NASCAR- SADLER AND JARRETT POST TOP FIVE FINISHES AT BRISTOL

HERMIE SADLER – No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus (Finished 32nd) – “I just looked up and saw the 50 and somebody getting together. I started slowing down to try and miss it and the 11 car came back off the race track in front of us. Something happens that always gets a lot of people. We hoped this was gonna be the weekend to turn our season around. We had a good qualifying run, but it wasn’t meant to be today.”

MARK MARTIN – No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 31st) – WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t know. It was a big ol’ wreck. I don’t know. There was nothing we could do. We hit the guys in front of us and the guys behind us hit us, so there was no way. I don’t know. I couldn’t see anything but cars in front of me. We piled into them and they piled into me from behind. I don’t know. I’d have to watch the TV to tell you.” WHAT DID YOU SEE? “It was just a big wreck, I don’t know what happened really. I was back in about 10th or 12th or something like that and this wreck started happening. I ran over them and they ran over me.” TYPICAL BRISTOL? “That was probably a big one. It looked big to me.”

RICKY RUDD – No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (Finished 25th) – WHEN IS THIS TEAM GOING TO CATCH A BREAK? “We catch ‘em, but they’re just all the wrong breaks. We’ve had fast cars. Even here we were fast. We had that tire problem that got us down. We got one of them back on the race track. We were racing to get that other one back and then Kenseth and I got together. I’m not sure why he was racing me so hard. We were faster than he was at the time and he was trying to block us. And then with the big wreck, there’s not a whole lot you can do about that. You’re just sort of a victim.”

KURT BUSCH – No. 97 IRWIN/Sharpie Taurus (Finished 35th) – “The 31 spun and I chose to go high and that was the wrong decision. I should have slowed up and went low. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 31 got there from the 48 hitting him. It was just somebody being impatient. All of the wrecks at the beginning of the race were happening early and now they’re all happening up front with people getting impatient. It was like Daytona, you saw a seven-car breakaway up front. We just had the 31 in there and the 48 got too impatient.” THERE WAS A PAUSE AND THEN YOU HIT. WHAT HAPPENED THERE? “There were two big hits. I hit the 31, launched and hit the wall. It’s not good to hit the wall in the air.” ARE YOU OK? “Yeah, everything should be alright. All of the safety harnesses and the other safety equipment that I use helped me get through this. It was one of those decisions where I went high and I should have went low. It’s too hard. Once you make that initial decision you have to stick with it and I got in a pinch.” WHAT ABOUT THE ROUSH TEAMS AND THE OUTLOOK AFTER TODAY? “It’s just Bristol. You can’t think anything of it, except we didn’t make the right decisions. For me, I guess I wasn’t aggressive enough. I was too patient and I didn’t get to the front quick enough. We were just hanging out in that seventh to eighth place. In the wrecks early on we were behind it, but now they’re right there in the mix. It’s a bummer deal for us, but we’ll come back and beat ‘em up in the Sharpie 500.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Charter Taurus (Finished 9th) – “I guess we’ve got to learn some time or another. That’s the way it is. We had great pit stops today. I don’t know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to be able to win races like that and we got a flat right at the end of the race. It was a terrible finish, but we had a dominating car. It was the fastest car on the race track and it’s unfortunate. I feel bad.” DID EVENTS HAPPEN TOO FAST TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT TO PIT? “No, it didn’t happen too fast. We made the decision to stay out. It was stupid. There were 89 laps to go. We should have pitted.” DID KURT STAYING OUT ON OLD TIRES EARLIER INFLUENCE THE DECISION? “No, it’s just that track position here is so tough. We certainly think about things like that. It’s tough. It’s really tough to make that decision, but we made the wrong one and we had a chance to fix it and we didn’t.” HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT? “We got a flat right-front there at the end so we lost all of our track position. We were gonna be fourth, but we got a flat right-front. We’re very lucky that the race ended when it did or we would have been worse than that. The car ran great today. The National Guard/Charter car, the guys did a fantastic job in the pits. We just made the wrong call and that’s all there is to it.”

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 M&M’s Taurus (Finished 2nd) – COULD YOU HAVE RUN DOWN THE 29? “I’m gonna have to give it to the 29 bunch. They had a great race car today. It seemed like everytime he got in trouble he would always come back through the pack. I’m so proud of my guys. Anytime you come to Bristol and you sit on the pole and maybe the lowest we ran all day was seventh or eighth – there’s not a scratch on the car – and finish second. I’m so proud of these M&M’s guys. They made some good adjustments. I was just a little free at the end to run with Kevin, but I’m not gonna complain at all. Anytime you get out of Bristol with a top-five, you’ve had a great, great day.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Taurus (Finished 16th) – ANOTHER BAD BREAK. WHAT CAN YOU SAY? “I don’t even know what to say anymore. Gosh, you saw it. I don’t know what to do. What can I say about it?”

DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Taurus (Finished 5th) – “We certainly needed something good to happen. We had run OK in these first four races, but just a couple of things happened to us so we didn’t have the finishes and the points to show for it. Today we made up for that some. We stayed after it and stayed out of trouble and adjusted on the car and now we’ve got a top five to show for it, so it’s a big boost for us.” IS THERE A MARK ON THE CAR? “Oh yeah. I got into a few things in the front end there a few times, but I just did my best today to try to race this track and stay out of trouble and wait until these last 100 laps to see what we could do then. A lot of things start happening in that last 100 and a lot of guys started having problems and we took advantage of that.” WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOU? “It does a lot for our team. We had run OK in the first four races but didn’t have a lot to show for it points wise. I wanted to come here today and make up a little bit to my guys for costing us some points at Atlanta by speeding on pit road twice. Today we just persevered. We stayed after it and adjusted on the car and waited until that last 100 laps to really get going and try to run and race people and it paid off for us.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Taurus (Finished 26th) – “That’s the most miserable feeling in the world sitting down there with five laps in and the radiator gets knocked out and you’re watching those guys run. The car was so good. For our backup car, when we wanted to go we could go just as fast as anybody. That’s a big lesson to be learned. That’s 495 laps of just pure lesson-learning there. We’re not gonna hit anything at Martinsville.” WHAT HAPPENED AT THE START? “Everybody was wrecking in front of me and I just punched a hole in the radiator. If it wouldn’t have done that, it would have been a great day but it didn’t work out for the best today.” BUT IT HAPPENED EARLY. “We don’t ever give up and to finish 26th, I thought we’d be like 36th or 38th. I mean, that’s a championship day. To swap a radiator and finish 26th is OK, but we felt like we were gonna be pretty good. I’m glad to get to race tomorrow. Tomorrow is gonna be awesome and we’re gonna make up for it.”

ELLIOTT SADLER PRESS CONFERENCE – DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING AT THE END? “No, Harvick had a great race car – probably one of the best all day. I think he had to go back to pit lane for something during the race and the next thing you know, he was back up there again. He was able to pass cars and maneuver his car around. When Biffle stayed out and we restarted third, me and Harvick both got a great, great restart. I think the 19 might have missed a shift and then gave me a break, Jeremy did, to let me get on the bottom. When the 29 kind of opened the door, we kind of knew we could get away from Biffle. Those old tires were just killing him. It’s a shame for Greg as good as his car was, but I would Kevin and the 2 car were the class of the field all day. He was tough there at the end. I didn’t have anything for him.”

DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE GOING TO PIT? “We went ahead and pitted. We were gonna pit no matter what because we had been bit by that by staying out with 80 or 90 laps to go here and those new tires come run you down. I don’t think you can do what I did here a couple of years ago. I think the tires fall off too much. I mean, that’s what Goodyear’s purpose is and it showed today. Greg Biffle ran first and second pretty much all day long and that new Goodyear just kind of killed him at the end. So we were gonna pit no matter what. We were hoping the first three or four were gonna stay in front of us and we’d pit and maybe come up right behind them with new tires and kind of go from there, but everybody decided to pit. There wasn’t a lot of cars on the lead lap, so even if four or five guys stayed out at the end, it was enough time to maybe get back around those guys. My crew chief, Todd, did a great, great job at pit strategy. That’s something that was our Achilles heel last year at short tracks and today he called a perfect race. I’m very proud of him for that. If we could start doing that every short track – here, Martinsville and Phoenix and New Hampshire and places like that – we’re gonna have a lot of good finishes.”

DID YOU FEEL GOOD GOING INTO THE RACE AFTER THE GAME? “Yeah, everybody knows I’m a Tar Heel fan. I’m having a pretty good week so far. Our main goal is to see every single checkered flag. We’re going with the same strategy that we used last year. I’m not racing a sole until the last half of the race. I’m gonna race the race track and kind of let everybody else take care of themselves. I love racing against people like Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte. We were talking about that long run and things like that. Everybody loves the give and take. They know how the tires are getting old. They know how the race track is here and there was a lot of giving and taking today. The guys that did that the most, you probably see them in the top 10 right now on the scoreboard. We have the same mentality. If we’ve got a chance to win, we’re gonna go for it and win. If not, we’re gonna try to see every checkered flag and just let the points go where they go.”

WHEN BIFFLE STAYED OUT DID YOU REALIZE HE WAS COMMITTED? “Yeah, I think once he stayed out he knew and his crew chief knew that he could not come back in. But actually we didn’t have another caution. The last 70 laps were run under green, so we didn’t actually have a caution for them to be able to come back in. He still had the lead the last caution of the day and they knew they couldn’t come back in. Hey, being the leader that’s the hardest decision in the world. It’s so easy to say, ‘Do whatever the guy in front of you does.’ It’s hard when you are the leader and everybody is kind of watching you. They know you’ve got a good race car. A lot of times good race teams will do the opposite of the leader and when he stayed out, when I saw the 48 pull down and some of these guys pull down I guess to go down pit road, everybody came in behind me. It kind of worked out pretty good.”

DO YOU LIKE BACK-TO-BACK SHORT TRACK RACES AND DOES MARTINSVILLE OWE YOU ONE? “I don’t know as far as owing me one. We can’t really predict where the schedule and stuff is. Like you said, I’m not gonna be around some of the guys that had problems today because Martinsville is an easy payback place (laughing). I’ll try to stay away from the guys that had problems. Two short tracks in a row, that’s cool. We have not run good as a team on short tracks last year, so we really wanted to come to Bristol and run good. I think we’ve tested five times already to get ready for Martinsville. We’re trying to make that a strong suit of our race team, so to put ‘em back to back, that’s good. We kind of see early in the season where we stack up on short tracks and what we need to do for later on in the season when the chase comes around.”

NOTE: The last time Robert Yates Racing had two drivers finish in the top five came last season when Dale Jarrett finished second and Elliott Sadler finished third at the Brickyard 400 (Aug. 8, 2004).