GM Racing NASCAR Dover results

GM RACING NOTES AND QUOTES; MBNA ARMED FORCES FAMILY 400:
DOVER;  JUNE 1, 2003;  MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX finished 36th: NOTE: Skinner was 
involved in the first accident of the day as the field came around to 
complete the first lap. Others involved were Jeff Green and Tony Raines, both in 
Chevrolet Monte Carlos. Skinner's Kodak Pontiac sustained damage to both the nose 
and the rear. "Everybody started getting together. I know I plowed into the 1 
car [Jeff Green] and somebody plowed into me and the next thing I know, all 
hell broke loose. It's unfortunate for this Kodak team, because we really had an 
awesome car in Happy Hour yesterday. We really thought on long runs we were 
going to be one of the cars to beat. We'll get our act together, we're not 
giving up. We're going to be all right."

JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 0 NETZERO HI-SPEED PONTIAC  GRAND PRIX finished 41st: NOTE: 
Sprague was running seventh following a pit stop when he crashed on lap 211. 
"The NetZero Pontiac was awesome. It was a little bit tight in the middle and 
off [the corner], and they loosened me up on that last pit stop. I went into 
Turn 3 outside of Matt [Kenseth] and behind Jeff [Gordon]. I saw Matt wiggle 
underneath me and it scared me a little bit, so I jerked right and jerked left 
to move up and give him some room. When I did that, I lost traction with my own 
car and just lost it. One of these days we're going to put to all together. 
That one was pretty much my fault."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO finished 38th: "I just 
lost it off Turn 2. I chased it, had it saved a couple of times, but I ran out 
of racetrack. I brushed the outside wall, and when I did that, it turned me 
down into the inside wall. It's a disappointment. I feel bad I let it get away 
from me, but we'll come back next week."


BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - finished 
3rd:  (TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY.)  "It was a great run.  We started 13th and 
we never could get out of that position for the first 100 laps or so.  The guys 
made some good pit stops and made some good adjustments on the car, and we 
were able to pass a few cars after a few laps and got all the good out of it 
that we could.  We took the lead there that one time but the car got too loose, 
and we backed up a little bit and came home third.  It was a great run for us." 
 (WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK TODAY WITH THE CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS?)  "It 
wasn't bad.  Obviously there at the end it was kind of frustrating because you 
didn't know if it was going to rain or not.  But once we got going there it 
seemed like it was really good and the track didn't change a whole lot for us.  We 
kept freeing it up a little bit, but I think that was just because we started 
off a little tight.  We got just too the edge, and then we got a little loose 
and we had to back up just a little bit. The track conditions I thought were 
pretty good, just a typical Dover where it gets a little slippery after a few 
laps, and then on the restarts it's good for a little bit and then it gets 
slippery after a few laps."  (WHAT ABOUT THE RESTART THERE AT THE END?)  "I guess 
there were what, seven laps to go, when they finally went. Tony (Stewart) was 
trying to pass Jeff (Gordon) on the bottom there between (Turns) one and two, 
and I just went to the outside.  I didn't really mean to, I kind of slid up 
there anyway.  But I just mashed the gas and was able to get by Tony on the 
outside going down the back straightaway, and I cleared him going into three.  It 
was a good thing because if I had been behind him I wouldn't have been able to 
pass him after a lap.  Once we got to that position, if you noticed, all 
three cars up front we all did the same thing.  I saw Ryan (Newman) push up off of 
Turn two, and Jeff pushed up right behind him.  I thought I'm going to get 
him here, and I pushed up too, and I looked in my mirror and Tony's pushing up 
too.  It was almost like you just followed each other's tracks the last few 
laps."
(YOU'VE HAD A GREAT DEAL OF SUCCESS LATELY AT A WIDE VARIETY OF TRACKS - DOES 
THAT BODE WELL FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON?)  "It's encouraging.  I think the 
biggest thing that I'm excited about is going to California, and last time we 
finished second there after struggling the last two years, coming to Dover and 
finishing third today and we've struggled here the last two years.  That's 
four races, probably six races when it comes down to it.  So to come back and 
take the lead, lead a few laps, finish in the top three, that's encouraging to 
me.  If we can run good at all the tracks, I think that's definitely what our 
goal is, and we've done that before it seems like.  Now getting back on track 
with tracks that we've struggled at the past two years I think is more 
encouraging than that."  

