Tony Stewart (right) and Kurt Busch congratulate Jeremy Mayfield after the Rock and Roll 400. Credit: AP

Quotebook: Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers

RICHMOND, Va. -- RICHMOND, Va. -- Comments from those drivers that made the Chase for the Nextel Cup:

1. Jeff Gordon

"We just tested in New Hampshire. We're excited about these last 10 races. It's that kind of effort that we had tonight that we're going to put out every weekend for the next 10 weeks. If that doesn't get it done, then the other guys can have it. But we're not going to give up this thing without a fight."

2. Jimmie Johnson

"I think we've got a great chance. We've got a lot of really good tracks coming up. With this new format, Lady Luck has got to be on your side to do it. One DNF, and you're out of luck."

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"We've got a one-day test at Dover Tuesday. We're going to Martinsville for one day to try to improve a little bit there. Kansas and Homestead are the two tracks that are make-it-or-break-it for my championship opportunity. We're going two days at each of those tracks.

"If I'm one of the guys (not in the top 10), it boils down to how much of an a-hole or how much of a friend that guy is. If I want to do him a favor and give him a spot, and I like him, then I'm gonna do it. But if he's a jerk, I'm going to make him work for it.

"You're not going to tell Kenny Schrader to chill out and get behind the top 10. You've got to race everybody."

4. Tony Stewart

"We're struggling right now. We're letting a bunch of guys catch up that probably wouldn't get caught up by the end of the year.

"Here's the morale of the story: the next 10 races is the same 10 races that we had last year. You go to the track, you race and you get points for it. When it's over with, they'll tell us exactly where we finished in the points standings."

5. Matt Kenseth

"It's been kind of weird year. Everybody hasn't really worried about the points every week, so that's been sort of different. Everybody stayed kind of bunched up all year anyway. I'm happy we're down to 10 weeks to go. It's been a long summer, and I'm glad that we're into the playoff deal and glad that we're only 30 points behind or whatever it is. I wish we were closer than that, but glad it's closed back up. Hopefully, we can not make mistakes, have a good start and have a chance at the championship."

6. Elliott Sadler

"This has, by far, been the most fun week I've ever had. I've been racing some type of racing for 22 years, and this is the first race ever I've actually got to race and have fun and not worry about points.

"I can't wait to get the playoff system started. MY pit crew is as good as anybody on pit road, my crew chief is the winningest one on the garage - he won a championship two years ago. We're looking at like we're the favorites going into this thing."

7. Kurt Busch

"We're in, and we've got a great car to go to New Hampshire with. Tonight, we had a very fast racecar, just miscommunication in the pit. It's good to have that fumble now, it's good to have that strikeout looking now. We were just standing there with our pants because I thought (crew chief Jimmy) Fennig we'd be 18 laps shy. That was if we stayed out. If we would've come in, we could've had enough fuel to make it.

"We'll have the same car we won with at Loudon (in July) at Loudon. We tested at Dover in the spring, we're going to test Kansas, we'll be at Charlotte, we'll be at Martinsville, we'll be at Miami - any place that's fast, we've got to polish up on. Talladega will take care of itself, and we'll go to Martinsville and test. We've got our things on our plate. Now, it's a matter of executing the proper way."

8. Mark Martin

"At least the pressure's off. We kind of had the competition talking about us yesterday after Happy Hour. That's the kind of performance we expected. The race got going, and it was like, 'Oh, it's not all that great.' And there wasn't anything wrong with the car. I don't know why it didn't run it like it ran in Happy Hour and in the test, but we raced our guts out. We got a top-five with that car, that's fantastic. Pat Tryson is the man.

"I just don't recall having to fight as hard as Pat and I have had to fight, just to get in to something. We just didn't want to be excluded. Now, we're in."

9. Jeremy Mayfield

"I couldn't see us getting in without winning the thing. That was our only option, unless (Jeff Gordon) didn't show up and Jimmie (Johnson) didn't start his car up. We were in trouble. We had to win tonight, and if we didn't we wouldn't be here. We might have if we finished second or third or something. That was our goal. We weren't going to accept anything else."

10. Ryan Newman

"The 15 points doesn't matter. I guess what matters is that we made it. We won the battle, but we haven't won the war. We'll get our guns polished up for the last 10 races and do what we have to do as a team to stay focused and take the right racecars to the right race tracks and make the right calls. The driver will try not to make any mistakes and make sure we don't have any DNFs, engines failures and mechanical problems and go from there."