Q&A WITH JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVY MONTE CARLO-Bristol W.C.

Q&A WITH JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVY MONTE CARLO (quickest in first
practice, 15.420/124.436):

ON BREAKING THE NO-WIN STREAK RECORD: "I hope so. We're working hard every
weekend to try to make that the track to break the streak. Bristol is a good
track for us; we've won a lot of races here. We've never won the night race
so we'd love to be able to pull that off. One of the hardest things lately
is qualifying. We're running good today and I hope we can back that up (in)
qualifying and get a good starting position. That will certainly help
things." WHY HAVE YOU NOT WON A NIGHT RACE HERE? IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN
THE TRACK? "There's a little bit of difference. We've been good here at
times, even the last time we were here at night we were pretty good. It just
depends on how everything goes for you. You've got to have a good car,
obviously, and we've had that several times, but you've got to have the pit
stops, the strategy, and the right adjustments to stay up with the track and
everything. It makes it a little bit difficult. In the past we never really
practiced at night to prepare for this race and that makes it a little bit
different when you can do your Happy Hour later in the weekend." ON THE
POINTS RACE: "I'm kind of surprised that we're right in it, because we
haven't run better than we have and we haven't won a race. It just shows you
a lot about how the points are structured and how consistency can really pay
off. And the lack of DNFs that we've had has really been the key to keeping
us in it. So, even though we haven't run as good as we would like, those
finishes and the number of laps that we finished has paid off and maybe we
can get the performance turned around late in the season and really make a
charge for the championship." IS THERE A DANGER OF OVER-ANALYZING? "The
frustration level at certain places, if it keeps going, what's going to
happen is the pressure is going to build within the team, the pressure is
going to build from the media and the fans and everything. Those just
heighten your emotions. So, it's really important for us to stay together.
We're a very good group. I don't know if there's too many other teams out
there who could handle what we're going through right now as well as we are.
Certainly that's the thing that you look at -- why you want to get there so
bad -- is to kind of get those frustration levels toned down a little bit
and keep the glue there and keep everybody excited and confident knowing
that we can. Right now they're there. But, each race that goes by, if we
don't win, would add to them." TALK ABOUT THE ENGINE ISSUE FROM LAST WEEK
REGARDING THE DYNO NUMBERS: "We know what it is; we've got the horsepower
sitting there, but we just haven't been comfortable enough putting it out
there. Randy Dorton and Champ and everybody in the engine shop's doing a
great job bringing it (up) a little bit more each weekend. Our motor was a
lot better last weekend at Michigan than it was at Indy, but we need more,
certainly. And when you look at our aerodynamic deficit that we have and the
horsepower, it's a lot to overcome. It's making us have to get everything
just right and be perfect out there. And we haven't been able to be perfect
in order to win races. Those are things that we're looking at. You hear
'common templates;' you wonder; you don't want common horsepower too. The
Dodge is one of the least horsepowered cars out there and they're really
strong. Obviously, you can overcome it, and we have in the past also, if you
get the cars right." YOU'RE DOING YOUR BEST TO JUST CATCH UP, ARE WE LOOKING
AT A NEW RULE JUST FOR THE SB2 (GM) ENGINES? "I don't know. Some of the cars
have been able to qualify real well. Jimmie (Johnson) seems to be able to
make the most of it in race conditions. I think a little bit of it is that
we just haven't clicked and a little bit of is that the Chevrolets are
certainly behind. They (NASCAR) wouldn't have given us the (front valance)
kick at Michigan if they didn't think that we were behind. A kick below the
bumper does absolutely nothing. That part of the car doesn't even see the
air until you get out in front of other cars. What we're up against is from
the top of the windshield down to the bumper, with the Dodges and Fords.
That's what we need. We've got that coming next year, but we don't have that
right now. We've got to find some ways to get around that and qualifying
definitely needs to be a key part of that and that's one thing that we have
not done and that's one of the reasons why I think we haven't been as strong
as we have, 'cause we have been fighting so hard just to get track position
throughout the whole race." ON CHALLENGE OF DRIVING AROUND DARLINGTON NEXT
WEEK: "It's just that both ends of the race track are so much different.
You've got one end of the track where it's high banked and fast and
sweeping, the other end of the track it's a little bit flatter and tighter.
So, you're just never going to get the car to work just right; you're never
going to be able to gear the car just right. Not to mention the abrasiveness
of the pavement and how the speeds drop so fast. It's definitely a
challenging place and maybe that's why I like it so much. Our guys have
always done a great job (there). Downforce is becoming a bigger issue now at
a place like Darlington; it's making these hard tires work a little bit
better than they used to. It used to be it didn't matter how much
horsepower, how much downforce you had; it was all about getting the actual
mechanical chassis to work for you. We ran good there last time; so I'm
looking forward to going back." ON JIMMIE JOHNSON'S CHANCES FOR WINNING THE
CHAMPIONSHIP; HE'S RELUCTANT TO TALK ABOUT IT: "I remember the first year
that I was in the hunt. I didn't want to talk about it a whole lot, because
you're a rookie, you've got so many other things on your mind, you've got
pressure from every angle, you feel like you're under a microscope every
time you're out there, and the pressure is high. And as well as he hides it
and as great of a job as he does, I think that he's smart in the fact that
he just tries to stay away from it just so he doesn't get his mind caught in
the middle of that. He knows that all he needs to do is go out there and
just do his best and not really concentrate on the points. And if he does
his best and the team gives him what he needs the points will come with
that." CAN HE WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR? "I don't see why he can't. I
think anybody in the top five or six right now has a shot at winning it. I
think that if they were going to stumble at any time, they would have
stumbled already. I haven't really seen that happen. Even if they have
stumbled, they've come right back. They've showed signs of a team that has a
lot of maturity and it's no different than us in '95. Everybody was just
waiting and waiting and waiting for us to break down and we never did."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVY MONTE CARLO (ran second quickest for
a large part of the practice session, ended up 13th quickest,
15.638/122.701): DOES RUNNING WELL HERE IN THIS FIRST PRACTICE GIVE YOU
CONFIDENCE AT A TRACK LIKE THIS? "I'm pretty confident when I come here. I
mean, everywhere. I've got a pretty good race car each and every week. The
guys give me a great opportunity. We all grew up on tracks like these, and
that gives you a little bit more confidence too, but having a good race car
makes up for it for everything, I think." HAVING GOOD RUNS BY RCR CARS IN
THE LAST COUPLE OF RACES HAS TO BE A BIG BOOST: "It is. I think we're just
getting better as a team as a whole; not just my team, but all three teams
(are) working really hard together. The drivers, I think, are seeing eye to
eye more and more. That's just the benefit to us, I think. If you've got
teammates you need to work with them. That's our philosophy. It's one big
race team with three drivers. We keep using that terminology, I think it
will go a long way to getting all three cars into victory lane, not just one
of them."

Note: The 3:05 p.m. qualifying has been temporarily postponed, as rain began
to fall at 2:55 p.m.

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