Chevy NASCAR Race Notes - PIR

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (finished 3rd) "My pride is
crushed for not winning today. Unfortunately we came up a little bit short.
Those two tires were the way to go. We got caught back there in traffic and
lapped cars and we just couldn't get through there. I think I just wore all
my stuff out trying to catch the No. 97 (Kurt Busch) and the No. 2 (Rusty
Wallace). It was a great effort for us. I'm real happy with everything that
went on this week - we qualified fourth and came home third. I'm real happy
with that effort for the DuPont Chevrolet team.

"All in all, it was a great day for us to come home third. That is our best
finish here. It was by far our best effort. As strong as we were, I'm happy
about that. We just made a mistake there at the end. We took four (tires)
and should have taken two. It wasn't anybody's fault. Robbie (Loomis) wanted
four and I wanted four. We went with it and came out fourth. I was hoping we
could beat the No. 97 (Kurt Busch). I we could have beaten the No. 97, maybe
we could have gotten by Rusty (Wallace) quick and then maybe made a run on
Matt (Kenseth). But when you come out fourth, you're actually coming out
eighth. You get a couple of lapped cars that battle with you, and you're
done. Matt was a straight-away ahead before we ever got clear of the lapped
cars."

(ON BEING SIXTH PLACE IN THE POINTS, BUT 9 POINTS OUT OF THIRD) "That's
cool. That's what we want to do. We want to wind the season down by having
great strong runs and going places that we haven't been real strong at or
haven't had a chance to win at and be a threat. We certainly were a threat
today. I'm happy about that. We're going to take this car to Homestead next
weekend and hopefully have some great things there too and maybe get up to
third."

(WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE ROUSH CAMP THAT HAS MADE THEM SO SUCCESSFUL LATELY?)
"Today was just a great a call by Matt (Kenseth) and Robby (Riser, crew
chief). Taking those two tires and having a good pit stop was a good
two-tire stop. That's what won the race for them. I was better than Matt all
day long. Why is the No. 97 (Kurt Busch) been as strong as they have and why
has Matt been as strong as they have all year long?  I don't know. They've
got a good package and obviously do good things with their bodies. By making
smart good calls like they did today is going to win you some races."

(WAS AERO-PUSH A BIG FACTOR IN THE RACE TODAY?) "I didn't fight aero-push as
much as I did track position. It's not an easy place to pass. It's never
been an easy place to pass. I could get up beside guys and outside them or
inside them - there was more than one groove and I liked that. But I just
couldn't make the pass stick or get by
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Checker Auto Parts 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, November 10, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Phoenix International Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 2

JEFF GORDON Con't.
them. I'd battle for like five or six laps with a guy. When you run
side-by-side here and those guys just check you out. That's what happened.
Every time I'd go to pass somebody, they'd race me hard - which they
should - and Kenseth was just out there in clean air just driving away. I
definitely think there's still a lot to be said about clean air. But I
didn't feel the aero-push quite so much today."

(WITH THE WINSTON CUP CHAMPIONSHIP GOING DOWN TO THE LAST RACE FOR THE FIRST
TIME IN SEVERAL YEARS, WHAT'S THE WEEK GOING TO BE LIKE FOR MARK MARTIN AND
TONY STEWART - 89 POINTS SEPARATE THEM) "That's pretty tight. Tony (Stewart)
did he what he needed to do. Mark (Martin) did all he could do other than
win. As long as Tony does that, he's in the right seat. I guess what's going
to make you nervous all day in that race (Homestead) is if you hear a little
vibration or feel a little vibration or you hear a different pitch in the
motor, you're going to be wondering. It just comes down to whether or not
Tony (Stewart) has a problem or a failure. I don't think at Homestead you're
going to outrun him good enough to close that gap. He runs too good here
(Phoenix) and there (Homestead). I think that by just beating him on the
track is not going to do it. I think the only way Mark (Martin) is going to
win - and I think Mark knows that - is if Tony has some kind of major
problem."

(IS TODAY'S CLEAN RACE A PREDICTOR FOR A CLEAN RACE OR A TOUGH RACE AT
HOMESTEAD NEXT WEEK?) "It's a little harder to pass at Homestead than it is
here (Phoenix). This is a tough place to pass, but at least you have an
outside groove here. At Homestead, you pretty much have the apron and that's
about it. Any place we go to where it's tough to pass, you typically see
more cautions because guys get more frustrated and they start using their
bumpers."

