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Ford Charlotte Busch Race

FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES
Dollar General 300 (Busch)    
October 13, 2006 
Lowe's Motor Speedway

MATT KENSETH-17-Ameriquest Mortgage Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) - TALK ABOUT THE LAST LAP. "I tried to get by Blaney and I couldn't get in there enough to get by him, and he was outside of me and I lost the air on it and lost control." DID YOU FEEL YOU HAD THE CAR TO WIN? "I don't know. Me and the 60 were about the same most of the night and he was in front of us most of the night. I think we had a shot at it, but just under that green-flag cycle I was actually pretty good there and was catching Carl and catching the 42. By them guys staying out and catching the caution at the wrong time kind of got us behind. The waters kinda parted for us there at the end with the 42 and 60 wrecking, but we weren't able to capitalize on it." THERE SEEMED TO BE SOME CONFUSION AS WHERE TO RESTART ON THE FIRST RESTART WITHIN 10 LAPS. "I'm not sure what was going on there. I guess it's because it was Friday the 13th."

CARL EDWARDS-60-Henkel/Duct Tape Ford Fusion (Finished 27th) - WHAT HAPPENED? "Man, if that would have been the last lap, it would have been cool. That would have been awesome. Casey, I think he got a good run on the outside and he did everything he could to save it. It's really easy to get loose in that position. He's a good friend of mine and we had a lot of fun racing there. Man, that was wild. Like I said, I wish it could have been the last lap. I was having a blast." IT APPEARED TO BE A HARD HIT. "I'm fine. The SAFER barriers, and my crew works really hard on the seat. I've just got to thank my sponsors - Henkel, Ameriquest and everybody. Hopefully Matt gets this thing with that Ameriquest Fusion." THERE WAS QUITE A BIT OF CONFUSION AS TO WHERE YOU SHOULD RESTART WITH 10 LAPS TO GO? "I was arguing for that. That was really nice of NASCAR to red flag the thing and rectify it. That was neat. I've raced in a lot of places, and it's cool when an organization will just say, 'Red flag the race. We're going to organize this thing even as long as this race has gone.' They've got to care a lot about the sport to stop an event that's gone this long and make a decision like that." BRAD PARROTT SEEMED TO DISAGREE. "I know, but he wasn't supposed to be in the lead. You can't pit and then pull out in a line of cars. If Brad was still my crew chief, I'd hope he be fighting for me."

DAVID RAGAN-6-Scotts Winterguard Ford Fusion (Finished 36th) - WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT? "I saw a lot of smoke on the bottom and then I saw Mike Wallace sideways coming out of four and there just wasn't a lot of place for me to go. Everyone on the Scotts Miracle-Gro Ford Fusion did an awesome job tonight. I had a blast. Bobby Hudson was doing a great job spotting. We had a pretty good car and I think we really could have contended for a top-10 finish. It's really a shame that my Charlotte debut in a Busch car had to end up like this because it was awesome opportunity and an awesome car, and I just really hate to be parked here with 100 laps to go."

DANNY O'QUINN, JR.-50-Transamerica Ford Fusion (Finished 5th) - "It was definitely a great run for us. These guys on this team worked real hard. Yesterday we struggled a lot and they changed everything on it before qualifying and the car was really coming around in the race there. We did some thing through pit strategy and stuff there to get us up front, and it seemed like once we up there, we could stay around the top 10. We got our first top-five of the year, and I'm really happy to get that top-five for all of my sponsors, Transamerica and everyone. I'm just really excited and hopefully we can carry this momentum over to next week."

STACY COMPTON-59-Kingsford/Bush's Baked Beans Ford Fusion (Finished 3rd) - "I'm awful proud of the guys on this Kingsford Ford tonight. We had about a 10th-, 11th-place car all night, and we had a top-five team tonight. These guys hustled all night and made some great calls in the pits and just kept making the car better and better. It was a good night for us. We needed this, a good night." DID YOU SEE THE WRECK AT THE END? "I did and I knew it was possible that there was going to be another caution. It was wild. We knew it was going to be that way and I'm awful proud of these guys. We needed it. Like I said, these guys did a great job. It was a wild one. I'll tell you what, the fans got their money worth tonight."

DANNY O'QUINN, JR. PRESS CONFERENCE

"It felt more like Martinsville out there today. It seemed like every two or three laps that somebody was having a wreck or something. We were unfortunate to get caught up in a couple of them, one of them being self-inflected there a little bit. It was kinda a blessing in disguise for us. We got to pit and kinda work pit strategy to our advantage there and got up front. It seemed we had a really good car once we got up there in the clean air. It was definitely a wild turnout of events out front. It was kind of a bad omen to be in the lead."

STACY COMPTON. PRESS CONFERENCE

"It was pretty wild. We knew we had a decent race car. We could run top-five times, we just needed track position. We got turned around there early in one of those melees on the frontstretch and the guys just kept working and kept making the car better and better. I told them on the radio that we had an eighth to a 10th-place car and a top-five team tonight. These guys hustled and kept us on the lead lap and kept making the car better and better. It got a little crazy right there at the end. It was in the position to be one of the cars on the lead lap, and we've seen them win in sight, and we knew those guys would be battling, and it was a good night for us."

"It was a good night. It was good for the Busch Series. I like to see something like that. The Cup regulars, they were quick and they were good. They got caught up in some stuff, but I felt like we had our car as good as we've been all year tonight and we came home with a top-five. I felt like, once again, we had maybe a fifth to an eighth-place car, but that was by far one of the best runs that we've had on a mile-and-a-half race track in a long time. Jay (Guy) and I are really just starting to get a chance to work together and learning a little bit each other. Good to see a couple of Busch guys up there. It's good for the Busch Series."