Sasaki Takes A Hard Fought Victory As Chong Joins Him On The Podium To Make Singaporean Motorsport History.
The Aston Martin Asia Cup revelled in the opportunity to kick start a historic day in motorsport when it took to the track as the opening support race for the 2008 Singtel Formula One Singapore Grand Prix.

The previous day saw Japan’s Kota Sasaki take pole position just ahead of Britain’s Danny Watts. Third on the grid was AMAC’s guest driver, former German F1 driver Christian Danner with Singapore’s own Ringo Chong in fourth. Indeed, the home crowd had five local drivers to cheer on in the 10 lap race which was to be full of action and incident. The challenges of the new track were ably met by the Aston Martin Asia Cup team along with their tyre partners Michelin who once more provided exceptional support.

With the threatened thunder showers staying away from the Marina Bay circuit, the race got on the way at 3.30pm local time and saw Watts make an inspired start to take the lead with pole man Sasaki slotting closely into second place. Followed by Danner and Chong the leading pack remained tight over this exciting new track.

On Lap 3 Watts clipped a kerb, launching him into the wall and sadly ending his race, thankfully unscathed. With Sasaki picking up the lead it wasn’t to be an easy race for the Team Reckless driver, who came into the event 5 points behind Championship leader Dilantha Malagamuwa, as Danner used his extensive experience to push him all the way.

Elsewhere in the field there were battles aplenty but with David Lai hitting the wall and left stranded in the track on Lap 6 it was time for the one safety car period of the race which closed the field up. When the race went green again there was to be more action with Kuo Tong Hsieh (Taiwan) making contact with the back of Mel Choo’s car. Hsieh was airborne with a wheel ripped from the car and making its own way down the slip road! Singaporean Choo, much to the relief of the local spectators, was able to continue.

Out front despite his best efforts Danner could not pass Kota Sasaki who took an ecstatic and historic win in front of an appreciative audience. Taking third an equally thrilled Ringo Chong made motorsport history as the first Singaporean driver to finish on the podium at the Singapore GP event and indeed, the only Singaporean driver to have such an honour over the weekend. There was further cause for local celebration with Mel Choo finishing in fifth and young up and coming Singaporean driver Hafiz Koh taking a strong sixth.

In terms of the Championship, Malagamuwa’s fourth place finish has allowed him to stay at the top of the Championship table but now just 1 point ahead of Kota Sasaki.

Series Director Ian Geekie praised the new circuit and event. “It has been a superb event” said Geekie. “What better place to drive an Aston Martin, famed for its beauty, style and performance, than in this marvellous and electrifying setting? It has challenged the drivers who have thoroughly enjoyed the event and entertained the crowds on the start of this very special day for motorsport. We are also thrilled that we have been able to provide the local spectators with plenty to shout about!

“My thanks extend to the Singapore GP organisers, our Aston Martin Asia Cup team, Michelin, Dura, Powerbuilt and Racing Logistics International all of whom have worked hard to ensure this has been a memorial moment in our inaugural Championship year.”

The next round of the Aston Martin Asia Cup has the honour once more of being a support race for FIA Formula One World Championship when it visits Shanghai on 17th-19th October for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Aston Martin Asia Cup – Round 7, Singapore Result

1 Kota Sasaki (Japan)
2 Christian Danner (Germany)
3 Ringo Chong (Singapore)
4 Dilantha Malagamuwa (Sri Lanka)
5 Mel Choo (Singapore)
6 Hafiz Koh (Singapore)

Singapore (SG). Instead of the predicted procession on the narrow Singapore Marina Circuit, the huge crowd saw a very exciting first Formula One night race. However, the rewards for the BMW Sauber F1 Team were somewhat poor with only three points for Nick Heidfeld (6th) after Robert Kubica’s very bad luck. The Pole needed to refuel when the pit lane was closed during a safety car period, and after being penalised he finished eleventh.

Nick Heidfeld: 6th
BMW Sauber F1.08-07 / BMW P86/8
Fastest Lap: 1:47.306 min on lap 14 (11th fastest overall)
“Although I shouldn’t complain about finishing sixth when I came from ninth, I must say it is such a shame I couldn’t show my pace today. The car was so good and I could have gone a lot faster if I hadn’t been stuck in traffic all the time. I was even saving fuel and tyres because I hoped the others would kill their tyres and I could attack later. I think some did ruin their rubber, but still this wasn’t enough of an advantage to overtake. I had a good start during which I managed to pass Nico Rosberg. However, because of how the race turned out for me I hardly sweated at all.”

