dodge cup quotes from mville. Rusty Wins!

Sunday, April 18, 2004.
Martinsville Speedway.
Advance Auto Parts 500.
 

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) - Breaks 105-race losing streak
with 55th career victory. Gives Dodge its first victory of the season.
Wallace moves to eighth in series standings.

 

"It's been so long, and we've been so close. The fans have been behind
me for so long, and this one is for them. We finally got this Miller
Lite Dodge in victory lane like it deserves to be. We've been running
great. I want to thank Larry Carter (crew chief) and my entire Miller
Lite racing team. The engine was good. The brakes worked good. I had a
great time. I'm going to go home and have a cold Miller Lite and think
about it. That's pretty cool.

 

"He (Jimmie Johnson) had a great car. He knew I was coming. We had fresh
tires and he didn't pit that last time for whatever reason. I just took
advantage of it. I had a top five car, top three car all day long. Ryan
two tired it, and he had a great car, too. I'm sitting there saying,
'man, the 48 is on used tires and Ryan is on right sides. I've got four
stickers. I can win this thing, man.' I kept driving and digging and put
the thing in victory lane.

 

"The second at Bristol felt really great to me. The fans have been great
to me. I want to thank the fans for sticking with me.

 

 "It was a great day. We had an easy top five car all day long. I
brought the same setup that I ran the second race last year and it
worked so good for me. The new tire is a little softer, and it fits my
driving style. Honestly this was a real smooth race for us. We had one
bad pit stop and lost some positions, and I was able to pick most of
them back up. Right there at the end I saw the 48 car stay out and Ryan
take two tires. I knew he was doing that for track position, but I was
thinking to myself I could win this thing. The 48 was on old tires. Ryan
was on right sides and I was sitting there with four stickers. My car
was handling great. I got past Dale Jr. and I finally got around the 48
and set sail.

 

"I've been there a lot. Should I pit or not pit? My car was really
handling good and I didn't want to give up track position. I was
confident if I could hit pit road with 50 or 60 to go it would be the
right call. Bobby Labonte would close in a couple and then lose a
couple, close in a couple and then lose a couple.

 

"I'm happy that Larry Carter, our new crew chief, shined so good out
there. He's been shining since we got him. He reminds me a lot of Buddy
Parrott.

 

"I was getting known as a hard guy to work for. I really wasn't a hard
guy to work for. We've got to get the job done. We can come in and
everybody is doing a 13-second pit stop and we're doing a 17. That's
what happened at Rockingham. We had a shot to win that race and after
that I told Larry we had to find a person. The problem was always the
right rear. It never was the front. My right front tire changer is
bullet fast. We just needed someone to compliment him. The jack guy was
good, the tire carriers were good. We needed one person. We brought in
that one person at Bristol and we almost won the race.

 

"I got really sick of hearing "why aren't you winning?' But it made me
look at the pit crew, myself, my driving style. It made me look at a lot
of things. With all the crew changes and everything we did, and I
adjusted. Sometimes I'd make a suggestion about the shocks and they'd
punch me. This weekend I got ready to come to the track and I looked at
the car behind the front end and there were no bars in there. I told
them I needed the bars.

 

"I questioned myself a little bit. I said, 'man, this schedule is
wearing me out. I felt like I was driving as hard as I could, and I
thought if we could get this right or that right we'd get back in
victory lane, but you know I'm not a quitter. I've never quit. If
anything I just keep moving things around to compliment what I've got to
have;

 

 "If you look at the qualifying sheet you'll see the fastest guy and the
slowest guy are within five tenths of a second. It's so close it's
unreal. Everybody's got the best crew guys they can find, the best
engineers. When it gets right down to it it's still a people thing and
everybody stepped up to the plate. I remember in '88 and '89 when I won
the championship and in '93 I won 10 races. The next year I won eight
races. Everybody stepped up to the plate and they all got the good
stuff. They've got the good crews. You end up with these unbelievably
tight qualifying times, and then when you get out in the race it's still
separates everybody. I'm the biggest fan in the world of this new tire.
There was so much strategy involved in it, and my teammate was smarter
than everybody figuring it out last year. We missed a lot last year.

 

"The decisions I'm stepping back from are the pit calls. I'm completely
staying out of the pit calls. They rely on me quite a bit to help with
the setups. I've got a great engineer in Roy McCauley. They ask me what
I think the car needs, and I'm still involved in that. You'll never hear
me on the radio saying, 'I want to pit now.'

 

"I was on the way here today, and I told my wife, even though you've got
great braking and all the stuff that's available to you now, you're
still driving deep in the corners and we're using the brakes still. The
last time I was here I had a great car, probably as good as the one I
had today, but I got involved in an early accident and lost the brakes.
After I got past the 250-lap mark and with 210 to go we had a red flag.
My foot got kind of hot and it was irritating me. I was glad to get out
for a little bit. I went to the big red truck and sat there for about an
hour watching TV and hanging out and drinking water. I got back to the
car and I felt like a brand new guy. My car was sitting there with good
brakes on it, four brand new tires and I knew we had a car we could win
with now.

 

"Money is one thing. We all love money. We can't spend those trophies.
Martinsville always has the big, big clock. Billy is not changing tires
for me now. We tried it and he decided not to do it. He's working at the
shop with the 77 team. He's one of my best friends. We play golf
together. I know he's super happy for this win for me, too. If we had
started off with a new crew chief and won everything, it might have made
Billy feel a little bad. We started off a little bit slow, worked our
way through it and put some numbers down. He's a great guy. He's a great
asset to our team, and he always will be. That's why he's still with the
organization. We think a lot of him.

