Robby Takes Third for Chevy at The Glen

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO @ THE GLEN
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2002


ROBBY GORDON TAKES THIRD FOR CHEVROLET AT WATKINS GLEN


ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (third; first
top-five finish in 2002): "Everybody on the Cingular team did a good job.
Tony (Stewart) drove a helluva race. Track position was everything. We
struggled, we had a slow pit stop. The guys did a great job for me; they
ordinarily give me really good stops. Something must¹ve happened; we
stumbled on the last one. I thought we still had a shot at it. I wasn¹t
ready for Tony to take off in turn 10; I got snookered on the last restart."
FIELD SPREAD OUT AT THAT LAST RESTART? "I don¹t know; you tell me. I was
ready to go; had a good run. I¹m pleased with everybody here on the Cingular
team; they did a great job today; had a good Chevrolet today; have some work
to do. The 12 car was really good on the straightaways; so we¹ve got some
work to do there, and we¹ll get it. We¹ll be back into victory lane before
the season¹s over." YOUR MOMENTUM HAS BEEN GOOD THE LAST COUPLE OF RACES?
"We haven¹t been out of the top 10; when we have been, we haven¹t been far
out of it. So I¹m really pleased with Richard Childress Racing and everybody
on it." WHAT ABOUT THAT SCRAPE WITH TONY STEWART? "A little love." DID YOU
HAVE A GOOD CAR? "We were easily the fastest car; anytime I got a clean
track and it was real hard to pass. When we were real fast the other guys
were real slow and they would hold me up for a long ways. I¹m pleased with
the performance. We didn¹t lose any handling; we just lost track position in
that last pit stop. We will see when we see the fastest laps of the race;
but I¹m pretty sure that we have the fastest car here." PASSING THE 20 AND
DAMAGE? "Tony tried to dive-bomb me down into 1. That¹s racing. He locked up
his brakes; got into the side of me. Once I got away from him I pulled him
by 15 or 20 seconds. We had a good car." WORKING ON RYAN NEWMAN? "It¹s all
good; it¹s a part of racing. Ryan did an awesome job today; he did a really
good job. The 12 car makes power too."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA PARTS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (ninth): "I¹m a
little disappointed. The car got tight all day long; we must have missed it
a little bit on our gearing; high gear was a little too low and it messed me
up on the back straightaway and a lot of people got runs on me. All in all,
it was a good run, but we thought we could be a lot better." PASSING WAS A
PREMIUM HERE? "Yeah, we stayed toward the front most of the day and there¹s
three passing zones and (at) one of them I was a passee, not a passer,
because of my gearing problem that I had. We made that call this morning and
usually when I decide what to do the transmission the boys ought to just
tell me to just go back to the motor home and just set there, because it
never works out." HOW ABOUT THOSE ROAD RACING GUYS, P.J. JONES AND SCOTT
PRUETT? "Just goes to show you that there¹s a lot of good race cars in this
garage and there¹s a lot of good drivers and sometimes if you don¹t get the
two matched up it¹s hard to be successful. A.J. proved he had a pretty
decent car today and P.J. drove the heck out of it."

