Aaron Yates (#20 Suzuki, third place)

Q Aaron, you're coming off a crash in practice, a shoulder injury still bothering you. How's it feeling now?

A Actually, it's feeling worse now than it has all weekend. It wasn't too bad today. Feeling pretty good. I started the race, it was all right. It was kind of a disheartening experience, I guess you could say. Yesterday morning I thought I was in pretty good shape to get out here and ride. But the first session, it just didn't want to work out. I was just real weak and couldn't ride like I wanted to. Those guys went out there, and just straight out of the truck they were going fast. I knew how fast I went in testing and how good I could be feeling other than my shoulder. It was kind of tough on me. But we just settled down and tried to get the bike around the track as easily as we could. Thanks to my Yoshimura Suzuki team, they got me a really god running bike out there. Daytona, if you're going to have an injury, Daytona's probably one of the best places to go and race, because you've got some time on the banking to - you don't really have to hang on so hard. But then again, you've got a lot of areas where you have to stop, and that's a problem. The toughest chore for me was getting the bike stopped, and also through the chicane, the little quick switchbacks and stuff. It turned out really good for us today. I pretty much had the same race I had last year. Last year I was in exactly the same place.

Q Tell us about the last lap.

A I managed to get a really good start there, and got a good jump, and managed to get up there to the front, but May and somebody, I guess Jamie, kind of squeezed - they started coming together, and I was right there. I actually got hooked a little bit on May, I think, and had to kind of let off and let them go. I was right there. I knew I was going to have to be right there with the front pack, to be there and try to hang with them through the draft and the first few laps, and hopefully things would work out like they did, and I didn't have anybody really challenging me for my position, and was able to ride pretty comfortably. I got a little too focused on those guys in front of me and was trying a little too hard in the beginning, and kind of messing up. Once they kind of got out a little bit of a gap, I got settled down and got to a point like I needed to with my shoulder, because I couldn't really push as hard as I wanted. My lines were a little bit different, my braking and everything. I just can't push that hard. But anyway, we was coming up on - the race was winding down, and I knew, always down here, most all races, you've kind of got in the back of your mind the issue with tires and stuff, especially last year we had a good race going, and went backwards. I saw that they got out front, and May was out there going strong, and I was just hoping someone would have an issue, and it looks like that's possibly what happened to him. The last few laps to the end, I was hoping for more laps, I wasn't sure if I was going to get the white flag or not, I was hoping for a couple more laps. It worked out just right, because I ran up on him in the last lap in the infield, and I did all I could to draft him on the banking back there, and just barely got him at the finish line.

Jason DiSalvo (#40 Yamaha Racing, second place)

Q Jason, you had a chance to win it there. You were leading on the last lap. Were you worried about leading going onto the banking?

A I've just got to say one thing first. (motions up to lights above podium are in media center) Those lights are way too bright. Like, I can't even see anything. I'm blind. It's like when you get pulled over at night and they shine that thing in your eye. "Who's coming out of the car?"

(laughter in pressroom)

But anyway. It was a good race. I don't know if I would've done anything different. It was just kind of a roll of the dice there at the end of the last lap. I blame myself, because I left the door open a little bit at the bottom, and I know all about shutting doors here at Daytona. I did it to Rog in '04 on the 600. But on the big bike, it's a little bit different. You can't sort of like, "I'm going to go here on the banking." The thing'll get a little loose and crazy on you. I was coming onto the Trioval, and I was kind of like, "Well, I don't see Jamie yet, so I think I got this one." And then it was, whoomp. I mean, it was that fast. But it was a good race, and it was cool for Yamaha to go 1-2. We kind of rode our own race. I looked back once, and I was like, "Jamie's behind me." I looked back again for a long time, and I'm like, "Jamie's the only one behind me."

So I was taking it in, and let him by once, put my hand out for him to pass, and he kind of ran a little bit wide when I did that. I was kind of leaving the door open, but he got in there deep, and he ran wide. I went back by him and I was kind of waving, "Sorry, dude, it didn't work out for you." And then I kind of let him by again. I came out of the Horseshoe and did a wheelie. And when he got by me that time, I kind of studied him a little bit. I was looking at him. "Well, Jamie's looking pretty good. I don't know if I want to let him lead, because he might pull a gap," because my tire was starting to go off a little bit.

So at that point I was like, "I'll try to draft him down the front straight." And it didn't really work out like I thought it was going to. It took a long time to get up next to him, and I couldn't get by him by the stripe. So I was like, "Well, I'd better get back in front of him." So I went back by going into Turn 1, and, "Okay, what am I going to do now?" It was the last lap. "I'll just ride hard." We did a 40.4, 40.5 on the last lap. The pace was still there. He just played that draft right. Like really right, Miguel Duhamel right. That draft was like perfect. So congratulations to him. We'll just mark that down in our notebooks and look forward to next year.