 

"I didn't come close to hitting it (concrete) at all. I saw it. It was
about a 10-inch junk at the time. The thing I think that was cool, they
fixed the problem quick and got back racing. We've been to a lot of
places where we've had to cancel and go back the next day.

 

 "I love this place. I love what Clay is going to do to it with the
repavement. I didn't see one empty seat out there all day long. People
love short track racing.

 

"If you look at our record there's a lot of fifths and thirds and
fourths and finishes like that. We finally got it all right, and I was
really paying a lot of attention to save the brakes all day long so I'd
have good brakes at the end of the race. Once I got the lead I just kept
telling myself to be smooth and hit your marks, don't give this thing
away. Even if the caution flag came out, I knew no one was going to pit.

 

"When I first started running Martinsville, the track looked a lot
different than it does right now. I grew up with Bobby Allison and
Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson and all those guys. I would watch them
struggle and fight and claw and win races. It's a little different now.
It's a little easier now than it was back then. Lee Petty was stuck
right in the middle of that. It's a real honor for me (to pass Lee Petty
in career victories)."

 

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) - Finished fifth, second straight
fifth-place finish at Martinsville.

"Congratulations to Rusty and that entire team. That's two top fives in
a row here for our ALLTEL Dodge, and that's pretty big after our
previous finishes. It was pretty tough for sure. It was hotter than we
all expected, but we all made it. We didn't have the greatest pit stops
all day today, but I think we found out what was wrong with that. It
wasn't something someone was doing wrong, but all-in-all it was a good
run today for the ALLTEL Dodge. We want to win, no doubt, but it's nice
to finish in the top five. We were about a fifth-place car."

 

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge) - Finished ninth

"We didn't have good pit stops today. We'd come in second and go out
sixth and come in sixth and go out ninth or 10th. We passed Rusty most
of the day, and he won the race. That red flag didn't hurt us or help
us. We've just got to work on these pit stops."

 

JOHN FERNANDEZ (Director, Dodge Motorsports Operations)

NOTE: This is Dodge's first win at Martinsville since Dave Marcis won
here in 1975.

"I really didn't think it would be Martinsville where we'd get the first
win. I thought it would be before this, but Rusty looked good all week.
He looked good Friday and he looked good Saturday in practice. He was
just real consistent all weekend long and the guys did a great job. He
fought Jimmie Johnson tooth and nail. When he got the lead, he drove
away. Great win for Dodge. Great win for Rusty."

 

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge) - Finished Seventh

"I'm disappointed a little bit because we ran so well early on. I
couldn't tell them what to do to make the car better. Donnie tried a
couple of things, and we just could never hit on anything to make the
car faster than it was. Some of those other guys got better, and we just
kind of maintained where we were at. It's a big group effort, not only
the guys on my team, but the guys back at the shop. Everybody has their
act together right now. All three Ganassi Dodges are running well right
now, so it's fun to come to the track. We were junk after we went back
after the red flag. I don't know why. We were pretty good before the
break. After the break we were terrible. The concrete wasn't really that
big of a deal. The rubber is the issue. It's like you hit a curb in the
middle of the corner and it upsets the car."

 

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) - Finished 21st

"It was a long, long race. At least we finished, and I'm happy we
finished. The Dodge was decent at times, then not so good, then decent,
then really good at the end before that final yellow. I learned a lot
today. It was a real education. We didn't make that many good laps
today, but we fought hard all day long to keep our Dodge in the race.
That long red flag in the middle of the race really worked for us. I
think it worked in everybody's favor. It gave us a chance to get out of
the car and cool off. We didn't lose too much of our focus during the
red flag, and we were ready to race when we went back out. The heat was
a factor for everyone today. It was the hottest race of the year, so it
worked against everybody. That first long race in the heat is tough, but
it gets easier after that. I'm trying to learn to like these short
tracks, but I still don't like the length of this race. It was a long,
hot day. Our goal going into today was to finish the race in the top 15.
I feel like we did a good job staying in the race and keeping the
fenders on the car, but we didn't accomplish our top 15 goal. A 21st
place is better than 22nd. Next time we come back I'll race better and
finish better because we learned a lot today."

 

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge)

"We were OK. I thought we were pretty good on a 40-60 lap run. At the
end of the long run the tires got pretty bad. We weren't as good as some
of the other guys, but we were holding our own and staying on the lead
lap. We made some changes and the car was a little better there, but
then the gear starting blowing up. I think it started happening at the
end of that long run. I was having a lot of fun out there beating and
banging around. I was looking forward to getting a full race under my
belt. It's too bad we broke this gear, but we had a really good car. It
gets pretty hot here. You don't get a lot of air in the car because
you're not going that fast. I feel bad for everybody involved. These
guys busted their butts getting this car ready. We had a good qualifying
spot and we were happy about this. We just had some bad luck."

 

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)

"We struggled a little bit from the get-go. We were trying to get back
on the lead lap and we needed one more spot to do that. I went into turn
one. It never gave me any clue. It just came around on me. We were tight
all day. We were trying to work our way back up to the lead lap. It just
came around on me and that was it."