Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Quotes from Homestead

Nov.  17, 2002					                          Ray Cooper

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T) Accident, Finished 42nd
"I got up to Joe, and I felt like I had him. I love my guys. I've had a tough year, and I think they did. I had a good car. I got up there to second, and I was catching Joe. It got real loose in one and two, and then it got real loose again. Dale Jarrett got underneath me. I knew something was going wrong, and then it got away from me. The track was OK. It was typical Miami, slick and flat. You need to have a free race car. We had a good car today. We had the best Dodge. Our car was really good on long runs, and I felt like I had a good opportunity to win the race. I really wanted to win before the year was over. I said I could, but we didn't. It's been a tough year."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid R/T) Top Dodge, Finished 9th
"At least we finished. That's better than we've been doing here lately. Track position meant everything like it has all season. We just couldn't make it up. It was pretty hard to pass out there. I'm ready for a break."

KENNY WALLACE (No. 23 Hills Bros Dodge Intrepid R/T) Finished 23rd
"I started the car out too tight. We started out too loose at Phoenix and thought we'd compensate for it with all the rain and the track wasn't loose at the start. That killed me. Once I got the car freed up we were very competitive. We jumped out there to a straightaway lead and couldn't get a caution flag to fall so we could get back on the lead lap. We had a couple sets of inconsistent tires. I killed myself starting the car too tight at the start. If that hadn't happened, we could have had a better run."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T) Finished 12th
"We made a lot of progress as a team, myself included. We were lost before Tommy (former crew chief Baldwin) left and we're still a little bit lost, me included. The information I give doesn't make the car go faster. We've got to learn as a group what changes make a difference for us. We're going to do a lot of testing this offseason and start learning stuff over. Everything is so sensitive. Me just sitting in a race car and trying to get it right isn't enough. We recognize that. At the same time, this weekend we hit on a combination right at the end of practice. I'm proud of the guys because it shows we can do it. We had a lot better car than where we finished."

TED MUSGRAVE (No. 07 Sirius Satellite Radio/Kenwood Dodge Intrepid R/T) Finished 16th
"We were good on the long runs today. On the short little runs it wasn't very good. As the race went on and the more laps that we got on the tires, the better off we were. We just didn't get a long run at the end. We were hoping for a 60-lap run. We could go 67 laps on fuel or 69 laps. We didn't want a caution. We were really good on the long runs, but it just didn't fall our way."