Robert Kubica: 11th
BMW Sauber F1.08-05 / BMW P86/8
Fastest Lap: 1:46.899 min on lap 14 (6th fastest overall)
“The race was physically very hard. There are so many bumps, I hope the organisers will work on the surface for next year. On top of that, the visibility was getting worse and worse as I was getting tired. Over the final fifteen laps I had an incredible headache. The decision not to pit on the first lap when the pit lane was closed because of the Safety Car was unlucky, and cost me a good race result as the cars behind me closed the gap. The team thought the pit lane would reopen very soon, but this was not the case. However, that’s racing.”

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
“Another spectacular chapter was added to the Formula One history book. The first night race was a total success. My compliments go to the organisers. The race itself was turbulent and influenced by the first safety car period. Unfortunately the safety car rule meant Robert was completely out of contention in the race, whereas Nick was able to stay out just long enough until the pit lane was reopened. This was a shame for Robert because he was well on his way to score important points for the championship standings. By finishing sixth Nick made up three positions and scored three points. Everything didn’t go according to plan either for our direct competitors as, apart from Nick, out of the top six only Lewis Hamilton scored points. Congratulations to Renault and Fernando Alonso for the win in this exciting race.”

Willy Rampf (Technical Director):
“The race start was okay for our drivers. Robert managed to defend his position and Nick gained a place. After that the race went according to plan for both cars and they were able to open a gap over the cars behind. However, then the first safety car period ruined Robert’s race completely. We had to refuel although the pit lane was still closed. The penalty dropped Robert into a hopeless position at the end of the field - and this on a circuit where anyway you can hardly overtake. In the end Nick scored three points, so this means we have still scored championship points in every Grand Prix this year.”

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix, the first night race in Formula 1 history, in third place. After 61 eventful laps (309.087km) with two Safety Car periods, Lewis came home 5.9sec behind winner Fernando Alonso (Renault). Heikki Kovalainen ended up 10th. After 15 out of 18 races, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes took the lead in the Constructors’ Championship with 135 points ahead of Ferrari with 134 points. Lewis extended his lead in the drivers’ ranking to 84 points ahead of Felipe Massa (77 points) who did not score today. Heikki is sixth with 51 points.

The start: Lewis was second on the grid and second after the opening lap. Heikki had qualified fifth and attacked Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) at the first corner, but he was touched by Kubica at the second corner and lost two positions; he was seventh after lap one.
The race, lap 10: Lewis was second with 3.3sec behind Massa; Heikki followed in seventh place.
Lap 14: The Safety Car was deployed, following an accident of Nelson Piquet (Renault).
Lap 17: The pit lane was opened and both Vodafone McLaren Mercedes pitted; Lewis was stationary for 11.5sec and Heikki 12.0sec. One lap later, Lewis was ninth and Heikki 15th.
Lap 20: Re-start. Lewis was eighth and Heikki 14th.
Lap 27: Stop-and-Go penalty for Kubica; Lewis was seventh. One lap later, he passed Mark Webber (Red Bull Renault) and improved to sixth. Heikki was 12th.
Lap 30: Lewis moved up to fifth place, but got stuck behind David Coulthard (Red Bull Renault). Heikki got stuck behind Jenson Button (Honda) and was 11th.
Lap 33: Jarno Trulli (Toyota) was the last driver to pit and Lewis was now fourth.
Lap 34: Heikki came in for his second stop (8.4sec) and rejoined the race in 13th place.
Lap 40: After the pitstop of Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota) Lewis was third, one lap later he overtook Coulthard and improved to second. Heikki was 12th.
Lap 42: Lewis pitted for the second time (7.7sec) and was now seventh.
Lap 50: All drivers had completed their pit stops; Lewis was now third and Heikki 11th.
Lap 51: The accident of Adrian Sutil (Force India Ferrari) caused a second Safety Car period.
Lap 54: Re-start.
Finish (61 laps): Lewis ended up third; Heikki was 10th.

