Chevy Happy Hour Notes - Rockingham, J.Gordon, Feb. 23

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Subway 400 Advance Material GM Racing Communications
Saturday, February 23, 2002 nmwager@aol.com
North Carolina Speedway

Post Happy Hour comments from Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte
Carlo: "This is one of those places where the set-up is really, really
critical. It really eats the tires up, so you've got to make sure that
you're right.  We've structured these teams so we can talk and communicate
and we talked with Jerry Nadeau and Jimmie Johnson after Happy Hour today."

(Do you have it dialed-in better today?) "Yeah, we're pretty happy with it.
And even coming into this weekend I was feeling pretty good about our race
set-up. We didn't qualify where we wanted to, but hopefully we can make up
for that tomorrow."

(Will the cold weather play a factor?) "Well, we're looking at it that if
the sun comes out tomorrow, the tires won't last quite as long. And whatever
direction you're in, you'll just go further in that direction.  So if you're
loose today, you're going to be a lot looser tomorrow. If you're tight
today, you're probably going to be a lot tighter tomorrow. The speeds
certainly won't be the same.  All we can do is practice in the conditions
that we're in and make our best calls and adjustments. I think that we're
going to be in pretty good shape."

(Were you a little more aggressive at Daytona, or was that just the Daytona
500?) "You've got to be aggressive everywhere.  You've got to know when to
be smooth and be patient and when to be aggressive. Hopefully I can pick and
choose the right times and places to do that."

(You had a great run in Las Vegas last year. Are you anxious to go there
next week?) "I'm real excited.  We turned our whole program around there
last year and went on to win the championship.  I think a lot of it had to
do with the momentum that came out of that event. We had a great test there
in January and we're looking forward to going back there."

(What's your plan for this race at Rockingham tomorrow?) "Don't stay in
33rd, and go forward. The plan is to get the car working where other cars
aren't so that we can make passes and make sure that we conserve the tires
and run good on the long runs."

(Did you scrape the wall in that last Happy Hour session?)  "Yeah, I was
just running hard - probably too hard with some guys there and they got
underneath me.  I was just working the outside and just got a little bit
wide and just tried to keep it out of the wall and scraped it a little bit."

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