Dodge NASCAR Winston Cup Notes and Quotes - Race Day Rockingham

Sunday, Nov.  3, 2002	
North Carolina Speedway 
Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400  
Dodge Notes and Quotes.                                                                                                                                        

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The 11 car got into my left front and cut it down going off turn two. The car wasn't very good before that happened, either."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We just can't seem to buy a break. You can't depend on luck, but it sure would be nice to have a little of it sometime."

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We never could get our car freed up enough in the middle to make it cut. We tried to free it up and it hurt if coming off and getting in. We were pretty much the best we were in the beginning. It seemed like everything we did made it worse. It's kind of frustrating. I felt like we ran in the top five or top 10 all day and to come up 15th is kind of disappointing. I didn't know Johnny won, but that's pretty cool. I saw he was leading the last few laps. I know he's been racing a long time, and he really deserves it. Our worse run of the day was at the end, so we had to come in and pit. I'm a little disappointed right now. We just didn't adjust on it right, and I didn't tell them the right things to do."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"It seems like all we do is keep fighting back. We've got good people and good equipment, but fuel mileage again today cost us. We had to pit and a lot of other people didn't. It put us way behind, but we had a good car and the guys worked hard. That's all you can say. At the end, I couldn't ask for a better racecar. It stayed with me all day. Fuel mileage has beat us a lot this year, and we've got to do something about that. It's good for Johnny to finally win, but we're ready for our win, too. Hang in there, and we'll get one."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We just didn't get good fuel mileage. We were headed for a good finish, but we had to pit for fuel like a lot of other cars."

GREG BIFFLE (No. 44 Georgia Pacific/Brawny Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I wish we could have made it to the end of the race. It was a great car, and we had a great day for Georgia Pacific. Everything was first-class this weekend. Gary Putnam did a great job and called a great race. Everyone was receptive to what I wanted. Petty Enterprises has good ideas, and it was fun to drive in Winston Cup for them."

KENNY WALLACE (No. 23 Hills Bros Coffee Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Wallace scored his best finish of the season in car owner Bill Davis' Dodge. Wallace finished 13th Sunday at Rockingham and 10th earlier this season at Rockingham in another car. Wallace had the highest finishing Dodge at The Rock and also was the highest finishing Wallace brother.

"It was a good day for us. We want to do better than what we finished. We settled in somewhere in the top 20. I think the reason we had a good week was from all the hard work and dedication. We've been working real hard on our test sessions. All the guys are beginning to understand me. We were a little more aggressive with our chassis package and we got a 13th spot out of it. I was going to finish somewhere around 18th, and they did a good job on fuel mileage. We didn't pit. I'm happy with it. I'm looking forward to each race and more testing and winning a race. This is my track, but I've been to my track type of tracks before and ran like crap. I can't say that I can go to tracks I understand and always run good. I've got to have a crew give me what I need. We're just going to try to get better at those tracks that I don't understand as well. The tracks I do understand, we'll excel on 'em.

"It was a handful there at the end. I didn't plan going 100 laps on tires. I felt like I was driving on eggshells. That's Rockingham. We're used to that. It's the best finish I've had with this team, but we had two runs that were a lot better. We were real good at Richmond and didn't get what we deserved because of fuel mileage. We also ran a lot better at Loudon and had rain delays.

"I'm thrilled to death for Johnny Benson. You look at 260 something starts and he definitely deserved it. It started reminding me of myself. I've had three second-place finishes, but congratulations to Johnny. That's a class act. He could have moved the 97 last week, and I know his crew guys were kinda down on him, but this kind of shows them what he's made of, knowing that you can win without wrecking people is a lot sweeter. He just flat won it today. There was no controversy, and that's the way you want to win it."

HANK PARKER Jr. (No. 91 USG Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I had fun. I'm just glad to get the opportunity first of all. You put on so many tires here. In Busch we put on two sets of tires. We must have put on $20,000 worth of tires today, and you're opening yourself up for a lot of things to change. I had two sets of tires totally different from the rest, and I lost a lot of time with them. One was on a long green flag run and the car got really loose. I struggled with that, and another time the car got real tight. I lost time with that. I'm disappointed not knowing how to adjust the car, but that's something I'm going to learn. I didn't wreck the car and made it the whole way."