Quotebook: Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers

LOUDON, N.H. -- Comments after Loudon from drivers that are in the Chase for the Nextel Cup:

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5,210 points

Finished third in Sunday's race. Tied with Kurt Busch in the points standings but holds tiebreaker with 4-3 edge in victories

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"My confidence really began to grow at Bristol. (Winning that race) was instantly a huge jump in confidence after what was a pretty awful summer.

"When my legs were hurt, I didn't really want to be in the racecar. But I finally healed up enough to where it wasn't a problem, and then we won Bristol, and it was like a huge jolt.

"Richmond last week was inspirational, too, and I've got that drive back that you definitely have to have to win the championship. I think we're going to close out the season on a streak that will be pretty spectacular, and hopefully with a championship. I think whoever wins this championship will finish in the top 20 in each of the last 10 races, and I don't see any reason why we can't do it."

2. Kurt Busch, 5,210 points

Dominated Sunday's race, leading three times for 155 laps.

"I was a bit sarcastic at the beginning of the day - or maybe yesterday - saying we could come away with the points lead, and here we are. It's only one week, and we've got a lot of work ahead of us, but (it was) just a great way to be able to execute what we did with this racecar, and I'm looking forward to the other tracks that are similar to this, as well as our testing.

"We've got four tests prepared in the next few months. It feels like I haven't tested all summer because we haven't. We wanted to save them for this latter part of the year to make sure that we could make a run at this title chase."

3. Jeff Gordon, minus-9

Started from the pole but car didn't handle well.

"We didn't have a very good run going today. We started out great, but it just went away from there. We never could really get a handle on it.

"We were very fortunate for that last caution and pulled out a seventh-place finish. That's good. I'm happy with that, but I'm not happy with getting beat as bad as we did today. But I knew the No. 97 and the No. 17 were going to be really strong today."

4. Matt Kenseth, minus-10

Pitted early and fought back to make it a 1-2 Roush Racing sweep.

"We were a little too tight in the middle and a little too free up off and couldn't quite get it there. Kurt's car was real fast through the middle of the corner, and that's where he killed us all day. He ran quite a bit different setup than we did, and if we would have had more race practice, maybe we would have tried that. But I'm happy to run second and get off to a good start."

5. Jimmie Johnson, minus-30

Winner of both NHIS races last year, Johnson struggled to 11th Sunday.

"We were just really too loose there at the end. I don't really understand why. We want to get back in the top 10 before we can expect to be in the top five and winning. So it was a good day for us. I definitely wish we would have been a few spots higher. We didn't get a win today and we're not leading the points right now, but that doesn't matter. We just have to keep collecting points and keep going from there."

6. Elliott Sadler, minus-38

Pitted under final caution for tires and passed four cars in 20 laps to finish eight.

"Everything went our way. We did lead a lap and got five points, so that will count there at the end. We got the car a little bit too tight in one stretch of the run and fell back to 15th or 16th, but we came in and got new tires. It was a great call by Todd, and if we do this every week, we'll be fine."

7. Mark Martin, minus-71

Considered New Hampshire his weak spot of final 10, and he was right. Finished 13th.

"That's one bullet dodged. We got through it, and we'll have better stuff going forward. Yeah, we didn't run very good, but that's a good way to start it off. I'm really satisfied with a 13th-place finish. That's a good way to start off. It could have been a lot worse. We got a lot of green-flag racing there, and that's kind of what we needed for our car. It could have been worse under other conditions. We dodged that bullet, and now we can do some serious racing for a while."

8. Tony Stewart, minus-124

Ran well early but involved in accident with Jeremy Mayfield, Greg Biffle and Robby Gordon.

"I don't think any of us are going to get mulligans. That's probably going to take us out of the championship. That's part of it. We'll have another car for next weekend, and we'll come out and try to get up front. It wasn't but two years ago that we left Daytona 43rd and came back and won (the championship). So it can happen again this year. But to try to make up that amount of points in nine more races is virtually impossible. I can promise you one thing: this team has never given up, and they're not going to give up now."

9. Ryan Newman, minus-136

One of the few cars to match Busch but blew an engine late to finish 33rd.

"We can make it up. We don't want to be in a position to have to make it up. We had to make it up from the get-go with being in 10th. We'll go on. It hurts, but it doesn't kill us.

"We definitely had a shot at winning this race, but woulda, shoulda, coulda. We'll go on to Dover. We look forward to going to the Monster Mile. We'll go there to win, just like we did today. We'll go on."

10. Jeremy Mayfield, minus-142

Ran well early but involved in accident with Stewart, Greg Biffle and Robby Gordon.

"I just think Robby Gordon and Biffle ought to go outside the racetrack and fight and get it over with. Go outside and settle it somewhere else. Our car was great. We were running fourth or fifth.

"Then we pitted and got off synch a little bit, but we were still fast. Even after we wrecked we were fast. The team did a good job, but we just came up short today. We'll get 'em next week."