dodge nascar winston cup notes, quotes from saturday night at bristol

Saturday, Aug. 24, 2002 Ray Cooper
Bristol Motor Speedway Golin/Harris International
Dodge notes and quotes. 803-466-9085

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"Junior just didn't take his time. We'd been giving and taking out there all day. I've got some really good words for him that I can't say. I've got to control myself right now. Rusty and I raced lap after lap and didn't rub or nothing. Junior gets under me for one lap and I'm in the wall. We had a top five or top 10 car, too. I don't have anything good to say so I'm not going to say anything else. I don't think I touched anybody all night. One lapped car kept me down low and we rubbed a little bit on the side of his door. I was driving clean trying to get to the finish to see what we had. Junior got under me a little bit for one lap. He took it, and I'm in the wall. End of story. End of race for the Caterpillar Dodge."

HUT STRICKLIN (No 23 Hills Bros Coffee Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"If the 19 was underneath me my spotter didn't say he was. I'm not saying he was or wasn't. I felt like he caught me in my left rear and just turned me. I got going good, but it was just one of them things. I don't want to think he did it on purpose. I hope he didn't do it on purpose. It's Bristol and those things happen. My neck is kinda sore, but I'll be all right."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The guys did a good job tonight. We changed 20 things on the car before the race. We were terrible yesterday. I like to thank my teammate Jimmy Spencer. We put his setup in it and it worked real good. I caught him and he didn't race us. He let us go. It was a good race for us. We came out seventh. We were really good on long runs. I wanted to see it go green all the way. We would have been in good shape. We had a good night. I guess the 6 and 20 and Jimmie Johnson had trouble. We'll keep hammering and doing what we need to do. I can't thank the Target team enough. All I've heard every week is how I'm losing points. We gained 'em back tonight."

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"It was close. I don't know if I beat him (Gordon) back to the line or not. It's their call. I thought he was going to let me have the lap back a couple of times, but he never did. I don't know what his problem was. That's the way it should be. I'm not blaming him. I agree with him 100 percent. I couldn't race him for the win, so it wasn't going to hurt him, but we had a good night."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 7 SIRIUS Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I'm really disappointed. This is just the way our luck has been. We finally get a great car, probably a top 10 or maybe even a top five car and got took out on a restart. He probably didn't mean to, but he was eight laps down. He probably should have been more careful. We were one of the cars on the lead lap, but that's the way it's gone. We still got a decent finish and we'll carry a lot of momentum out of here. We were one of the only cars that could pass. We just never could get track position. The car was tight after the wreck. I don't know if we got something bent up or what. A couple of cars hit me when I spun. It just wouldn't turn as good. Tony (crew chief Furr) said we had one of the best cars on the track there for awhile, but we didn't get a chance to show it."

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We had a really good car, but we were just too tight. We couldn't get the car free enough to roll through the center of the corner. We made a lot of changes to it. It was real interesting. Last time here, the cars with the older tires on won. The 24 was strong on night. I thought we had a top five car. We kept adjusting on it all night and the track got tighter. We just never had it right. We messed up a little bit, but we're back on track. It was pretty rough out there. It was typical Bristol. That's why the fans come. I think if they built 300,000 seats they'd fill it up here. They got their money's worth. That's what they wanted. It's exciting. I love this race track. A top 10 is a good thing to come out of here with. It's not what we wanted. I think we had a better car than that, but it's exciting."

TONY GLOVER (Team Manager Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Dodge Intrepid R/Ts)
"We didn't win the race, but our guys on the Coors Light team did a tremendous job overcoming a car that was pretty sick yesterday. We didn't think we had a 30th-place car and luckily having a teammate like Jimmy Spencer in the Target Dodge helped us out tremendously. He was pretty good yesterday in qualifying, so we got together and got their setup and tinkered with it a little bit and it was a lot better tonight. We ran over the jack and got a black flag, and that was probably my fault. I clear him out and try to watch everything. I was watching guys coming and when the dropped the jack I said go. I didn't know the jack was still under the car. It was just one of them deals. The guys did a good job in the pits, and the driver stood up in the seat all night long. I was really, really proud of the driver. He did an extremely good job. It was a championship run. We didn't gain on Jeff Gordon. He's awful good here. This is probably not our best race track. We normally run good here, but for some reason we don't finish like we should. It was just a good run for the whole team. I'm really tickled for Jimmy Spencer. Really, this 40 bunch owes the Target team a bunch for what they got tonight. That's the beauty of having a good teammate."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"It was typical Bristol. We hung in there. We didn't get our lap back, but we kept at it. We got a decent finish out of it for Bristol."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"There wasn't much we could do. We had a good run going there for awhile. The car just got loose and we just couldn't do much with it. The guys worked hard all weekend. That's just the way it goes at Bristol sometimes."