same time, very relieved. I was afraid Darien [Grubb] was going to call me in. I'm glad he didn't. The only way we could win was to gamble and that's what we did." Mears said he had "a fourth place car at best". It was the first time since 1991 a person with the surname Mears had won in auto racing. Yeley, who finished second, said, "This is probably the first time in two years of Cup racing I didn't catch the bad break. I've always run into bad luck.", and, "At the end, we were a top-five car at best". Third-place finisher Petty said, "In all honesty, it's just a race. We didn't change the world tonight. It feels good to come back and race with these guys. I guess third place was just the cherry on the sundae." He also said he had a car that was capable of finishing in the top ten and that he would not have been able to run with the top drivers. Petty also praised Mears for his victory and said he felt Mears would have similar success in the future. Hamlin said he felt the top-five finishers were lucky to achieve their finishing positions and that his crew chief Mike Ford said there was "no glory in winning a fuel-mileage race, other than saying you didn't run hard and were saving fuel". Kurt Busch, who led 107 laps (more than any other driver) was frustrated after his lap-298 crash: "How in the world we can be so strong during the day here and almost in an instant go completely in the opposite direction is beyond my comprehension. We have to get a handle on it sooner or later. I'm frustrated and down right now, but we'll just keep plugging along looking for the answer." Newman, who led the first ten laps of the race, was happy despite retiring from the race: "We had a good car. We had just gotten the lucky dog and we were going to be one of the 15 cars on the lead lap. Everybody at Penske Racing has been doing a great job. We've just got to keep it up and stay focused." After finishing the race in fifth place (then the best finish for a Toyota car) Vickers said it was "rough" driving without the use of power steering that cut in and out but