Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Notes and Qquotes from Pocono Qualifying

Friday, July 26, 2002	
Pocono Raceway           
Dodge notes and quotes.

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts 34th on same row with his brother Jeff.
"That first lap I was just loose as hell. I wasn't even going to run a second lap. I was just trying to feel the car out a little bit coming out of turn two and it looped around on me. I got lucky and saved it. We had gained on it a little bit in practice. We had made some progress, but we were still three-quarters of a second off. We just went too far with the last chassis adjustment. The car feels real racy. I know it's going to race better than it qualified. You always try to do everything you can do. I'm not getting paid to ride around here, and I'm not going to ride around."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Elliott's lap of 170.508 mph gave him the No. 1 starting spot in Friday's time trials. Early quotes.

"I felt like I didn't get it done on the first lap and all the guys on the team said to go for it. We've got a good car, and we'll have to see how it ends up. A lot of good cars still have to run, but I'm really proud of what this team has done this year. We've really communicated well. That's what I said at Loudon last week. I was pleased with that lap. We picked up from practice, and that's the name of the game. You've just got to keep chipping away at it. The guys are giving me real good equipment, and they're making me look real good in my older age. We had a decent day last week. We ended up having a few problems in the race. Regardless of what happens, I'm proud of my guys. It's not me. It's them. The first time I ran here it seemed like we ran in the 145 mph bracket. We're running about 170 mph now. You've just got to keep after it."

HUT STRICKLIN (No. 23 Hills Bros Coffee Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts 31st
"All the guys have done a great job, and we picked up a bunch from practice. We weren't that good in practice, and we threw a lot of things at it. We hit on some stuff, and I'm real proud of the team. I think we were more in a race setup, so I'm pretty happy. Now we don't have to make such a huge change from qualifying to the race. Hopefully, it'll pay off on Sunday."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts fifth
"It was a pretty good lap. The car's got more in it. Unfortunately, I didn't get through the tunnel turn like I should have. Usually that's a good corner for us, but I got excited today because I hit turn one decent. We'd like to start up front and keep it up there. There's some really good cars in the back. It always is in Winston Cup, and it really doesn't matter where you start - especially here at Pocono."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts 13th
"That was a pretty good lap. We picked up about three tenths from practice. They tuned the motor up a little bit and made a little chassis change. A lot of these guys have got on qualifying shocks and we've got on race shocks. I think we're ready to race. I think we've got a better car than we had here last time. It's the same car, but we've worked on it and I think we made it a lot better. We found some stuff that should help. We were real good on old tires today in practice, so we'll see what we've got."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts 19th
"I'm really happy with that lap. We struggled in practice. We picked up a lot in qualifying, and I left something on the table. I didn't get through the tunnel turn like I should have. We'll have a good starting spot, better than last time and we finished 11th here last time. Maybe we can pick it up. The ARCA car has given me more time on the track. That should help us out. Hopefully we can learn something about the track temperatures tomorrow that will help us out on Sunday."

JERRY NADEAU (No. 44 Georgia Pacific Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts 12th
"I was real conservative. I was a little tight coming through the tunnel turn so I really slowed it down coming into three. It's a good run. I've never really run that well here before. I'm happy with that. It's a pretty tough race track. You've got three unique turns, and you've got to get through all three turns as fast as you can. Sometimes you car might not run as good through turn one as it does through turn three. You have to take it like that. Greg Steadman (crew chief) and I are trying to learn as much as we can as quick as we can. I like this track, and I'm looking forward to all the races the rest of the year. I've been with a lot of race teams. Hopefully we can stay here a little while. We'll see how it goes the rest of the year."

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts 35th
"We're a second off the pole, and that's embarrassing. I've never qualified well here. I don't think I've ever qualified in the top 10. Maybe it's a mental block. We've got to figure it. I like this track, but I don't like qualifying here. It's going to be a long day on Sunday."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
Starts fourth
"This race team did a great job, and they made great decisions again. Two weeks in a row we didn't practice that good and we changed a lot of things on the car, made the right decisions and came out and qualified pretty good. I'm just proud to see the 9 and 19 and 7 all up there. We're real excited about Sunday. We're going to give it all we've got and see if we can't get back to victory lane here."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Elliott won his second straight pole Friday and his fourth of the season. It was also Elliott's fourth career pole at Pocono and his 55th career pole in 679 starts. Elliott ranks third in the modern era with his 55 poles behind Darrell Waltrip (59) and David Pearson (57). Elliott has nine top-five qualifying runs this season and 12 top 10s. Eight of his last nine qualifying attempts ended up with top 10 starting spots and seven of those eight were top fives.

"Pocono has been good to me throughout the years. I've enjoyed racing here. It's a different kind of race track from what we run week in and week out. Since I came here the first time, I've run pretty decent here. You have to change your style here with the times. You try to outrun these youngsters every week and that gets tough. Mike Ford (crew chief) and all the guys do a real good job putting it together. We'll throw some things at it in the morning and try to figure out which direction we want to go on Sunday.

"Everything has gotten better. The engine is better, the chassis is better. Aerodynamics are better. The tires are better. It equates to more speed and you've got to figure out how to get the optimum out of that. It's a never ending evolution. Since I came on board with Ray (Evernham), I've been able to have the technology there to bring it all together, and it's really been neat. As far as the race is concerned, we've had our ups and downs and we need to try to put it all together and run 500 miles. The last race (at Pocono) we ended up about 20 laps short.



"You keep chipping away at it. It (pole) gives you not only good track position but a good pit selection on Sunday. All that starts to equate.... Hopefully it'll all come together. Last week we had a problem and it wasn't anybody's fault. It was just one of those situations that happens in a race car. We've just got to forget about the past and concentrate on what our mistakes are and work on the next group of races. There's a lot left before the end of the season."

 "It all depends on how you get your car worked out. It might work better in turn one, you might work better in the tunnel turn and you might work better in three. The last race I was pretty good in turn one, so-so through the tunnel and through turn three. I was able to make up some ground in turn one. This race it might be different. I might be better in turn three. We'll sort through our changes tomorrow and get ready for Sunday.

"Most of the guys will adjust as the day goes on. A lot will depend on what tomorrow brings, what the temperature does, what the track does. We've got some pretty good notes here from the last race. We'll attach those notes to what we learn tomorrow and decide what we start Sunday with. We'll check the temperature and see what it's going to be.

"Everything was still in the parameters of what they told me to look for, the temperature and all of that. I kept digging (second lap of qualifying).

"I used to think about 165 (mph) was the limit (at Pocono), 160 even. It just depends on the technology, what the next five years dictate, what NASCAR decides to do and how Goodyear changes the tires, aerodynamics. All that is going to equate on speed one way or the other, whether it's a plus or minus.

"I don't think it'll be any different. It's always been noted as an engine track, and a lot of guys have problems engine-wise or transmission-wise. You run so long. It takes so long to make a lap here. The race pace slows down to where you're on the race track a long time Sunday afternoon. It equates to being hard on the equipment. I think we've got a good handle on what happened to us here last race. The engine guys are confident in what they've done and they're on to whatever happened. What happened to my car is the same thing that happened to Jeremy's (teammate Mayfield). We're going in a good direction."