ROBBIE LOOMIS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We knew
this year was going to be tough; we knew it was going to be a learning year
between both cars. We have the same shop finding out what one driver likes,
and what one doesn¹t like, so we¹ve just got to pick up the pieces and go
from here." THE WHOLE WEEKEND WAS STRANGE? "It really was a strange weekend.
When you think about qualifying. The competition has gotten so close;
everybody¹s cars have gotten so good; the motors have gotten so good. You
just have to keep improving them every year. Michael (almost) sat on the
pole the other day; we were kidding him about that; that was a great job for
him, and we just have not been on top of our game at tuning the car during
the race. I said the first half of the race we had a great race car. The
second half I made some adjustments; almost took it out of the ballpark. We
just have to put it in your notebook and come back. The next time you come
back, you look in your notebook it¹ll be completely different. It¹s real
unfortunate because every time someone slips we can¹t seem to capitalize
right now." WHEN YOU LOOK AT HOW FAST YOU WERE IN THE FIRST PRACTICE SESSION
YESTERDAY, IS IT SOMETHING YOU CAN LAUGH OFF OR DOES IT AFFECT THE TEAM? "I
tell people all the time, when we were winning last year having good
practices and qualifying good, every time you do that your confidence keeps
elevating and you keep working from a higher level. This year what we¹ve
been experiencingŠ we¹ve just been operating. We¹ve never got anything to
really give us the momentum to go and so you get the points and you look at
them and you think each week, like, (the) big picture looks OK, but that¹s
not really what we want, so we¹ve got to just keep working Œtil it¹s right."
DID YOU FEEL THIS WAS YOUR WEEK IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE RACE? "We
definitely felt like, coming into the race this morning, that we had a
really good car. In Winston Cup now the competition is so tight you¹ve got
to make all the right calls and it doesn¹t take anything to get off a little
bit. Today we just made some wrong adjustments there at the end and got off
on it."  WHAT WAS JEFF¹S MOOD AT THE END OF THE RACE? "He¹s a champion; he
knows how to handle it. At the same time he¹s very disappointed at the
outcome of the race. He wants to win; he wants to win bad. I¹d be lying to
you if I said he didn¹t."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (22nd): "It¹s
disappointing. It¹s a place where we can capitalize on. Every time we get an
opportunity to capitalize on some points we just seem to mess it up somehow.
We were coming on strong at the beginning of the race. The car was great and
got loose and never could tighten it up. Unfortunately, we had to come in
and pit; I was getting ready to wreck out there, I was so loose and we had
to come in and pit, and lost track position and it was over." HOW
DISAPPOINTING IS IT KNOWING YOU¹VE RUN WELL HERE? "It all started on Friday.
Every weekend starts on Friday. You¹ve got to approach it from the second
you get on the track and be prepared every time you¹re on there. We got
behind on Friday and we¹ve been playing catch-up ever since and starting
21st didn¹t do us any favors. But we drove up through there and got up to
like sixth or seventh. Pretty happy, then it kind of all fell apart from
there. Yeah, it¹s definitely disappointing Œcause it¹s a place that we run
real well at and if there¹s places where we can capitalize for the
championship, this is certainly one of them. And we haven¹t been able to do
that at a lot of places this year." YOU DROPPED A SPOT IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP
BUT YOU GAINED ON MARLIN: "That¹s the least of my worries right now. I want
to win races and I want to go to places that I know we can win races and
perform to where we¹re capable of. Last week at Indy we had one of the best
efforts we had all year long. We had a great effort this weekend; it just
didn¹t work for us." HOW IS YOUR CONFIDENCE? "I¹m not losing my confidence,
and I don¹t think the team is, it¹s just disappointing that we didn¹t make
all the right calls this weekend. We can analyze it and look back and see
where we got behind. Can¹t fix it now; we just go to the next race."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE¹S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (16th): "We broke the
motor before qualifying and that hurt us bad. Came from the back once and
got to mid-pack and then we had a mistake on pit road; we had to come in for
a stop-and-go and worked our way back up to mid-pack again. Frustrating, but
you win as a team, you lose as a team. We¹ve had a five or six race stretch
here where we¹ve been able to be in the top 10 or top 15, but we haven¹t
been able to get back in the top five. Hopefully Michigan will turn that
around for us." PASSED A LOT OF CARS? "I wish they awarded passing points,
because I passed a lot of race cars today. Chad (Knaus, crew chief) gave me
a great race car. It was going to be a decent day. It still ended up OK in
the big picture. I just wish we would have not had any mistakes and would
have capitalized on everyone else¹s misfortune in the points race." YOU
GAINED GROUND ON MARLIN: "We¹re gaining ground in the points race but with
lesser performances than where we need to be; that¹s allowing those guys
from fifth on back to close that gap on us. We had a nice margin there. As
much as we¹re focusing on where the 40 car is, those guys behind us are
closing at a high rate of speed. I¹m looking forward to getting back to
Michigan, where we¹ve run well before and hopefully we can have a solid
qualifying effort, start from the top 10, top 15 and then race from there.
We¹ve been coming from provisional-land and back, way back in the pack up to
contend for top 10s each week. I¹d just love to start up front and finish up
front." COMPARE TO SEARS POINT: "Our finishes would have been about the
same. We broke a gear at Sears Point. Actually, we were probably going to be
eighth or something, but we broke a gear there late." ON CATCHING RYAN
NEWMAN IN ROOKIE POINTS: "We¹re second in the Winston Cup point standings.
It¹s odd how the Raybestos Rookie of the Year points pay out. If we end up
with the championship and don¹t have the Rookie of the Year I think we¹ll be
OK with that." WHAT WAS THE STOP AND GO FOR? "We left our left rear tire on
the outside of the race car; didn¹t return it back. It¹s got to be back
halfway across the car before the car leaves the pit. We left it sitting it
out there, outside the pit box."

