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Best Radio Chatter:
Typical Bristol, Dale Jr. had already rubbed fenders by the time the first caution flew out on lap 12:
Dale Jr.: “Tell the 25 (Brian Vickers) I got under him there, I had a hole, but I didn’t try to wreck him.”
Steve Hmiel (spotter): “Nah, he’s cool. I went right to him. They said they slid up and they actually felt like they came back down on you.”
Tony Eury Jr. (crew chief): “What’s your water temp right there, Junebug?”
Dale Jr.: “Two-hundred-sixty.”
Tony Jr.: “Two-hundred-sixty on the water?”
Dale Jr.: “Oh, my bad… 200. The little needle was in the way. Heh heh… I’m just joking with ya. It’s good. (Long pause). It might be 260 later, so keep asking.”

It took great driving and a miraculous save for Junior to keep his Budweiser car off the wall on lap 118 after being hit from behind:
Hmiel: “Whoa, get it back, get it back. You’re fine. Cautions out… big wreck behind you.”
Dale Jr.: “What a save!”
Hmiel: “That’s why I said ‘You’re Fine.” I was hoping you could get your breath back!
Dale Jr.: God almighty, now that was my best save ever! No (doubt)! This concrete and stuff, that was a save right there… Get my in-car camera --- wop, wop, wop!”
Hmiel: “We got a little bit of bumper damage, Tony Jr., but no big deal.”
Tony Jr.: “Yeah, just cleaned that corner off. That’s good. That means they can get that far underneath us and not bother us.”
Dale Jr.: “Alright then. I’ll try to get them spots back. I hate I missed those spots there.”
Tony Jr.: “You’ll be alright. Just feel it out there. See if we got it turning better.”
Dale Jr.: “It felt like I was sideways for about a minute, but it probably wasn’t but just a second. Heh heh.”
Hmiel (using signage on the wall to make his point): “It was from the end of the Nextel Cup Series (sign) going into (turn) 3 right up to the Chevrolet. You’ll see it when you go by there.”
Dale Jr.: “I thought I was for sure going to get nailed. “
Hmiel: “Actually, Denny (Hamlin) did a good job staying off you.”
Dale Jr.: “If nothing else cool happens today, that was cool!”

The Bud team was somewhat fortunate it didn’t encounter bigger problems in the pits on lap 161, as Dale Jr. gassed the car out of the pit box before the stop was complete. Fortunately all the lug nuts were tight and no real damage sustained (despite a completely demolished jack).
Dale Jr.: “Sorry about that, but the stops have got to get better.”
Tony Jr.: “Yeah, 10-4 there.”
Dale Jr.: “Hope I didn’t rip anybody’s fingers off. I’m real sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

As is usually the case at a short track, a tight pit road left many drivers momentarily trapped in their pit stalls by other cars. Dale Jr. wanted to avoid such a circumstance with friend Bobby Labonte:
Hmiel: “Four-thousand, June, we’ll have to come around that 43. He’s in the pit directly behind us.”
Dale Jr.: “Alright, tell him to stop short if he wants a chance getting out at all. Heh heh. (Pause) I just have to get the right-front in the box?”
Tony Jr.: “That’s all you got to do. Get the nose in the box. Nobody’s going to come in front of us.”