Bristol post-race Gordon press conf.

CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SATURDAY, AUG. 24, 2002

POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE WITH JEFF GORDON, WINNER:

WERE YOU SO HUNGRY FOR A WIN THAT YOU WOULD DO ALMOST ANYTHING? "Pretty
much. I think the opportunity presented itself and reminded me a lot of the
one time when I passed Rusty here kind of the same way when we came up on
lapped traffic. We were both pushing the cars extremely hard. Every once in
a while we both would get really sideways up off the corner. And he got
sideways. I think he was trying to pass somebody. And I jumped up there on
him, went to make a move and he shut the door on me. After that I was glued
to his bumper and he didn¹t have to do much for me to be there and give him
a little tap. It is Bristol and I was really hungry. I wanted to get to that
victory lane bad and we did. We achieved what we wanted to and got to
victory lane. Never done it as a night race. It might be a little
controversial, but I don¹t care. I¹m just glad to be sitting right here
right now. I think that anybody else in that position would have pretty much
done the same thing. I got moved out of the way a couple of times tonight by
some guys and it wasn¹t even at the end for the win. I can only imagine what
would happen at the end for the win."

RUSTY SAID NEMECHEK PLAYED A PART BECAUSE HE WOULDN¹T GET OUT OF HIS WAY? "I
don¹t remember. I don¹t know who the car was. The thing that Nemechek
could¹ve done to help me was to get up high and just move over so both of us
could just battle it out. I don¹t think there was any intention or any plans
there. I just think that it just however you catch lapped traffic and how it
works out for you. It definitely held him up and allowed me to really close
the gap. Lapped traffic plays a big role here. Had that not happened I don¹t
know if I could¹ve gotten him, unless he made a mistake and came up on
lapped traffic, held him up, some bobble a little bit. I was on him."

YOU AND OTHER GUYS HAVE BECOME TECHNICIANS AT THIS KIND OF MOVE. WHAT¹S
GOING TO BE JUDGED TO BE PROPER, WHAT GOES TOO FAR? "He didn¹t hit anything,
so I thought that was proper. I don¹t know, Man. You don¹t think about that
at the time. You¹re just racing as hard as you can. At a short track like
Bristol or Martinsville, if you can get to the rear bumper and give him a
light tap it¹s going to happen. You expect it to happen to you and they
should expect to have it happen to them, especially in the closing laps. I
don¹t think there are two guys out there that are more hungry than me and
Rusty right now. He hasn¹t won in a while and I hadn¹t won in a while. Both
of us came on a mission. He tested here real well. We sat on the pole and
felt like we missed an opportunity the last time we were here. You see
yourself that close and you like, Oh, my gosh, I do not let this opportunity
get away. And as soon as he bobbled all I knew was that I was going to get
my bumper as close to his as possible and if I touched him I touched him. I
didn¹t go in there just letting off the brakes, just trying to slam into
him. I just went in there and just waited to see what would happen. You get
up on a guy that close, even though we¹re going 100 miles an hour here, it¹s
still affects the cars."

WHEN YOU MOVED HIM, THIS PLACE WENT UP IN CHEERS. DOES THIS GIVE YOU A
TOUGH-GUY IMAGE? "I don¹t know. It would be unusual to know that they were
cheering. Maybe it was sympathy. I don¹t know. I just think the fans here at
Bristol love to see an exciting race. They love to see the bumping and the
banging and the fast pace. They¹re fired up here; the lights are on. It¹s
electrifying, as much for the drivers as it is for the fans. I think that
their wish is that it comes down to a


CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SATURDAY, AUG. 24, 2002

Page 8

Rusty/Jeff battle to the finish and some bumping and banging going on. They
eat that stuff up. I think if I hadn¹t done that they probably would have
booed me."

