NASCAR Winston Cup Miller 400 -- Post Race Quotes from Chevy Drivers
16 June 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes Miller 400 Michigan Speedway June 15, 1997 BROOKLYN, MI - The following provided by Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation Public Relations: MIKE SKINNER (#31 Lowe's Monte Carlo) - Started 16th, finished 42nd - "A fellow competitor chopped us off. He came down and hit the side of the car and knocked us sideways. He about pinched us in the wall on the backstretch. We went a couple more laps, and I turned under him. He just kept on coming until he hit the side of the car and knocked her sideways. It took us out awful early. That's the kind of move you might expect a guy to make at the end of the race. Fire is probably the biggest fear a driver's got. It takes all the oxygen for a minute there. The safety crew here did a heck of a job. They got there quick. When I got out of the car all I saw was that white stuff. I knew they were there." JOE NEMECHEK (#42 BellSouth Monte Carlo) - Started 2nd, finished 41st - "I'm not sure exactly what really happened, but something broke in the motor. It's a shame. We had a great weekend going. We qualified good and were running up front. This whole BellSouth team is getting better and better. It seems like it's very similar to what happened last week at Pocono. The engine guys will figure out what's wrong and fix it. I can't say anything bad. They're making some awesome power. When you make that kind of power, things are going to break. We just keep learning every week. We'll be ready for them in California. We're going to take this car out there and go for it again." TERRY LABONTE (#5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo) - Started 18th, finished 39th - "We ran over a tire and knocked the whole right front off. It was one of those deals. I saw it and couldn't miss it. It was just tough luck. It was pushing real bad and blew out the right front tire. I had to stay out there and try to get a caution flag so we could fix it. I ended up being the caution. We had a real good car before that happened. I was real happy with it. I usually have good luck when we change the paint scheme, but it didn't work out that way today. We'll try to get it fixed and get out there and pick up a few points. It's just one of those things and we're not going to worry about it. I don't think too many cars will fall out, so I don't know how many spots we'll be able to pick up by going back out. It'll hurt us in the points, but we'll go to California next week ad try it again." DALE EARNHARDT (#3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Monte Carlo) - Started 22nd, finished 7th - "Racing for whatever position (at the end with Derrike Cope) stinks. If it had been for the lead it would have been all right. They need to give them (Fords) a little more. They're not dominant enough. We had a good race car. Me and Larry (McReynolds, crew chief) hit on something. That's the same car we ran at Pocono. We were running eighth until we blew up there. If NASCAR would give us that SB2 head, I believe we'd be able to run with them. Give us a little more something on aerodynamics. They're still beating us. I'm pushing off the corner bad and they're driving theirs off the corners wide open. We had about a fifth- or sixth-place finish car. The #24 (Jeff Gordon) beat us. It looked like he was the best (GM car). I tore my right front fender up (after running over tire) and that made the pushing problem worse. I would liked to have pulled a little lower gear, but Richard Childress wouldn't let me do that. I think we would have been a lot better off the corners and wouldn't have been as tight off the corners. I might have been up there running with the 24 (Jeff Gordon) instead of where I was at. I had a good time with them (24 car). It was good racing. I'm taking the car I ran good with at Texas to California. Seventh place is good, but it ain't great. It's time to win a race. All kidding aside, it's time to win a damn race. We've got good equipment and good people. We need to win." JEFF GORDON (#24 DuPont Automotive Finishes Monte Carlo) - Qualified 12th, started from the back of the pack, finished 5th - "It was a great race for us. I feel really good about the effort put out by this team. To come out of here with a top five really says a lot especially starting from where we did. It really wasn't as good as we would have liked it to be yesterday in practice. We really worked hard on it all day today and we were able to bring it up front. This team is really awesome right now and I think we showed what we're made of today. I care about it (points lead). It's good to have it, but I care a lot more about it toward the end of the season. Right now it's still early and we've got a lot of races left to go. We ran the car we raced at Atlanta. The primary car felt really good, and we were a little off all day today (with the backup), but we were pretty good. We were the best Chevrolet." HOW DID YOU RUN DOWN THE FORDS? - "I have no idea. It was a good effort in the pits to get me out where I could get close to 'em. There was only really one I could run with, and that was the 88 (Dale Jarrett) all day. That was the most important one to run with I guess." DISCUSS RACING WITH EARNHARDT. - "I knew he had a good car by watching him yesterday. He was kind of holding both of us up there at one time and had everybody closing in on us. We had some good racing, and it was fun out there." DARRELL WALTRIP (#17 Parts America Monte Carlo) - Started 43rd, finished 24th - "We wound up on the wrong side of the gas mileage fence. We knew we were cutting the fuel mileage close at the end of the race and with three laps to go, my fuel light went on. Then on the last lap, I ran out of fuel. It was pretty disappointing, but we were in a tough place. Either we race the cars on our lap and use more fuel or lay back to conserve fuel and lose the positions. Well, we chose to race the cars and lost some positions because we ran out of fuel. I thought we had enough since we just took fuel on the last pit stop. I guess it wasn't enough. Our pit road generator ran out of fuel just before we started our engines, so we thought that was a good omen -- at least that's what we were hoping for. It was a long day, but considering where we started we'll take it and go to Fontana."