Comments

Lewis Hamilton
“A positive end to a difficult weekend at this fantastic new venue. I started well, but then my rear tyres faded and, although we had good pace, I wasn’t in a position to challenge Felipe ahead of me. During my first pit stop I lost a bit of time because everybody came in due to the Safety Car period. After that I was unfortunately stuck behind David and although I was clearly faster it was really difficult to overtake him. After the second re-start, I tried to stay as close as possible behind Nico; however, I didn’t want to take chances – particularly as the Ferraris were outside the points. Also, this is not a track where overtaking is easy. The first night race in Formula 1 history was great fun, and I now look forward to the forthcoming double-header in Japan and China.”

Heikki Kovalainen
“I made a good start and was going to pass Kubica round the outside at the first two corners. Unfortunately he touched me and almost spun me around. My underfloor was slightly damaged as a result. I lost momentum and two cars overtook me. When the Safety Car came out and the pitlane was opened a couple of laps later, Lewis and I came in and I had to wait behind him until it was my turn. It then was a strange race and most of the time I was in traffic with no overtaking chances. Halfway through the race I had brake problems and had to conserve them until the finish. I’m happy for Lewis and the team now that he has extended the championship lead and we are on top of the Constructors’ rankings. I will now go for it in the next races and help to make sure that we stay ahead in both championships.”

Ron Dennis
“Today’s race was a very exciting one, full of incidents, triggering Safety Car interventions that had a significant influence on the final outcome. In the last few laps, having seen Kimi’s accident, we advised Lewis not to attempt to overtake Nico but instead to settle for third place and the seven-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship that the resulting six points netted him. Heikki’s race was spoiled by having to queue in the pits. Overall, then, the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was a hugely successful event, and we’re delighted to have emerged from it with the lead in both the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championships.”

Norbert Haug
“A great Formula 1 premiere at night. Lewis extended his championship lead with third place which is a good result. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes leads now in the Constructors’ rankings as well which is also not bad. Thank you to the organisers and Bernie and his team for their efforts – this spectacular event will create a big response.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford Fusion (finished 3rd) – “We were just off a little bit all day. We fought it tooth and nail. Man, we did everything we could to this race car. And, toward the end, I was elbows up like I had been the last two races, and that’s all I had, you know, third place. I think that’s good for us. That was a goal we set when the Chase started, top-five finishes, and certainly this is not a disappointment at all to us to come here and finish in the top five – especially how poorly we were off the truck when we first got here. We were a 37th-place car when we unloaded and finished up a third-place car, so I’m pretty excited about that.”

CARL EDWARDS and GREG BIFFLE press conferences

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford Fusion (finished 3rd) – “It was an eventful weekend. When we got here we weren’t very good, we 36th right off the truck, so we had big-time improving to do, and we did that. We worked really hard and get our car going good. And probably just not enough practice, we just didn’t get right for the race today. We adjusted on the car, we just couldn’t get the balance right. I’d go down in the corner and I would slide the nose and then I was too loose on the gas. I think a lot of people fought that; some more than others. At the end there, it felt like Dover all over again, me and Jeff Gordon fighting for third and fourth place. It was a pretty hard-fought battle, but I ended up getting by him on the last lap going to the stripe, so we’re excited to finish up third.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (finished 2nd) – “The car was real good in practice, and we started in the back and for some reason it just wasn’t that fast the first couple of runs. We got into a small wreck on pit road and went to the back and fought around back there for a while. And then Bob [Osborne, crew chief] made some adjustments that were really great. We took off and had a great race car, and got into one more small incident on pit road at some point in there, but everybody did a good job in recovering. And there at the end my car was just a little too loose. I could just hang with Jimmie, I couldn’t get him until the last couple of laps when I just started bonzai-ing it around on the top there. He was what I was doing, so he went up there to block, and that last lap I just figured the hell with it, I don’t want to finish second here, I want to win this race more than anything in the world, so I kind of bonzaied it in there. I wanted to make sure I cleared Jimmie. I went probably just a little too far and hit the wall harder than I planned on hitting it, and he got back by me. It was fun, though. I’ve always kind of wanted to try that. Now I know that it doesn’t work quite the same as video games, but it was fun.”

WANTS TO WIN HERE AT KANSAS. “I want to win this race more than any race on the schedule, and I thought we could do it today. So, yeah, it was very frustrating. I’m recouping right now. I’m getting better. I’m coming around. We just did the best we could. Wins here feel so good just because of how many people come here that I know and grew up with.”