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:  (WAS 
THAT ONLY A THIRD-PLACE CAR THAT YOU HAD TODAY?)  "For the most part.  That 
one run when we got out front of Jeff and his car was loose, and I got going and 
my car got loose.  That was the only time I could say I had a better than 
third-place car.  Before that we had run some laps the same as the leaders, but 
we were pretty far back in traffic.  We did catch some caution flags and stuff 
like that, so it was going pretty good if we just caught the right caution 
flags, got the right pit stops and got track position out of it.  At times I 
thought we had the third-place car, and at times I thought we had the fifth-place 
car.  As it turned out it came out probably as good as we could have there at 
the end if everything would have been normal.  Obviously if we had come out on 
that restart when I took the lead, and that had been with 10 laps to go, it 
might have been different, but overall I'd say it was a third-place car."  (HOW 
HARD WAS IT TO ESTABLISH A RHYTHM WITH ALL THE CAUTIONS EARLY IN THE RACE?)  
"It took a while because the track never came in.  Everybody was running 
pretty good at that time because everybody had new tires on, and you'd run a few 
laps and then have a caution there.  It still took a while.  It was kind of 
frustrating, no fault of anybody's, obviously, but it's just kind of frustrating 
that you couldn't just either go or stop.  You got two to go, one to go, call 
it off, one to go.  You just sit there and ride around.  That's probably the 
hardest thing.  When you're sitting in a race car you want to go fast instead of 
going real slow."  (WHAT DO YOU THINK MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED IF YOUR TEAMMATE, 
TONY STEWART, HADN'T BEEN PENALIZED?)  "It looked like he probably would've 
won.  He just checked out on them, I thought.  He was fast.  I never saw him most 
of the day, so obviously he must have been a lot faster than I was.  My 
speculation is I'll agree with everybody else that he probably would have won."  
(DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A SHOT WHEN THAT LAST CAUTION CAME OUT?)  "I thought I 
had a shot for hopefully finishing fourth at that time because Johnny Benson was 
behind me and he had been running about the same times I was right before 
that caution came out.  You never know when you slow down on tires that have a 
few laps on them as hard as we ran them, after a green flag stop there's no 
telling.  You might slip up.  We had been doing that all day, so I really didn't 
know.  You hope for the best.  I was surprised I got by the '20' car.  I 
thought there was no way.  I thought somebody's going to try the outside, and I 
really didn't mean to, but it was me, and I got by one car and that was all I was 
going to get by."

 GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO finished 
4th: NOTE: Tony Stewart was penalized a lap for pitting outside his pit box on 
lap 138. He was in the lead at the time. He made up the lap and had a chance 
to win the race at the end. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli talked about the penalty 
after the race. "It was a tough call. It would be one thing if he [the 
official] was out there to tell us to get back, but he wasn't. That's what I was 
upset about. It wasn't a matter that we were [outside the pit box] or we weren't. 
They held us for a lap. It's kind of his job to tell us if we're over or not. 
Make the call that we're over the line, don't just close your eyes. We were 
wrong, but at the same time, it's just a tough deal." DID HE SHOW YOU THAT YOU 
WERE OVER THE LINE? "If you come over the line, they tell you to stop and go 
back and you're OK. I can't see from where I'm at, and the tire changer didn't 
say anything. We weren't over the line, we were on the line by an inch. What 
are you going to do? A rule's a rule." IF YOU HAD BACKED UP INSIDE, YOU'D HAVE 
BEEN OK? "Exactly right. It's just like you see all the time." YOU STILL 
ALMOST CAME BACK AND WON IT, BUT THE 12 CAR WAS TOO FAST. "When you're in the 
front, you get good clean air and you go. We just used up what we had getting 
there. We didn't need to see that caution. We had made up 10 seconds on the 
leaders, never mind all the other time. We had a better shot at finishing second 
under green than we did having that restart."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO finished 2nd: "A lot of 
things happened to us today, so to come home second, I'm pretty happy. We didn't 
have the best of pit stalls today and I hated that Tony [Stewart] got a lap 
down, but that's the only thing that got us up there contending for the victory. 
