Quotebook: Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Comments from drivers who are in the Chase for the Nextel Cup after the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway:

1. Kurt Busch, 5,685 points

Kurt Busch

"I closed my eyes and turned the wheel and don't know how I didn't hit anything (when he spun on Lap 152), but I'm disgusted with myself for making the same mistake that I've made in the past. I did the same thing today as I did at Michigan and California earlier this year. I just got too aggressive early in that run to gain positions or move my way forward, so I was just disgusted with myself. But our team rebounded the proper way. My crew chief said, "Come in here, kid. I'm going to fix your car, and then you can drive it" because I was trying to drive the thing loose to maintain track position later into a run. But he tightened it up and gave me the good handling car that would take us to the end."

2. Dale Earnhardt Jr., minus-29

"It was a lot of fun racing (Dale) Jarrett there at the end. We had fun battling for position. There were just guys out there that were a lot better than us. But we gained on it. We tested hard, and I was hoping it would pay off. It paid off. A top-10 finish, we'll take it. ... It means a lot. It means we can really concentrate on Homestead now. The championship will probably be decided there. I don't think you'll get it before then. It's going to be great at that race, but we've got to work hard to get there."

3. Jeff Gordon, minus-79

Jeff Gordon

"I don't feel like we've really lived up to our full potential. I feel like we're better than this. I hope we start hitting it here real soon, and when we do, we're definitely going to make a big difference in the points. But we've got to get some things going our way and certainly get the cars driving a little bit better and a little bit faster, and we're going to work hard on doing that until this thing is all over."

4. Elliott Sadler, minus-143

"It's a great points day for us. We needed to turn the momentum around. We've had two bad weeks in a row, and we said if we could come here and Charlotte and get two top-fives, we could get our program back to where we need to have it and get back into points contention. ... We've kind of dug ourselves a hole, but this race isn't over with. I know Kurt Busch and his guys are doing a great job, and he's staying out front, but we've got to try to beat him every single week. We can't wait for them to have bad luck."

5. Mark Martin, minus-150

CHASE FOR THE NEXTEL CUP •   Inside the Chase •   Superstore: Chase driver gear •   Official Standings •   Expanded access to the Chase on TrackPass

"We had a top-five car there. It was really a wasted day or a wasted effort by everybody based on not having enough gas mileage to be able to do it there at the end. We had a good enough car. It was really strong on the long runs, and we just got 100 cautions there at the end. We were never going to make up the track position that we had to give up. We were going to get back to the top 10 if it would have gone green for 50 laps at the end, but it didn't happen."

6. Tony Stewart, minus-173

"We've still got six more races to get this done.We can still do this."

7. Matt Kenseth, minus-180

"We ran terrible all day, really. We just got lapped that one run and got lucky and got a quick caution to get that lap back. We just didn't run good. We probably should have pitted the second-to-last caution to try and get some track position back, but we just never could get running."

8. Ryan Newman, minus-232

"We've just got to go to every race and try to win it just like we did today. We just didn't win it today. I just got loose and stuck it in the fence. I was the wreck. I just got loose. We've got six to go. We took a double-barrel shotgun and shot ourselves in the foot today. We can fight back. We've done it before."

9. Jimmie Johnson, minus-247

"Spun out."

Jeremy Mayfield

10. Jeremy Mayfield, minus-257

"We're doing the best we can. That's all we can do. We were kind of in a hole to start with, and we're just going to keep digging our way out. I'm real proud of my guys. They fought hard today. It was a good day. We probably had a car that could have won. Strategy just got us, but my hat's off to all my guys. We had to come in to get fuel, and I think some of those guys gambled and stayed out a little bit. We had a great day. It was fuel mileage and a strategy deal, but we'll take a top five. We had a good car there at the end. If we had a few more laps maybe we would have caught 'em, but you hate that. What do you do? I know we had a great car."