DALE EARNHARDT JR, NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (went into the sand
on lap 73, was towed back to the garage. After finding the kill switch had
been stuck, the crew restarted the car and Dale Jr. re-entered the race,
finished 35th): IN THE GARAGE: WHAT HAPPENED? "Went off into the corner and
spun out. That¹s about it." SOMETHING BREAK? "I don¹t know, the car won¹t
start." HAVING A GOOD DAY BEFORE THAT? "We were 15th; I thought that was
pretty good. I was driving my %^^& ass off; I thought that was great."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (pulled into the garage
after 29 laps, returned to race, finished 39th): "The Pennzoil Chevrolet
either broke a rear-end gear or trannie; it just picked up a really bad
vibration and then it started skipping real bad like it lost a tooth
somewhere. So we¹re going to change probably both the trannie and the rear
end to make sure."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (crashed on lap 36,
returned to race, finished 38th): "It¹s disappointing. We¹ve been having a
tough weekend since we got here. I had the brakes lock up getting in the
inner loop and I flat-spotted the front tires and I was fixing to come into
the pits and I think the right front tire went down coming into turn 10 and
I just went straight. Thank God for the gravel traps; it slowed me down
there, hit the front end, knocked the radiator and stuff out of it. We¹ll
get it fixed and be back out. The gravel traps slow you down so much. I¹m
making a left-hand turn and all of a sudden the car goes straight. I think I
flat-spotted the tires so bad it must¹ve popped there going in that corner.
It¹s just a tough, tough weekend for us. We¹ll rebound."

HIGHLIGHTS OF ROBBY GORDON"S POST-RACE INTERVIEW AS THIRD-PLACE FINISHER:

IT WAS AN EXCITING RACE: "It was good for awhile; I sure liked the start of
it. We had a good car. The car was easy to drive all day long. Biggest
problem was track position. We had that one bad pit stop, came back to 10th
or something there at the end. It was just hard to get back by these guys
clean. I wanted to race everybody clean. I know one time I got by Ricky
Rudd; had to race him back to the yellow, just because that¹s what Richard
told me to do. Every lap was important because there weren¹t a lot of them
green there at the end. We got by him there and we probably missed it on our
restart gear. That, and I didn¹t expect Tony to take off in turn 10 so I got
caught sleeping big time there. And, by the time we got to the start-finish
line I was probably 20, 30 car lengths behind on that last restart. So, I
didn¹t have a shot at the end."

"I got by the 41 and the 14 at the same time. I think Ryan was on the
outside, and we were four-wide going down into turn 1. Had a shot at getting
all of them, but I checked up going into 1. I wanted to make sure I didn¹t
wreck. P.J. smoked his inside tire, so I was able to dive back underneath
him coming off of turn 1 and move into third place. Real tough to pass
today; cars were just so competitive and these teams when you start getting
into the top five and top 10 these teams are so good that all the cars are
so equal, it makes for good racing but hard to pass."

DID YOU THINK THAT TONY JUMPED THE RESTART? "All I know is I think I was at
the bridge when he was at the start-finish line. I could have sworn that
cone over there by the bridge is where we were supposed to take off, and he
took off and stood on the gas before turn 10. I wasn¹t even close to
expecting that. We had a tall first gear so that hurt us a little bit as
well. I had to clutch the thing on the start and on the restart to basically
spin the tires until the engine caught up with the tires to get going and I
was just bogged down right there because I thought we were going to go at
the cone."

YOU SAW IT BEFORE, WERE YOU READY FOR IT THIS TIME? "I saw him get stacked
up because I was back there too. What he does. It¹s a little dirt-track
racing trick. You back off the gas and get everybody else to slow down and
then you hammer the gas about the time they¹re on the brakes. He did that to
us all day today. All the power to him. He did a good job; he won the race."

HOW ABOUT THOSE ANKLES? "Man, I would¹ve won this race easy if I didn¹t have
hurt ankles. I¹m just kidding. It didn¹t bother me at all. Like Indianapolis
last week I don¹t think the injuries hurt me once I was inside the race car.
A little difficult to walk down pit lane and get in the car or get out of
the car. Right now, I¹m just happy that we were able to be competitive. I
thought two weeks ago if you had asked me if we were going to be competitive
on the road course I thought I threw all our chances away, and we were very
competitive today. We were able to lead the race pretty easy early on. Like
I said, we just lost our track position."