HOW MUCH HAS THE LOSING STREAK BEEN WEARING ON YOU? "I don¹t think the
losing streak was wearing on me as much as just maybe missed opportunities
or not being able to capitalize on some good cars that we¹ve had. I know
that if this team is in position at the end of the race, if we¹re in the top
four or five week in and week out we¹re going to win races. And we had not
put ourselves in that position. That got frustrating. It wasn¹t so much that
we weren¹t winning. I think the lack of DNFs and team moral kept the glue
together. If these guys started thinking twice about being on our team,
thinking twice and pointing fingers at one another the whole thing would
have fallen apart. I cannot tell you what this is going to do, though. It¹s
not like everybody is walking around with big smiles on their faces. They
knew that they just needed to stick together and they did. A win and this
type of exciting weekend for us, it¹s going to do a lot for us. We¹re really
excited about getting to Darlington."

WAS THIS A TOUGH RACE EVEN FOR BRISTOL? "Gosh, I thought they were all
(tough). I don¹t know. I was pretty fortunate to be up front most of the
night. I know that it gets tougher to pass here every time we come back, It
doesn¹t matter where we go, if it¹s tough pass you¹re going to see guys
moving guys out of the way either with air or with the bumper. And anytime
you go to a place where you have to do that you¹re going to see cautions,
you¹re going to see wrecks. I thought that that¹s pretty much characteristic
of this place. It does seem to get tougher to pass each time we come back.

HOW BIG IS THIS WIN? "I just think it¹s so big, period. It feels like the
first one all over again. I can tell you we do not take wins for granted.
These things are hard to come by and we appreciate them and that moment
there in victory lane I wanted to pause it and burn it into my memory
forever because it¹s just such an awesome, awesome feeling toŠThere¹s just
no other high in the world like it to be able to experience that and to see
the look on these guys¹ face and the excitement in their voice. I don¹t know
how to describe it; it¹s just big. As far as the championship, I think it
just kind of serves notice to a lot of people that we¹re not out of it,
don¹t count us out. That when things go our way, like they did tonight, we
are going to be able to stay on top of things and get to victory lane."

WAS THERE A POINT IN THE SEASON WHEN YOU DIDN¹T THINK YOU WOULD GET BACK IN
THIS THING?  "I still think we¹ve got some work to do at the superspeedways.
This is a short track. I think we kind of separate that from a lot of other
tracks. I¹m looking forward to going to Darlington. We were good at
Darlington the last time we were there. I¹m excited about getting back
there. I¹m not saying that now suddenly we¹re just going to run away with
it. We still got a lot of hard work left ahead of us. I think this is just
such a great step in the right direction. It¹s going to do so much for the
team morale. And sometimes the whole  morale and attitude can take you up
several notches performance-wise. I know it¹s going to do a lot for my
confidence. Nobody¹s working harder out there to win races every weekend and
to do everything to be championships at the end of this year. We know we¹re
not out



CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SATURDAY, AUG. 24, 2002

Page 8


of it at all. Never have counted ourselves out of it. But we just knew that
if we were going to be a threat we got to start performing. Hopefully this
is the first step to that."

BASED ON SOMETHING YOU SAID AFTER THE RACE, DOES THIS MEAN WAR (WITH RUSTY)?
"Does anybody remind him of Richmond a couple of years ago? He didn¹t hit
the wall. I hit the wall hard."

WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT, DO YOU TALK TO HIM OR DO YOU WATCH YOUR BACK? "If he
wants to pay me back, if that¹s the way he wants to go about itŠI¹ve been
knocked around, I¹ve been moved out of the way, and I¹ve been wrecked. I go
to the next race, focus on what I¹ve got to do, not taking guys out and
doing paybacks. Rusty and I, we¹ve been racing for a while. It¹s the heat of
the moment, what do you expect him to say? He¹s going to be upset, he lost
the race and he wanted it as bad as I did. I don¹t expect him to be happy.
We may talk, we may not talk. We¹ll just kind of go to Darlington and see
what happens. I¹m not calling him. He didn¹t call me. But we¹ve become much
closer and better friends over the years. I think that he and I both have
respect for one another and know how we can race with (each other)."

