ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 Jim Beam Dodge Charger) Finished 37th
“A tough day for our Jim Beam Dodge. We had a very good car here all weekend and to finish where we did is a little disappointing. We had an electrical fire inside the car that burned the wiring near the tachometer. I looked down and saw smoke coming from the dash – then a puff of flame. I grabbed my water bottle and poured it on the fire to put it out. It was crazy.”
ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge Charger) Finished 9th
”It was a great all-around weekend for us. We qualified third and ran ninth. We were in the top-10 all day. We just got loose in the middle part of the race and lost some track position, but fought back there at the end of the race. I’m proud of my Stanley Tools guys today. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t make the $1 million donation to charity – the Children’s Miracle Network. I let Stanley Tools down with that. It was a great day for everybody and I’m looking forward in moving on to Bristol next week.”
RODNEY CHILDERS (Team Director – No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger)
“We tried a little bit of this and a little of that and nothing really got it (the car) going. There at the end, we made some changes that we knew would help on a short run and was able to finish in the top 10. The car was good all weekend. We just couldn’t get it really good when we needed it.”
PATRICK CARPENTIER (No. 10 Tow Truck in a Box Dodge Charger) Finished 30th
“The car was amazing at the beginning of the race, was really fast. It was actually easy to keep up with these guys and just started getting looser and looser and looser and got so loose from entry of the corner to exit I was sideways, so I was kind of dirt tracking the whole race. It’s just sad. We had a good start and held on it for quite a while and didn’t finish where we wanted. I don’t know what happened.”
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) Finished 40th (Kahne returned to complete 30 more laps before retiring for the day).
DID THE ENGINE LET GO? “Yeah, I had a problem right when I pulled into the pits . It happened real quick. I did all that I could do in the car to see if there was anything wrong with the switches….all the gauges looked good. We just had something break inside the engine, something real small, but big enough to take us out.”
HOW UPSETING IS THIS CONSIDERING WHERE YOU ARE IN THE POINTS? “I’m upset because I thought we had a car to finish inside the top-10 today. We were working on it all the way from the 32nd position. We did a lot of good things and this is a good race track for me and the whole team. To have a bad race is disappointing with the points, but it’s what it is. We’ve got three (races) to go and we can still definitely make the Chase.”
ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT HOW FAR THIS MAY DROP YOU IN THE POINTS? “I don’t know where we’ll end up, but I don’t think that we’ll get hurt too bad. We’ll probably drop to 11th or 12th, maybe 13th. We’re not going to be far from 12th. It’s going to be very attainable to get into the Chase. We’ll just have to have some good races.”
ENGINE PROBLEMS ARE UNCHARACTERISTC AT GEM, DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING? “No warning at all. I haven’t had an engine problem in three years at Gillett Evernham. (Gillett Evernham) does a great job, but something broke inside the engine that ended our day.”