WHY ALL OF THE INCIDENTS ON PIT ROAD? “I don’t know what all the trouble was on pit road. I didn’t know if other people were having the same trouble I was having, but it seemed like we were running into a lot of people and getting run into, all that. I don’t know what was going on.”

FOR THOSE WHO DON’T DRIVE RACE CARS, HOW WAS THAT MOVE AT THE END SUPPOSED TO WORK? “The ideal situation would have been me diving under Jimmie just fast enough to either not hit the wall or hit it less hard, and not slow enough. The big thing I didn’t want to do is drive in there and not commit enough, and then you get in that no man’s land where you’ve driven it in harder than you can stick the car – you slide up into him and wreck both of us, because I know he wouldn’t do that to me. My number-one thing was, make this slide job a real deep one so that I don’t collect Jimmie, and then hope for the best. You never know what’s going to happen. He can go in there and get surprised and it can all work out, you know.”

DID HE SLOW DOWN? “He did exactly what every smart racer does when he sees somebody bonzai in, you just lift a little bit, let that guy go run into the fence and then you go by. I’ve had it go both ways. We were going to run second if I didn’t do it, so I figured why not?”

BIFFLE, continued – ON LAST LAP WERE YOU FIGURING THAT FIVE POINTS WAS FIVE POINTS? “Yeah, that’s the way I was thinking about it. Coming down to Homestead, it’ll be five points, and I just wanted to get by him so bad. But it was same thing that Carl experienced. Once I got to him, I moved up. I couldn’t catch him on the bottom, so I moved up, and ran him down on the top, and was going to pass him, so then he moved up, and took my groove away. There at the end, I wasn’t sure which way he was going to go, but he went back to the bottom, I think he had a little more speed than he had planned, and he kind of slid up a little bit off the bottom, and I was able to get around the bottom and get inside of him coming off four. So, it just worked out. I mean, I really wanted to get that five points, so I’m excited about that.”

DID THIRD PLACE EVER FEEL SO GOOD? “Yeah, I mean, really, our focus coming into the Chase was top‑five finishes. Certainly, we can’t be disappointed with a third‑place finish. I mean, that’s a great finish. It seems like again we’re 1‑2‑3. The three top in the points are 1‑2‑3 again. So, that’s tough.”

ON LOSING GROUND IN POINTS. “Yeah, I thought I was losing ground when I was winning because I never gained anything. I won twice and I was still third. I finished third and I’m still third. It’s going to be a tight points battle the whole way. We know that. You just drive your ass off every weekend, and end up with what you end up with.”

EDWARDS, continued – THE TOP THREE AGAIN ARE THE TOP THREE IN POINTS, SO IS THIS RACE GOING TO BE A CASE OF WHO BLINKS FIRST? “You never know. I mean, this is 30 percent over, so there’s a lot left, I think. I don’t think you can tell how this is going to end up. Talladega will be interesting for sure.”

BIFFLE, continued – “Yeah, I mean, I think so. I don’t think it will come down to who runs the best, I think it’s going to come down to who has the least little hiccups here and there, you know, small stuff happen – get a pit-road penalty or something, have to go to the back, finish 14th, you know, something like that. That’s probably what it’s going be like, because all of us are running competitive enough. I doubt whether it will go all 10 races just like this, this tight, but it might.”

EDWARDS, continued – YOUR CREW CHIEF WAS GIVING YOU A LOT OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT OVER THE RADIO. IS THAT USUAL? DO YOU LIKE THAT? ARE YOU MUCH MORE OF A REALIST IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT KNOWING WHAT’S GOING ON? “It’s fine. Bob can say whatever he wants on the radio. Any time you get positive reinforcement, I think that’s good. If I wanted him to be quiet, I’d just tell him to be quiet. I can just tell from his voice – it does motivate me a little bit. It’s good when you know all your guys are down there cheering for you. That’s a good reminder.”

WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO CHASE DOWN THE SAME DRIVER FOR 50 LAPS, DOES THAT WRING YOU OUT? “It’s really a lot of fun. I truly believe that at the time when the green flag dropped, I thought we weren’t going to have any trouble with Jimmie. I thought I’d be able to just follow him for a little while and we’d go right by him, like we had the run before, the last two runs. But they did a really good job of getting their car better. But, yeah, it is fun to follow somebody for that long and try to work them over. Man, I just wanted to win this race. I wish we could start it again right now and run it again, you know? But it is a good points day. That’s the bright side.”

WHEN YOU QUALIFIED WHERE YOU DID, WHAT DID YOU FEEL YOUR ODDS WERE OF HAVING A CHANCE TO WIN THIS RACE? AND, WHEN DID YOU SENSE THAT THE ADJUSTMENTS THE CREW MADE ON THE CAR TURNED IT INTO A REALLY GREAT CAR? “After practice on Saturday I really felt like we had a chance to win the race. Every week when we do this, we kind of get a feel, I’ve gotten a feel for how practice goes on Saturday and what that says about Sunday’s chances, so I felt pretty good then. But when I really truly believed we could win the thing was about halfway through the race, a little past halfway, when Bob made one of those adjustments and we drove essentially right to the lead from, I think, 12th or 11th or something. So, that was a real good time. I was having a good time there.”

MOST DRIVERS IN A POINTS RACE WOULD TAKE SECOND-PLACE POINTS AND MOVE ON, AND NOT RISK CRASHING, BUT BASED ON THE LAST LAPS IT LOOKED LIKE THAT NEVER CROSSED YOUR MIND. “No, it crossed my mind, but nothing’s guaranteed, not another race, not tomorrow, nothing. So, I get what I can while I can. I just figured, man, I’m not going to be able to live with myself. It’s going to be hard enough to go to sleep tonight, but there’s no way I’d sleep a wink if I didn’t try something on the last lap. You’ve got to try.”

YOU DESCRIBED THAT MOVE AS A SLIDE JOB. WAS THAT SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU USED TO DO AT SHORT TRACKS AROUND HERE? “Yeah, I mean, everybody knows how to do a slide job. By the way, that’s not the exact way to do it, the way I did it. I’ve won some races making that work and I’ve got gone in a little too easy and gotten in some wrecks, and that’s a bad scene because it really just looks like you drive right in the corner and hit the guy, and that’s a bad deal. Summit, Missouri, I remember one race in a Sportsman dirt car, a guy named Danny Crane did that to me. I was leading going down the back straightaway into turn three, last lap, and here comes this black ’78 Camaro or whatever going about plus 50 on me and he slid in front of me and I thought, ‘Wow, he’s going to make that work,’ and then he went right off the end of the race track into the woods. I felt like my buddy Danny Crane today. I’m sure that for a second Jimmie thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s going to win this thing.’ Then he went, ‘Nope, physics win again.’ But, you know, that’s the way it goes.”

AT THE END, WERE YOU CATCHING HIM OR WAS HE SLOWING DOWN OR WAS IT A COMBINATION OF BOTH? “I was catching him. I had my eye on the real high side there for a long time, but there was a lot of trash and stuff up there. So when it came down to three laps to go, I realized I was not going to be able to pass him doing what I was doing. I started running the very top. It was way faster, but it was really the last 10 inches up to the fence. Since my car is wider than that, Jimmie could go up there and kind of block that. I knew if I went in the last lap, I went in there up high, I was just going to go up there and I’d be right behind his bumper, and be tight and all that. And that actually happened, the lap before, I hit the fence a little bit, got behind him and got tight. So, I was definitely getting faster. I just wasn’t willing to take that risk earlier in the run and bounce the thing off the fence, and then have to have a restart and get passed by more people, so I wanted to wait until the end.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SLIDE JOB LIKE THAT ON ASPHALT AS OPPOSED TO ON DIRT? “It just depends on what’s at the edge of the race track. If there’s a wall, like today, then that’s pretty much what it looks like. If there’s a cushion or some more grip up there, whatever – a lot of times you can get in front of the guy, get it parked up there, and you kind of almost block him, and if he doesn’t run you over, spin you out, then you’ve got position, you kind of set the pick there and you could move on. It’s really hard to do in these cars at a big track because there’s so much space and things happen relatively slower, a guy can watch you. Jimmie could watch me come by and go, ‘Okay, I’m going to lift off the gas a little bit, let him slide up,’ because it’s not the fastest line. You’re really just setting, kind of butting in line a little bit, and he has to check up a little bit for it to work. I don’t know if that explains it very well.”

