GM RACING NOTES & QUOTES--POCONO NASCAR POST-RACE

GM RACING WINSTON CUP NOTES & QUOTES; PENNSYLVANIA 500; POCONO RACEWAY; JULY 27, 2003

JEFF GREEN, NO. 1 CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: NOTE: Green was the cause of the day's first caution after being black-flagged for leaking fluid. "We can't get any luck. I don't know what happened. This Pennzoil Chevy is fast, but we qualified bad and as we were coming up through there.we can't get any luck. We'll try to learn something today. This is the same car we're going to take to Indianapolis, so we'll look forward to there."

DERRIKE COPE, NO. 37 FRIENDLY'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We broke a fuel pump. It bobbled, missed and wouldn't start up again, so it had to be the fuel pump. We're not running for points, so it didn't make a lot of sense for us to go back out and try to gain anything."

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We struggled all day. It seemed like we were finally getting a handle on the Tide Pontiac, but it made a really awful noise heading into the turn. The next thing you know, it just went away."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DuPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We were all jumbled up there. It was kind of a train wreck. We were going to lose points anyway, because Kenseth is real strong and we weren't having a great day. The guys are doing an excellent job, just trying to maintain. We started off awesome. I thought we were going to be good. Then the track started to change and we started to lose it again. I don't know where we're going to wind up, but in terms of flat-out running, we were about a 10th-place car. You can't give up. This sport doesn't allow that luxury. We've lost a lot of points the last few weeks, so we'll go to Indy and see if we can't make some up. This is why I constantly say we race ourselves and not everybody else."

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: NOTE: Stewart's engine blew while running in the top five at lap 150, ending his chance at a repeat victory. "The thing ran great all day. It looks like it broke a rod or spun a bearing, something that doesn't give much warning. Temperatures were good all day. The engine department has been working real hard, the chassis department has been strong, we just don't have a lot to show for it. We've picked up and gone on quite a few times as a team, so we'll head to Indy. It's all we can do. We have good cars, a great engine for there and it might fire us up."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 12th: "It was a good day. We were fighting between tight and loose, and we were always on one side or the other. We played the track position game and got a pretty good finish."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 4th: "It's lucky when things happen in your favor for no apparent reason. We had a strategy, a plan and the team implemented that plan and everything went perfect until the last run. Unfortunately, the car just got way too tight. The thing I like about Pocono is there are a lot of grooves out there and I could goof around and find me another place to run and pick up some time. We preserved a top five. I'm proud of my team. I think in my 18-year career, that's the most top-fives I've had in one season and we've still got about half the season to go."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 15th: "We were fighting a loose condition all day. There were segments where we were fast, but when it came time to collect some points we weren't where we needed to be. That hurt on strategy a little bit, but we're learning."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-GM CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 7th: "The car was great. We had to take a 7th-place finish after having trouble on the track, knocking the nose in and having to bang it out. We overcame a lot today, and I have to thank Peter Sospenzo and the guys. They made some good calls and we finally got back to where we should be. We went from ninth in the points to 25th because of bad luck, broken engines, crashes, bad calls, just a lot of things. I was a big part of that. Now, to rebound from that, it just shows what we're made of."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 18th: "All in all, it wasn't too bad. We weren't as bad as I thought we were going to be. We just went 

through it all weekend. It wasn't good in qualifying and it wasn't good in the race, and it was the same problem, a lack of side bite. I don't know why. We tested with a car like this at Indy, and with the long straightaways Indy's a little bit like this. We just couldn't make it work."

STEVE PARK, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 25th: "It was tough. We were just tight. It started out tight in the middle and loose off. We tried to fix it and got it real loose, then we had a flat tire and that hurt us. It got us a lap down. It was hard to bounce back from that and almost got the car back to where we need to be. It was just a long day. We need to be better, have a little bit of luck, not cut tires down and we need to make better adjustments. We'll get it."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 3rd: NOTE: Today's finish was Earnhardt's first top-five finish since the Pocono race in June. "I like Pocono a lot. What's not to like? It's a great race track, a lot of fun and real challenging. I get better every time I come here. It seems like we get a little better cars coming here too. The guys did a great job, and I'm real proud of them. It's hard to pass in the back. I didn't have anything for the 12 [winner Ryan Newman]. I was good for about two laps and then I'd get tight behind him. IS THIS A GOOD POINTS FINISH FOR YOU? "Heck, yeah. We got a lot of points. I just tried to get a win, but we'll take these third-place finishes anytime we can get them." MORE EARNHARDT TO FOLLOW

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/got milk? CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 5th: NOTE: Today's top-five finish was Labonte's first of the season. "The car wasn't as good as it was in the first race here. We made some adjustments. I've been awful proud of these guys. We're just so much better than we were last year."


JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Finished 20th: "Man, that was a struggle today, but we never gave up. We weren't as good as we wanted to be but we kept working to make the car better all day and we used some pretty good pit strategy. If we could have gotten a break or two there at the end we might have been able to climb into the top 10. But we just have to get ready for Indy now and run a good race."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 16th, the highest-finishing rookie in today's race. "In June, we didn't qualify. We took a provisional and didn't race very well. We came back with a different car and a different motor. We qualified 30th and we were a little conservative doing that because we had a pretty decent car in practice. I think it speaks a lot for the team because we raced really well today. We had a little transmission problem on the first pit stop and we lost a bunch of track position. Ryan [race winner Ryan Newman] was kind enough to help us get a lap back and from then on, we raced up to mid-pack, 15th or so, and I think we were running 10th on the last restart. I'm pretty excited to get up there and race with those guys and have a good day for myself and the team."

DALE EARNHARDT JR. POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE: NOTE: Earnhardt's 3rd-place finish, combined with Jeff Gordon's 36th-place finish, vaulted Earnhardt back into second place in the points, 232 behind leader Matt Kenseth. TALK ABOUT THE LATE-RACE PASS OF MICHAEL WALTRIP FOR THIRD PLACE. "I don't remember much about it. There was so much going on, so many things there at the end of the race. Me and Michael were around each other a lot there at the end. I think I got up under him off of Turn 3 and just wanted to lead a lap. I hadn't led a lap yet." 

ARE YOU AS TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT FUEL MILEAGE AS THE FANS ARE? "Yeah, I'm getting tired of hearing it from my guys when they tell me that I need to save fuel. I don't think I've ever had anybody tell me how to save fuel. I've been around this sport a long time. I don't think anybody really knows. You put it in high gear and you hope that helps, but I don't know if it helps or not. I just sat there and rode around in high gear, pushed the clutch in and let the motor idle down the straightaway instead of putting load on it. Maybe that helped, I don't know. Those caution laps will sure save it."

WHEN YOU'RE INSIDE THE CAR, DO YOU WANT THE CREW TO TELL YOU WHEN TO PIT, OR FORGET ABOUT IT, YOU'RE JUST DRIVING THE CAR? "Yeah. It doesn't always have to be fuel mileage. It's just when the cautions kind of fall. Everybody's getting real smart about pit windows, when we can pit, should we come in this time, whatever. It's just something that's being studied really hard that wasn't a concern for anybody in the past. It's the same as two or three years ago, when it was like, two tires or four tires? That will tick you off more than anything. You'd be leading the race and see guys come out of the pits with two tires in front of you and you couldn't pass them. That upsets you more than anything. Fuel mileage, that's just part of it. You've got 22 gallons, use it however you want to use it."

YOU GOT OUT FRONT, YOU DIDN'T HAVE A SUPERIOR CAR. WAS THAT THE CASE? "Yeah, it's kind of like you have this sea, and you drive the boat down through it. You try to follow that boat's wake, and the other boat, it's probably not the smoothest ride, not the easiest deal. Now put 40 boats out there. The guy that's leading, he's got the best seat in the house and he's got the easiest job. You can go fast, you can drive your car like you want to drive it and you don't have to worry about who is in front of you or what is happening behind you. I hate talking about it, because I don't think it's ever going to go away, but when you get behind somebody, you get tight. You have this big old blade on the back of these cars, and when you put your nose up behind somebody's spoiler, there's no air on the nose and what do you say? That's why everybody's running high, down low or in the middle. If you run in the tracks of the guy in front of you, you're not going to go anywhere. It's the same everywhere, I have the aero push even at Daytona. I'd get tighter than heck going through Turns 1 and 2. That's why I'm so happy to lead the race at those plate tracks. Once you push the right front off, you can't pass. I've never really had that problem in the Busch cars, a little bit but not bad. When I went to Japan and drove up under somebody in my first Cup race, it was unbelievable."

HOW ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS? "Indianapolis will be the same way. I've been there three years and I've led each one of those races before the halfway point, and somehow or another, people start taking two tires, we get shuffled back to 12th and can't pass anybody. We were running in the top three coming up on the last pit stop there last year. I didn't think I was going to win, but I thought I would finish really good. We went in, and about 10 cars took two tires and we finished 12th. Being out front or in the top two or three is real important there."

ON THE LAST FUEL STOP, DID YOU THINK YOU COULD MAKE IT THE REST OF THE WAY? "On the last fuel stop, we figured we were a gallon short. We had a caution, ran four laps under caution and we figured we were half a gallon short. That was with 20 laps to go. We had a car blow up, the 18 car, and we ran about six laps under caution. That put us about a half-gallon to a gallon on the plus side. We were on the positive side, but we wouldn't have made it if we hadn't had the caution. What did we have to lose? No reason to come in unless you had to and we didn't have to. It worked out in our favor, but it could just as easily not have worked in our favor. I wasn't going to give up the track position, because we sat there in the back all day long with a car that could run in the top five."

WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON RYAN NEWMAN'S PERFORMANCE OVER THE LAST FEW RACES? "It's something you have to stay concerned about. The guys over there are doing 

awesome. They're winning races, especially here recently. He's got to be happy and proud. Everybody's got a weakness, and sooner or later that's going to come to the surface. I'm pretty happy and proud. One of the guys that works on that team is a buddy of mine and I rent a house to one of them. I like to see them win, because it helps them out. I like Ryan a lot, he's a really nice guy. But hopefully they don't do this next year, because they'll be pretty tough."