NO ONE TALKED ABOUT AERO PUSH HERE THIS WEEK: "It¹s not down the
straightaways, it¹s just in the corners. It¹s everywhere. You could feel it
tonight. That¹s why the passing was so hard to do. We¹ve got a harder tire
yet we¹re going through the corners faster than we ever have. Anytime you
increase the corner speeds you¹re going to increase the demands of the
aerodynamics. It¹s everywhere."

THEY¹RE TALKING ABOUT LIGHTING UP DARLINGTON. COULD YOU STAND TWO OF THESE
NIGHT RACES BACK TO BACK? "Absolutely. I love the night races. I love coming
in on a Friday, and qualifying, practice and getting these guys a day at
home on a weekend, it¹s so nice. These guys work so hard. I¹ve always liked
races at night, ever since I was racing quarter midgets. I¹m all for it.
It¹s important to make sure they do the proper lighting and do it right,
because Darlington is a tricky place during the day and you want to make
sure there are no shadows. I think it would be a positive in many ways for
them. I think it would be a good investment."

OTHER DRIVERS HAVE GONE THROUGH WINLESS STREAKS. DOES THIS WIN GIVE YOU A
NEW PERSPECTIVE ON WINNING? "I had one prior to tonight. I don¹t know if
I¹ve ever taken them for granted. I can tell you when you win six, eight, 10
races in a season, it¹s not the same. It¹s a different feeling. When you go
as long as we¹ve gone without a win and you realize just how hard it is and
how hard you work for them, and just how everything¹s got to fall in place
to get there, you look back and go, How in the world did we win 58 races?
When it¹s meant to be, it¹s meant to be. And tonight it was meant to be for
us. We certainly are appreciative to be there and hope someday to get that
opportunity to get back there some weekend."




CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SATURDAY, AUG. 24, 2002

Page 9

HOW SURPRISED WERE YOU WHEN KYLE PETTY RAN INTO YOU IN TURN 1? AND DID YOU
THINK IT WAS YOUR NIGHT WHEN YOU MISSED THAT BIG WRECK? "Talking about Kyle.
You know what happened was we came up to lap Kyle and in the driver¹s
meeting they asked everybody to go high, lapped cars to go high and lead lap
cars to go low. It¹s one thing if you just stay in your groove and stay in
your line. But all of a sudden he moved down to the bottom to force
everybody to go to the outside and I just thought that was uncalled for. It
made it extremely difficult to pass him. I almost got past because I had to
pass him on the outside. I went to the inside one time and he ran me down
low. That¹s not like Kyle. I love Kyle and I love racing with him, but if a
guy works with me I¹m going to work with him. When it came time to give him
his lap back I guess he was just expecting me to move over. I wasn¹t going
to do that. I don¹t agree with the whole giving laps back anyway. But if a
guy works with me I¹m certainly going to work with him. After that happened,
I said, All right, if he cuts me a break on the restart I¹ll help him get
his lap back. And I tried to; it just didn¹t work out."

 "It looked to me like he was trying to pass me. I eased up toŠYou never
know with Rusty. That whole wreck happened on the front straightaway and he
passed the cars. I didn¹t know what he was doing. I was trying to let up and
then I saw him coming and so I had to get back on the gas. I thought Kyle
still got his lap back, but I guess he didn¹t. I was also trying to give
Jimmie his lap back right then. I had every intention to try to make it
happen."

HOW MUCH DOES THIS MEAN TO FINALLY WIN THIS NIGHT RACE? "Just like the poll
that I saw the other day. What races does everybody want to go to? It¹s
overwhelming that people want to come to the night race at Bristol.
Everywhere I go you hear people talk about Man, either they¹ve been to it
and said how exciting it was or they hoped that one day they got to come
here. Just to walk out and see this place, you¹re just in awe when you see
that many people sitting in the grandstands around a bullring half-mile race
track like this. It¹s very special. This guy sitting next to me right here
(crew chief Robbie Loomis), he¹s been telling me ever since he came to
Hendrick Motorsports, Man, I¹d love to get me one of them big Bristol
trophies. We¹re pretty excited about finally getting him that one. He got me
a night race, what did we get for you, Rick (Hendrick, team owner)? All in
one. I didn¹t tear that thing up too bad, did I?"