YOU SAID IT WAS A GOOD POINTS DAY, BUT YOU ALSO LOST THE POINTS LEAD. CAN YOU FIND SOLACE? “It’s a great points day for us, actually. The lead doesn’t matter right now. It’s however many points you can get, and that’s that. If it’s Greg and Jimmie and I running 1‑2‑3, swapping the spots back and forth for the next however many races, it just takes one of us to have a bad race and that guy is out. So, yeah, it’s still a good points day. If you finish second every week, I guarantee you’ll win a championship. So, we just have to keep working this hard.”

YOU CALLED IT A “BONZAI” MOVE? “Yeah. I guess my dad used to always say that, ‘bonzai move.’ I don’t know exactly what that means. I know there’s a tree called a bonsai tree – looks nothing like that move. But, I don’t know. Kamikaze maybe is where that came from. It’s the Midwest, sometimes people don’t know.”

WHY DIDN’T YOU TRY THAT EARLIER? BECAUSE IT WAS TOO RISKY? “Yeah, and that’s the thinking. Honestly, I didn’t know what was going to happen when I hit the wall, so if the thing just broke the front suspension, and skidded around to the start-finish line, I just knew I could make it that far, but not for five laps or something.”

WERE YOU TRYING TO MAKE A COMBINATION DIRT TRACK-DARLINGTON STRIPE MOVE? “Yeah. I mean, it’s simple. I just needed to be in front of him, and that’s the only way I could figure out to get in front of him. The mistake there – if you could go back and practice that over and over, I’d run in just hard enough to miss his bumper by an inch, and then barely hit the wall and keep going, but you just never know what’s going to happen. As soon as I turned under him, he could have turned down and run on my door, and in that case, it would have been real hard to clear him. I just did the best I could.”

HOW MUCH APPREHENSION DO YOU HAVE GOING TO TALLADEGA AFTER SUCH A GREAT START TO THE CHASE? “I hadn’t really thought about it much, I’m thinking about it now. I’ll probably be glued to Jimmie, no matter where he’s at. If him and Greg and I can just stay together, and make sure we either all avoid or either all get in the same wrecks, then we’ll probably be all right. If I’m running fifth and Jimmie falls back to 40th to ride around and watch some action, I will probably be following him back there, and vice-versa, I assume. If somebody said, ‘Hey, will you take 10th at Talladega, right now? You don’t have to run the race.’ I’d take in it a heartbeat. I’d pay a million dollars for it, because you just don’t know what’s going to happen there. But as it stands, when you go there and race, and – if I’ve got a shot to win the thing, it could be awesome. But that place, there’s a lot that you can’t control and you have to respect that, you know?”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (finished 5th) – “We just got behind in the pits and then I spun out that one time – I don’t know if that was my fault or what really happened to be honest with you there. There was just too much ground to make up. It’s just hard to get back in the front, harder than it’s ever been, and to come back through and get fifth is a pretty big accomplishment, I think.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TWO STRAIGHT SOLID FINISHES AFTER WHAT HAPPENED AT NEW HAMPSHIRE TO START THE CHASE? “We have, but you know I really think we probably would’ve gotten the most points for leading the most laps. I don’t know, I think we would’ve ran in the top three. With 10 races to go and being so far behind from New Hampshire, you just can’t afford to have any mistakes. We’ll just move on from here and dig hard next week, and try to get ’em again.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion (finished 8th) – “It was kind of what we needed. We’ve had some pretty good cars the last few weeks and hadn’t had the finishes we deserved. Today we made our AAA Ford better throughout the day and the guys had great pit stops there at the end when it counted. We had a sixth- to a 10th-place car, I think, and track position meant a lot at the end. I am happy to get a top 10.”

ON NOT TRYING TO GET TOO MUCH OUT OF HIS CAR. “I’ve learned that you only drive as hard as what you car’s capable of going, and I think we had a sixth- to a 10th-place car today and that’s where we finished. When you get in trouble is when try to get more than what your car’s got. I’ve learned that from a lot of guys – Jimmy [Fennig, crew chief] and Jack [Roush, owner] and a lot of different people. But, it’s solid. It’s not where we want to be, we want to be up there racing for the win, but we’ve just got to start somewhere.”