Catchfence

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WHAT HAPPENED?

“I haven’t seen the video. We were all getting ready to pit so I was waving my hand out the window down the backstretch through (Turns) 3 and 4; and as soon as I let off the gas to come to pit road, someone got into the back of me. I don’t know if they didn’t see my hand waving or what really went on, but I was just trying to get slowed down to come onto pit road and I got hit from behind. I went down on the inside wall. As I was spinning, I could see a lot of other cars were collected too.”

WHY WAS PIT ROAD SO CRAZY TONIGHT?

“Whenever you have a track where you do two-tire stops, you’re going to have some chaos. There were so many cars on the lead lap, plus two-tire stops; the guys running up front complete their pit stop and leave their pit stall as traffic is coming in and you have some issues. Right now it’s the only place to pass; especially today. The cars were on the edge of overheating. There wasn’t a lot of energy in the pack due to the limitations with the cooling of the car so you couldn’t get in there and bump-draft someone of push them and make a pass happen. And we kind of rode single file. Your lane would move; your lane would fall back, and you just kind of sat there until you got to pit lane and could try and get all you could on pit road.”

OBVIOUSLY, YOU ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED BUT IT’S SORT OF PAR FOR THE COURSE THAT AT THIS RACE TRACK YOU NEVER KNOW.

“Yeah, it is. My plate record is not looking too good this year. I hope to get all this bad luck out of the way so that when we come back in the Chase, we can have a good finish. But its plate racing. I show up every time and know what can happen. Unfortunately it does usually happen to me.”

WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?

“I had some contact. Somebody hit me from behind. I was trying to get slowed down to get to pit road. I waved off of Turn 2 down the back and motioned down the side in Turns 3 and 4 that I was coming to pit road and someone didn’t get the message behind me and ran through me as I checked up to get on to pit road. It’s an unfortunate break for the Lowe’s Chevrolet.

“It was real tough to pass out there but I felt like our car was good and we could pass a few cars and get into a decent spot, but I think pit strategy and track position is going to be key for the winner tonight.” 

BILL ELLIOTT, NO. 50 WALMART CHEVROLET – INVOLVED IN MULTIPLE CAR CRASH ON LAP 123

WHAT WENT ON OUT THERE?

“Everybody was checking-up and I was trying to check-up and I got turned a little bit and I got it gathered back up and I thought I was going to hit the inside wall and I got it turned back. And then when I came back up, the problem is whatever happened up ahead. We were just a victim of the circumstances. But man I was proud of all those guys on Turner Motorsports and Walmart. That’s the best I’ve run in a long time. The car drove so well. I could go anywhere on the race track and just wait around biding my time and just seeing where we’re going to play out at the end.”

YOU’VE RACED BASICALLY EVERY PACKAGE NASCAR HAS EVER HAD ON PLATE TRACKS. WHAT WAS TONIGHT LIKE?

“You couldn’t hardly pass, man. I mean when I was running third there early on in the race, I ran every lap wide-open and never came off the bottom, you know. And that’s kind of where you were. The problem was when I got in that inside line there right before the accident, we could make a little bit of headway on the outside line and then the outside line would make a little bit of headway on us. When I’d have to check-up at the end of the straightaway to keep from running up I guess, Logano, in the No. 20 car; then the outside line would get a little bit on us. But man it was just so hard to ever position yourself. And my car ran really hot on the outside line but it ran great and cool on the inside line. Man, guys, I don’t know.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – INVOLVED IN MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 152 AND FINISHED 28^TH:

“To tell you the truth the Target Chevy was pretty good.  I felt at first I had a lot of motor so I had two guys I had the No. 21 in line pushing me so we were making pretty good ground there.  To tell you the truth what happened I don’t know.  Somebody wrecked in front of us.  I lifted and I got spun into the fence and then I got hit everywhere.  I mean it’s Daytona.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – WINNER
ALWAYS SPECIAL TO WIN AT DAYTONA BUT WALK US THROUGH THAT FINAL LAP WHEN EVERYTHING GOT JUMBLED:
“I don’t even remember what happened that last lap.  I just got in that second lane and just tried to get the No. 17 and No. 16 pulled apart.  Once we got them pulled apart it gave us a run on the outside so it shows what Mobil 1 lubricants and oils can do for you.  We were just so good on restarts, just a weird day. These races I’m still voting for a figure eight race here.”

