NASCAR BGN: Food City 250 Post Race Quotes, Bristol
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
August 25, 2001JEFF GREEN-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Finished 2nd) - YOU DON'T LOOK HAPPY. WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END? "Anybody can turn somebody sideways to pass them and he's done it way too much. Yeah, he's my teammate on Sunday, but I don't like it. He's out there doing burn outs, but I don't think he'll sleep tonight. Come up there and pick your wheels up off the ground to pass you. He had a lot better tires than me and he could have passed me anyway. I'm proud of my Nesquik guys and they didn't give up on me after what I did on pit road. We had a great car tonight, but we didn't pick up too much ground."
ELTON SAWYER-98-Hot Tamales/Starter Ford Taurus (Finished 5th) - "It was a hell of a deal for the Hot Tamales Ford Taurus guys. They did a great job. We didn't start off good, but Ricky (Viers) adjusted. We stopped there on lap 140 and got four tires and that was difference. We really worked our way back up there and we thought we had as good a car as Kevin. He got through traffic a little better at the end, but to get out of here and still have the fenders on it and have a top five, we're pretty happy with that. This is a race track that you have to have a lot of patience, but I'll tell you what, if we're going to run five races a year, I want them all at Bristol." YOU SEEMED TO GET STRONGER AS THE RACE PROGRESSES. "Yeah, we had a real good car late. Ricky and the boys adjusted on it because it was too loose. That's one of the things you have to do here is build in some adjustability because it is a night race and we practiced during the day. We took two rubbers out of the right rear and got that thing really hooked up. I gave up so much track position doing that that I had to run through the field hard from lap 140 to 200. We made up a lot of ground. I thought we had as good of a car as Kevin, but he got through traffic better than we did at the end. But, it still is a top five and we'll take it." WAS THERE MORE BEATING AND BANGING THAN USUAL? "No, this is Bristol. You come here expecting that and if you come home with all four fenders intact, you're usually pretty happy."
GREG BIFFLE-60-Grainger Ford Taurus (Finished 18th) - "This was a pretty good showing for us being that we ran our backup car. We started at the back and the guys worked really hard. I put them through heck trying to get this backup car ready and changing engines. I just drove my butt off tonight and got a flat. There was so much debris out there from when the 17, 11 and 57 wrecked. I can't believe they didn't sweep the track off. It looked like a junkyard of metal there. I said, 'Man, somebody is going to get a flat tire,' and jinxed us. We got a flat right-front tire with 12 to go. Look at all the metal and debris on the race track. It's a wonder that not everybody got a flat tire." YOU WERE RACING UP FRONT AT THE END. WAS THE RACING TOO PHYSICAL EVEN FOR BRISTOL? "Yeah. Early on, I only moved a couple of guys over, but they were back markers. I never passed anybody up front with the way those guys were passing. Look at their right-front fenders, and I bet they'll show battle scars. You can see my right-front fender and how clean it is. You'll see some scrapes on the front from restarts, but those guys looked like they were racing jalopies. I couldn't believe how they were beating up there. More power to them because it gave me the lead, but it's just a shame we had a tire go down at the end after all that work." YOU LOST GROUND TO HARVICK, BUT MADE GROUND UP ON KELLER. "Yeah. I'm not giving up on the championship yet and settling for second. If we can run like that at Bristol, we're right on."
RYAN NEWMAN-02-ALLTEL Ford Taurus (Finished 8th) - YOU BATTLED BACK AFTER SUFFERING SOME EARLY DAMAGE. "That put us behind the eight ball. We had to go to the back after running 11th, and that definitely hurt us with track position. We caught a good break there when Hank Parker crashed; that kept us on the lead lap. I have to thank Steve Park for that. Once again, we got the rear bumper torn up more than the front bumper. It's just a typical deal for us this year." WAS THERE MORE BEATING AND BANGING THAN THE SPRING RACE? "It happens under the lights. Harvick was pretty much all over everybody. He won the race, but he had to knock Jeff Green out of the way to do it. I know Jeff Green isn't happy with that, but we ran eighth and we're happy to be able to roll the car on the trailer."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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