Long Pond, Pa. — Joining his Roush Racing stablemate and race-winner Carl Edwards in the top 10 today at Pocono Raceway was Mark Martin. Martin looked poised for a third-place finish following a caution lap 194 of the scheduled 200 laps. Unfortunately, on the green-white-checkered restart, Martin had a tire going flat and began to fall back in the top-10 field. But as bad luck affected him, another caution flag was waved on lap 201 giving him a little good luck. That yellow flag froze the field and officials determined Martin was in seventh place at the time of the caution.

MARK MARTIN - NO. 6 VIAGRA TAURUS (FINISHED SEVENTH)
"That's awesome. It's a great deal for Carl. They really ran good. We couldn't run with those front two, but we had better tires there at the end and then we had a flat. So I guess we were unlucky that the caution came out and lucky that it did because we were fixin' to get swallowed up. We'll take a top-five. It was a great run for our guys."

WHAT WAS THE DEAL WITH TIRE PROBLEMS TODAY?
"I don't know. They went flat."

YOU WERE CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR BRAKES GOING INTO THE RACE. ANY PROBLEMS THERE?
"I had to pump 'em all day on every corner."

ANY PROBLEMS OR WORRIES ABOUT THE TIRES?
"We were worried and concerned, because we're racing to make that chase and we had a flat. Unfortunately, I was gonna take a run at 'em. I had newer tires than the first two and we were sitting in third, but when I went down there in the corner and stepped on the gas to get a run the right rear went down. I guess we were lucky that the caution did come out because we were able to finish up with a flat tire."

A GOOD POINTS DAY. STILL THINKING BIG PICTURE?
"It would have been better without that flat."

DALE JARRETT - NO. 88 UPS TAURUS (FINISHED 13TH)
"We just struggled. We started out and the car wasn't too bad, but then we started losing spots on pit stops and then we got it really loose. We had to fight back from all of that and used some strategy there at the end and it worked out OK for us."

DID YOU HAVE ANY TIRE ISSUES?
"Nothing that anything came apart or anything, but I had one set that was just really loose. The car went from being tight to just wrecking every corner, so it was kind of the same scenario we saw with this tire in Las Vegas. Obviously, there's something going on there with it, but we still didn't have the car exactly right."

KURT BUSCH - NO. 97 SHARPIE TAURUS (FINISHED 22ND
"I thought we were gonna get a good finish. I thought we could stay out. We're a team that normally doesn't abuse tires. We could have got a top-five, but the left-front blew and then we had trouble getting it back on because things were bent. It was a bummer day. I thought we could really turn it into a positive."

RICKY RUDD - NO. 21 MOTORCRAFT GENUINE PARTS TAURUS (FINISHED 28TH)
WHAT WAS GOING ON OUT THERE TODAY?
"I haven't got a clue. I've been at it a long time and never seen anything like that. I think they came back and said, 'Don't hit the curbs.' That was sort of a lame excuse, really. We just had a major problem today, I'm not sure. We had some tires look perfect and other tires that when they came off, even after a short run, they looked like they were ready for the junkyard."

DID YOU HAVE AN EXTREME CAMBER SETTING?
"No. Our stuff was conservative."

SO YOU WEREN'T HITTING THE CURB MORE THAN NORMAL?
"I usually get to the curb, but I don't hit it. And then when they said, that must have been the thing that Goodyear I guess passed through the garage was don't hit the curbs, so I stayed two feet away from the curbs and we still blew three tires after that so I don't know."

HOW MANY TIRES DID YOU LOSE?
"We lost five of them. A lot of it we just went easy. After that, heck, you're afraid to race after that."

ANY PROBLEMS AT VEGAS?
"No. It's a shame. We had a decent car today, but we just couldn't show it."