It was done with the intent of intimidating us. But there are some guys you can intimidate and some guys where it works the opposite way,

When I'm not dragging the team down, I think it helps all of us, ... When the one person who is dragging everybody back gets on the same page and does his part, it makes a huge difference.

I don't think Chad thought deep enough into it to realize that you don't want to do that with us because you're picking on the wrong guy there because we pick back. I think he'll be a little less vocal these next few weeks.

Everybody knows who had the best car here today, ... There wasn't anybody who was going to beat us. Jeff Gordon got the trophy, but he wasn't going to beat us. We had the best car. All you have to do is get the lap times. They could run with us for 15 or 18 laps, but we always drove away. That's the positive thing that we ought to take away from today.

The easiest way to sum up the relationship between the drivers and NASCAR is that we are pawns on a chessboard. We don't make the big moves. We're just sacrificial lambs so to speak. They have their way of explaining to you very quickly that you can be replaced very, very easily in this sport no matter how popular you are.

That stung a little bit,