GM RACING NOTES & QUOTES--MICHIGAN POST-RACE

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GM RACING WINSTON CUP NOTES & QUOTES; GFS MARKETPLACE 400; MICHIGAN INT'L SPEEDWAY; AUG. 17, 2003; PAGE 1

 

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: NOTE: Craven brought out the fourth caution flag of the day on lap 73, running over debris and hitting the wall in Turn 2. Casey Mears then sheared the right side of Craven's car off as Craven bounced off the wall. "We cut down a right rear tire. We were riding around out there with a lot of debris on the track for about six or eight laps, and I guess we finally ran over some of it. As soon as it went green, I knew I should have pitted, but you have to ride it out to the end. I'm fine, just discouraged. We were running so well. We dug ourselves a hole, but we had gotten back up into the top 15 and then we ran over some of that debris on the backstretch. You know, one out of 20 times that kind of thing gets you, and it got us. But we'll just keep battling on. We've had a tough few weeks. We haven't qualified well all year and we dug ourselves a hole on Friday. But we were strong today, we were charging toward the front. We were starting to pick up spots and we had finally worked our way in the top 15 before the tire went down."

 

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: NOTE: The polesitter, Labonte was running 11th when the engine blew. It is the second engine failure in four races for Labonte "We turned the guts out of it, I guess. It started giving me a warning about Lap 2 and it vibrated a lot after that. We got running pretty good. We came back and got caught up on the chassis, we were behind on that. It just blew up on us going into Turn 1. We missed on the chassis for a while there. We got it better and got going again. Then it let go. It's one of those deals. You get pretty frustrated when you're bad, when your chassis isn't good. You blame yourself for not getting it as good as you should have. When you do get it better and you get up there and this happens.at least we're getting better. We had five good races in a row, now we've had five bad ones, so we hope it'll go back to five more good ones."

 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 2nd: "We were good to go on fuel. The car was just a little loose on the beginning of that run and Ryan [Newman] was on rails. He got away from us. The car came around to us there at the end. It was still a good day for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, to come home second and to beat all the guys we need to beat in the points is what we need to do every week. This team is pretty hot. It's a lot of fun. I told somebody a couple days ago that I think we're probably a little 

bit better than we were in 2001. I'm just excited to carry on throughout the year and for everybody at RCR." MORE HARVICK TO FOLLOW 

 

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 3rd: "We changed everything but the driver and the steering wheel, and I'm not so sure that's not on the list of things to do here. We can't seem to get the thing right at the end of the race. We're good at the beginning, and luckily we did a good job with the fuel mileage today. The engine shop did a great job of helping us get the fuel mileage we needed. It didn't feel like I did a very good job today." DID YOU LIKE SEEING THOSE CARS PEEL OFF FOR PIT ROAD LATE IN THE RACE? "Nah, I wanted to run 20th today. Obviously, we wanted to see them drop off, but the thing is, we want to do it by passing cars, I don't want to do it by fuel mileage. This fuel mileage racing sucks."

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF TONY STEWART'S THIRD-PLACE PRESS CONFERENCE:

 

YOU HAD A PRETTY QUICK CAR MOST OF THE LAST PART OF THE RACE. WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAKE IT BETTER? "Nothing. We just succeeded in making it worse all day. I'm getting sick of all this fuel mileage racing. We've done it at Indy and we did it here. We have a good car to start the race and we just make it worse as the day goes on."

 

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 6th: "It was a good run for us all in all. I raced Steve [Park] pretty hard, that was kind of fun. It is what it is. We just continue to get better and better as a team, the cars are getting better and we're scoring more points, so that's a good thing." ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE PIT STRATEGY TODAY? "Yeah, I was pretty happy with it. I was trying to get a little ballsy there, but it was a good run for us."

 

STEVE PARK, NO, 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 5th, his best finish of the season. YOU'VE GOT TO BE PLEASED WITH THIS FINISH. "I really am, and it was a great run for the America Online Chevrolet, Mike Beam and all the guys. We're brand-new and me and Mike are just jelling together. It was a great effort on their part, we got good gas mileage and Mike made a good call in the pits. I was conserving there at the end and Robby [Gordon] 

was catching me, so we had get to racing there when I didn't know if we had enough fuel to go the last lap. It was great. That's what having great teammates like Robby and Kevin Harvick is all about. I'm just happy to be here with a good top-five finish for a team that's new, it's been struggling. It's not only good for myself, it's good for Richard Childress Racing, which had all three of its cars in the top six. I'm glad it's over with, man. A top five, that's pretty cool."