WITHOUT THE MIXUP IN THE PIT STOP, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CHALLENGE
TONY STEWART? "Yeah, we had a good car today. The biggest thing is just the
whole race team has been doing a good job. This is our fourth top 10 in the
last five races. Ever since we swapped teams, Kevin Hamlin and those guys
have given me a car to be real competitive. We had a shot at Bill Elliot
last weekend at Indianapolis as well. It doesn¹t really matter whether it¹s
a road course or an oval. We¹ve been able to position ourselves to have a
shot at it. There¹s a saying that if you put yourself in front of that door
enough times one of these days it¹s going to open up. And I think it¹s going
to open up again here pretty soon."

PLACE KIND OF OWED YOU SOMETHING BECAUSE OF LAST YEAR. DOES THIS VINDICATE
YOU? "Nobody ever owes you anything; this is racing. Nobody ever owes you
anything; you have to earn it. Winston Cup racing is really competitive
today. Every move you make has to be calculated or you¹ll get pushed out of
line and fall back. We had a good run. It was a good run for Richard
Childress Racing. We had our first top-five of the season now this year with
this finish. We¹ve been (in the) top 10 quite often recently and we¹re
starting to move up in points. I¹m just glad that the team¹s starting to
gel. The engine shop has definitely picked up. We¹ve got some work to do to
catch Ryan on the straightaways, but we¹re getting closer every week."

EARLY ON STRONG CAR, TAKE US THROUGH THE REST: "All weekend long the cars
that we thought would be the strong ones was Tony, the 41 and Gordon and
Ryan. Pretty much every practice we charted their laps and we knew those
guys would be the ones to go. I was able to get by Tony on the start and
once I cleared him and I got by Rudd it was pretty much clean sailing. The
biggest thing is I got a lot of those guys on the restart, like on the very
first start so I never was the ninth guy in line or the 10th guy in line.
And when you¹re that far back on single-file restarts the aero going up
through turn 2, 3 and 4, the car pushed so bad that I wasn¹t able to run
wide open, and it made it hard to pass people. I think when you¹re that
first, second or third car in line you have more grip, you have more
downforce. The more boats or the more cars that drive through that air, it¹s
like a boat wake, the dirtier it gets, the less grip you have."

DAMAGE ON THE RIGHT SIDE HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT? "I think that was
Tony pushing for a space that wasn¹t his."

EARLY IN THE RACE TONY WAS IN YOUR MIRROR, DID YOU THINK HIS CAR WAS REAL
GOOD? "I was backed off at that point and I think he was backed off as well
because it was early in the race; you race nine-tenths in the beginning and
I was still stepping away from him little by little. Key is track position
and passing. I knew early he had a fast race car but I knew he was going to
be hard to pass just like it was hard for him to pass us."

HOW OLD IS THE CAR YOU¹RE DRIVING TODAY? "I think it¹s about 20 years old
(laughing). They ran this same spec in 1965. This is NASCAR, come on."

"Let me clarify that last comment just a little bit. The reason why I said
that is the spec of NASCAR hasn¹t changed in a long time and I think it
makes great racing. There¹s little you can advance on every year even if you
build a new car and this was a new car for Sears Point. We learned with that
car there, basically we came here with a very similar setup on it and rolled
it out and it was quick here as well. The one good thing about it is this
car will be good next year and the year after. But obviously Chevrolet is
going to have a body change next year, so probably just build another new
one again. Even though it will be the same spec from 1965."

1100 MILES INDIANAPOLIS TO CHARLOTTE IN THE HEAT; COMPARE IT TO A WORK OUT
ON A ROAD COURSE: "I think Indianapolis is different than here and Charlotte
is different than here. It¹s a lot more mental. Here, it¹s very physical and
you¹re sliding left and right and hustling the car all day long, and you
just can¹t slide a car like that on an oval all day long or it will bite
you. On a road course you can slide the car sideways and get away with it. I
feel good after the race. I had power steering so I¹m sure Ryan would feel a
lot better if he did have the power steering the whole race. It was hot
today. The team¹s been working real hard on keeping me cool inside and doing
some stuff with some special materials to keep the heat out of the inside of
the car because I¹ve been complaining about the heat quite a bit. I wasn¹t
too hot today."

"I just want to congratulate Richard Childress¹ grandson. His team, out of
Southwest Forsyth, a Little League baseball team, is going to the world
series. They won the other day and I want to congratulate those guys for
going to the world series."