With Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggling and Jeff Gordon coming from behind, Kurt Busch nearly quadrupled his lead. Credit: Autostock

Quotebook: Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers

1. Kurt Busch, 6,015

Kurt Busch Credit: Autostock

"It was a superb day. With the way we tested and put things together, we just implemented too aggressive a setup. We didn't know the concrete was going to be this harsh on tires and then it filled in as we went, so we had a great setup for the beginning part of the race. It was just too aggressive for the later part and we got boxed in. Five points means everything with the way this new point system is set up. We couldn't quite get by the 40 car at the end. We raced each other hard and it was fun, but yet we had a great day all in all with making the right adjustments in the pits and doing it as a team. We qualified well and we stayed up front, but we just didn't get the lucky coin as far as who was going to pit when."

2. Jeff Gordon, minus-96

Gordon did not attend post-race media conferences due to the tragic crash of a Hendrick team plane Sunday.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr., minus-125

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Credit: Autostock

"We tore the rear-end gear out of it. Every once in a while you get a bad batch of parts or something like that. Normally, we don't have this type of problem. This is not the time to be having them. We were never that good anyway. We tried to get the car to turn all day and we never could. Just real tight all day."

4. Jimmie Johnson, minus-207

Race winner Johnson did not attend post-race media conferences due to the Hendrick team plane crash, which also excused him from Victory Lane.

5. Mark Martin, minus-224

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"We ran good. It's a shame that three weeks in a row we've run better than we finished. It's kind of a shame. If we want to win this championship, we need to finish better than we've run and some of these guys have been doing that. We were a fifth- to seventh-place car easy, but we lost a little track position and then we didn't get a chance to race it the whole last 100 laps. Our car was great on the long run. It was incredible. I would come from 15th to fifth or sixth on a 70-lap run or something. If we would have gone green that last 70-80 laps, we could have gotten back in the top 10, probably close to fifth. Our car never did slow down. It would keep on coming and I was real proud of that. I thought we ran good for me at Martinsville, we just didn't finish that good."

6. Tony Stewart, minus-246

No quote available.

7. Elliott Sadler, minus-255

Elliott Sadler Credit: Autostock

"I just saw a lot of smoke. My spotter told me to go high and that's probably where Joe ended up at. It's just a frustrating day. We just missed it on pit strategy a little bit and then Robby just cut down on me and spun me out. I don't really understand that. Well, I do understand that, it's Robby Gordon. It's tough to do it here in Virginia. I love racing in front of this crowd, but you just can't keep running in the back all day here. Something will happen to you and it finally bit us."

8. Matt Kenseth, minus-260

No quote available.

9. Ryan Newman, minus-266

Ryan Newman Credit: Autostock

"I don't guess Rusty [Wallace] and I are on speaking terms right now. I know I was underneath him, and I know he came down on me. I wasn't going to give him anything, so he got loose and lost a bunch of spots. Then he came up and hit me after the race. Our car was faster than his at the end. I'm not sure if he's aware of that, but he will be. There was a little beating and banging there on the receiving end, but the bottom line was we had some not-so-good pit stops to start with and we had some real good pit stops to end with. We ended the day on the good side and that was definitely a good thing. We really should have had second, but we got knocked out of the way and fell back to third. If I had done to Jamie [McMurray] what he did to me in one and two, I took a chance on spinning him out. I figured I'd just give him a little tap and see if I could beat him back to the line."

10. Jeremy Mayfield, minus-364

"It was a real strong run all day. The guys made great calls in the pits and we had great stops all day. We were just trying to finish. We tested here and we needed this. We needed a good finish like that. The rest really paid off for us. Pit stops and track position were the keys today. We took two tires at the end and got back up there, and that was a real good call from [team director] Ken Francis."