I thought my first pole would be somewhere else. There are a lot of good drivers here this weekend -- 10 Winston Cup drivers and all the Busch regular drivers. To sit on the pole and be in front of the field Saturday is a big accomplishment for this team.

Tony was a little faster the first 20 or 25 laps of that run. Then we got equal and started reeling him in and just got battling with him. ... It was a good battle, a hard battle. He was doing all he could to hold us off, but at that point my car was turning better. I just waited until I got the opportunity and was able to set him up and make the pass.

It was really a pathetic year. Some of the things I did — some of the crashes I was in — I didn't need to be in. I forced the issue.

We started on the pole but by Lap 150 we were ninth or 10th and we were struggling. The car was sliding around a lot, but I did not get upset. I just said, 'Let's just keep working hard.' Last year, I would have been so upset about getting passed by those cars I would have been overly aggressive and would have worn our tires out. You can't do that in a 500-mile race if you want to be strong at the end.

Holes open up and guys jump in them. But that's something we should be doing on lap 150, not lap 10.

The Charger was great. The guys have done an awesome job so far this season.