That`s hard to do -- to gain points and have a great day, that can happen. But to have five or six people have trouble and have a great day for several weeks in a row is a difficult task.
It`s a weird thing,
I think it will perform the same at California. Now that doesn`t mean you can`t have a flat tire or a bad pit stop or a broken part ... but I do think that we`ll go there and be competitive enough to run up front, and, hopefully, challenge for a win.
I think that we could be a threat to challenge everybody with the way everybody is running now.
I still think it`s a stretch with all of those cars in between. We just have to try to lead some laps and win some races.
This team really has a lot of momentum right now. We`ve been running well, posting some good finishes and, of course, are coming off of our first win of the season.
It means a lot. This base group has been together for a long time and they do an awesome job every week. Our performance has been better and you knew we had a fast car when we`re on the pole and for me to qualify as fast. Our DeWalt Ford was awesome all day. I`m just so thankful to have the opportunity to drive these race cars. It`s a lot of fun.
I didn`t think we had a chance to (make the Chase), but we`ve run much better and the guys that have been around us in points have had some trouble and maybe haven`t run as well the second half of the year and had some things happen to them, too. We`re not in it yet; we still have another week to go.
Last year we made the top 10, I felt like in my heart that we weren`t going to run for the championship anyway. I didn`t think we were running good enough.
We`ve run much better and you know the guys that have been around us in the points have had some trouble and maybe haven`t run as well in the second half of the year. But we`re not in it, yet. We still have another week to go.