Chevy Race Notes - MICH June 16 - Gordon, Johnson, Waltrip

A red flag restart with five laps to go shuffled the finishing order for
Chevy drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson at Michigan International
Speedway. The Hendrick Motorspsorts teammates finished 5th & 14th
(respectively) and are now tied for second place in the Winston Cup point
standings. Michael Waltrip's fourth place finish was his third top-five of
the season. Post-race comments follow:

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Sirius Satellite Radio 400 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, June 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 1

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 14th - remains
in 2nd place in the point standings):
(On the incident with Ryan Newman) "He's aggressive, but he didn't wreck me.
He just broke our momentum and it was over from there. So I can't be upset
with it. He raced me hard. That's how it is. I've just got to be smarter
next time and remember who I'm racing, that's all.

"He (Newman) didn't do anything. He was in the right. He got a great finish
out of it. I'm disappointed that we didn't come home with a better finish,
but that's how it is.
He drove it (his car) off into the bottom below me. It loosened him up. Once
I heard he was in there, I just should have given him the room and just
stayed in the second groove."

(On the restart, do you think you had a good chance of finishing second or
even winning?) "Yeah, when we got restarted, I figured we could hold our
own. I've got to remember who I'm racing and pay attention to that stuff
next time so I don't fall victim to it. I was just disappointed to see the
caution come out as late as it did. You work so hard
all day long on strategy and all the stuff that happens and then a late race
caution jumbles it up. But it was a great race for the fans. I'm sure
everyone in the stands enjoyed it."

(Did you have enough to get around Kenseth?) "Nope. Once our momentum got
broken, we got really tight. I was just hoping we'd get strung out and I
could hold my own at that point, but it didn't end up working out."

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 5th and moved
into a 2nd place tie with Jimmie Johnson in the point standings): "I'm
shaking my head, I can't believe it. We were going along and things weren't
going our way and then all of a sudden something happens like that and we
finish fifth. We were a fifth place car, I felt like - maybe even better if
cautions hadn't fallen the way they did. We got stuck a lap down and had to
fight our way back and these guys did an excellent job just keeping me
pumped up and keeping us in this thing.  We got back on the lead lap. We
were basically going to sit back there and finish 14th.  The car just
wouldn't go forward.

"And then that red flag came out and we went in there (pitted) and got four
(tires). We had no other choice. We were the last car on the lead lap. We
came in and got four tires and that Chevy just took off. I went to the high
side and went through the middle and we were four wide and it was pretty
hairy. But it all worked out. Both me and Jarrett - it looked like it worked
out real well for him. I don't know if he got four (tires), but to be able
to get up there and get a top five (finish), that's awesome."
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Sirius Satellite Radio 400 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, June 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

(When you go a lap down that early in the race, how hard is it to be patient
and try to get it back and have a chance to get up front for the win?) "The
patience part is that you have to wait for the right opportunity and the
right moment. But then the aggressiveness comes because you can't just ride
around there. You've got to ride really, really hard to get your lap back.
These guys are fighting to keep a guy like me down. Nobody wanted me to get
my lap back - probably because we finished fifth tells you why. But they
were working us over pretty hard to keep us from getting that lap back. We
were just thankful to get it."

(On his teammate, Jimmie Johnson, finishing 14th) "They had an unfortunate
deal there where the red flag didn't pay off for them but it paid off big
for me. You never know how they're going to fall. It just went in our
direction today.

(Did you see the move the No. 12 (Ryan Newman) made on the No. 48 (Jimmie
Johnson) with a couple of laps to go?) "No, but nothing would surprise me."

(Do you have to play the defense with aggressive drivers?) "Sometimes you've
just got to stay clear of them and sometimes you have to give them back
their own medicine. It's unfortunate because sometimes guys forget how fast
we're going out there and you don't need to be doing stuff like that out
there.

"You know, it's just one of those deals. I don't know what the situation was
but I've dealt with young, aggressive guys before and sometimes when it's
early in the race, you've got to let them go. But when it's late in the
race, you've got to race everybody hard. They're racing you extremely hard
and you've just got to take it on the chin sometimes, and then wait for your
opportunity to -- not necessarily put it back to them - but make the same
type of move and make it stick for you."

(On coming back from a lap down?) "I'm real happy. I felt like we had a
fifth or sixth place car and for us to lose a lap was pretty disappointing.
We just needed to keep freeing the car up. The caution fell and got us a lap
down. But then we got up there in the clean air, and man I'll tell you that
thing was flying. Then we got our lap back and went to the back of the pack
and then I was just junk.  And again, that dirty air back there - the cars
just do not drive the same when you get behind a bunch of cars.

"Luckily, we were able to get four tires there at the end or we would have
never finished where we did."

TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Sirius Satellite Radio 400 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, June 16, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Michigan International Speedway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

(On Dale Jarrett not giving him his lap back when the caution came out) "I
agree with what he was doing, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be happy
with it. I'd probably do the same thing to him. He heard that the caution
might be coming out and he made a pretty strong move to pass me because he
knew he didn't want me to be on the lead lap. And (later) we got our lap
back and finished fifth. And that's why not many guys would give me my lap
back. That's why I don't give many guys their lap back either."

(Did you give him a tap for it?) "Oh, I don't know. I just said, 'Hello'."

Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished
4th): "Obviously we are happy with our day.  We had a good car. Slugger
(crew chief) and all the guys really worked hard on it and things are
working better for the NAPA team.

"We were a little loose and we just kept making adjustments. We were able to
come back at the end. If we didn't have the red flag, we were going to be
all right, I think. But I like those red flags at the end. It makes things
interesting."