Dale Earnhardt Jr. Race Quote
DALE EARNHARDT JR, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – Retired on lap 257 with engine problems
DID YOU HAVE ANY INDICATIONS THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG?
“Yeah, I smelled something burning. I thought it was rubber build-up on the headers or something. I didn’t start losing power until the last lap before it broke with the water and oil mixing together; and that’s never good. We didn’t have a really good car. We know why. We can go back and feel like we can rebound real quickly from this. I just hope everybody is okay from the accident in the stands and wish everybody a happy Memorial Day weekend. It’s been a lot of fun and I take a lot of pride in representing the National Guard and hope everybody shakes a soldiers’ hand this weekend and thank them for what they do.”
I KNOW YOU SMELLED SOME SMOKE IN THE COCKPIT DID THE ENGINE JUST GET COOKED AFTER THAT?
“Yeah, we had a massive catastrophic failure in the motor. We never have those problems. Hendrick guys always build good stuff not worried about this down the road we will be all right. We didn’t have the greatest race car either. We know why and we can move forward and feel like we can rebound pretty quick, looking forward to going to Dover. I want to say that I hope everybody is okay from the accident earlier in the stands and that I wish everybody a good Memorial Day weekend. If you a soldier shake his hand and tell them thanks for what he does for our country. We will get them at Dover.”
Keselowski and Almirola Quotes
BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – ARE YOU OK? “It wasn’t really that hard of a hit. Thank God they’ve got SAFER barriers. There have been a lot worse wrecks than that?” WHAT HAPPENED? “Yeah, I cut Danica off. I didn’t know we were still three-wide.” WHAT HAPPENED? “I just cut Danica off. I didn’t know she was still down there and I caused a big wreck.” CAN YOU SAY WHAT HAPPENED AGAIN? “I was three-wide with Danica and didn’t know it and I cut her off and wrecked her and myself. I feel bad for her and I send my apologies to her. It’s just a long night for the Miller Lite Ford.” A LONG TWO WEEKS IN CHARLOTTE FOR YOU? “Yeah. We’ll move on. That’s all you can do.”
ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion – “We were racing for the lucky dog spot there. We had just gotten our U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion a lot better and we were marching up through there and I got under Mark off turn four and Jeff was on his outside, so we were three-wide. I couldn’t get any closer to the grass and it looked like Mark just clipped me in the right-rear. I know he didn’t mean to do that. I’ve raced with Mark a lot and he’s a gentleman racer, but unfortunately it tore up a bunch of race cars there. It’s disappointing because we had gotten our car a lot better and we were right there in the spot to get the lucky dog and unfortunately it didn’t work out.” WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THIS TO? “It’s finally getting down late in the race and everybody is racing hard. That frontstretch is narrow and you can make it three-wide, but nobody can make a mistake. When somebody makes a mistake you have what just happened.”
Jeff Gordon Race Quote
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in multi-car crash on lap 326
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU WERE A VICTIM OF THREE-WIDE RACING WITH 74 LAPS TO GO
“We were a victim of the caution coming out when we were on pit road. We shouldn’t have stopped in the box to do that pit stop and we would have still been on the lead lap. Instead, we were racing three-wide. That’s what’s going to happen. I mean we were just going for the Lucky Dog you know, and you’ve got to be real aggressive back there. I got beat on the restart before that with (Marcos) Ambrose and messed that one up; so I just hate we were even back there. We had an awesome Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet. I loved the patriotic colors on our car this weekend and it’s just a shame we were even back there. We couldn’t win. Kasey (Kahne) is unbelievable. But we had a Top 5 car.”
