Chevy Happy Hour Notes from Sears Point

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
Save Mart 350
Sears Point Raceway
112 laps, 350 kilometers
2-mile road course
Race 16 of 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
Saturday, June 22, 2002

HAPPY HOUR QUOTES:

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVY MONTE CARLO:  ON HITTING THE GUARDRAIL
EARLY IN HAPPY HOUR PRACTICE (40th):  "It just got a little loose out in
turn 10.  Driver error.  We put new tires on it and came out.  The car was
the really the best it¹s been all day long.  Coming off of turn 7 I got a
little sideways; I should¹ve just checked up.  I ended up spinning the car
out and making a lot of work for the Pennzoil guys.  This is typical at
Sonoma for us.  For some reason we don¹t have any luck out here.  Hopefully,
this will change our luck around, get it out of our system and have a good
run on Sunday."  Note:  The car was repaired and Park returned to the track
for 12 more laps.

MIKE SKINNER,, NO. 4 KODAK CHEVY MONTE CARLO: ON STANDING DRESSED IN HIS
STREET CLOTHES WHILE HAPPY HOUR WAS STILL ON (17th, ran only six laps):  "I
think we got a pretty good race car.  Our Kodak car seems to be pretty
balanced, pretty good.  I¹d like to see it a little bit faster.  It¹s
driving good.  We tried a couple of things; made it worse.  We put it back
like it was, it came back.  We just decided to keep laps off the engine, the
brakes and everything and save it for tomorrow."  DO YOU LIKE ROAD RACING?
"I love road racing.  I¹d just love to see us get our Kodak Monte Carlo a
little closer to the front than we¹ve been lately.  I think (it works for
us) keeping laps off of it, saving it.  The car¹s driving really, really
good.  I¹d like to see it be a good day for us."  ON THIS NEW RACE TRACK:
"I like it.  It¹s a little tighter in the first left-hander.  It¹s the same
for everybody.  I think it¹s going to get a little bit bunched up here.  I
haven¹t seen a whole lot of problems so far, so I think it¹s going to be
good."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVY MONTE CARLO (quickest in Happy
Hour, 76.110/94.127):  "It¹s too bad we didn¹t do that time yesterday in
qualifying.  We know where we messed up yesterday in qualifying and we¹re
just trying not to let that happen again.  It was a setup issue and we¹ll be
able to be better.  We did that time with open tape; we should have been
better than that in qualifying .  The guys are doing good, we ran a lot of
laps, we found out how our car is going to be on the long runs and it
doesn¹t seem like I¹m burning off the tires too bad, so I think we¹ll be in
pretty good shape."  HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS "NEW" TRACK?  "I liked it before,
I like it now.  Actually I liked it how it used to, used to be, when we used
to have the carousel.  For the way it is now, it¹s OK.  It probably made for
a better race for the fans where they can see more, but it made it a little
more difficult to drive because you don¹t really have peripheral barriers to
look for apexes and stuff."  ON THIS CAR: "It¹s not far off too much from
what we had last year (in the No. 7 car).  We keep working on it.
Obviously, this is a Chevrolet; we have been able to tune it a little
better.  Richard Childress Racing makes really good engines, and that¹s
probably where they found a little more speed."

     RON FELLOWS, NO. 87 CELLULAR ONE CHEVY MONTE CARLO (fifth):  YOU FOUND
SOMETHING TODAY?  "What we found was a little bit of grip.  (We made) A
couple of shock changes, spring and swaybar for balance.  We got a little
more grip so we¹re going a little bit better.  I¹m still a little concerned
where the chassis is going to go as we go through a long tank of fuel.  I¹m
afraid of initially getting too much understeer then getting too loose after
that, which is pretty common when the fuel load drops off.  We¹ll throw a
couple of darts at it and be ready to race."  ON RACING WITH OLD ROAD-RACING
BUDDY BORIS SAID:  "He¹s got a little easier job to get close to the front.
I¹m sure he¹ll be just fine.  We¹ve got a little more work to do.  Based on
what we learned last year, being around there for the whole race, we¹ve got
to predict better the balance of the car on that last tank of fuel where it
tends to get slick.  The track will build grip and then it falls off toward
the end of the race.  You get rubber down, and then the sun gets on it and
it starts to get slippery.  We will make one or two more changes and
hopefully we¹ll be decent at the end."