Joey Clanton in the No. 09 Zaxby's Ford was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race Tonight at Daytona. This is the second consecutive race at Daytona where at Raybestos Rookie has scored a top-10 finish.

Other Raybestos Rookies to score top-10 finishes at Daytona:
2000: Busch, second
2000: Kenny Martin, fifth
2000: Donnie Neuenberger, ninth
2001: Hendrick, second
2002: Jason Small, ninth
2004: David Reutimann, ninth
2006 Erik Darnell, sixth

Joey Clanton, No. 09 Zaxby's Ford:
"That was the most fun I've ever had in those five laps right there. That was a blast. I thought we were done, slowing down there. I don't know how they hit you. How do they hit you when you're below the yellow line, on the apron, slowing down to come into the pits? We needed a caution but we didn't need to be it . I'm just glad for Zaxby's and Ford. This is awesome. That was the most enjoyable race I've ever driven, to finally be able to have something that would suck up, pull up, pull out of line and pull by some guys at the start-finish line. That was just awesome."

You had a close call early on with Mike Wallace. "We were laying back and Mike tried to shoot up through the middle and didn't clear me. He just did not clear me and cut across in front of my nose. I got on the brakes and it was just enough to wiggle him and then he lost it. We were coming in because the hood had actually come up, the right side hood pin popped up so we had to come in. We were all the way up front, slowing down and I got down all the way to the apron below the yellow line and somebody just hit me, turned me around and got us a caution. I thought we were headed for the inside wall. I can't say enough for these guys, the Wood Brothers and JTG. They are a great group of guys that we've got on this team and I'm excited to be a part of it and looking forward to the whole year."

Comment on those final few laps. "Our truck all weekend has been so fast behind that 5 truck and I wanted to try to stay behind him. I got in there and he started to move up, Bodine got pinched to the outside and I thought Bodine was going to stay up. The other day the 30, 5 and me checked out from the field. As soon as Bodine he went back down I had to go down and I tried to pinch out of it. We had enough room to get down but I touched Skinner just a little bit and had to get out of it and when I did they all freight-trained me. I went back to the back and just had to work with my partner. Somebody got Ron loose, the 1 truck hit Ron down the back straightaway and turned him sideways and it lost his momentum. I got up beside Ron back behind that 5 truck and all I did was follow him. I pushed him hard down the back straightaway. I didn't lift until we got all the way into the corner and it pushed us all the way up to the front."

What does this run tonight mean to this team? "I think it means a bunch. I haven't been in anything in two-and-a-half years. I think it pumps up morale. I think they are ready for the year. It'll make everybody want to work harder. That was close to a win, as far as I'm concerned. We were right there and we fought the adversity tonight. The guys didn't give up. I didn't give up. We even had a wheel come loose, because of the all the stuff going on we had to come in and swap some tires and glue them up, and the left rear come loose and we got it at the right caution there. All the breaks came our way tonight."

That race looked like a lot of fun. "It was a blast. Some of the guys need to use their heads more often. They could have all been there with five to go. But some of them decided not to and it makes it a little more exciting because we can get about 15-20 trucks in a pack and go at it."

Jason White, No. 63 gunbroker.com Ford:
"We went about three-wide. A truck slowed up in front of me and one came down on me. The truck was running great. One came down and one was slowing up and we backed out of the gas but it just wasn't enough. There was nothing I could do. I backed out of it and hit the brake but he just stopped in front of me and the guy on the outside came down. It was just a racing thing. It was fun while it lasted. It was a pretty hard hit but it wasn't too bad. I didn't get hurt or nothing so that was great but man, I wish we could have finished the race. But we were out there running good."

Aaron Fike, No. 1 Rfms Toyota:
"We were just lucky to finish. We had a huge hole in the front of the truck. We ran in the top-10 the whole race and then my spotter told me to go high the last lap and I got shuffled back to 15th and we should have finished about eighth. I'm a Raybestos Rookie and to do as good as I did, I didn't think I'd come out and do this well. I'm just really happy with everything."

What knocked a hole in the front of your truck? "We ran into the back of Brendan Gaughan and put a big hole in it. We couldn't patch it. We couldn't do anything so we just ran the rest of the race with it. We were still fast with it, though.

That was the most fun I've had in a while. I'm looking forward to going to California. I know we'll have a good truck out there. I'm running for Raybestos Rookie of the Year and we should have been top rookie. I'll prove myself when we go to these other tracks like Atlanta and California. I've been to these other places."

How much did you learn tonight? "I learned a lot. I haven't drafted a lot and I had a lot of fun out there. I learned a lot. Out of all the rookies, I've been to all the other tracks but not in a truck so I'm looking forward to going to the other tracks. Daytona, this stuff is such a crapshoot. I'm just happy to finish and just get out of here with just a finish and go on to the next race."

Kelly Bires, No. 21 U.S. Air Force Ford:
"Unfortunately we got wrecked there. The guys on the team had really good pit stops all night and we were running in the top-five, top-10 there, and we just got a little bit behind by taking four tires. But it wasn't a bad thing. We were just hanging out there waiting for the end of the race to make a charge and unfortunately got taken out. I want to thank U.S. Air Force for their sponsorship of this race. I just wish I could have gotten them a better finish. We worked on our truck all night long. The guys had really good pit stops and kept us up there, picked us up spots. John Monsom [crew chief] made the right adjustments. We were just waiting for the moment to come through and unfortunately got taken out by someone else."

Tyler Walker, No. 36 360 OTC Toyota:
"One of the drivers, I don't know what he did but he was stopping out on the track and then everybody got bunched up. Somebody lost it in front of me as I was going on the outside of 'em and just put me in the wall. This is Daytona and this is what happens. It's just a shame because we had such a good race truck. We had a plan and we didn't really stick with it but we should have. We were going to run in the back and we had such a good truck. We kind of strayed from it but we all want to race and we all got excited and probably just should have stuck to our game plan. I'm really looking forward to California. I can't wait to get out on a two-mile track. It's a little different there. If you don't have such a good truck you're not going to up there in the mix. In this drafting stuff, even if you're a little squirrelly you can get up there and kind of get everyone else in a dangerous position. It was one of those deals where you couldn't do anything about it. Nothing I could have done, nothing any of my guys could have done. It wasn't our night but we'll go to California with high hopes and a great race truck so I'm really excited about next week."