We could finally come in there straight and not have to get blocked in by 
guys. We had a real good car, but it was alittle tight all day. We put one set of 
tires on and it got super loose, so I told the guys to tighten it up. The last 
set we put on wasn't loose, it was tight and it just killed us. I tried to 
give Ryan a run there on that restart, and I got inside him, but I knew I wasn't 
going to do much because I was so tight."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX finished 5th: "It was 
great. The Valvoline Pontiac was running good. It was a long way back where we had 
to start, but I'm real proud of my guys. Our pit stops were great all day 
long. I was making a couple of spots on the track and they made up a couple of 
spots in the pits. If you keep that up all day…I held up my end and they held up 
theirs, and we got a top-five out of it. DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR THEM ON 
THE RESTART? "We're real good on a real, real long run, but that was just that 
one stint there. We came in and got tires and I kind of stabilized with Bobby 
Labonte. The 24 looked like he was getting away from the 18 and the 20 was 
pretty quick. We were good enough for fifth. It's hard to say if we were any 
better than that, because if we were, we'd be up there." RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX finished 8th: "It was 
interesting. There were times during the day when I felt really good about what we had, 
and then there were times when things just didn't match up. That last set of 
tires just didn't match up for us. It was a bit frustrating. But the best part 
of the whole day was the fact that the pit crew shined at the end when we 
needed them. Mechanically, the Tide team continues to do an outstanding job. The 
more we work together, the better we seem to get. It was nice to get out of 
that slump. Man, we had a couple of tough weeks, so nothing gets you over that 
any better than a good finish."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: PRESS CONFERENCE:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY. "It was real good. The car was awesome right from the 
beginning. We drove by cars and drove up to the front. It was pretty 
frustrating at the beginning. We didn't pick a very good place on pit road. I was 
behind my teammate, Terry Labonte, who was running good, and in front of Tony 
Stewart, who was leading the race most of the day. I had to come in around Tony 
and then Terry would come in in front of me. That wasn't any fault of anyone, 
but it's just such a tight, narrow pit road that it was impossible for us to 
gain any positions on pit road. I hated to see Tony have his problems, but it 
certainly made my day come to life. We were able to get that track positions and 
those pit stops that we're capable of making. We were real good. There were 
times when we were better than Ryan, there were times when he was better than 
us. Jimmie [Johnson] ran well at times. Tony by far was the class of the field 
and was blowing everyone away. I thought we had a shot at winning, and I 
certainly took it on that last restart, but I got real, real tight on that last set 
of tires."
ANY COMMENTS ON THE WEATHER AND THE SLOW START? "It was a little frustrating. 
The track was just changing constantly, because we were laying rubber down 
and guys were running all over the track trying to find a fast way around and 
move forward. You saw the track changing constantly, and trying to stay up with 
those conditions is tough. The rain was frustrating. Riding around and around 
under caution, once they drop the green, you want to keep going." IS IT GREAT 
TO WIN HERE IN DELAWARE, THE HOME OF DuPONT? "Every time we come up here for 
this race, we have a big NASCAR Day up at Wilmington for DuPont and their 
employees. They're great and they have such a great group of employees and people 
that support us and provide us with everything we need to go out there and 
perform at this level. We didn't get a win, but we got the next best thing for 
them, so hopefully they're proud of that." COMMENT ON RYAN NEWMAN'S DRIVING 
SKILLS. "Ryan is very smooth and runs a great line. He has a great team behind him 
and he deserves to be in Victory Lane today. He did a good job. I feel like I 
made a mistake. My car was real tight, and I tried to go to the bottom when I 
could have gone to the top and possibly gone around him on the outside. Jeff 
Gordon, Cont.
up. Ryan was sort of fighting with Jeff, and then we both got to fighting 
with him, and I chose the bottom. It was a mistake. My car was so tight, I just 
slid up into him with the front end. I couldn't really get on the gas and drive 
by him. If I had gone to the outside, I think I may have been able to get in 
front of him. I really believe if I had gotten in front of him, I don't think 
he could have gotten back by me." IS IT SATISFYING TO HAVE SUCH A CLOSE BATTLE 
AT THE END OF THE RACE? "I race for those moments except when I'd be sitting 
in Victory Lane. I love battles like that, down to the finish. You have to 
realize, when you're sitting in my position, I'm in second and I'm looking at one 
car in front of me that I have to pass to try to win. I need to get the best 
restart I can, possibly get inside or outside of him, but I almost lost a 
position by doing that. I dived in there underneath Ryan and then Stewart got a 
run on both of us and almost got inside of me. It cost him a position. You're 
kind of protecting your position and at the same time you're trying to advance 
your position. It's a tough place to be. I would have much rather they just 
continued to go green and let the two of us battle it out with the traffic." 
