NASCAR BGN: Ford driver comments, Kansas City post race

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

September 30, 2001

ANDY KIRBY-77-Moy Racing Ford Taurus (Finished 41st) - HOW DID YOU SEE IT UNFOLD? "I was pointing to the outside as he was coming around. He was a car fast and we weren't as fast as the leaders, but the other cars passed me fine. We went into (Turn) 1 and I pointed to the outside, my left side was on the white line, and I don't know if he thought he was clear or not, but he came down and barely clipped my right front and it put him in the wall. He was over there raising Cain with me, but I wouldn't take out a fast car on purpose. When you have a car as slow as we were running, and as fast as he was, you think he'd be a little more cautious. And, that's a bad angle for the spotter. The spotter might have told him, 'Clear,' and he might have come down and touched me. I hate it for him. He ain't too happy, but he's not the only guy on the race track even though he's leading the points and running up front. I'm sorry, when you're that fast and have that good of a car, you need to be a little cautious sometimes when you go around a car that's not running that good. I hate it, but I guess that's racing." WHAT DID HE SAY TO YOU WHEN HE WALKED OVER TO YOUR CAR? "He was poking me on the chest and was telling me to get off the race track. He's obviously forgot where he came from."

HAROLD HOLLY, Crew Chief-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus - THE GAMBLE PAID OFF AGAIN FOR YOUR SECOND CONSECUTIVE WIN. "I'll tell you what, Jeff didn't want to stop there at the end and we didn't want to stop either. He's the man for getting up on that thing. A lot of people wanted tires, but Jeff didn't want any, he wanted to win the race. The Nesquik Ford Taurus team, I'll tell you what, they're just awesome right now. There's just gelling and everything is working."

GREG BIFFLE-60-Grainger Ford Taurus (Finished 3rd) - "We could have been a little bit better. We weren't really a contender most of the day. There toward the end, we started to get better, but we were off just a little bit and we're not sure where. It was a great run for the Grainger Ford. We had good pit stops and the guys did a really good job today. We're pretty excited about it, but we can't get a handle on this really hard tire that they bring to brand-new race tracks. It just takes us a little bit to get a hang of them." GREEN AND PARKER DIDN'T STOP, BUT YOU DID. DID YOU THINK YOU HAD ENOUGH TO CATCH THEM? "We were out of gas is why we stopped. We weren't going to make it. We stopped too early and had to come in there. But, this tire is so hard, I didn't think we really stood a chance to catch them in 20 laps."

JEFF GREEN-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Finished 1st) - WHO MADE THE CALL TO STAY OUT ON THE LAST CAUTION? "Well, when the caution came out, I said, 'Harold, we're not pitting are we?' I just tried to get the point across that I didn't want to, and he called it. That was just a mutual agreement, and it kinda psyched those guys out and tried to fake them a little bit. I didn't figure that Jason or the 60 would pit and they did, and that kinda surprised me. When I got out front, my car was just awesome; it handled the best it handled all day. That's just because I had clean air on the front of that Taurus. I just thank the Lord for Goodyear and Nesquik and Ford, and everybody that helps us." WHAT KIND OF CHANGES DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE TO YOUR CAR TODAY? "We just tried to free it up. Most part of it was aero. We couldn't really do a lot for that. We just had to work on the chassis, and again, when I got out front, it was a new car. It wasn't as tight as it was when I was behind Jason and the 60 car." DID YOU HAVE ANY FUEL CONCERNS? "Well, I was saving fuel every caution that we had. I had it in fourth gear running around under caution turning 2000 RPM. The guys stayed on me all day to save fuel and it paid off for us. I didn't know that it was that close. It kind of worried me when I ran out of gas, but it was all over then." YOU'RE SHOWING THAT THIS ISN'T A LAME-DUCK PART OF THE SEASON. "We got five more races now to win and we think we can win every one of them. They haven't given up on me and I haven't given up on them. With the five more races that we have together, we're going to try to do the best we can. We're all still fiends. We're leaving on a mutual agreement. They've got a great guy coming in next year with Scott Riggs, so they'll be as good as we are right now. I'm looking forward next year on my deal, but I know they are too." THIS IS YOUR SECOND WIN AT AN INAUGURAL VENUE. "It's been good to me. It's worked out for us to win. Today could have worked out for us where we didn't win. If that last caution hadn't come out and those guys didn't pit, I couldn't pass Jason and I couldn't pass the 60 because of that aero-push. It's a great day for us. I know those Winston Cup are saying that they're not going to pit now either. I think they probably learned something today. That's the good thing about Busch races. We can learn on Saturday to be better on Sunday." YOU CAME INTO VICTORY LANE WITHOUT THE CAR. "I was trying to top Harvick's burnout and all of those guys doing burnouts, and I ran out of gas. That's why I didn't know that it was that close. They said it was going to be close, and I was just watching the fuel gauge and trying to take my time at the end. It never bobbled until I started turning it up on chip at 9000 doing burnouts."

