Texas Post-Race Notes & Quotes
Written by John Davison · April 9, 2006
Kasey Kahne got a head start on his birthday celebration by winning the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Early in the race, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle had an encounter that sent Biffle slamming into the wall. Busch explained that: “I was a lapped car trying to get out of the way. He had trouble passing the 21, and he checked up down the straightaway. I tried not to get into him. I had nowhere to go.” Biffle’s description was: “He just ran into the back of me and turned me into the fence. I just watched the video and it’s exactly what I thought happened.
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 3rd: ON THE DAY: “The whole day was pretty uneventful as far as no big dramas except for the Carl Edwards thing. We started 40th because we qualified bad and I think by lap 50, we were in the top 15. And there was a caution after we pitted and we stayed out and got ourselves in the top five and really just stayed there all day. I was really proud of our team. We made some adjustments and made bigger steps than we’re accustomed to making. But where we ended up at the end of the day was a positive deal. So I was really excited about how good a job the crew did at making adjustments today. We just kept working hard all day. It was a hot day. The air conditioner and the fan that blows to my helmet quit before half-way, so it was a pretty warm day.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PASS THAT KASEY KAHNE MADE THERE TOWARD THE END? “For the lead? I don’t really remember. It was fun racing him like that. Obviously if it had been 80 laps to go, neither one of us would have raced each other that hard. But with less than 30 laps to go, you’re going to race that hard for sure knowing you’re getting that close to the end. I could run the top. I was really good on the top for a while in (Turns) 1 and 2 and I felt like I was faster in (Turns) 3 and 4 on the bottom. It finally got to the point where Kasey started running me back down on the bottom in Turns 1 and 2 so I moved back down. I think it helped my entry to the center, but I think it hurt my exit to the corner. I think the lap that I went down, he went up and got a bigger run on us if I remember right and got underneath us.”
WAS YOUR CAR TIGHT OR LOOSE ON THAT LAST RUN, OR WAS KASEY KAHNE’S CAR JUST BETTER AT THE END? “Definitely, he was better. We weren’t where we needed to be. I asked to be tightened up on the entry next to the corners and the changes, I was told, that (crew chief) Greg (Zipadelli) made should have done that. I don’t know why, but we were extremely loose there at the end. Even if we were balanced, I don’t think we could have caught Kasey. It was like he upped the ante a whole other notch and another level there at the end. He did an awesome job. His car was really good on long runs. I knew that if he could get two or three laps on a restart that he was going to be tough to handle. He was racing the No. 7 (Gordon) car on the outside for three laps trying to get in front of him. Being able to do that and to get to the front of the pack like that, I knew there was no way we were going to be able to catch him.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CARL EDWARDS SPIN AND BEING ABLE TO NARROWLY ESCAPE IT? “Ahhh
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