FORTY-SECOND TO FIRST NOT ONCE NOT TWICE NOT THREE TIMES BUT THIS IS YOUR FOURTH MID-SUMMER CLASSIC THE COKE ZERO 400 WIN WHAT DOES THIS ONE MEAN TO YOU?
“Well anytime you win at Daytona it’s special, but this Chevy was awesome.  I had great Hendrick horsepower and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing did an awesome job this weekend.  I’m really proud of our organization.  If it weren’t for the cap blowing off of the NACA duct we would have been second and third qualifying and I’m really proud of that.  I’m really proud of this Mobil 1/Office Depot team and everybody at Coca-Cola, U.S. Army, Quicken Loans, GoDaddy, Aspen Dental, Outback Steakhouse, everybody that is a part of this program.  Gene Haas and everybody at Haas Automation they are the ones they got this started so thanks to all those people.”

RICK HENDRICK ONE OF YOUR CORPORATE PARTNERS POKED HIS HEAD IN THE WINDOW WHAT DID HE TELL YOU?
“I can never tell that (laughs).  He just said ‘Good Job’.  Thanks to all of our fans.  It’s been a long hot Fourth of July we know that and appreciate all the fans that have stuck it out tonight.  It’s been a long hot couple of days for them and we got the toughest fans in the world.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 WHEATIES CHEVROLET – FINISHED SECOND
PIECE TOGETHER YOUR NIGHT FOR ME, THE MIRROR FALLS OFF ON LIKE LAP FIVE, LAP ONE YOU ARE AT 240 (DEGREES) ON THE WATER, HOW DID YOU HOLD IT TOGETHER TONIGHT FOR A SECOND-PLACE FINISH?
“Well honestly we had to just ride around in the back tonight.  Right now if we in a pack in a race we are going to overheat and we are not going to finish the race.  Unfortunately, we kind of have to ride around and that kept us out of some trouble though.  We got going with about 30 to go and missed a couple of wrecks, had some fortune.

“Kevin (Harvick) and I had a good run going and just had nowhere to go.  I did my little thing in turn one, saved it and then they wrecked off turn four and ended up with a good finish.  Anytime you can leave here with a car not torn up you probably ought to be happy.”

YOU NEVER KNEW GOING THREE-WIDE IN TURNS THREE AND FOUR WOULD BE SO BRILLIANT DID YOU?
“Not by yourself (laughs).  I was by myself I didn’t know that was a good thing to do, but they had all got slowed down enough where I didn’t have a lot of choice I had to go somewhere.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET – FINISHED FIFTH
HOW DID YOU SQUIRT THROUGH THAT WHOLE THING?
“He (Jeff Burton) led the way.” 

YOU FOLLOWED HIM, HUH?
“Well involuntarily, but I was on the high side and tried to go around him when he got loose in (turn) two.  He had a heck of a save.  It was just a good run for our Aspen Dental Chevrolet, first race for them on our car.  I’m really proud to have them as part of Stewart-Haas and myself.  A top-five is what our team needed.  I think we were about 15^th or 16^th going into turn three and to come off of turn four and be fifth at the start/finish line.  Congratulations to Tony (Stewart) and those guys they did an awesome job.”

MOMENTUM WISE HOW CRITICAL WAS THIS FOR THE NO. 39 TEAM?
“Well it was big for us, especially with the stretch coming up.  Loudon which is a place which us at Stewart-Haas have done an awesome job at in the past, we look forward to going there.  The stretch going into Indy and obviously the Chase it’s important.  Well, we might have lost a play-off berth tonight, but we are still in plenty of contention there with the No. 20 car right now.”