GM RACING NOTES & QUOTES--SIRIUS 400 POST-RACE

MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY; June 15, 2003; PAGE 1

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 3rd: "To me, that was a winning effort by the team. Unfortunately, we just kept adjusting all day for the long run. We really got the car better up on the high side on those long runs. It came down to that short-lap shootout and that killed us. I got that one good run on the restart and got the lead and stretched it out there. Kurt (Busch) was a little bit faster than us that time but I think I may have been able to hold him off. But the next one, he got right to my bumper and got me loose and there wasn't much I could do about it from there on. But it was a great effort by this Dupont Chevrolet race team. I couldn't be more proud of the effort by this race team. It was a winning effort. Unfortunately, we finished third." -- More to follow --

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC - Finished 2nd:: "We were gaining on him (Busch) - just half a tenth a lap. But gaining on him and passing him is one thing. I don't think it made that much difference. On the restart, I made a run on him on the outside going into (turn) three. But I just drove in there too far. I thought it would stick, but it didn't stick good enough. It was the best shot I had and the only shot. After that I had to get behind him and make sure I didn't get passed for second. But we didn't have a second place car there at the middle of the race, so the guys did a great job on pit stops and pit strategy staying out and changing on the pit stops to get the car freed up to my liking.

"Track position was the big thing (at the end). The guys gave me that. We had a good race car for a few laps and then we kind of gave up some speed there. We battled pretty hard there all day. We were not very good. A lot of guys were better. The caution flags fell our way. We made some good adjustments that last time and got it to where it turned good enough to where I liked it and didn't feel like I was going to wreck at the same time. It got better. Yesterday I didn't think we had quite the car to run for the long run. 

For about a split second there, I thought I might be able to get a run on him (Busch) but that was about it. I tried to get him high there off turn three but lost all the air off the nose and then it got loose. I got back on the gas and he was already gone." 

