DAVID STREMME – No. 26 Air National Guard Ford Fusion (Finished 37^th) – “I don’t know. We either cut a tire down or got in that oil or something, and I got loose and then wrecked. We were just riding and trying to mind our own business and it ended up not working out, but we’ll just keep going.”

 

ROBERT RICHARDSON, JR. – No. 37 Mahindra Tractors Ford Fusion (Finished 23^rd) – “We’re gonna go try and get back in it because all he did was knock the right rear tire out, so we might be able to get back in it. Still, I was very impressed with how the backup car drove tonight, but hopefully we’re not done. We’re gonna try to figure it out and get back out there.”

 

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Finished 34^th) – “For us, it was just a bad day and it kind of got worse. I don’t know what happened. All I saw was smoke. I was up by the wall and I couldn’t really go any slower and came down the hill into the grass and there were just a pile of cars there and I couldn’t make my way through when I was going through the grass and piled into the 78. It was just a mess. I about had it stopped, but there was nothing you could do with all those cars parked there.” IS THIS WHAT HAPPENS WITH LESS THAN 20 TO GO AT THESE RACES? “Yeah, it is. The give and take is all just take. When the money is on the line, everybody is just gonna go for everything they’ve got and not really give an inch and not cut anybody any slack. When you do that and with how these cars are already sliding around as much as they are, it’s pretty easy to get turned around.”

 

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 20^th) – “It was actually gonna be a pretty good night. I got through those major wrecks with minor damage, but the real problem was we had a major oil leak and I had to stop on pit road and fix it. It’s just frustrating because our car was okay to continue, but our oil wasn’t. That’s kind of mysterious, so we’ll have to figure out how that happened next week so it doesn’t happen to somebody else.”

 

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 6^th) – “I’m not exactly sure what happened, so that’s why I went and asked. We were just coming to the start-finish line, having a good race, and the 2 car for some reason just turned left and hit me. I don’t know if he didn’t know I was there or if he did it on purpose, but it seems like he was just frustrated. We all get frustrated when we have a bad day, so I’m sure it’ll be no big deal.” DID YOU GET IT STRAIGHTENED OUT? “No, he didn’t want to talk, so that’s okay. He doesn’t have to talk. I just wanted to see what the deal was.” YOU WERE IN POSITION TO WIN. WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL RESTART? “We just got hung up on the bottom and the guys got a good run on the top. And then the second time Jeff went to go around the 33 a little early. I thought maybe we could stay in line and the three of us could make a run on the top, but he had to do everything he could and that’s the way it ended up.”

 

KASEY KAHNE – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Finished 2^nd) – “I have no idea. Everytime I looked up there was a crash going on it seemed like the last 30 laps there. I hit oil when I hit the wall. We had a great run going with our Armed Forces Budweiser Ford and I think I hit oil and just spun out, and then they wrecked in front of me so it actually helped me or I definitely would have been in that wreck because I was already slowed up. The team did a nice job. Another top five. That’s kind of four top fives in a row. I want to thank all of the men and women out there fighting for this country on Fourth of July weekend. It’s a great weekend and we’re happy as can be that we get to race and we love all of them.” WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ON THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED? “Just pick the right line, pick the right car. I got behind Harvick and thought that would be the spot. I knew he had four tires and we cleared the guys and I just stayed behind him. I was watching Jeff because I knew he would be coming and would be quick. It would have been nice to get our Budweiser Ford in Victory Lane. It was still a good run for our Armed Forces car and the team did a good job. It’s another top five.” WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THIS RACE?  “You had to be aggressive and drive your car sideways all night long. That’s just the way it was. I felt like I had one of the best cars from start to finish, even hitting the wall I still felt like we had a great car. It was just a wild race. I really enjoyed it. I don’t know if the tires were wrong or not, but I thought it was pretty exciting.”

 

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 19 Air Force Ford Fusion (Finished 22^nd) – “I’m pretty sure the 77 caused it. We kind of knew that. I was trying to stay away from him, but that’s just the way my season has gone. I just cannot get a break. I’m proud of my guys. They worked really hard on Thursday. We didn’t unload that great, but we made a lot of good changes. I felt really fast tonight and got in a little bit of a wreck and repaired it, and were making our way back up. We were gonna have a solid top seven or eight finish, just trying to make it to the end, but it’s just one of those years. It’s just very hard to swallow.”

 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford Fusion (Finished 15^th) – “You never know about these plate races because there’s a lot of wrecked stuff, but you can sometimes still get a good finish. Our car doesn’t look very pretty, but we still finished okay. We kind of struggled today. We had something happen to the car and got real loose a couple times. We got in the wall and never recovered from that, but we were still doing okay and I don’t know if Mark got hit or what, but I was running down through three and four and got hit in the right rear and ended up in the wall and that was kind of the end of our day. Fortunately, we were still able to stay on the lead lap.”

 

KEVIN CONWAY – No. 34 ExtenZe Ford Fusion – RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE (Finished 14^th) — “All in all, it wasn’t pretty but I think that was the best finish in the history of Front Row Motorsports. It was a great night, but it was ugly. We fought a very loose race car and couldn’t tighten it up all night long. I just tried to stay out of trouble at that point and trying to survive these plate races is half the battle and we were able to do that all night long. Everybody worked really, really hard every stop making huge adjustments and trying to figure out how to tighten the car up. To come out with a solid top 15 finish in my first race ever at Daytona, we’ll take it.” HOW DID YOU GET IN POSITION AT THE END. YOU WERE IN THE TOP 10 ON THE FINAL RESTART. “Reutimann came on the radio and wanted to know if we were gonna push or work with him and I gave him a really big shove down the backstretch on that green-white-checker. We hooked up really well, but the problem is it pushed us out a little bit too far ahead of the 83 and he caught us in the center and got into us and turned us sideways in the middle of the corner, so we lost a few spots coming to the checkers. That was a little frustrating because we wanted a top 10, but we’ll take a top 15 for sure. Overall, it was a really solid day in the points and a great effort for our whole ExtenZe team. I think it shows the progress we’ve made in the first half of the year.”

 

KASEY KAHNE PRESS CONFERENCE – CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR LAST TWO LAPS? “I was just going as hard as I could there at the end. I think we got the 33 pretty quick down into three, I don’t remember how it went, but I was just pushing the 29.   That was my only choice and I did that. I never had a chance to pass the 29, so I just kept pushing.” HOW RELIEVED ARE YOU TO GET A TOP 3? “I feel really good. There was a lot of stuff going on. Like I said, I hit the wall once when I hit oil and spun just about all the way around and then hit the wall, and then they wrecked all in front of me, so I definitely would have been in that wreck. So I avoided that one by running into the wall myself, and the other ones were in my mirror and I’m happy to run second. It’s definitely a relief to get out of here with a good finish.”