Dodge NASCAR NAPA 500 Notes

Sunday, April 28, 2002
Ray Cooper
California Speedway
Golin/Harris International
Dodge notes and quotes.		803-466-9085
NAPA Auto Parts 500.    


BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Elliott's fourth-place finish was his best of the season and his first
top five. He moved to 11th in the NASCAR Winston Cup standings and trails
10th-place Tony Stewart by only 36 points.
"We thought we could do it on no tires, but we were still off there a little
bit. I never could make it right. I drove down in turn one and got loose.
Jimmie went on the outside and the 16 went on the inside and we wound up
fourth, but we had a good car and a good run. We shouldn't have finished.
When that piece of paper got on the nose, it pegged the temperature hand. It
shouldn't have finished. It was just whoever got out front and got in the
clean air. I earned it several times today. We kept plugging along and kept
chipping away toward the top 20, top 15, top 10. We got within 10 seconds of
being lapped and the caution came out. I thought I had a flat tire and drove
off into turn one and we came right in. We had to play catchup from then on.
We elected not to come in on that there at the end because we needed track
position. The only gamble we had was to stay out. We were either going to
finish sixth or seventh if we came in and put on tires. We got an
opportunity to do better and we came away finishing fourth. That's the
things Mike (crew chief Ford) and I talk about on the radio. We try to
figure out the best thing to do. The Dodge was pretty good today, but still
it's the guy who can get it all put together, and Jimmie Johnson and his
guys did it today.
"We started in the back and that puts you in adversity there. We kept
plugging along and got in the top 10. The caution fell our way, but we had
to come in because I thought we had a flat on the restart.. We had a decent
car. We've got to get out of here and keep working. I'm proud of everything
the team has done. The motor ran great today. This Dodge team has come a
long way in the last three or four months.
"These are the places you can come across and get your first win if you find
yourself in the right place. Jimmie had a good car from the get-go and I
think he put himself in position to win. That's what you've got to do."

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We had a pretty disappointing day with the Target Dodge today. The car was
real loose, and we couldn't get any grip in the corners. It got so bad that
we had to come in early and adjust on the shocks. We lost a lap in the
process and it really didn't help too much."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The Sirius Dodge was a great car. We missed the setup and we were loose all
day. We kept making changes, but it just didn't get any better. We're going
to go home and work on Richmond. It's one of my favorite tracks, and we'll
hopefully have a decent weekend there."




STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Original Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The car was tight all day. We adjusted on the car, then it got free in the
middle and tight off. Toward the end when Rusty passed me, I got pushed into
the wall and it knocked the tow in out. It messed up the fenders and
aerodyamics. We fell back a little bit, but we were still able to hang on
for another top 10 finish and gain some more points on second place. If we
can't win, we try to finish in the top 10 and that's what we did today."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We broke a motor. We haven't had any trouble all year long.  We've had good
motors, so you can't really say anything. These guys work hard. We came in
the pits one time and had some problems. I'm not sure what happened, we had
a loose wheel or something, but we kept fighting back.  We never could seem
to get back up there. We had a flat tire, and that put us down. Things
weren't quite right from the start. It seemed like it took off all right in
the beginning, and then it just kind of faded away."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We can't seem to put our finger on the problem. We're working hard at it.
We're not giving up. We're struggling and still finishing in the top 20.
We've just got to figure out what's going on and I think we can get back in
the top 10."

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Petty has moved from 38th to 22nd in the standings in the past seven
races.
"We started and we were loose in and loose off. We finally got it where it
was drivable up off. We made a couple of air pressure adjustments, and Lane
made a couple of air pressure adjustments with wedge and some stuff. We got
where we could drive it off and we just kind of stayed there. We ran steady
all day. We weren't the best car, but we had a good top 20 car and that's
where we finished. That's good. That's where we need to be. John Andretti
ran good all day and I guess he got caught at the end and changed two tires.
Everybody who changed four ran good at the end of the race. Steve Grissom
got in the wall. All-in-all it was a pretty decent day for us. Since the
fourth race of the season, the worst we've finished has been 21st and the
best we've finished has been 10th. We're working in a 10-place zone now and
that's where we need to be. We've been between 15th and 25th, and we need to
up it a little bit.  We need to be 10th-20th now. We've got to get all our
cars to run there. The Sprint Dodge has been running good and finishing
good, but we're not by any stretch running like the top cars, but we're
running consistent and that says a lot right now. We moved up two spots in
the points to 22nd. We're still plugging along."
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