With his fifth win at Talladega, Dale Earnhardt Jr. regains the points lead. Credit: Autostock

Quotebook: Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Comments after Talladega from drivers who are in the Chase for the Nextel Cup:

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 5,543 points

"I knew we had the car to get it done. It didn't take long to get into fourth (after the restart), and then I got the right help and was able to hold 'em off. I watched the last two laps in my mirror, saw all kinds of wrecks going on. It was crazy. There was a lot of crazy stuff going on out there today. Tony (Eury) Jr. made a great call right at the last moment to throw on two tires during our final pit stop. It might've been the difference. We had a great car. It's not as good as the one that's sitting in Daytona, but it's pretty close."

2. Kurt Busch, minus-13

"Those boys keep leapfrogging us. (Jeff) Gordon's leading one week and Junior's the next. We tested at Kansas and we're gonna test Charlotte. Those are the next two races for us and, hopefully, everything goes well. We just have to work like we do each week. I don't really know what the feeling needs to be after the third race. Is it any different than after the second or first? No, but we've survived three races and run good at three races, and we've got seven to go."

3. Jeff Gordon, minus-61

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"That's why you love and you hate this place because it can give you a great day like it did Junior, or you can be back here, and the next thing you know you can be in a wreck with five to go in the back of the pack. It was unfortunate for us. We had a great car. We just had to take what we could get from there. We knew we were in trouble when all those guys came to pit under green. I waved at the No. 22, and he just had no idea that all these cars were going to pit. If I would have put on the brakes, he would have run right in the back of me. So that messed up the rest of our day."

4. Mark Martin, minus-111

"I don't think that was a great race. It might have been a great show, but we could have been doing that on a figure-eight or a demo derby there. (We'll take this), especially under conditions that other people in the points finished behind me a lot because it was so messed up. This is pitiful, this is pitiful. I swear, if there is anything I can do in my entire power I will not let my son race here."

5. Matt Kenseth, minus-150

"I was back in there three-wide and getting hit and hitting people. Everybody was bouncing off of everybody. It's kind of stupid, really. I know it's fun to watch, but it's kind of a bad situation you're sitting in. That's a difficult situation we're put in going 185 miles an hour and being pinballs like that, but overall, we survived and kept the car in one piece. It's the best speedway car we've ever had. I thought we were in a good position to finish in the top-five before that yellow came out under that green-flag pit stop. It's cool Dale, Jr. won. He's gonna be 30 this week. He's getting pretty old so he better take those wins while he can."

6. Tony Stewart, minus-152

No quote available.

7. Ryan Newman, minus-159

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"The driver got a little greedy trying to do a gas-and-go, and that cost us a bunch of track position. It's just stupid racing here at Talladega. That's pretty much it. We tried to play it smart. There wasn't really a big crash, but there were a lot of potential big crashes. The car was all right, but you've got all of 'em running the same speed, so it was kinda hard to pass. It was an OK points day. We needed to win, but we'll take what we got. We finished, and that's the good thing. I'm ready for any place besides here."

8. Elliott Sadler, minus-166

"It was OK. Everything did it's job again, and it wasn't half as bad as last year. It was just a few tumbles and everything was fine. We had a long day with batteries and overheating and stuff like that, but to finish 22nd is probably a blessing. I really didn't want to do it on my roof, but they'll probably have some cool highlights now. It wasn't half as bad as last year, but I really would like to finish a fall race here on all four tires, so we'll try it again next year."

9. Jimmie Johnson, minus-172

"There are some other guys who have had some troubles, and now we're in that group. I hate to be in that group, but we're there. We'll just have to race hard. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. We can't lose any sleep over this. We all work our butts off, we try as hard as we can. Stuff happens."

10. Jeremy Mayfield, minus-280

"I'm not sure what happened to the 43. Somebody must have turned him because he turned right in front of us. We were just sticking to our game plan, that was to either be up front or stay in the back to the end. That's what we were doing. What do you do? You can't really predict what's going to happen here. We fixed our Dodge and got back out and gained all the points we could."