(EVEN THOUGH MARK MARTIN AND TONY STEWART GUARANTEED A SPOT IN THE FIELD AT
HOMESTEAD, IS FRIDAY'S QUALIFYING SESSION GOING TO BE PRETTY TENSE FOR
THEM?) "They're both the two fiercest competitors that I know of out there.
And those guys - every time they're on the track whether it's qualifying or
practice or the race - they're putting everything they can into it and it's
intense every weekend. So, I don't really see that as being the crucial day.
This week, if I were Tony, I wouldn't open up a newspaper. I wouldn't watch
TV. I'd go away and maybe spend some time with my team and pump them up. And
I'd just go to Homestead and run my race. That's what I would do if I were
him.
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Checker Auto Parts 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, November 10, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Phoenix International Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 3

JEFF GORDON, Con't.
"Mark has been there so many times he knows what to do. He knows he's going
to do all he can and the results will be what they will."

(WITH A LOT ON THE LINE NEXT WEEK FOR EVERYBODY, IS THERE AN UNWRITTEN RULE
TO HANDLE TONY STEWART AND MARK MARTIN WITH KID GLOVES?) "Absolutely. Those
guys have worked hard all year long to get into that position. I don't have
a shot at either one of them in the points from where I'm sitting. I have
the utmost respect for those guys. I'm going to race for a win. If they want
to battle me hard and race for a win, they're putting themselves in a little
bit of jeopardy. So I think they need to think a little bit about it at the
same time. But I'm going to do everything I can to race them clean. If
they're racing one another, I'll give them the respect that they deserve to
race for a championship. You'd hate to see a championship taken away from a
guy because somebody just gets into them and turns them around and knocks
them out of the race. I don't want to see that person. I don't think anybody
does."

DALE EARNHARDT JR, NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (finished 5th) "Our
day wasn't too bad. After a run like this, it makes the plane ride back a
lot easier next time and something to look forward to. I was pretty happy
with the car. We ran out of gas. That was tough. It was real hard to handle.
But after last week (finished 34th at Rockingham), we wanted to come here
and fight hard.

"I'm real proud of my guys. I'm real proud of Tony (Eury) Jr. and Tony
(Eury) Sr. and the car they gave me. That was such a good car compared to
what we've had here in the past.  I'm very proud of the Bud team. We're
looking forward to Homestead."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (top finishing rookie in
15th) "We had a good race car. We started in the back. I made a mistake in
qualifying. We worked our way up through there and Chad (Knaus, crew chief)
made a good early for two tires. We had a fast race car and drove all the
way up to ninth before that first pit stop.

"When we came in for that pit stop, disaster hit us. We ran out of gas. We
got in the stall trying to get the thing to start up. On top of that, we
dropped the jack before the left rear (tire) was on it and we had to get it
picked back up and fix the fender and put a tire on it and drive off and
that just killed us. That was the start of a bad day on pit road. By just
being so far back, we couldn't catch up to the cars that we were pitting
with to have a chance to make up spots on pit road and we just had a little
bit of trouble on pit road
TEAM MONTE CARLO Contact: Nancy Wager
Checker Auto Parts 500 Race Notes nmwager@aol.com
Sunday, November 10, 2002 GM Racing Communications
Phoenix International Raceway (727) 784-8465
Page 4

JIMMIE JOHNSON, Con't.
today and it hurt us track-position-wise. There might be a second groove
down in (turns) one and two and that's it. It's just really hard to fight
back from that."

(ON THE TIGHT BATTLE BETWEEN KURT BUSCH, RUSTY WALLACE, AND JEFF GORDON FOR
THIRD PLACE IN THE FINAL POINT STANDINGS) "I didn't realize that much had
happened or could have happened in this race. I was disappointed to have
that happen. In the last three weeks, come crazy stuff has been going on and
it's just really hurt us. I just hope that we can get things rallied back
and come back to Homestead and be back on our game and get max points."

(DO THESE THINGS THAT TRADITIONALLY HAPPEN TO ROOKIES BRING YOU DOWN?) "No.
I guess the end result - the finish - is something that you would expect to
typically see, but the circumstances that have gone on have been some off
the wall stuff (like) getting crashed by Mark (Martin) before we even took
the green (flag) at one race and last week a hub problem.  It's just been
one thing after another that's just been off the wall. You wouldn't expect
this kind of stuff to happen with being with such a big race team. I think
the results might show it. But, as a team, we're looking at it knowing we
need to get back on our game."