 

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Finished 10th, his best finish since Dover in June. He was also the top Pontiac finisher in today's race. "I think we took about a 20th-place car today and got a top-10 finish out of it. Man, when this race started we were struggling, but my crew chief James Ince kept on working and working and working and we made it better. I think we changed the entire attitude of the car today. It was a struggle 
all day long but you know the only thing that matters is where you are when the flag waves and we got ourselves a top-10. I'm pretty happy. I love Michigan, I mean we want to win here so bad, and maybe some day that will happen, but for now 10th isn't so bad."

 

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/got milk? CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 13th: "We never got the car freed up all day long. It was just tight, tight, tight. We never could get it loosened up."

 

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 GFS MARKETPLACE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 24th: "It was fair. The car was good on the short run, it would just get really, really tight at the end of the tire run and we just could not get that out of it."

 

KEVIN HARVICK POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

 

CAN YOU SUM UP THE DAY FOR US? "It was a great day for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. We had a dominant car all day and as you know from yesterday (Busch race) the dominant car doesn't always win. Ryan (Newman) had a better car at the end of that last run. There was no doubt about it. He got around me and just got too far out in front of me for me to catch him. The car was a little bit freer than it had been all day. It was really strong at the end of the run but it was just a little bit too late. But we'll take it."

HOW CONSERVATIVE DID YOU HAVE TO BE ON FUEL AT THE END? "We were good to go on fuel. The car was just a little bit loose at the end of the run and Ryan Newman) was just on rails and he got away from us. The car came around to us there at the end of the run. But it was still a good day for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet to come home second and beat all the guys we needed to beat in the points is what we need to do week in and week out."

 

ON THIS BEING ANOTHER FUEL MILEAGE RACE "Some of those guys gambled. I don't know if they thought there would be another caution or that they would just gamble and make it. We couldn't afford to do that. We waited until we knew we could make it and came in and pitted and put four tires on it. That turned out to be the right decision."

 

TALK ABOUT THIS BEING YOUR THIRD CONSECUTIVE WEEK WITH A TOP FIVE FINISH "I think we're probably a little bit better than we were in 2001 right now. I'm just excited to carry on throughout the year and excited for everybody else."

 

DID THE MULTITUDE OF INCIDENTS CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY TODAY? "I think that's why everybody shows up to watch these races. You can't predict when the cautions are going to come out. You can't predict how many cars are going to stay out or how many cars are going to break or how many cars are going to wreck. So you just play it as it comes and that's what puts all those people in the grandstands."

 

WERE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW BIZARRE IT WAS OUT THERE? "It was pretty wild. I just like the fact that tires meant something today. Michigan is so fun to race on - especially when you have a car like we had today and it works on the bottom and in the middle and up top. The guys who didn't pit were really struggling because they didn't have tires and we had tires and were able to go wherever we needed to go."

 

WHEN KURT BUSCH RAN OUT OF FUEL, DID YOU EXPECT RYAN NEWMAN TO BE THE NEXT ONE TO RUN OUT? "No, I was pretty sure he had enough to finish. He pitted either one lap before us or the same lap. When he passed me, it was kind of like at Loudon. I thought that was going to be the end of the race. I thought that his car would fall off because his car had fallen off all day."

 

IN HINDSIGHT, WOULD YOU CHANGE ANY OF THE STRATEGICAL DECISIONS YOU MADE TODAY THAT MIGHT HAVE GIVEN YOU A CHANCE TO WIN THE RACE? "I don't think so. Ryan came out right in front of me and he won the race. I got around him and was just too loose. His car was just better at the beginning of that run and our car was better at the end of the run. I don't think we made any wrong decisions today. I don't think we can afford to take a chance to run out of gas."

 

DO YOU THINK THIS TEAM IS NOW SHOWING MORE MOMENTUM THAT IN THE POST-EARNHARDT ERA? "We're every bit as good as they were the last five years. We're winning races and we're in the top five every week. I feel right now that this is part of my team. It's Todd (Berrier) and Gil (Martin) and all the guys from my Busch car. Obviously there is a respect factor from Dale's point. He built our organization up to what it is today and had a big part to do with that with Richard (Childress). But it feels good to go get in the car and know that I've been a part of building something. Right now I think we're better than we were in 2001 by quite a bit and I think that's starting to show. It's a lot of fun."

 

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