MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 34th)
"We'll just keep fighting. I'm charged up. I'm excited. After a weekend
of my race team fighting like they fought, we've got four more races so
we're gonna go see if we can win some."
THOSE TRACKS ARE GOOD FOR YOU. "They suit us better than this one,
although we really had high expectations. See if Mr. Pessimist ever
predicts another win."
YOU HAD BRAKE ISSUES BUT WERE MID-PACK MOST OF THE DAY. "We had a middle
pack car and we had to run it too hard on that long green and lost our
brakes. The guys battled hard and we did everything we could. We've got
four more and we're gonna go battle back. From wherever we're at, we're
gonna move up."
GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Subway/National Guard Taurus (Finished 20th)
"It was the kind of day we were hoping for up until Junior spun the
77. That hurt us bad. We were gonna be about 14th or 15th, our car was
really good there on the top. I know Junior didn't mean to spin him out,
but it just ruined our race. That got me up in the fence and then my car
wouldn't go. That knocked the toe out of it, but I guess it's a good
thing it happened then and not in the middle of the race I suppose."
TONY AND JIMMIE HAD GOOD DAYS. YOUR THOUGHTS. "Yeah, but we've got them
right where we want them - 78 points. It's awesome. It's perfect."
WHAT ABOUT YOUR DAY. "I got a lap down twice and got it back, but,
heck, we couldn't beat that. It was unfortunate that Junior spun the
77 there at the end. I know he didn't mean to. That's just racing at
Martinsville, but that really cost me a 14th-place finish or so. I was
in 17th right then and could have gotten a couple more cars, but I got
up there and knocked the toe out of in the fence, and couldn't get going
again. Better it happened then and not in the middle of the race where I
couldn't have finished where I did. It was a good day for us. We're only
78 back. I think we're well within striking distance for four races."
WHAT ABOUT THOSE FOUR RACES? "Seventy-eight points, I think so. All we
can do is win four races or run in the top three four times and see what
they do."
KURT BUSCH - No. 97 IRWIN/Sharpie Taurus (Finished 6th)
"All in all it was great. To be able to come back and work our way
through the pack. We took four tires when we thought we needed to stay
out and then we had a long green flag run and that put us in great
position. So it was a good day for the Irwin Industrial Tools Ford - to
come home with almost a top five. Some other guys were gonna run out of
gas because we came in and topped off, but we were fine."
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE PENALTY EARLY IN THE RACE? "I used to
get excited about stuff like that. That's NASCAR and they make their
decisions, so we have to abide by them."
NOT A BAD FINISH. "Things were good. We stayed steady after we came up
through the pack once. We had to come and do it again, just to take
tires when we thought we were gonna stay out for the rest of the time.
That enabled us to get into the top 10 and we had a great car at the end
- it was just track position - but those guys were fast. It was a good
day for the Irwin Industrial Tools Ford."
CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Office Depot Taurus (Finished 26th)
"That was a long day. It seemed like our front brakes weren't holding up
very well, so what happened is the harder and harder we'd go, especially
following people, it would just smoke the front brakes. That made it
harder and harder to go into the corner and even with that we were
having trouble. That's how I got into the 15. I put my nose out there to
go under him and when he closed the door, like he had the right to, man,
that pedal was rock solid. The thing locked the rears up and wouldn't
stop. I feel bad for putting him out of it, but, overall, it was just a
bad day for us. At least we didn't get hurt."
DID YOU SPEAK TO ANY OTHER ROUSH TEAMS BECAUSE MARK'S BRAKES LET GO.
"I'm not certain if Mark and I had the same brake package on the front,
but whatever I had, there was one time right when Mark was having his
trouble that I couldn't go any farther. I mean, if we didn't get a
caution right then we would have been in big trouble. I don't know if I
knocked the dust out of it or something, but it was a long, hard day.
The only regret I have is I just wish I would have stayed behind that 15
and not messed up his day with ours."
RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (Finished 11th)
"We had a good day until about lap 200. I don't know what happened. Tony
was working through lap traffic and we were really good on long runs.
We kind of caught up to him a little bit and I'm not really sure. They
wrecked in front of us coming off turn four. I can't believe this car,
as torn up and as bad as it was, it kept going. It knocked the steering
wheel out of my hand and knocked the front end out of alignment, but
it kept on going. We got 11th out of it, but we had a top two or three
car."
YOU SPUN OUT A COUPLE TIMES TOO. "What happened is because of the first
wreck we had no brake cooling. All of our brake ducts were knocked off
and the brake pedal went to the floor. We were fighting those issues the
whole end of the race, but after that wreck we had no brake cooling and
it was a pretty long day for us."
YOU COULD HAVE CONTENDED FOR THE WIN. "I think we for sure had a top two
car. I'm not sure how it turned out. Fatback had set our car up for the
long run and it was there for the long runs. We started with Tony, even
in clear traffic at about lap 175, we were two-tenths quicker and was
catching him. He had lapped cars to deal with, but in open track we were
about two-tenths quicker on a long run. He was better on a short run."
-ford racing-
