Tony Stewart stands on the grid during qualifying for the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday in Loudon, N.H. Sitting second in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Stewart will start today’s race in the outside of Row 1. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

“Would we have bet on this at Daytona?  No way.  To get one car in the Chase … but to have both cars, we are ecstatic. I couldn’t wait to get to the shop on Monday and shake their hands and pat everybody on the back and say ‘thank you’ to everybody. This is a tough series, and to get two cars in the Chase is unbelievable. I’m very humbled by it.” – Tony Stewart.

“We just need to get off to a good start. So much can happen, especially with double-file restarts here. That could be rough, so we’ve got to stay out of that stuff.” – Carl Edwards.

“The hardest part is getting in the Chase, and now we’ve been able to do that. … We just continue to do what we do, and there’s no reason that we can’t compete for the championship and be going into Miami with the same type of situation that we had (at Richmond).” – Brian Vickers.

"Anybody that’s in the Chase can win this thing. All they have to do is get on a 10-race roll. I’m telling you anybody in this Chase can win. Watch out for Juan Montoya. I’m telling you the guy is running good, and they’ve been points racing. They may go after it now. I know the last few weeks we’ve raced to win, but we’ve been real careful too. Now we can go do our thing.” – Mark Martin.

“I’m excited about it because if I win the first two races, I’ll be leading the points this year, instead of last year (when) I won the first two and still wasn’t.” – Greg Biffle.

“If you look at a championship, it’s still numbers. It’s just the average number needs to be a lot better than what it was to make the Chase. … I think you can take more chances because now you’re not going to fall out of the Chase or anything. … I think you don’t have to be as conservative as I’ve been all year, and see what happens.” – Juan Pablo Montoya.

“We are a very good team right now with potential to get even better, and that’s where you want to be when the Chase starts: good and getting better.” – Denny Hamlin.

“All I can say is that I know from experience that, if you can get it going in the right direction at Loudon, you can keep the momentum growing and sort of build some insurance for something bad happening later on during the 10‐ce stretch.” – Kurt Busch.

“We just need to give 100 percent every week and see where we wind up. Nobody has had a clear advantage. I’m optimistic and feel we have a very good chance.” – Jimmie Johnson.

“I am fired up, really fired up. The momentum going into New Hampshire is there. This team is solid, and I think we have a great shot at it.” – Jeff Gordon.

“Everyone is just running so well. If you look at the drivers that made the Chase, they all consistently run in the top 10 each week. The competition is so close right now. If you have one bad race during these last 10 races, you’re going to lose a lot of ground to the other drivers because the competition is that tight.” – Kasey Kahne.

“I have as much right to be on the race track as they do, and I’ve said that when I was in the Chase the last few years. You have to show the Chase guys a little respect. You don’t want to be the reason someone lost the Chase or the reason someone won the Chase. You don’t want to be part of that story, but you do want to beat them.” – Jeff Burton.

“I was put in this predicament (not making the Chase) for a reason, and one of these days I’ll figure out why. You’ve just got to focus on learning from everything that happens and try to turn it into a positive.” – Kyle Busch.

“It seems like whenever I’ve had a long streak of not winning, I’ve won at New Hampshire.” – Ryan Newman.

“It was disappointing, for sure, not making the Chase last week, but there’s still a lot lof races left and we’re going to continue to go out and do what we have been doing, and that is to race as hard as we can to get the best finish possible. We have to keep working to get competitive and get to running up front again and competing for wins.” – Matt Kenseth.

“I’m pretty excited to be heading back to New Hampshire as the most recent winner.  That was a huge win for this team and it gave us a ton of momentum. Winning was never a spoken goal of the team, but it sure was nice to get it. I think every driver holds a special place for his first win, and I was fortunate to have mine at the closest track to where I first began racing. That’s pretty cool.” – Joey Logano.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to New Hampshire for one reason. Before we had these new COT cars, I didn’t really care for the short tracks like this one. Now I’m looking forward to it because we’ve been more successful at places like Martinsville, Phoenix, Richmond and New Hampshire.” – Casey Mears.

"New Hampshire can be a one-groove race track. There’s a lot of rubber buildup, and that determines where you can and can’t run in the corners. If you can’t run the line you want to because of the rubber buildup on the track, it makes it frustrating.” – Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“There’s just a lot of racing going on here. It’s an action-packed weekend. It’s a lot of fun for the fans.  I go up in the grandstands and watch two or three races myself.” – Clint Bowyer.

“Racing at New Hampshire may be one of the more difficult places on the entire Sprint Cup circuit. It seems that it’s either feast or famine.” – Elliott Sadler.

“Erik (Darnell) did a spectacular job in his first Cup start at Atlanta. He didn’t put himself in a position to get wrecked. He didn’t overdrive the car to where he would have put himself in a position to wreck. His feedback was very concise and to the point. I couldn’t be happier.” – Ben Leslie, Darnell’s crew chief.

“Loudon is a fairly flat track, and those are the kinds of tracks that are difficult to pass on, but if you come here with a great car, you can make anything happen.” – Jamie McMurray.

“The track promoters did something smart a few years ago. They flattened out the bottom of the track. That means if you want to pass someone, it’s shorter on the bottom. However, you don’t have the banking to lean on.” – Michael Waltrip.

“Loudon is a fun place to race at if you have a fast car.” – David Ragan.
 

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