JASON KELLER-57-Albertsons Ford Taurus (Finished 5th) - "Looking back, we made the wrong call there at the end, and, plus, we got blocked in our pit stall. The two tires was tighter than the four tires, and you always second-guess yourself." YOUR TEAMMATE DIDN'T PIT. WAS THAT AN OPTION? "I wouldn't have taken any tires. If I knew could have gone all the way, my car was pretty balanced at that time. You always second-guess yourself. I would have taken a top-five at the beginning of the day, but I'm pretty disappointed right now." WHEN YOU SAW HARVICK'S CAR SITTING ON THE TRACK, DID YOU START THINK CONSERVATIVELY? "That's what I've been doing the past couple of weeks and it's been hurting me. I was thinking, 'Win that race.' I wanted that trophy pretty bad." YOU PITTED LATE, BUT WEREN'T ABLE TO MAKE UP ANY SPOTS LATE. "Well, I think one was clean air. My car really did a whole lot better on old tires than it did on two tires. Two tires just bound my car up too much. I hate to give them away like that. You're really a sitting duck out there when you're in the lead. If we would have stayed out, everybody else probably would have pitted and you'll never know what will happen. You can't second-guess yourself." YOU PICKED UP A LOT OF POINTS ON KEVIN HARVICK TODAY. "I'd rather be picking that trophy up over there in Victory Lane a lot more than those points right now. He's going to have a couple of bad weeks, and if he does, I hope we can capitalize. What ever happens, happens."

KEVIN LEPAGE-71-State Fair Corn Dogs Ford Taurus (Finished 12th) - "We led a bunch of laps today and we ran up front. We were really strong. You have to drive a race car in order to do that. We came in and got penalized, and we came back out and made up a lot of time on the race track. It's not because I can't drive a race car. Larry (McClure) over at the Kodak team decided to make a change and I'm the one that they're making a change with, so I'll just out and look for another job." WAS THERE ONLY ONE GROOVE? "Pretty much. Pretty much a one-lane race track. We started working in a second lane, but it's just a heartbreaker. We had the car to win, and look at the finish and who won the race and the finishes up there, and to know that we dominated the race up until we ran out of fuel, it's pretty heartbreaking." JEFF GREEN WON THE RACE BY NOT PITTING AT THE END. DOES THAT SAY MORE ABOUT THE RACE TRACK OR THE TIRE? "If his Ford was anything like my Ford, my Ford loved clean air. It liked to be out front. When Robby Gordon got out in front of me at the beginning of the race, my car was a little tight behind him. I got him in lapped traffic and I was really able to check out. The guys did really did a great job on pit stop, we just missed it by a couple of laps. I just came over the radio and told Richard not to run us out of fuel, and we ran out of fuel. I'm pretty disappointed." A LOT OF TIMES, THE BUSCH RACES SEEMS TO HELP YOU IN YOUR CUP CAR, BUT DID THE EXTRA PRACTICE ION YOUR CUP CAR TODAY HELP YOU IN THE BUSCH RACE? "Not really. We ran our own four springs and our own four shocks. Richard and I have worked together for a lot of years and we know what we want and I tried to bring some stuff over there, but it's a Chevrolet and it didn't seem to work."

ELTON SAWYER-98-Kansas State/Starter Ford Taurus (Finished 16th) - "We really just missed it today. We really didn't have a fast car. We adjusted on it and got it a little better, we just didn't have any speed." WITH IT BEING A ONE-GROOVE TRACK, DID YOU HAVE PROBLEMS PASSING OTHER CARS? "Well, it's single file and that makes it hard to pass. You have to get them set up and you have to be able to get off the corner faster. That's the key." DID THE RACING GROOVE IMPROVE AS THE RACE PROGRESSED? "It was starting to get a little better. It was only about a lane-and-a-half. I think it will be better for the guys tomorrow."

