Talladega II Post-Race Quotes

PAUL MENARD - No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion
Finished 13th
"We struggled in the pits. We struggled getting the tire off because of the rebound, so it's something we've got to look at, but I think we ran something like 300 miles on the left side tires. We just kept taking two tires and gaining track position. The car sucked up really well. We struggled on restarts, but once it got wound up it was pretty quick."

BIFFLE PUSHED YOU INTO THE LEAD LATE. DID YOU FEEL YOU WERE IN POSITION TO WIN? "We were working pretty well together. I think we were both hoping it was gonna run out to the end. We were kind of formulating a plan to do that again with a lap or two to go and then a caution came out and kind of ruined that idea. It was just wild at the end. Everybody was pushing the hell out of each other. It was a lot of fun."

WERE YOU SURPRISED THERE WASN'T A HUGE MULTI-CAR WRECK? "Yeah. There were a couple wrecks that I thought would collect more people, but everybody did a good job. I knew with that last restart it was gonna get wild. Everybody kind of kept their heads until it was time to go, so it was good."

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AJ ALLMENDINGER - No. 43 Valvoline Ford Fusion
Finished 32nd
"I'm alright. It's not the most fun run I've ever had, but it's Talladega. It's one of those things. I hate this place. I always have and always will. I don't know. I'm not really sure. I wish I could give you a description of what happened. I was just in the middle four-wide, I was getting shoved and I got in the right-rear of Michael, but I was on the brakes as hard as I could be getting pushed as hard as I was. It was just one of those things."

HAVE YOU EVER FLIPPED LIKE THAT BEFORE? "No, I've never flipped in anything like that. I guess there's a first for everything, but that's the first I never wanted to have."

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR RACE BEFORE THAT? "It wasn't very good. I just hate this place. I'm proud of my guys. They fought hard. We went two laps down and we've got something with our shocks with the compression in it. It just doesn't allow us to change the right-front very fast, so we got a lap down and we lost the draft, and then we got bundled up and I got hit once and spin to go two down, so I'm just proud of the guys for fighting so hard. We got back on the lead lap and I thought maybe we had a chance to get something good out of it, so I'm sorry for that. Honestly, like I said, I hate this place but I'm just proud of my guys. They keep fighting in a lot of tough times right now."

Credit - Ford Racing