American Racing News Vol 1, Issue 2 Issue 5 | Page 7

good. If it has been a street fight, he'd have had two
black eyes after that.

On his post-race talk with Hamlin - Probably one
of the best parts and one of the parts I'll probably
remember most about this race was before I got to
Victory Lane and Denny leaning in there and the first
thing he says is “I'm so damned proud of you.” That
meant the world to me. I mean, I told him right after
that, and I said, " You know I had to do that,' and he
goes, " I know.'

On crew chief Mike Bugarewicz - I've had some
awesome crew chiefs, but that's something I'm really
proud of, that Mike, he will sit there the night before
the race, he won't go out, he won't go with me to dirt
races and he won't go play when we took crew guys
to Six Flags last night and he stayed home and did

homework. He's so detail-oriented on that, and all my
crew chiefs have been, but they all have their own
different style, and that's something about Mike that
I really respect and appreciate.

On the nature of the race - Normally by the time
you leave here you're so mad at everybody, and all I
do, I go back and I sit in the transporter and take a
shower in there and sit for a half hour because I don't
want to see them at the helicopter pad because I'm so
mad at a dozen guys, and I'm like, " I can't whip them
all at once.' ... Normally we have five cautions in the
last 10, 15 laps. We had one, and it was for a car that
was stopped off the side. It wasn't even for a wreck. I
would say it was probably a pretty good race.

On his team - My guys have been through this whole
disastrous roller coaster the last three or four years