JEFF GREEN PRESS CONFERENCE

"My car had been as good as it was all day right there, even behind those guys, but they were making me so tight, I couldn't get under them to pass them. I really didn't dream that it would be that good. Last week, it was the only way we were going to win the race to beat those guys off pit road, and it worked for us. This week, that was the only way that we were going to win again. We could have come in and got two, but we still would have been second, third or fourth, and that's probably where we would have ended up. The aero-push was gone and that car responded very well. It really handled as well as it did in Happy Hour and I was pretty happy with it in Happy Hour. I was a little disappointed with it today, but I was in traffic all day. That's why I was disappointed with it, and when I got out front, it just took off and left those guys behind." DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE YOU WERE RUNNING WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT? "I think I was third at the time. I think that Jason was leading and the 60 was second and I was third." WERE YOU WERE WORRIED ABOUT GAS MILEAGE, ESPECIALLY WHEN LEPAGE RAN OUT? "Harold and the guys were on me since Friday. We talked on Friday about saving fuel, so I even tried in Happy Hour to save fuel. We've had a problem with using more fuel than the other guys for some reason, but on the cautions, I rode around in fourth gear just trying to save fuel. I didn't smoke the rear tires to get them cleaned off to try to save fuel. I did everything all day long under caution to try to save fuel and I think that paid off for me. We didn't run out of gas out there. I thought it ran out of gas when I was trying to do a burnout out there, but the motor blew up. Dan and the guys do a great job every week of calculating fuel mileage, and when that last caution came out, they said, 'Don't worry about fuel - go, go go,' and that's what I did." IS IT SAFE TO SAY WE'VE SEEN THE LAST OF THE MUSTACHE? "I think so. When I'm in the race car, anyway. I'll grow some facial hair when I go hunting, but when I get in a race car, I might shave two or three times a day if I have to. I'm two and zero right now, so hopefully I can keep that average up." DO YOU KNOW WHAT BROKE IN THE ENGINE? "They said it had holes in the side of the oil pan, so I'm sure it broke a rod or something. It was smoking a little bit in the car and I could smell smoke, but I wasn't going to dare say something over the radio about it. The motor just didn't run very good from about halfway on of the race. It seemed like it was laboring pretty hard up in the top RPMs at the end of the straightaway. That was hurting us behind those guys because I could get to them to pass them, and when we got to lapped traffic that was hurting us because it was tough for me to pass those guys because we didn't have the power I think we needed at the top end. Once we got out front, the car handled where I could through the corner like I wanted to and I was able to ease away from those guys. I've never done that before where I've blown up a motor doing a burnout. It shouldn't have happened. Something was going wrong. Someone does a burnout every week after the race and they don't blow up motors. I did one last week and I didn't blow a motor. Something was going wrong with it and when I turned it up to 8000, I expired it." TALK ABOUT YOUR FUTURE TEAMMATE KEVIN HARVICK. "He's not my teammate yet, and he'll tell you that. I was right behind that when it happened. These lapped cars, you have to give them plenty of room. A couple of times, we didn't know where they we going. I think that's what happened. He didn't give him enough room. The guy turned up into him and got into him. It wasn't Kevin's fault, don't get me wrong. Instead of leaving a foot, he should have left a couple of feet because you don't know what that guy's going to do. He doesn't race with us every week. It's different when you race with a guy every week. You can kinda tell what he's going to do. It was just a tough situation. I hate it for Kevin. I want to beat the guy on the race track. I want to beat him fair and square. I want to win the championship, but I also want to do it on the race track. I don't want to beat him sitting in the garage area putting fenders back on. Unfortunately, he's going to have to have days like that for us to catch. We knocked it down a little bit today and I think we're back in it. We've got fives races left and if we keep wining races we'll keep getting the most points and that's the best way to gain." YOU HAD A BAD STRETCH EARLY IN THE SEASON, BUT THAT'S TURNED AROUND. ARE YOU SURPRISED TO BE BACK IN THE RUNNING WITH FIVES RACES TO GO? "I'm not surprised that we're winning races now. I'm surprised what has happened to Kevin the past three weeks. You can't predict what is going to happen in these races. You just have to take care of your car. Back in the summer months, we did have a bad stretch of races. We blew up a couple motors and I wrecked a few a cars, and it's probably because I was getting behind in the points and I was trying too hard. Now, I'm just relaxing a little bit and the guys are 110 percent behind me. Back in the summer, again, that's when we announced that I was going to RCR next year. Whether that was on their minds, I don't know. I think we've all kind of swallowed it now. They guys have swallowed it, too. We're going on with our lives. We're trying to win races like w should and that's got us back in the points race."

Text provided by Greg Shea

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