Southern 500 Post-Race Quotes
AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 37th) – “The brake rotor exploded. The last 40 or 50 laps we were struggling with brake problems and just no brakes. We took all the brake cooling off and thought maybe we were gonna fix it, and when that yellow came out I went to hit the brakes to slow down and the brake rotors exploded. I’m not sure which one, but I was just trying to aim for the bottom and try to miss everybody. I’m sorry to Jimmie. It wasn’t his fault, but I had no brakes and couldn’t do anything about it.”
DAVID GILLILAND – No. 38 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 35th) – “Bobby Labonte lost it in front of me. I was right on his tail and he came across my nose and I got into him. We ended up getting into the inside wall. It was a rough night. Our car wasn’t nowhere near what it needed to be, but Darlington is a tough place.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 14th) – “It wasn’t pretty, but Donnie Wingo did an awesome job calling the pits. To be down two laps at the beginning, I knew we had a better car than that, but he played it just right. I guess the good Lord was looking after us. We caught a couple of lucky breaks and you have to be lucky in this deal. We had a top 15-20 car, but you just have to be in position. It was kind of a freak deal at the beginning. I thought I had a tire going down and I pitted under green and lost two laps. We just fought and fought from that point on and I’m glad it was a 500-mile race, instead of 400. It was a crazy night, but I was glad to get a top-15.” WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN DONNIE MADE THE CALL TO STAY OUT? “Donnie just had that feeling that we should stay out. Our lap times were somewhat competitive that we could afford to stay out for about 20 or 30 laps and if we could catch a caution, we would be good and we did. We caught a caution, got the wave around, and then got a lucky dog. We had to race all night and there’s no doubt it was the toughest 14th-place finish I’ve ever had.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 22nd) – “It was just really tight, chattering the front tires tire. I was trying to kind of arc it in and trying to get it to turn across the center and when I arced it in over here it just got away from me. I got loose in and got up into the fence. It looked like it collected a few guys behind me and that was unfortunate, but I just couldn’t get the car to turn all night. It was too bad, and then we had an alternator fail about lap 50, which didn’t help. We didn’t have any brake cooling or gear cooling or anything. It was a rough night not to have any fans or anything.”
MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford Fusion (Finished 13th) – “We just weren’t very fast and we didn’t handle very well as a group. The first run of the day we drove all the way up there through the pack pretty good, but then when it got dark we got loose and we just couldn’t really get it much better. Even when we got it balanced we just don’t have speed and I don’t really know why. It was just a struggle. I’m actually super-happy to come home 13th. That was probably way better than we should have finished because I drove it in the fence a couple of times just overdriving and that didn’t help our cause either, so it was just a struggle all night. I’m glad we got a respectable result.” IS THIS THE KIND OF NIGHT THOUGH WHERE YOU MAKE THE BEST OF AN OFF NIGHT? “Yeah, we’ve been doing that a lot lately. The last month has been really hard for whatever reason. We show up at the track and we’re slower than we were a couple months before that. It’s just been a battle lately. It’s been a lot harder than the first two months of the season, so it’s been tough. We’ve got to figure out how to get our cars running a little faster and that makes the rest of it easier. We had bad luck at Texas with that flat. We were gonna get a top-10 there, but, other than that we’ve been struggling a little bit more. Hopefully, we can hit it next week.”
