Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Notes and Quotes Watkins Glen

Sunday, Aug. 11, 2002	
Watkins Glen International
Dodge notes and quotes.

SCOTT PRUETT (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T) - Finished 6th
 "We had one of the best cars, maybe not better than Tony's because we didn't get a chance to run head to head, but we had everybody else covered.  I knew if I could get by the 12 I could take a shot at Tony. I wanted to take a shot at him, but I didn't want to wreck him. So I wanted to make sure when I did take a shot I could do a side by side deal. The only time was that last turn before coming on the straightaway. I gave it a go and I couldn't make it stick and ended up sixth. It was great racing, wheel to wheel, side by side. There was a lot of give and take. I've been here sometimes when it's a lot of take and everybody ends up wrecking. It felt like a different tone here today. A lot of guys were racing wheel to wheel, but they also were giving each other a little bit.
"I was trying to be patient and trying to push them into a mistake. We got down there 10 to the end and it was time to go. I had to give it some sort of effort. We came here to try to win the race and instead of third we got sixth. A top five is the next best thing. I could have rode around and finished third, but I didn't want to just ride around. I've got the itch now. These guys are great to race with, real top drawer. It's a lot of fun."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T) - Finished 11th
"We had a pretty good car. If we had started in the front we would have stayed up front. It was difficult to pass. We tried to stay clean with it. I'm happy with the run. We unloaded and we were pretty good, but that was as fast as we could go with it. We never could get as quick as everybody else. We made some big changes for the race. The guys hung tough. I think they were ready to kill me the other day, but maybe this will keep them from doing that. When you've got a good car, it makes it a whole lot easier."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T) - Finished 15th
"If the cautions had gone our way we would have been in good shape. When you start in the back you've got to gamble. You get out of synch with everybody, but our car was fast. We'll keep working and keep getting better and better. We finished 15th, and that's what we needed. We haven't finished in a long time, and we've just got to keep getting better. I'm real proud of everybody. We hung in there and fought our way back up to the top 15, and that was our goal."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T) - Finished 30th
"I wasn't sure how it would shake out at the end, but it could have been worse. We were hoping we could come out of here with a top 10, but it didn't work out that way today. We'll get 'em next week at Michigan. I won the second race there last year, and it was the first for Dodge, so that's a special race for me. We need to win another one and start making these points go the other way."
 
TONY FURR (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T) - Driver Casey Atwood finished 27th
"We're not real happy with our performance today. I don't think we had enough cooling to the brakes. We were off a little bit there. I thought the car handled good, but it could have been a lot better if we had had better air to the brakes. Casey couldn't drive it as hard as he needed to, and it's a shame. We just weren't prepared for it today. We should have been a little better prepared than we were."

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T) - Finished 29th
"We had a good car the first 30 laps. We lost the clutch in the car, and we lost some gears. It's tough to drive when that happens. I'm not used to driving without a clutch."