Q You were saying something about the trophies?

A Yeah. Jamie's got all these second place Daytona trophies and everything, and I had a first and I had a third from last year in the 600. So well, I'll collect the whole set. Because they're all the same, Daytona trophies, That little thing with the diamond on it. They're pretty cool. So I'm going to put it in my house and get all three of them, going up.

Q What was the hand-waving to Jamie with about three laps to go?

A That was, going into the left-hander, that tight left, I kind of put my hand out. Because I ran it, coming off the thing, and kind of spun a little bit. "Well, that was a bad drive." So I'd stood it up a little bit wider than I normally would. I put my hand out and said, "There you go. Go for it, welcome, please, come on in." And he passed me like really fast, and I was like, "Whoa, he's running a little bit wide." And then I was like, "Oh, I'll go back by him." And then I put my hand out like, "Sorry it didn't work out for you" type of thing. And then the wheelie, I was like, "Well, I should let him by me, but I don't want to make it as blatant," so the wheelie kind of slowed me down a little bit. Was it blatant the second time, too?

Q Yeah.

A Oh. Really? Sorry. My bad.

Jamie Hacking, (# 92 Graves Yamaha, Winner)

Q Jamie, what does it feel like after all these years, to finally win at Daytona?

A It feels like somebody jumped off of my bike. I mean, it feels like somebody jumped off of my back, not my bike. Man, it was great. That was a long time coming. I don't know. To see that checkered flag, and to know I was actually going to make it to the checkered flag without nobody beating me, because I know, only being him, I knew I got a really good drive on him, I didn't show him any hands during the race, that I had a good drive on him. I just let him think that he was the man. But I was the man. And man, it felt good. If I wouldn't have had my earplugs in, I probably would've blowed my eardrums out when I crossed the start/finish line. I could hear Rog on the cool-down lap with his [win in Supersport], he was doing the same thing. It feels good. I just had to wait a long time for it. But this is a place you don't want to rush things. You've got to let things come to you. It feels great. It feels really good. To come out of here one-two - this place is not nice to me sometimes. It always beats me up in the beginning of the week, and then I have to ride injured. I was not wanting that to happen this year, and it did. But I was managing to work my way through it.

Q Would you take us through the last lap, when you were behind Jason and planning your strategy?

A On the last three laps, coming into the end of that race, I don't know what he was doing. He was slowing down and really not taking the race serious like I thought he should be. Coming out of the International Horseshoe looking back and doing stand-up wheelies at me, and I'm thinking, "Is the race over?" I knew the race wasn't over, but I'm thinking, "What is he thinking? We've got people, definitely, behind us, that are capable, if we keep goofing off like this, that can catch us." And then he waved at me a couple of times, or waved at the crowd, or I don't know what he was doing, but I was - my main focus was to win that race. I just sat behind him. I just let him do his little thing, and I did my thing, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

We went onto the last lap there. It was a perfect clear lap. Went into the chicane, he headed off in there and I figured he was going to stop coming out, you know? He lit it up. I let him go. That was it, it was over. I just breathed it a little bit on the banking, and I said, "You mine, sucka." I said, "This is over right now. I'm putting this one in the bank." I said, "If I have to hit that triple [Supercross jump] going on the front straight, in that dirt, I'm going to go across the line in the air. I'll be on the bike. If I land, I land. If I don't, I don't." He dug it down to the inside and I said, "I'm going to go underneath him." And I did. I dove in underneath there.

And like I said, it feels good to come across that start/finish line with that checkered flag just waving right across in front of me. It felt good.

Q Jamie, how long have you been coming here, and what's your experience at Daytona that you've been so disappointed all these years?

A Well, I haven't been disappointed. I've always left here with very solid points, on podium every year. It's just I've been coming here professionally now for nine years and got seconds and thirds, and in the 200 I was the first ever rookie to finish on podium in the Daytona 200. So everything started off here real good. Seconds, thirds, seconds, thirds, and that's how it's just been for the past few years. I think I'm a little bit wiser now. You've got to be knowing how to play the cards right. I also did a lot of amateur stuff here, CCS stuff, as an amateur. I always liked the place. I always went really good here. But just when I turned professional, I remember I wasn't quite wise enough to figure out how the draft is played out, and how to figure out all the things and head games that went on. Now I've got all that figured out, it's a lot easier.