good finishes out of a problem that happens. I would like to have a consistent race one of these days, but we've got fast race cars and we're getting there. They saw us lead. They saw that we had the speed there. They saw the Insignia/Best Buy Ford just out there flying. It was a good day, but it could have been a great day."
WERE YOU TWO LAPS DOWN? "I don't know. I just know that once the tire was flat I had to drive my butt off. That's all I know."
ARE YOU GOING TO BE ONE OF THOSE GUYS THAT ISN'T NECESSARILY GOING TO BE HAPPY TO SEE THE SEASON END BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SAVING YOUR BEST FOR LAST. "I love racing, so I always hate when the season ends. I'm not looking at that. We've got eight more races to go, so we've got a lot of work to do. I still feel like we can get to the top 16 or 17 in points and if we keep running like this, maybe we can sneak a win in there. We still have two months before I've got to worry about the season ending."
DID YOU WANT THAT RACE TO GO LONGER SO YOU COULD MAKE UP SOME MORE SPOTS? "It's tough. I felt like my car was really fast for 25 laps, but once the tires kind of leveled off it was really hard to pass. My car was really good on restarts, so we got a yellow out there and got another set of tires and tried it again. I thought we had a chance, but the thing was that under yellow we'd pull all the rubber up off the track and then we'd go green and my car would be really fast. But once we laid the rubber back down, it felt like we were getting way too tight - almost like the splitter was hitting the rubber and making the car too tight. I felt if we could have cleaned the race track off and then went at it hard for 25 laps we had something."
DO YOU THINK YOU'RE INCHING CLOSER TO FINDING THAT CONSISTENCY? "I think we're getting there. To say, can we go out and win one? We've got to keep getting better. We've got to be consistent inside the top 10. Today was a big day for that. To be able to lead so many laps. I think that was quadruple the laps I've ever led, combined in Cup. We've just got to keep getting there. Of course, winning is the ultimate goal and that's what we want to do, but we have to go baby steps here. We have to be one of those cars that are inside the top 10 every weekend and then we'll get there."
NOTE: Allmendinger led 143 laps today. Prior to the race, he led only 43 laps in his Cup career.
Credit - Ford Racing
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