Joe Nemechek #87 Burger King Monte Carlo
"It's really disappointing to me to see that drivers can't use a little more common sense out there. They should have learned something from the Busch race yesterday. Somebody got up in the wall and with everybody checking up and hitting each other, it's kind of crazy out there to start with. We just got the raw end of the deal again. Daytona has been pretty tough on us, but I feel bad for the whole crew. We've worked hard building cars, and the last two days, we've torn up two of our best ones. It's very disappointing. I don't know what to say. We were a victim of circumstances, and it was very unfortunate. I just hope the guys start using their heads out there. I don't know what happened up front. I was just riding around in the back there with Rusty Wallace. We were trying to stay out of trouble and got caught up in the worst of it. Guys are just impatient. They've got to learn to use a little more patience."
Jeff Gordon #24 Dupont Monte Carlo
"It was real tight racing out there. I got to the outside of Mayfield going into three. I was up against the wall as far as I could get to make sure we didn't touch. Somehow we did touch. We had a pretty good car. We were just waiting for everybody to get single file so we could start racing. It was so tight out there, you didn't know what was going to happen. That's part of this new deal we've got with lack of horsepower. It tightens the competition up tremendously. We're all professionals, so we know how to drive these cars. It was real tight, but I don't know what happened to me. We'll get back out there. We won't be in contention. We'll just be riding around kind of like we did here last year. We hadn't had too good of luck here the last couple of years. We kept getting three wide, and I got clipped from behind. I tried to save the car, but it's pretty bad. If I hadn't tried to save it and had just turned left and put on the brakes, I might have less damage than trying to correct it. I got the right front into the wall pretty bad, and that brought around the right rear."
"It's been a tough week for us, but this will just make us fight harder. This is not going to get us down. This has been a tough race for us. We want to win the Daytona 500 as bad as anyone else, but we'll have to wait another year to win it now."
Sterling Marlin #4 Kodak Monte Carlo
"We were a little off from the start on the chassis. We got it back where we wanted it, got the lead and we were right where we wanted to be and the engine broke on us. We busted a piston or something. I'm not sure what happened to it. With this car, it seems like we either win, run second or blow up. It happened to us at Talladega last year. The crew did a great job. We'll just have to come back and get 'em in July. I thought we had 'em where we wanted 'em. I could run the car wide open through the corners. It looked like everybody was having problems off turn two. That's where we were the best, but you've got to be there at the end to win.
"We tried 'em all (pre-race superstitions). We'll throw 'em out the window next year. We had a good week. The worse we ran was second, and if we could have stayed out today, I think we had a good shot to win the race. You've got to be out there to win it, so we'll just have to come back strong next week.
"That's the same motor we won with here last year, but it didn't quite make it this time. Darrell (Waltrip) has got our engine with all the miles on it. We ran it in qualifying and the 125 and had all our practice on it, and he's still out there running. He'll probably run around all day on it. Maybe he'll give it back to us. We tried to go back out there and run on seven cylinders, but it was too dangerous. It was just smoking too much. It would have eventually blown up, so we just parked it.
"We came down here with every intention of winning the race. We had 'em where we wanted 'em. We'll just take 'em race by race. If you win, you win. If you don't, you just go to the house. We'll be back next year. We didn't get three straight, but three out of four wouldn't be bad.
"We got boxed out in some traffic early, and there was some wild driving out there. We were just trying to get back to the front without getting trashed. We had a real good pit stop, came out fourth and went right to the lead. This is the biggest race of the year, and it's rough to win. I think we could have won today, but we'll never know for sure now."
Larry McClure Team owner of the #4 Monte Carlo
"We had a real good car, and we had everything going our way. I guess racing is like a box of chocolates, too. You never know what you're going to get."
Tony Glover Crew Chief of the #4 Monte Carlo
"Our cars worked really hard to come down here and try to win this race again. It's real unfortunate what happened to us, but we've got 30 races to go and this is a good race team. I promise you we'll be back next week at Rockingham. We tried to get back out there today, but it was just throwing too much oil."
Dale Earnhardt #3 GM Goodwrench Services Monte Carlo
"We just didn't have enough for 'em. We had a great car today. I have to hand it to Spenny and Richard Childress and all the guys in the engine shop. It was a good race today. We adjusted well. We lost the ignition one time. That's when Ernie bumped me and he wrecked. We got the other ignition on and everything worked well for us. The car was perfect after we made a few adjustments. It's Daytona. We just didn't have enough. Those Fords have it and we don't. Our car was super all day, but those Fords were super, too."
Richard Childress Car owner of the #3 Monte Carlo
"We gave it our all. The whole team threw a great effort at it. We just came up one short. Whenever you get in a situation like that, it depends on who is moving around behind you if anybody is going to help you. When you get down trying to win the Daytona 500, you don't have any buddies out there. It doesn't matter if there's 10 Chevrolets or two Chevrolets and 10 Fords. You've just got to go for the win. There was a lot of disappointment today, but I don't think our guys will even need pumping up. This will just make 'em want to win that much more. I'm sure Dale is disappointed. Every time you don't win, it's disappointing. If you lose, you lose. If you lose by 10 car lengths or half a nose you still run second. I knew Kenny wouldn't go with us. Two cars could have got it done. Jarrett was real strong, and one car couldn't get by him. You had to have two to line up. They should have lined up when Dale was trying to get him, but he was by himself."
Darrell Waltrip #17 Parts America Monte Carlo
"That was a tough deal. To be that close at the end and have to pull off the track was difficult. We had a good run going, moving up to 16th and with 20 laps to go, I felt we were in a good position to gain some more spots. To put it in perspective though, we wouldn't have been able to move up that far in the field if it wasn't for the engine from Morgan-McClure. It kept me going through the field. It's just too bad our day ended like this. All my guys worked hard down here, and I truly believe we're going to have a great year."
Bobby Labonte #18 Interstate Batteries Monte Carlo
"We didn't have much to work with, so we were just trying to bide our time out there and be patient. We missed all the wrecks, which was what we set out to do. We started dead last, so 17th's not that bad. We picked up some spots over where we finished last year. This is just one race, and we've got 30 more to go."
Ricky Craven #41 Kodiak Monte Carlo
"We led some laps, we finished 13th, it's a good start to the season. We have a lot of goals this year, and it would have been hard to start with a DNF. This should give us a lot of momentum. I can't wait to get to Rockingham. I'm really pumped up. This is the best I've felt in a long time.
Dale Earnhardt was really good to me in the draft today. He's the only guy I want to thank. Schrader was good to me a couple of times, but I want to make it clear that Dale Earnhardt is a class act. When I was leading the race, he gave me a little push and helped me. When he passed me and took the lead, he pulled out of line to give me some drafting help. It was Chevy helping Chevy. That's kind of the nature of the business, but it didn't happen all day. I'm not going to cry sour grapes, but I have a few numbers in the back of my head that are going to need some help. It depends on the scenario. If you've got a four or five-car breakaway, it's done. When you get past that lead group and break away, you're on your own. When you get past 10th, guys won't cooperate. The lead draft drove away.
It was great for 50 or 60 laps riding up front, then the last 20 laps or so, it went away. What was a real enjoyable day kind of ended on a down note. We showed some strength. We worked hard to improve the team, and we have. I think the Fords ran well together today, and when Earnhardt and Schrader and I were hooked up on the high side, it was great. I couldn't stay with them. If I could have caught 'em or stayed with 'em, I would have helped 'em. It would have been nice to have been in the position they were in the end. I loved it running up front. That's what I live for. That's what I race for. That Hendrick engine ran great today. I had a lot of fun out there."
Ken Schrader #25 Budweiser Monte Carlo
"We were good all day. We just didn't have enough. I don't know what Earnhardt said. I didn't get to talk to him, but we weren't going to do it together. We weren't going to get it done together. If I would have really tucked up tight with him, Mike and Mark and those guys were going around on the top of me. I wasn't going to throw third away. You've got to get a run to get your nose in there. Otherwise they just turn in front of you and we couldn't even get that done.
I thought I had a pretty good shot at second, which I did. Mark had committed to go with me. Sterling told me after the Busch Clash that if we could have gone together a Chevrolet would have won. I was doing the things trying to make a red Chevrolet win. I knew if Mark went with me and they got to playing around that we might have had a shot at something. The only guys I talked to all day about working together, obviously I worked with Terry Labonte a long time and I worked with Dale getting up through there and Mark at the end of the race committed.
Dale Jarrett didn't have to have anybody say they would help him. He was so fast, if you had the opportunity to go with him you had to let him pull you. Then you didn't know where he was going to drop you. What you saw today I don't think showcases the changes we've made. We've always been able to run well here, but I think you'll see a big difference when we get to some other tracks."
Terry Labonte #5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo
"Something happened to the carburetor. The car sure felt good running up front. We led the most laps and I wish I could have have been there at the end. I think we had a good shot.I sure would have wanted to be up there trying to help Kenny or have Kenny helping me. We had a great car, and we sstill really don't know what happened to it. We took the air cleaner off and put it back on, and it seemed to run after that. Maybe we got a piece of trash in the carburetor. You've got the same cars running up front as you did last year, but we;re four or five mph slower. The new engines have tightened up the field and made it harder to pass. It's made the competition a lot closer. We feel good about our chances at other tracks. We'll get to Rockingham and see how we stack up there."
Rick Hendrick Car owner of the #5, #24,and #25 Monte Carlos
"After the last pit stop when Schrader took the lead, I thought we might have a shot at it. I believe if Dale (Earnhardt) had been in the front we would have had a better chance. But the 88 car was strong and everybody knew that Dale Jarrett had one of the cars to beat. I wish Terry could have been up there in the middle of that deal. This wassome real close racing, but I'm real excited for Schrader's bunch.
They ran good, they led. they took the halfway deal. It's been a long time since they ran like that on a superspeedway. We'll go to Rockingham now and see what we've got. If Dale (Earnhardt) had got his fenderup bside him (Jarrett), I know Schrader would have gone with him. When you watch those things and try and second guess those guys, you're just wasting your time. It was a good race, but I'm ready to get away from this restrictor plate deal."
