FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top Three Drivers at Sonoma before and after Quotes

The top three drivers of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California—Jimmie Johnson, Robby Gordon, and Kevin Harvick—shared their words before the green flag and after the checkered flag.

Jimmie Johnson moved back up into second position in the Sprint Cup standings and Harvick maintained his No. 1 status with 140 points to spare. 

Johnson talked about road courses. Gordon and Harvick pointed to how tough the NASCAR sport is.

Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevrolet)

Before:

"We tend to qualify well, but fade in the race some and last year was kind of the reverse of that,” Johnson said. “We qualified decent and had some troubles early in the race but rebounded and came through and ended up fourth. I have a lot of confidence but at the same time, after eight years of trying, I'm hopeful we have overturned a stone that we have missed in the past. I don't think we have forgotten any area or missed something, but we'll go out and give it a shot and see what we can do and I am ready mentally, physically and we did some testing. I think we found a couple of small things that will bring speed to the cars."

After:

“We led a lot of laps today, which was really nice to do,” Johnson said. “Had to make some good passes at times. Feel like it was a complete day, complete weekend. Very proud to see all the hard work that Chad has put into our road course program, Hendrick Motorsports, what they have done, all those test days we left frustrated, mad."

“When you get to the closing laps and you're deep in the field, it's just nasty. You hope you can be on the inside and you don't care if you get close to your braking marks. You just go in there and blast people. I think there was some of that going on."

“I knew that we would work as hard as we could. I just didn't want to over think it and put too much pressure on myself and take that pressure and aggression out onto the track and overdrive the car, make mistakes."

“I think Marcos had a very fast car in the short runs. I had a try or two at him before that, couldn't get by him. So I'm not sure I would have gotten by him."

“It was definitely a gift kind of handed to us, as Chad said on the radio to me. From that point on, I just needed to get a good restart and get away from those guys.
“I'd say the bottom line to it is I love road course racing. I always have. I grew up racing off road trucks, they were on road courses with jumps."

“That's why today is so special to us, why it has meant so much. I just truly enjoy road course racing, doesn't matter if it's our stock cars, the Grand Am Series I run in. I'd love to run in an IndyCar someday, F1.” 

Robby Gordon (No. 7 Toyota)

Before:

“I love racing at Infineon Raceway,” said Gordon. “The road course stops are clearly some of my favorite on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit, but the race at Infineon is especially important to me."

“I grew up in California and I still have a lot of family and friends near the Sonoma area, so it’s a lot of fun to go there and catch up with everyone and have them all watch me race. We’ve come very close to winning this race in the years since my first trip to victory lane at Infineon [Raceway] and I know that we’re capable of putting it together this year. 

“We just need to stay focused on our goal, make the right strategy calls, and hopefully find a little good luck.”

After:

“This is a tough sport,” Gordon said. “I don't know how to say it. Cup racing, when you're racing against these teams out here, you're racing against the best teams in America. Obviously Cup racing is where it's at. We're fortunate enough to be in it."

“How do you say it? Sometimes we dog paddle, sometimes we take a few gulps of water. Other times you have days like today that you can build momentum on for a little while.”

Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Chevrolet)

Before:

“I enjoy the road racing,” Harvick said. “The hardest part about this place is just passing. You have to time your passes right and you only got a couple spots where you can pass. It is a little bit narrow, but you just have to time it right."

“Road racing is a challenge. It is not something that we all grew up doing. I raced go karts on road course up until I was 16, but, aside from that, there was not a lot of road racing in NASCAR."

After:

“We're fortunate to be where we're at in the points right now,” Harvick said. “We're able to race hard every lap and really not have to worry about what's going on with the points. So each race is a different race. Today we were racing in the top five all day. You're just trying to figure out what you got to do to try to win the race."

“Those guys have been running good and so have we. Just got to keep at it.” 

Photo credit: Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com