FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top Five Texas Finishers Talk Before and After Race

The top five finishers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this week—Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Joey Logano and Greg Biffle—talk about the battle on the 1.5-mile quad-oval with 24-degree banking during the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

Eight of the 10 Chase races are done, and now, only 579 laps remain in the season. 

The Texas race had influence on the points as race winner Denny Hamlin bested Harvick and Johnson and changed the three-man race scenario.

Hamlin is now the leader followed by Johnson 33 points back. Harvick is in third with 59 points in his way. 

The race was also one where anger was visibly displayed by contenders, but not the top three. The Jeffs—Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton—got locked up in crash that took the No. 24 and No. 31 out of the race.

After climbing out, Gordon got physical with a push and shove of Burton on the track, but NASCAR officials stepped between them. Burton accepted 100 percent blame for the whole incident. 

Kyle Busch got penalized for losing his temper, unsportsman-like conduct, for his hand…err…finger signal to a NASCAR official about his one lap speeding on pit road penalty.

He got another 2 laps added to his stop-and-stay hold on pit road. Busch dropped to seventh-place, down 339 points where no math can help him. 

All top five finishers expressed their thoughts before the green flag and after the checkers in Texas, race 34 of 36 in the long, ferocious 2010 NASCAR season is now history. 

Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Toyota) Finished first

Before:
“I’ve really felt like over the last couple years I’ve had potential to run with the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and whoever might be the championship contender,” Hamlin said. “I feel like we’ve had these opportunities, it’s just this has been the first year that we’ve put it all together.”

After:
“I'm going to continue to just race relaxed, and honestly, I think back to a couple years ago, and even late in these restarts and whatnot, just...I don't get excited anymore,” Hamlin said. “I just don't let things get to me much anymore and just race relaxed. I'm really not nervous going into races. I was more nervous at the very first Chase race in New Hampshire getting ready to start that race than I was from then to this point.

“For me, we're on the cusp of trying to get our first championship.

“It was great to win a race that way. I love racing for a win like that. Any driver will tell you if there's one guy you're going to trust underneath you, it's going to be Matt. Obviously it's great for him to have a good finish and obviously go for a win. But for me it was very gratifying to win a race that way.”

Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Ford) Finished second

Before:
“This has always been one of our better tracks in the past. I look forward to getting out there and seeing how competitive our stuff is,” Kenseth said. “Every week I think you learn something. I think the main thing is that you look at all aspects of your program and try to figure out how to make yourself better and make your program better.”

After:
“That was disappointing that I didn’t finish it off there. We have lost a lot of close ones here at Texas,” Kenseth said. “I am disappointed we finished second but happy we performed that well.”

Mark Martin (No. 5 Chevrolet) Finished third

Before:
"Texas has always been one of my favorite tracks. I am lucky to have a ton of fans here,” Martin said. “We want to win races and I think that we’re capable of doing that again. And throughout all of that, you want to get to the highest points position you can and for us, that’s 13th. So if we can achieve that, get to the best we can, then that’s definitely a positive for this race team.”

After:
“It was a real good run for us today,” Martin said. “The car was stronger than we expected in practice, or stronger than I expected for sure. It was really awesome on the long runs, wasn't quite as sharp on the restarts. It's great to be a contender again.”

Joey Logano (No. 20 Toyota) Finished fourth

Before:
“Texas is a place that I’ve always really struggled at until this past race in the spring,” Logano said. “This is a track that I really want to get a win.”

After:
I had a lot of fun with it,” Logano said. “I had a good race car, I was just a little bit short at the end. We were good in the sun. I think we did a good job adjusting, but I think everyone did a little bit better than us to get the car just a tad better than ours. We finished fourth so that’s cool.”

Greg Biffle (No.16 Ford) Finished fifth

Before:
“You feel like you have something figured out and then you go to a place where you are usually really good at and then you aren’t so good,” Biffle said. “One track where you think you will be good you aren’t and another track where you think you will be mediocre you are good. You are always fighting to be the best at every place.” 

After:
“It is really tough,” Biffle said. “We know we have had this problem and have neglected to fix it. We have had numerous opportunities. We had bad drive-train vibration problems and today it bit us. They think they know what it is, but I am not sure if they really know.”

FYI WIRZ is the swift presentation of pertinent motorsports topics compiled and condensed by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Quotes provided by NASCAR and Sprint Cup team media.

Photo credit: Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com