THOUGHTS ON JIMMIE JOHNSON'S EXIT? "I knew he wasn't on the leader board, and I 
hadn't seen him. I knew I would see him if he was out there, because he runs so 
well here. He was loose all day long. Nobody drives a loose race car better 
than that guy. I don't know what happened. Somebody said he got sideways. There 
was a lot of different stuff on the track at that time, so it's hard to say 
what happened. I hate it for him because they were on a streak there." THERE'S 
BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT THE NARROW PIT ROAD. YOUR THOUGHTS? "You would think 
that a track this size and with as much width as this track has, we would find 
a way to have a lot more room on pit road. It's not only narrow for us, it's 
dangerous for the guys who are pitting the cars. That's the only complaint I 
could see from today's race. I had a fit with pit road. I just think in today's 
world, it's not necessary for us to have these small pit roads, especially on 
a 1-mile race track." YOU HAD A LITTLE BUMP WITH STERLING MARLIN. WHAT 
HAPPENED? "I definitely got into him, no doubt about it. I certainly didn't mean to. 
I don't know if I caught the apron or just got a big push. We were racing hard 
for position, and the front end just took off on me. I tried to stay out of 
him, but I just couldn't and I clipped him in the left rear. I'm sure he's mad, 
and I was mad when I got hit by him one time at Richmond. Hopefully, we'll 
get past it and move forward. He's not a guy that I really talk to a lot and he 
doesn't talk to me a lot, so I imagine we'll see each other on the race track 
again soon." YOUR THOUGHTS ON TONY STEWART'S PENALTY? "I don't know exactly 
what happened. If the right sides are outside the box, then it's a lap penalty. 
A penalty is a penalty. I didn't see the pit stop, and I don't know how he was 
out of the box. It's a shame, because he definitely had the car to beat 
today. For him to come back up there and still have a shot at winning after 
everything that happened to him tells you that he was by far the class of the field. 
I am much Gordon, Cont.
more concerned about how we get our car better to compete with him than I am 
about how he got a penalty."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO finished 11th:  "We 
started the race in the back and finished up 11th, so we passed a lot of 
cars.  (HOW WAS YOUR CAR AFFECTED BY THE CONTACT EARLY IN THE RACE?)  "I don't 
know.  That was the first lap of the race, so I don't really know how it was 
before that."    

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO finished 9th:  
"What a run for the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet. We have needed a top 10 for a 
long time and have been good enough to get it, but bad luck or circumstances 
have bitten us lately. We started out too loose on new tires today but 
everytime the fuel burned off, we had an awesome race car. We slowly worked our way 
back up through the field after dropping to the back during the pace laps when 
the telemmetry equipment fell off and started dangling down under the gas 
pedal. We had to pit even before the race started but didn't give up and kept 
working at it. The Cingular team gave me slight chassis adjustments and tire 
pressure adjustments throughout the race that allowed us to post laps as fast as the 
leaders. The only problem we had was near the end when we didn't need any 
handling problems. The car got really tight on those long, green-flag runs late 
in the race and we lost some track position. But we took four tires on that 
last stop because we didn't have anything to lose and that gave us enough to get 
past two cars in the final lap. We picked up a lot of ground in the points to 
10th. We just need to stay consistent and it will come to us. We made a goal 
at the beginning of the year to finish in the top 10 in points and we're slowly 
inching our way there.  But a great run for us.  We struggled all weekend 
long.  We knew what our problem was, but unfortunately we found it with about ten 
minutes left in practice, so we knew we were going to be pretty good today.  
I'm very proud of everyone on this Cingular Wireless team."