JEFF GORDON TOP CHEVY FINISHER IN RICHMOND CRASHFEST

TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
PONTIAC EXCITEMENT 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
2002 NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2002




JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (seventh, first Chevrolet):
"(It was a) decent run.  We were pretty much seventh all day.  I guess I got
my hopes up a little bit more because we got up there into second.  I don¹t
know, for some reason we just weren¹t very good there at the end, and fell
back to seventh.  We¹ll take that.  A top 10 right now is pretty good for
us, the way our luck¹s been lately."  ON THE SEALER:  "They did a horrible
job.  I don¹t know if they put too much or we just didn¹t get racing on it,
but it was awful.  This is such a great race track, we all love this race
track.  You never hear anybody complain about it.  But, I tell you what,
whatever they did they did the wrong thing.  I hope that they rethink that
the next time.  We were pretty much a seventh-place car all day.  We kept
making gains on the chassis, I felt like we were getting better, especially
on the long runs."  ON RECORD NUMBER OF CAUTIONS:  "This place typically has
an outside groove, an inside groove, it¹s real wide and real racy, but with
what they did to the sealer this time, and I don¹t know exactly what they
did wrong, but it really messed up the track and it just wasn¹t the type of
track we¹re used to seeing.  (It had) A bottom groove, (it was a) one-groove
race track.  It¹s unfortunate, Œcause it tore a lot of race cars up."  DID
YOU WORK WITH JIMMIE?  "Yeah, we tried to work together as much as we
could."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Led two laps, ran
strong early in the race, ended up 13th, next Chevy finisher):  "We just got
ourselves behind on that pit stop, and we got to that wreck.  We had a great
car all day, it got into the corners really well, got off the corners really
well.  It got a little tight, we made an adjustment and it was really fast.
We had a great car; I just hate to see it end the way it did.  We could¹ve
won that race today."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE¹S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (31st, after crashing
while trying to take the lead from Jimmy Spencer):  WHAT HAPPENED IN TURN 3?
"I¹m not too sure.  It¹s the first time I¹ve been loose in all day.  There
was a bump going into (turn) 3 that I must have just caught at the wrong
time. When I jumped on the brakes and got underneath (Jimmy) SpencerŠhaven¹t
seen the video, I don¹t know if we touched.  I didn¹t think that we did.  I
know we were close racing and racing hard but it¹s just a shame that the
thing turned around on me.  I really felt we had the car to beat.  We fought
from 26th up to the front, got boxed in the pits once, had some different
things going on in the pits, we were able to drive back up to the front.
Really thought we were going to have our second win.  We¹re just
disappointed that made a mistake that cost us, cost us some points, got us
tore up.  Then again what I did wrong.  I¹m a little dumbfounded right now."
YOUR MONTE CARLO SEEMED TO GET BETTER AS THE RACE WENT ON:  "The car was
really good on the long run.  The sealer would start coming up after about
20 laps and a lot of the guys weren¹t creative enough with their lines to
find a way around the sealer and keep their momentum up.  I was, I think
more than anything, using some of my off-road background looking at
different lines and different ways around the sealer that was causing
everybody some problems."  DID YOU WORK WITH JEFF GORDON TODAY?  "I ran
around Terry (Labonte) a lot all day long, racing real, real hard.  I feel
bad at times, you got to be so greedy and get every inch that you can.
Terry and I raced really hard all day and then was able to catch Jeff there
in the middle segment of the race, end ended up getting by him and drove
away from him.  I really thought that between the two of us we had a shot at
it."  ON WORKING TOGETHER:  "There¹s really nothing you can do here.  Once I
got inside of him he gave me position and let me go.  It¹s really hard to
work at it unless I would¹ve blocked everyone for him.  When somebody does
that they¹re taking a chance of getting around."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (34th):  "Our car was
running good.  We just got it where we needed it and got involved in a
late-race crash.  Just disappointed."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (36th):  ON THE
SEALER:  "It was coming up at the first of the race, and we just got caught
up in some of the mess on the track. They¹d blow it off in the cautions, but
it wasn¹t helping us any."  AFTER REPAIRS:  "We¹d already bent some stuff,
so we drove the best we could to just stay out there and get spots."

CHAD KNAUS, NO. 48 (JIMMIE JOHNSON) CREW CHIEF:  "This place is very, very
difficult.  The sealer¹s tough, the sealer comes up, your tires wear out,
you get a cushion up there like a dirt track.  So we were definitely chasing
it, but we got the car better and better throughout the day.  Jimmie did a
tremendous job, a great job."

JERRY NADEAU, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (41st):  ON CRASH ON
LAP 227:  "It looked like some people got together down there in turn 2 and
they finally ended up wrecking in 3 and 4.  We just got into it; just a bad
deal. Our car wasn¹t really that good anyway."  ANY CHANCE OF GETTING BACK
OUT (asked during caution)?  "I hope not."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (40th): ON CRASH
ON LAP 227:  "We all wrecked.  (It¹s) pretty simple."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO, crashed
heavily into the pit entry wall in turn 4 on lap 311, finished 37th):  "I
was slowed down, turning left, right behind (Dave) Blaney and the thing just
darted to the right.  I don¹t know if I hit oil or what.  It didn¹t feel
like anything broke, it just felt more like it just started to slide the
front end.  The sealer is coming up; had to straddle it; very difficult to
pass.  I¹m sure a lot of guys are going to say that today.  We had a good
car, everybody worked really hard here.  Our Chevrolet was working really
good.  We had a better car, a lot better at one point, and I got into it
with (Jeff) Burton and Rusty and everybody coming off turn 2, somebody ran
into the back of me and shoved me into them.  Big disappointment.  We needed
to score some points here and these guys they just did a really good job all
day.  I¹m disappointed; I thought we could have come out of here gaining
some points."  DID THE SEALER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE CRASH?  "I don¹t
think so, unlessŠI wasn¹t coming in hard, I was turning, turning and turning
and all of a sudden lost grip."

ROBBIE LOOMIS, NO. 24 CREW CHIEF DURING RED FLAG:  ON JEFF GORDON RUNNING UP
FRONT:  "It¹s going to be exciting.  We¹ve been adjusting on it all day.
The car¹s been extremely tight.  But this duPont pit crew, they¹ve been on
it every pit stop; right now we¹re sitting in pretty good shape for the
end."  IS TRACK BETTER TODAY FOR YOUR SETUP THAN LAST NIGHT?  "That¹s a hard
question to ask.  We would have really liked to run a little while longer
last night, but it happens that where we¹re sitting right now with 88 laps
to go, we have Jimmie up there and Jeff, we feel we¹re in pretty good
shape."