Quotes of the week

“They [Earnhardt fans] were going crazy and you see it, but you don’t pay attention to it. I don’t know why they were telling me I was number one (giving him the middle finger), I was in second place. Clint Bowyer got the lead from me — they were all confused I guess, too many old (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. Budweisers." Kyle Busch talking about what happened after he took out Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"They [Coulthard and other rivals] can shut right up. When you can hardly see what the hell is going on because the car is shaking around so much, and you're just fully focused on keeping the damn thing on the track, the last thing you can do is be bothered about others trying to lap you. I'd love to swap cars with these drivers. I really believe some of them would struggle, or even crack, if they were in our position." Davidson reluctantly referred to his 2008 mount, a mismatched alliance of Honda's 2007 and 2008 cars, as a 'botched job'. "The team won't like me for saying that." Anthony Davidson, F1 Super Aguri driver

"He's gone beyond anything they would tolerate. Therefore it's very difficult to see how he could stay under these circumstances. I think it's going to be very difficult commercially for the companies involved in Formula One to carry that and the motor clubs to carry it. I think that's quite serious." Stewart said Max Mosley's behavior would have contravened the companies 'corporate moral guidelines' and that motor clubs around the world, which also come under the auspices of the FIA, would not approve either. Sir Jackie Stewart, Three-time World Champion

"You cannot go from kindergarten to university overnight. Even the great Tiger Woods has a man with him." Sir Jackie Stewart, Three-time World Champion, advising that Lewis Hamilton needs a coach.

"And who has a coach? What top driver has a coach? You are talking about something that doesn't exist. I would never, ever have a driver that had to be guided by a third party on how to drive a racing car." Ron Dennis, Team Principal, McLaren, has rubbished Sir Jackie Stewart's advice that Lewis Hamilton should employ an external "coach".

"It's absolutely outstanding. It's such a great feeling – you just cannot believe it! To represent Switzerland all over the globe and to actually do it is fantastic. We're writing a page in the history books. Neel [Jani] came on the radio after he crossed the line to thank the team – he knows that to win the world championship is not only his achievement, but everybody in the team as well." Max Welti, seat holder of newly crowned A1GP champion A1 Team Switzerland

"A1 Team Great Britain has a lot of pressure on it this week and a lot to prove after a difficult season for them. Many of the smaller nations have learned the tricks of the trade that GBR seemed to have figured out from the first season so they are facing tougher competition than ever before. Although they are ahead of us in the series, we now look past them to the benchmark set by the likes of Switzerland and New Zealand. There’s a natural rivalry between our teams anyway, but Ireland’s no longer simply interested in beating Great Britain – we want to beat the top teams, and they are not one of them." Mark Gallagher, Team Principal, A1 Team Ireland

"In the last 30 years I think the big improvement in racing has been safety and the improvements with tracks. Carbon fiber means the cars are much stronger and the drivers' equipment and rescue teams are better. The whole safety level has improved tremendously, and that's very good news. Today's safety today is much much better – there's no comparison with a few years ago. I remember at the beginning of the 1970s, the odds of survival were seven to one. There was on average 20 plus grand prix drivers [a season] and at the end of the year three would be gone. The odds were not good." Emerson Fittipaldi, Two-time World Champion, principal of Team Brazil in A1GP.

“Steven Wallace got a better run off the corner than I did and instead of pulling out and passing, he hit me in the back end and jacked me up, jacked me sideways and luckily I was able to straighten it out and get in Turn 3 behind him and he probably knew I was going to spin him up so he moved up the track and let me go by him. And we came home third and instead of him passing me clean and ending up third, he ended up fifth. Just being an idiot. So I went up and I told him, you mess with the bull, you’re going to get the horns, then he wanted to grab my helmet which is pretty childish again. We’ll see what happens here in the future, and if he wants to play those games, he’s going to get hurt. I didn’t appreciate what he did, so I told him what I thought about it. You can get hurt very easily here." Kyle Busch, NASCAR Nationwide Series driver

“I don’t know what he [Kyle Busch] was saying, but I jerked him by the helmet just to rattle his cage a little bit and just to tell him I wasn’t happy with it," said the Rusty Wallace Racing driver, who earned a career-best fifth-place finish in the race. “He’s just a little girl about it. I’d say it’s pretty bad when they call drivers introduction, everybody in the grandstands boos you." Steve Wallace, NASCAR Nationwide Series driver

“He [Eddie Gossage] thinks I’m a cheap date I guess. I wouldn’t be able to do it, my conscience wouldn’t let me. If they offered me more money, my conscience wouldn’t let me feel comfortable with doing it. I know his intentions are well and we had that discussion with the billboard thing and I totally understand what his approach is advertising now. If I had the opportunity if I was there testing my car and somebody had their car there, I’d like to jump in it and run a couple of laps but that would be the extent of the adventure." Dale Earnhardt Jr. via Team Chevy PR commenting on Eddie Gossage's offer for Dale Jr. to drive an Indy Car in the Bombardier Learjet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway.