Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Quotes

Sunday, June 16, 2002 Michigan International Speedway

  
STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We had a 15th or 20th-place car. They changed the rules up, so that's where we are right now. We lost a ton of points today. This is our worse finish of the season (21st), and we knew we'd have days like this. We've just got to run better. There's a lot of racing left, but we've got to get better before we come back here in August."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I'm not sure what happened. We probably broke something in the valve train. It tightened up for about two car lengths. It didn't give us any chance to cut it off. It's a shame. We're really having problems making progress because we can't run all the laps with all this mechanical junk happening. We've got a good race team and great sponsors. Somehow we've got to get it turned around. It was too loose at the start. Then we got it tightened up and were fighting a lack of traction. The cars are a handful to get a hold of, but I feel like we've made some progress. Ironically, the car was the best it had been when we were trying to stay on the tail end of the lead lap. The caution came out at the right time for us. It worked out good. There were only 14 cars on the lead lap, and we felt like we could keep digging and try to get a top 10."

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The Dodges would slide through the corners. It was pretty hard to drive 'em. The Fords cut and go, and we slide. What is that? Downforce.  I think our downforce is really off right now." 

HUT STRICKLIN (No. 23 Hills Bros Coffee Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We lost a lap about 120 laps into the race. We couldn't quite make it up, but the crew did a great job adjusting the car. They pulled out a spring rubber and it was good after that. It was still a touch loose, but we're gaining on it. This is the best we've finished since Talladega. It's been five years since I've driven on a road course, so I wish we were going somewhere else next week, but we'll go out to Sears Point and have some fun and see what happens."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We were terribly loose in the beginning. I just couldn't drive it. We didn't get the finish we wanted to today, and I know it was an important race, but we showed a lot of gains throughout the race. We lost six laps in 70 laps and then we got the car right and didn't lose another lap all day. We never got the backup car where we wanted it. We had a great car here Friday, and got in that oil and wrecked the primary car, and we've just been behind since that. We finally got it halfway through the race, but it was too late then."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We didn't pit for tires on that last deal. There wasn't a lot you could do. You were just in one of those positions. Should you pit and get four or stay out? We stayed out. It didn't hurt us that bad. It was just one of them days. We had a good car, led some laps and moved up a spot in the standings. All-in-all, it was a decent day."

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We had a good car all day until the end of the race. We pitted and got four tires, but that 25 has got a Busch driver and a Busch crew chief. They blocked us in the pits and that really messed us up. Our car was good. That ties our best finish of the season, and it could have been a lot better, but we're consistently running in the top 15 or 20 and that's what we've got to do. That's our goal."

TIM CULBERTSON (Program Manager, Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Engineering)
"One of the things I noticed today in talking to the drivers, there seemed to be a universal complaint of a lack of downforce, especially in the front. We've got to figure out what to do about that. It's a real problem. Our results showed it today. We'll go to work and figure out what we need to do and get 'em the next race. I think there's been some changes that have allowed the competition to get a little bit better. So they've had a bump here that seems to cover the distance we had on them and where we are now. We'll go to work and see what we can do to come up with some more downforce for these guys and go from there."