Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, finished third

“It’s pretty tough to come in here and say that I’m happy to go from first to third on the last lap of the Daytona 500. I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch and tried to get down in front of Kyle (Busch). I thought we could get a push down there, but the No. 2 (Kurt Busch) got glued to the No. 12 (Ryan Newman). I don’t know if I could have stopped them anyway and if I would have changed lanes I think I would have ended up like a bunch of other guys -- wrecked. In all reality and in hindsight I’m probably going to be a lot happier about it. I thought we were going to have a fun hair-cutting party in here tonight with you guys (media). It’s hard to explain -- it’s probably one of the most disappointing moments of my racing career tonight.”

“I didn’t know what to expect in all honesty because you don’t know when you go to a new program what you’re going to have until you get it. I can say I’m pleasantly surprised for sure. Everybody has worked had and I’ve mentioned it all week and every time we’ve come here -- we couldn’t have even come here without Mark Cronquist (JGR engine builder) and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing engine department. It was a monumental feat to get us in the position that they got us in today. We had the fastest cars, both Kyle (Busch) and I and they flew. That’s all horsepower right there.”



Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&Ms Toyota Camry, finished fourth

“It was a good day. We had the dominant car all day long. I could hold it wide open every single lap of the race. It’s frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s a part of the Daytona 500 when you run as good as we had all day long. Those guys couldn’t keep up with us, but there were all of those cautions at the end that propelled them forward enough in order to get them ahead. The guys at the engine shop gave us some great horsepower. We’ll take it on and go to California and have a good one there.” Was there anything you could have done to hold off the Penske cars on the last lap? “You couldn’t really. Those guys had such a head of steam. They got ahead of me on that restart. They lagged back and then got a big push. In the NASCAR rulebook that’s not right, but they let it go.”


Reed Sorenson, No. 41 Target Dodge Charger, finished fifth

ON THE RACE: “The first half of the race was so hot and slick. You could see everyone out here separating. We took the conservative side on tires. We just tried to keep an eye on the leaders – if we could still see them we were happy. We knew there were going to be cautions at the end. We just took care of the tires, took care of the car and went after it there at the end.

ON THE LAST FEW LAPS: “It was pretty fun there at the end. We had a lot more grip there at the end. We got two or three wide and pushed each other really hard and there happened to be about four Dodges lines up at the end. Everybody on the team has done a great job since we got here and I think that says a lot about what we can do this year.”

WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND AS YOU CROSSED THE FINISH LINE: “I was happy. Everyone on the team was.”


Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger, finished second

ON THE RACE: It was a great run for the Miller Lite Dodge. We started 43rd. I thought we would just take our time moving towards the front since there was nobody behind me, I can say that. Yet the car didn't want to go towards the front. We definitely struggled more than we thought we would have and the car was tight. It just didn't seem to quite have the punch to push through and to lead a draft or to push other cars strongly. But then nightfall came. The handling characteristics cured themselves somewhat. We still weren't a race-winning car, but yet I had the power like I thought I needed and I had the outside lane in my favor. For one instant, driving down the back straightaway, if Ryan Newman didn't pull up in front of us, I honestly thought we had a shot at winning the Daytona 500. But, you know, having that mindset all day of just plugging away, working our way up, and if this thing ends and we're 10th or better, that's a victory. For us to come home and push Ryan Newman to victory, I feel like I've got a small bit of that victory within me. I was emotional pushing him across the line. It felt incredible to have a Penske 1-2 finish today. To have Newman jump up in front of me, I thought that was the most beautiful thing in the world because I knew one of us Penske cars was going to win at that point. I'm just very happy. I'm not bitter at all for finishing second. To take this car and finish second with it, I think that's something special. But then that's definitely overshadowed by a Penske 1-2 finish today. That is something very important and I think that needs to be acknowledged.

ON TEAMMATES AT DAYTONA: “You have to have teammates when you are restrictor plate racing. You have to work together whether you are on the track or off the track. Penske Racing deserves this. It’s our first ever restrictor plate win and we came through with a one-two finish.”

ON STARTING AT THE BACK: “We had to work our way to the front and then we got caught speeding on pit road. This is just a team effort and I’m really happy for this Miller Lite Dodge.”


Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion, finished 10th

“We had a really good run out there today. We were a little bit shy on speed. They got such a run on us and I couldn’t block them. They’re just going to spin us out. We’re thinking about the championship, not a Daytona 500 win. We needed it to go green for us to have a chance. With cautions like that you get ganged up and you don’t have a chance. They had a huge run and went right by us. I had a really, really good Fusion. My 3M guys did a great job to get it to drive the way it did. I’m really excited to get this season off in the top 10 in points.” IF YOU HAD MORE TIME, COULD YOU HAVE MADE IT TO THE FRONT? “Yeah, because my car would stay with a lot of speed. Other cars were just slipping and sliding. My car was fast, fast, fast the whole time.” YOUR FUSION LOOKS PRETTY CLEAN. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU STAYED OUT OF THE TROUBLES OUT THERE. “I don’t know how I stayed out of trouble. I got hit on every corner and was sandwiched in the draft. They had my rear tires off the ground and the nose against the guys in front of me. It was just a handful. I don’t know how I survived it.”


Jamie McMurray, No. 26 Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Ford Fusion, finished 26th,

“We didn’t have a good car. You can’t expect much when it’s your third car. We wrecked our Shootout car, it was our backup, crashed our primary car, and this one was just the third car in line. It wasn’t very fast when we brought it, but it’s all we had and we just kind of rode around and missed what little wrecks that they had, and finished. That’s all we did, is finish.


Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, finished 39th

“We had suspension failure. We had some issues testing; all of us did. We prepared for it and felt like we had the issues fixed. The suspension is just so tough on these cars with these bumps here. You don’t know what’s taking all the load. You keep fixing one thing and it just keeps creating another issue. It’s unfortunate.

“The DuPont Chevrolet was awesome. We were having a blast up there. I didn’t feel like anybody had anything for the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) when I was running up there and I was pretty darn proud just to be hanging with them. I’m sure that No. 20 (Tony Stewart) will probably be a factor before it’s all over too. I just hope (Dale Earnhardt) Junior and Jimmie (Johnson) and Casey (Mears) and those guys can get up there and work with them. But we were the only ones I felt like could keep up with them. And we were just cruising.

“We didn't understand what was happening. We started wearing the right front tires out. I knew something must be wrong so we came in and looked at it, sure enough we had a failure. We are going to fix it and see if we can get out for a few laps.

"We have been working hard at the shop to prevent this kind of thing from happening. It is really a product of the type of suspension in these cars with these bump stops. It is just so hard, especially on a track like this. It wasn't safe for us to be out there. The handling went away and I didn’t know why because the DuPont Chevrolet was awesome.


Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, finished 27th

WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE IN THAT ACCIDENT?

“The No. 77 (Sam Hornish Jr.) got loose inside of me or something went on there where he just barely got me and turned me around. I thought we were going to make it without getting hit real hard, but we had a little bit of contact. We stayed on the lead lap and did a good job there, but we had lost track position early in the day and we were fighting to get it back all day and it was really difficult to pass anyone out there.”

ON NOT HAVING THE RUN HE WANTED TODAY
“This is a big race. I wanted to win this race. I felt like we had the car, especially in the beginning of this race that was capable of doing it. But we just lost track position and it was impossible to work through traffic and get the track position.”


Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 AMP ENERGY / National Guard Chevrolet, finished 9th

"It was a good Speedweeks. We obviously didn't have enough car there most of the day. We ran well. I am real proud of my team, real proud of the effort that we had this week. I have to thank them; it has been great for me. I have enjoyed this so much. The crew deserves a lot of credit, the motor guys, the fabricators. We struggled a little bit today, just trying to get good, get great. We got pretty good near the end of the race. I made a lot of poor choices where to take my runs and what to do with them. Nobody really wanted to help anybody, I didn't either. You know, you get runs, you go.

"Congratulations to Ryan (Newman) and (Roger) Penske. Ryan is a hard racer and certainly deserves what he got tonight. We are pretty proud. We are going to build on this; this is a great finish for us to start the season. I think we are going to have a lot of fun this year.

"It wasn't tires, we had good grip at the end. The track was cooling off and the car was fine. I got great runs, just made poor choices on what to do with them. That was the difference.

"We started off a little bit tight and we adjusted on it. Tony, Jr. made some good changes that got me great at the end of the race. We had great motors all week and another one today. I am real proud of Hendrick and the effort they gave me because I have had a great time this Speedweeks. I think the year is going to be like that and I am really going to enjoy it.

"I would have liked to finish better tonight, obviously, I think we had a top-five car all day. It is frustrating, but at the end of that race, anything is going to happen and guys get shuffled around. You just kind of take what you can get without wrecking. It is frustrating, but we are happy with a top-10, it'll do.”


Kevin Harvick, NO. 29 Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet, finished 14th

“We were just slow. They did a great job, really, of working on the car during the day and making it better, but we were just slow. Our car just wouldn’t go.”


Jeff Burtoon, No. 31 AT&T Chevrolet, finished 13th

"On that last restart we weren't fast enough to run up front. We were in a bad spot. I knew we were going to get passed for the lead but it's always fun to lead at Daytona. Finishing 13th isn't a bad start to the season."