The haulers of Jeff Gordon (left) and Kurt Busch (right). Credit: Autostock

Quotebook: Chase for the Nextel Cup drivers

1. Kurt Busch, 6,052

"Coming off of turn four it just sputtered and acted as if it had dropped a cylinder or it lost an ignition box, so we tried to do the things inside the car to alleviate our problem and it was something more catastrophic.

"We haven't had any type of problem like this all year. Doug Yates has done an awesome job, as well as Jack, going through that program and we haven't had any problem.

Kurt Busch Credit: Autostock

"It's tough to have that right now, but with three races to go - I just had one of those feelings that something was gonna happen and today was our day.

"Next week we've got to come back just as strong. It's just one bad race. You could have four bad races if everybody has four bad races.

"Right now, the 24 has been decent at most of the race tracks as well as the 8, but they had a problem last week. This is the kind of deal where everybody made the race today.

"We didn't have many guys that are gonna pull in and just take their laps. This was a field of 60 cars that made the event and this is gonna put us in that 40th bracket [42nd].

"We're not gonna finish 33rd or have a decent finish out of it. We're gonna be pretty far back. It's a tough blow, but we're gonna put our body armor on for next week and do the best we can at Phoenix."

2. Jimmie Johnson, minus-59

"Once I got in the car today and knew what I was supposed to do, I honestly forgot about everything until I took the checkered flag.

I wanted to do the victory lap to honor our friends. It doesn't change anything and we don't get back our friends that we lost.

Jimmie Johnson Credit: Autostock

But it sure makes all of us feel a little better to be able to do something like this.

This is unbelievable. I don't even know what to say. I just talked to Rick [Hendrick] on the phone and he told me to put my hat on backwards for "Little Ricky," John Hendrick, Randy Dorton, Joe Jackson, Jeff Turner, Liz and Dick.

I don't even know where to start. As I am sure you can imagine, I am at a loss for words.

I just want to thank everyone at Hendrick Motor Sports, Chad Knaus, all my crew guys for being able to bounce back after such a difficult week.

The Lowe's car was awesome, all the support we have received from everyone. This is a very special deal, a big day in the points."

3. Jeff Gordon, minus-72

"Something went wrong with the rear end, we think. When they dropped the jack, I started to go and then the DuPont Chevrolet stopped and would not go forward.

Jeff Gordon Credit: Autostock

It is really unfortunate, that's for sure. I am going to pull for Jimmie [Johnson] and Brian [Vickers]. Nothing was really going our way today.

I knew that Kurt Busch had his problems, but we weren't able to capitalize on them and can't for sure now.

Once you get in that race car, it becomes all about the team and the car. I was excited to get in the car today and going out there and having a shot at winning this race.

I thought we did. We took off there in the beginning and we were pretty good, but it started to go away pretty quickly and we couldn't get it back."

4. Mark Martin, minus-81

"[Crew chief] Pat Tryson was a sitting duck. He lost either way when they threw that caution. If I find out that that caution was for the show, I'll choke.

I saw the 29 car coasting slow and if I'd have been NASCAR, I would have told somebody to push him off of pit road. It wasn't a problem and I hate that, but we were a sitting duck.

If we pitted, they stay out and win. If we stay out, they pit. So it was nobody's fault, but those caution flags. We got beat."

5. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., minus-98

"I was racing for the win there, but I think I came up on Carl [Edwards] and turned myself into the inside fence and tore my car up. We had a good car today.

It was kind of disappointing to lose all those points, but I don't think it was Carl's fault there. I just came up on him and it went from there."

6. Tony Stewart, minus-145

"We still need to be better than we are. One thing you never have to doubt is the commitment of this Home Depot team and Greg Zipadelli.

We made a mistake there like Mark [Martin] did when we got a lap down. I hope they never mess with this place like they have other places and repave it because when you are running in ninth and a lap down, it is so fast and racy.

It was a good points day for us today. But we need to be better than we have been, we aren't that bad but we need to get a little better.

It's easy to get down when you have been off just a tick with the car like we have been but the guys kept me pumped up on the radio and kept telling me what was going on with Kurt Busch and everyone."

7. Ryan Newman, minus-186

"We had a left front tire that was four ounces out of balance which is pretty big.

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It was shaking pretty bad, and we didn't know what it was. We didn't want it to shake and blow a tire or anything goofy, so we just decided to pit and play if safe.

It was probably the right thing to do. We fought the balance a little bit after that. I think we had one of the fastest cars, but it was just a little too little too late. It was a good points day but not a great points day.

It could have been a great points day. If we can do in the next three races what Jimmie Johnson did in the last three, then we'll be in pretty good shape."

8. Elliott Sadler, minus-237

"Obviously it was an unfortunate day for this M&M's team. We were just trying to get to pit road under green and made contact with the 01 for the second week in a row.

It was a pit road miscue, but he hit me hard enough to break the transmission. We had to come behind the wall to fix the steering and transmission and lost about 50 laps.

I'm upset for everyone that works so hard week in and week out because we started off so strong and drove the front. It hurts when you have something that avoidable take us out of contention for a win."

9. Matt Kenseth, minus-257

BASS PRO SHOPS MBNA 500 •   Unofficial Results •   Unofficial Standings VIDEO Victory Lane The Hendrick team celebrates an emotional win Three in a row Jimmie Johnson pulls off an emotional win Junior wrecks late Dale Jr. smacks the wall hard, ending his day Engine problems Kenseth becomes second Roush driver to lose engine Transmission troubles Gordon develops gear problems on Lap 179 Pit problems Sadler damages his steering after contact on pit road Race tightens Points leader Kurt Busch loses his engine on Lap 53

"I was worried when I saw it [engine failure] happen to Kurt, but not because we've had engine trouble. This is the first engine problem we've had all year and I can't complain at all. Our engines have been awesome.

They've done a phenomenal job in Mooresville of making us real competitive, so I don't have anything bad to say about that. The reason we broke is we ran too much gear. We ran more than Kurt.

I don't know why he broke, but I knew in my head this morning we shouldn't have run it and we all decided as a group to do it, and I was one of the guys that decided to go ahead and run it so we should have known better than that.

Something broke in the engine. I don't know what it is, but we might have broken a valve or something like that. I thought we were out of it before we ran today, so we're really out of it after today.

I didn't think coming into today we really had a chance, but we're trying to get as high as we can. We still really want to get in the top five and finish as high as we can and end the season on a strong note."

10. Jeremy Mayfield, minus-316

"It was a long day for us, probably the worst day we've had here in a long time. I'm not sure what happened, but we never could hit it.

We qualified decent, but we weren't good in practice and it showed today. The 48 and 6 had a good day.

I hate it for the 97, but it's about time some of those guys had a bad day. We beat ourselves again. We just fought it all day."