ROBBIE LOOMIS: HOW DO YOU KEEP THE TEAM FOCUSED? YOU WERE SO CONFIDENT
COMING HERE? "The confidence, that¹s one thing I felt would be so quick to
lose it, but it takes so long to gain confidence. Jeff has really been the
one all year that¹s been the calmer one that calms the waters, soothes us.
Whether it would be a bad practice or a bad race, he said, Hey, we¹ve been
on this win(less) streak and everybody is freaking out, I was freaking out.
He said, Hey, we sat down in December. We didn¹t talk about winning races.
We talked about winning the championship and winning rookie of the year. He
kept us looking at that goal of what we were working towards and that kind
of calmed us for a little bit."



CHEVROLET/TEAM MONTE CARLO NOTES AND QUOTES
SHARPIE 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND 24 OF 36
NASCAR WINSTON CUP SERIES
SATURDAY, AUG. 24, 2002

Page 10

LOOOMIS, cont¹d:

THERE WAS A NOTE? "The note had to do withŠEveryone knows that I¹m real
tight with the Pettys; I love the Pettys to death. And they didn¹t
understand why we weren¹t giving them the lap back. I¹d go over there
tomorrow and mow their grass if they called me to help make up for it. They
sent a note back, saying they understood, he¹s trying to protect his lead.
That¹s just racing."

ON THE CONFIDENCE? "You got to tell yourself that, you got to believe. We
had a great car in the last race and actually when Jeff and I were in the
lounge after the Michigan race he scared me to death because he said the
last time at Bristol we sat on the pole, we led laps. If we don¹t go up
there and crush them this time we¹re in trouble. And I knew he was going to
be the driver, so I knew I was the one that was in trouble."

YOU ALSO CAME HERE WITHOUT CONCERN ABOUT AERODYNAMICS. DID THAT HELP YOUR
CONFIDENCE? DOES THE SAME THING APPLY IN DARLINGTON? "Darlington is a big
race track. The thing we have going for us there is that track is so wore
out that the mechanical grip became such a big important part of it. After
you¹ve run 10 laps on tires then really the mechanical part takes over.
Handling is the key at all these race tracks. The aero tight is increasingly
harder and harder to deal with. Even though it wasn¹t a good outcome at the
Michigan race we learned a lot of things with that nosekick and I think
going into Darlington we¹ll have a little head-start there."

JEFF GORDON: "I think one of the key things for us this weekend was
qualifying and we¹ve got to qualify better. Darlington¹s a place that we
qualify good at. I think we can overcome some of the aerodynamic thing that
we have been dealing with if we qualify well there. We¹re going to be
working real hard on Friday to get a good starting position, not that we¹re
not working hard everywhere. I think it just proved to us this weekend how
important it is."

WHERE WAS YOUR CONFIDENCE LACKING? "I¹ve never really lost confidence that I
felt like what I was looking for and what I needed as a feel that I could
win. Maybe it was just a little more pep in my step, just a little added
confidence. I don¹t think it¹s as much as driving and the team, it¹s just
whether or not it¹s all supposed to happen and meant to happen. You go
through times when you work just as hard and doing everything the same and
it¹s just not happening. You just start to question a lot of things. My
confidence in my driving I don¹t think that I ever really questions that. I
think it¹s just going to put a smile on my face. Maybe that¹s all that I
needed."

RICK HENDRICK: WAS THIS TYPICAL JEFF? "I think any of you that¹s watched
Jeff over the years has been impressed during different races how he worked
traffic or found the hole or be patient or not race Junior early on in the
race, but tonight was a classic Jeff Gordon race. The car was a little tight
in the center at a point where he didn¹t want to overreact and adjust it. He
just wanted to deal with what he had. He was thinking about 10 and 15 and 20
laps ahead of where we were in the race. It was as textbook Jeff Gordon race
as I¹ve seen in all the years we¹ve been together. The car was perfect,
maybe not perfect. It was awfully good. Robbie gave him and awful good car.
It was just the moon was right and he was right tonight."