Charlotte II: GM teams race quotes, notes

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS, RACE WINNER:

THAT WAS AN INCREDIBLE RACE. DID YOU THINK YOUR TEAMMATE WOULD HAVE THAT MUCH FOR YOU ON THAT LAST RESTART? "Yeah, I knew he was going to be tough. He got by me and I was pretty nervous. He got the outside lane and that's where I kind of needed to be. The restarts before that on the bottom I was able to get by him but he got a great restart on that last one.

"So special me getting the win at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the Lowe's car in the final race here at the speedway, the sponsorship. What a big day for the overall spectrum. So, just awesome."

WHAT DID YOU THINK MID-RACE WHEN YOU DIDN'T HAVE THE LEAD? "We really struggled trying to get things right. Trying to get the balance right on the short-run, the long-run. I thought the No. 9 (Kasey Kahne) had this thing in the bag. On that last pit stop on when it came to the restarts we had what we needed for five or six quick laps. This thing was fast. it worked.

"The perfect weekend which is what Chad (Knaus) always wanted to do. Win every practice, qualifying and the race and we got it."

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JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT/TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, FINISHED 4TH:

TENTH TO THIRD IN THE LAST THREE RACES, BUT HOW BAD DID YOU WANT THAT WIN? "Well you know all you really want to do is get maximum points and finish ahead of the guys you're racing in the points. Other than Jimmie we're doing that. Those guys are on an incredible roll. I'm really excited about the effort this team is putting out these last three weeks especially and through the whole Chase. They just never quit fighting. I want to thank DuPont and of course Transformers. That was a lot of fun having Megatron on board."

THE BAD GUY WON. "Yeah, we were fighting like we were the bad guy that's for sure. You know we put two tires on and that was a great call by Steve (Letarte). I think Steve called this race perfectly tonight and we gave it a shot. I couldn't even believe I got the lead on the restart and was able to get by Jimmie (Johnson) when he got loose and we were racing really hard. I knew it was just a matter of time before my two tires would give up and it did and we fought hard there with Joey Logano too, it was a lot of fun."

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CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 SCARY FAST COUNT CHOCULA IMPALA SS, FINISHED 6TH:

"It was a good night for us. It was a solid run. We raced up front all night long. We got a little behind because we got a little too tight at the end, so we couldn't really go but all-in-all it was a good night for our Count Chocula Chevrolet."

YOU HAD COUPLE OF GOOD BATTLES THERE IN THE LAST 20 LAPS: "Well, you know, we had two tires and we had a couple of great restarts. We were able to get to the outside of Jimmie. I thought if I could get out front, maybe the two tires would hold up but we were just too tight on that last set there. Just great great teamwork and calls by Steve Letarte, crew chief, and the whole DuPont crew. Have got to thank Transformers for being on-board this week. Megatron definitely pulled through for us. We were fighting like we were a machine.

"We gave it everything we had. Four tires against those guys, I think we had a shot at them. If we hadn't taken two, we would have never had a shot at them. We just weren't able to get up through there and pass cars. Just to be up there to be battling for the win was a spectacular night. To come home fourth. Had a lot of fun racing with Joey (Logano). You have to have a lot of confidence to race guys like that within in the closing laps, you are going to race hard. You are going to squeeze them, they are going to squeeze you. We had a lot of fun, I don't think we ever touched. That is cool."

YOU ARE UP TO THIRD IN THE STANDINGS BUT YOU LOST GROUND TO THE LEADER: "All we can do is keep fighting and do the best that we can. Keep ourselves in it. Those guys are awful tough and you give them momentum like this, they are only going to get stronger. I really think right now we just have to keep doing what we have been doing. Hopefully we can go to Martinsville and maybe change some things around there than what we have been experiencing the last couple of times. It is a great track for us. All we can do is keep putting up this fight and see what happens to those guys."

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CASEY MEARS, NO. 07 JACK DANIEL'S IMPALA SS, FINISHED 7TH:

"I'm really proud of Todd Berrier (crew chief) and the entire No. 07 Jack Daniel's team tonight. We've had some really strong runs over the last six races and we finally have the finish we deserve. We're really starting to click as a team and we're looking forward to carrying this momentum over to the final five races of the season."

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RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, FINISHED 11TH:

"We had a good car. The Transformers Chevrolet was doing pretty well but we really struggled in the pits tonight. We got a little bit free there for a while. I think a lot of guys did. Our pit stops were way below average and average for us isn't that good anyway. When I say below average, I mean performance wise. It is just disappointing. I thought we should have finished better than that. We had a better car than that. It is really frustrating after you run 500 miles to have it come down to bad pit stops for me."

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TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OLD SPICE/OFFICE DEPOT IMPALA SS, FINISHED 13TH:

"We were loose at the beginning of a run, the we got to where after about 20 laps, we would start getting tight. Just one of those nights where we couldn't really hit the balance of it.

"Where we got hurt the most was on starts and restarts when we were all packed up there. We couldn't make up any ground and couldn't get in the gas hard. We just gave up a lot of time on the front of runs."

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JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR IMPALA SS, FINISHED 14TH:

"To overcome a 34th-place starting position and finish 14th says a lot about the hard work the CAT Racing team put into the No. 31 Chevy all weekend. Track position was everything tonight. I wish we were able to hold on to a top 10 but the speed just wasn't there at the end. We're getting better with each race and I couldn't be happier with all the hard work and extra effort this team is putting in."

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MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 POP TARTS/CARQUEST IMPALA SS, FINISHED 17TH:

"I want to thank Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and my crew. We had a lot of issues tonight and we could have given up and none of them did. We had a really good effort. I got really tight at the end. I was afraid that was going to happen because that is what happened all night long. On green flag runs we got super tight at the end of each one. But everyone on this Pop Tarts/CARQUEST Chevrolet team kept fighting and I am really proud of them for that."

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KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS, FINISHED 18TH:

"We had a decent run in the Shell-Pennzoil Chevy, but we just couldn't get the track position we needed. Gil (Martin, crew chief) made a good call by taking two tires early in the race to gain us a bunch of spots. But, we were too tight in traffic and all those cautions there at the end didn't help us any, either."

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JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 LYSOL IMPALA SS, FINISHED 35TH:

TAKE US THROUGH THE RESTART FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, WHAT HAPPENED? "Well they all kind of went and then they checked up and I checked up and I don't know somebody didn't slow down and just ripped of the whole rear of the car. Then I got hit into the car in front of us. I don't know, just one of those deals. It was weird, actually a lot of things on the race track you could see and the cautions never came out. I think they got criticized last week and I think they went too far this week. It is what it is. Whether you like it or not they are in charge.

"They all accelerated and they all checked up. Every time the No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) restarted it was the same thing. It is what it is and you've just got to move on. Everybody in this Lysol car today was pretty impressive. We had one of our fastest cars. Not much we can do. We worked as hard as we could and we did all what we thought was possible and today the best we could do was 35th.

YOU'VE HAD A GREAT CHASE SO FAR. WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS RIGHT NOW? "Oh, it's okay. It's racing. If you're expecting to have ten clean races then you're dreaming. We knew it could happen and here, always the restarts are an issue and I managed to slow down and I just got hit from behind. It happens."

IS THIS THE WORST POSSIBLE CASE SCENARIO? "For what? We made the Chase and up until today we had four top five's in a row and what's bad about it, you know what I mean. We were actually surprised; everybody on the team is doing such a good job that even today we had a faster car than the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson). So, it happens. It's one of those racing things that will happen and we've just got to move on."

-credit: gm racing