Notebook: Mears upset with Robby Gordon again (cont'd)

"We were going to stay out and then [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. said to come in and I'm like, 'Yeah, I like going for it.' So I come on down pit road and No. 31 was coming and I was thinking he was on the lead lap with me and I forgot he had motor trouble or whatever. I'm thinking he's thinking what I'm thinking: let's get tires and try to win. But it was closed and we had to go to the back."

Leaving Las Vegas

Despite having considerable problems with the combination of the reconfigured track and a harder Goodyear tire at LVMS, Earnhardt probably spoke for everyone when he stated afterward: "I always like coming to Vegas. This track could be junk and I still like coming to Vegas. Vegas is a great town."

Struggles for Sadler

It was all Elliott Sadler could do to bring his No. 19 Dodge home in 14th place, even though he had qualified third and led 17 laps early.

"[Sunday] was frustrating," he said. "We had a great qualifying lap and great track position, but we just couldn't get a handle on the car. We were tight all day. ... We've just got to work better together on making changes during the race. We would make one adjustment and it would go one way, then make the same adjustment the next stop and it would go the other way.

"It's frustrating to lead laps in the first half of the race and spend the second half of the race struggling to finish 14th."

Pleasantly surprised

Mark Martin said that he expected Sunday's Cup race to be "disastrous, miserable." He was pleased when that turned out not to be the case.

"I expected it to be one of the most painful days on a racetrack that we've had. I think [Saturday] was. It just seemed to go a little bit better than that [Sunday]," Martin said.

"Of course all of the drivers did a fabulous job. They were very careful, very cautious, and it paid off."