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Texas: Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR Nextel Cup Race Quotes - Crash
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS:
NOTE: Earnhardt, Jr., was involved in a multi-car crash on lap 253. The crew made repairs on pit road but Earnhardt, Jr. continued to have problems with the car and retired 45 laps from the end of the race after leading for a total of 96 laps. After Earnhardt, jr., retired from the race, he was asked by Rick Pigeon, a crewman from the No. 5 Cheez-It/CARQUEST Monte Carlo SS team, to finish the race in that car when repairs were completed after driver Kyle Busch was involved in the same incident that put Earnhardt, Jr. in the garage. He completed nine laps in the car.
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HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GETTING KNOCKED OUT AFTER HAVING A CAR LIKE THAT?
There’s a lot of ways to deal with it. We didn’t do anything to cause our misfortune. You’ve got to take some satisfaction in how the car ran. The guys in the shop were bringing a car to the race track that’s working when it gets here. We’re improving that; we’re running well in the races. The No. 20 spun and I couldn’t see anything. There’s a couple options of things to do there but I figured if I couldn’t see anything neither could anyone else and they would slow down. I hate it for Kyle (Busch), it seems like he was getting his race together and running well but oh well. It’s unfortunate.
“I’m real happy about how we ran today. It’s so unfortunate for us. We struggled a little bit after the wreck. We thought we could get the car back out there and run good but there was some issues with the handling and finally the motor broke. The motor was changing pitch and harmony a little bit during the race so I told my motor guys. They’ll take a look. I think I turned the motor a lot of RPMs in third gear on restarts because I was spinning tires so bad in second and I’d lose such ground and I might have done some damage there just beating on the motor too hard.”
TALK ABOUT THE INCIDENT OUT THERE: “The No. 20 had come out on pit road and blended in to race traffic and went into (turn) three and just lost it. Spun out… in the throttle when he was doing it so there was nothing but smoke. I drove down waiting on… my spotter to tell me which way to go and I got hit from behind. I don’t know what it looked like, if it looked like it was my fault, it was my fault. Maybe it was. I couldn’t see. Apparently the guy behind me couldn’t see either cause he ran into me. I was hoping everybody was getting slowed down but that wasn’t the case.”
IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT: “I appreciate that. Kyle’s a good guy. He just wants everybody to appreciate him and be friends with these guys. He tries really hard and he was getting his race together and getting in the top three there and we were getting really loose at that point. I was just trying to get to a pit stop to change my car a little bit. The No. 2 had just got the lead. The No. 20, I guess he just had a frustrating day. He got out there and lost it.
“We had a great race car. I’m proud of my team; all the guys at the shop. They should be really, really proud of the car they brought to the race track. The motor was fantastic. I might have beat on the motor a little bit on the restarts. I spun the tires in second gear so I was pressing hard a little bit more often in third trying to maximize what I could get there. Normally when you tear a car up and spin around you can throw the motor backwards and do some damage there but that’s not what happened. The guys should be really happy. We had a really, really fast car. We just haven’t had any luck and one of these days it will be our day and we’ll be able to celebrate. We just got to keep our heads up while we got this momentum; we got these great cars. Keep your head up and take advantage of what we have each weekend.”
ON BEING ASKED TO DRIVE THE NO. 5 CAR: "I could tell that it was a real nice car before we had the accident. Smooth steering, just smooth. I really appreciate them asking me. I was honored, it means a lot to me."
ON GIVING UP THREE POINTS BY DOING IT: "It don't matter, I was glad to do it."
ON THIS BEING AN AUDITION: "Are you crazy??
ON WHO ASKED HIM TO GET IN: "My buddy Pig, he is the jackman. Pig is my buddy, and I have a couple other friends on this team, so. They asked me to do it so I wasn't going to say no."
ON WHERE WAS KYLE BUSCH: "He's gone, I think he left, I don't know. I guess he is not around."
ON ANY HESITATION: "No, not at all."
ON HOW IT DROVE: "Well, it had been wrecked!"
PaddockTalk Perspective
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