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 5th:: "Our car was great at the start and good at the middle and good at the end. We're proud of the team and the great calls in the pits. The adjustments were there. It was a team effort. We put our heads together with the NAPA crew and made it a good day out of something that was marginal. The team is pretty confident that we could do this every week. It's just making everybody else believe it I guess is the big part. But we don't care about that."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 8th: WAS IT A DECENT RUN? "We weren't good enough to stay where we were. We stayed up there because we had good track position, but we were too tight. We made a change there at the end with 40 laps to go and took a car that was reasonable, just a little bit tight, to making it really loose. Idiot lapped cars don't help either."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: PRESS CONFERENCE: Finished 2nd, giving him six top-three finishes in the past seven races. YOU'VE JUST HAD A FANTASTIC STREAK OF TOP-THREE FINISHES INTERRUPTED BY LAST WEEK AT POCONO. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ABLE TO REAFFIRM THAT WITH ANOTHER TOP-THREE FINISH? "It obviously means a lot. We did stumble a little last week, but we qualified on the pole on Friday and yesterday in practice we had the fast lap. We didn't have the car we needed for long runs and we knew that, and we worked hard changing stuff on it this morning that we'd talked about last night and again today, we didn't have the best car throughout the day. But when it counted at the end, we had a good car on a restart, passed some guys, got some track position out of it. We were able to hold on. I'm a little disappointed we finished second, in a way, but every weekend, it's hard to know exactly what you're going to end up with at the end of the day. There are guys all over the place who are running good all the time, and there's a lot of competition out there. My guys put in a great effort, never giving up. For a while there, we were almost half a lap down. They never gave up, we never gave up together. We made a lot of changes, kept digging and digging, so to get back in the top two like we did today is a great effort by them. After last weekend, we didn't finish that good, and it's pretty humbling whenever you think you'll run good at a place, but sometimes you can't. It's great to come home with a great finish even though you don't win." IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE CATCHING THE 97 UP UNTIL THAT LAST CAUTION. COULD YOU HAVE CAUGHT HIM? "I was catching him a half-tenth [of a second] to a tenth a lap, and I kind of did that with him earlier and he just kept inching away at the same time after about five or 10 laps. I don't think the caution really made much of a difference to me. It might have helped it between Jeff and me, because Jeff was going to get better as it went and I was going to get a little worse. That was the trend throughout the day. Catching him was one thing, but passing him was going to be something else anyway. I could have gotten close, but once I got to him, I doubt I could have done anything." WHAT DO YOU THINK OF KURT BUSCH AS A DRIVER? "Their team is really strong. We parked beside them this weekend, and you can watch them. They're intense and they work real hard. His guys are really on top of their stuff. He knows when to drive the car real hard, and it seems like he's getting better at taking care of the car if it's not quite right. He'll make sure he makes it last to the end. I think he does an excellent job of that." WHAT ADJUSTMENTS DID YOU MAKE ON THE CAR? "We weren't that good in the middle part of the race. We didn't start off as well as we like to. The car was too tight. Fatback did a real good job, because we were both ways. On the last stop we treated it the right way, and that really got some speed out of it. Before, I about had to stop in the middle of the corner, we were so tight."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DuPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: PRESS CONFERENCE: Finished 3rd: YOU LED BRIEFLY, BUT DIDN'T SEEM TO HAVE IT AT THE END. WHAT HAPPENED? "We had been adjusting all day long to free the car up. I was awesome on new tires early in the day, but I was so tight on the long runs. We just kept freeing it up and freeing it up, and unfortunately it came down to a shorter run. That definitely wasn't to our liking. That third-to-last restart when I got the lead, I took off and I said, 'we're in great shape. Even if they catch me, hopefully they'll use it up by the time they get to me.' I was hoping that the pressures would get up and I could get to the outside and just set sail. That caution came out and I knew we were in trouble. Kurt [Busch] was so good down in Turns 3 and 4 there early on a run. He could just drive down in there as deep as he wanted. He got down there to my bumper and there wasn't anything I could do after that." DID YOU SEE STERLING FADE ON THAT RESTART? "I knew he was one of the guys to beat. He was really good. I didn't know how good he was going to be on the short runs. I did see him fade, but I was happy to have some breathing room between me and the guy behind me, not necessarily just Sterling [Marlin]. I didn't know what happened, but I thought that it would certainly help us out a lot. I knew I was a little free on new tires in the first couple of laps. I needed some distance between me and the guy behind me. If it had gone green all the way, who knows what would have happened. YOU SEEM TO BE ON THE VERGE OF LOOKING LIKE YOU COULD WIN ANY WEEKEND? "I'm trying to be like Bobby Labonte and get a top-five every weekend. You just get what you can. Every weekend you're trying to win, and you're doing everything you can. That effort put out by my team today was certainly a winning effort, and I'm a little bit disappointed right now that we didn't get the win. Those opportunities don't come very often, to be in that position. We're certainly doing what we need to do for the championship and I'm real happy about that." STERLING MARLIN LED MORE THAN HALF THE LAPS TODAY BUT FADED AT THE FINISH. HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT FOR A DRIVER? "I had one at Dover like that. I led almost every lap and then Bobby Labonte won it on fuel mileage, so I've been there. I'm sure Sterling is disappointed. I don't know what happened to him on that restart. He still had a good car and it looked like he was coming back there at the end. It looked like a couple of guys had new tires and went through there to jumble things up. When he was leading and I was second, he was taking off from me. He put a straightaway on me at one time." IS IT TOO EARLY TO START THINKING ABOUT THE POINTS? ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT MATT KENSETH'S POINT LEAD? "I think as long as he keeps doing what he's doing, he's going to be tough to beat. Not to wish anyone bad luck, but he hasn't had any. It's really how you come through the tough times and those bad-luck days is really what determine whether you become champion. They've got the team, Matt's a great driver, they've got the performance going for them. They're smart and obviously putting great, reliable race cars out there for him. You get a guy like that who has those kinds of finishes, you're not going to beat him. Even if you win races, you're really not beating him because he finishes right behind you. It really comes down to that bad day instead of all those good days. If he keeps doing what he's doing, it's going to be hard to catch him. You have to think that the percentages will catch up with him, and then it's our job to capitalize on it if it happens. We're not even halfway through the season yet, so we'll have to see what happens." YOU HAVE A BRAZILIAN DRIVER IN THE RACE TODAY AND THERE'S TALK OF ANOTHER MANUFACTURER COMING INTO THE SERIES. IS IT NATURAL WITH THE POPULARITY OF THIS SPORT THAT THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN? "I think that is a great way to measure the success a sport is having when foreign manufacturers want to get involved and be a part of it and drivers from other types of racing want to come in a be a part of it, people from other parts of the world. It's certainly becoming more and more recognized worldwide all the time, which is great for everybody. I'll be very interested to see what happens if that foreign manufacturer ever gets into Winston Cup, because it's going to open up a lot of things. They still have to build a car within NASCAR specifications and rules, so that's the thing it looks like Toyota is interested in doing, even though they don't build anything like that."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 7th: WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND MATT KENSETH AT THE END OF THE RACE? "Every time we're racing each other, he (Kenseth) runs me into the wall. I mean, we're buddies and all, but hopefully he won't get mad when I plant him. He had new tires and he as going by me. I don't know why he had to use all the race track up. He killed my momentum and I lost two more spots it seems like I could have had, you know. But that's the battle. If that's how they want to battle, that's how we'll battle."