Chevy Race Notes - M'Ville, Apr. 18

      Contact: Kristyn Sobier

      GM Racing Communications

      ksobier@g-2communications.com

      ofc: (248) 642-2700 x226

      cell: (734) 776-2440

      For more information: media.gm.com

 

CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES 

ADVANCE AUTO PARTS 500 RACE NOTES

MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

April 18, 2004

 

BOBBY LABONTE, #18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Finished 2nd, started 23rd inside row 12) - "It was a good long day for us, a hard day.  The guys fought back.  We didn't have the best handling car yesterday in practice.  They fought real hard to get a good car today.  They gave me that.  They gave me some good pit stops there at the end and had some good track position.  The car was really good all day long.  To get track position was the big key.  Towards the end of the race we got better track position and it showed more and we were able to get close but not quite close enough.  I want to congratulate him (Rusty).  He had a great day." 

 

ON CATCHING AND PASSING RUSTY WALLACE FOR THE WIN:  

"If I could have got to him I would have probably hit him and spun him out. (Laughed)  Seriously, you ask him when he comes in here, the best story would have been if I would have hit him coming out of turn four on the last lap, flipped him over, he would have burst into flames, slid down the front stretch on his roof shooting flames and sparks and still won the race.  That would have been perfect for him.  Seriously, catching somebody here and passing them is two different things.  We had a great run today and we will take this second place finish and run with it."

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., #8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Finished 3rd, started 4th outside row 2) - "The car was good in practice all weekend.  We started the race and it run real good but we worn the tires off.  We had to adjust on the car so it wouldn't do that the rest of the day.  I definitely wasn't the best today.  The difference for us today was that we had the best pit stops.  I'm really happy with my 5th top five finish in a row."  

 

ON IF THE RED FLAG AFFECTED HIM:

"No the Red flag didn't have any affect on leading my car."

 

ON TALLADEGA:

"I go in there with a cautious optimism.  We don't have the car we'd like to have since it's in the museum in Daytona.  I won't be surprised if we struggle in qualifying but we should be OK when it comes to the race."

 

ON BEING YOUNG ON THIS TRACK:

"This track is real difficult to learn.  It's much like growing up, it's about self discipline.  It's important to make consistent smooth laps and be consistent by breaking early, staying on the break further in the corner and letting off and rolling into the center.  We tested here a couple years ago and got a good set up."

 

DID YOU SEE THE CONCRETE? 

"Yeah, I saw it.  It looked like a block of lead had fallen off somebody's car. I had seen it for 3 or 4 laps.  I was talking to the official in my pit about it. It's unfortunate Jeff hit it. He still had a decent finish and the best car on the race track.  Before that he had the best car as he usually does.  It's a freak thing."

 

ON THE CONDITIONS OF THE TRACK:

"The track builds rubber in the corners. That's the way it is. Under cautions the new tires will pick that stuff up and you got to keep the tires clean.  We run a little bit softer of a tire here. I assume that added to the problem today.  I liked the tire but it felt like it wore out quickly."

 

ON SHORT TRACKS:

"I like racing at Martinsville an awful lot.  It allows you to move around the corner and adjust for how your car handles.  Now that we're getting better at getting our cars to handle better and anticipate running in the top five, I like short track racing and wish we did more of it.  It's a double edge sword.  I like it here and Richmond but I'm not real fond of Bristol.  You can run side by side there (Martinsville and Richmond) and that's unbelievable for a short track."

 

"Deep down inside me, there is some real disappointment because I was where Rusty was but all of a sudden, the car quit turning.  Fortunately, the car came back to us and we had to fight our way around the 12 car (Ryan Newman).  I had to give him a bumper down in turn four to finally get around him but that allowed Bobby (Labonte) to get around at the same time.

 

But hey, the first time I came here I hit everything in site including some of trucks in the infield, caused I don't know how many yellow flags and it was just a horrible day.  We are good and consistent and we will take this to the next race."

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, #48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Finished 4th, started 8th, outside row 4) 

ON IF THE PIT STRATEGY AFFECTED HIM:

"Yes it definitely did.  Unfortunately we didn't pit when everybody else did.  We really thought that some more were going to stay out.  I looked in the mirror and saw them coming but we were having a discussion on the radio and felt like it would be the best thing to stay out.  Unfortunately it didn't work out but a great effort by the team today.  We went back up to the front and had a good time here in Martinsville.  Hopefully we can come back and win the next one."  

 

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF #48 LOWES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

 ON NOT PITTING UNDER CAUTION ON WHEN EVERYONE ELSE ON LEAD LAP PITTED, LEADING AT THE TIME:  

"It was basically a mistake, we should have pitted when everyone else did.  We are just sitting ducks our there now with everyone else on new tires.  We will just have to see what happens now.  We wish we would have come in but everyone was playing games about coming down pit road and we just missed it."

 

JEFF GORDON, #24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Finished 6th, started on the pole)

DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED (WITH THE CONCRETE PROBLEM ON LAP 290)? (Quotes during red flag for track repairs)

"I don't know.  You tell me.  I'm not laughing right now.  Man this is going to be a lot of work.  They've got a pretty serious problem."  

ON THE CONDITION OF HIS CAR:

"We received a lot of damage.  The suspension is fine.  It's mainly just the fender of the car.  It jerked the wheel out of my hand.  It's unfortunate, we were having an awesome day.  We have a great car and we were having great pit stops.  We'll get the car fixed.  We certainly have the right car.  We'll fight 'till it's over." 

 

"I got wide on that last pit stop and cost us a bunch of spots.  We had worked our way back up to seven and dropped back.  If we could have had our regular pit stop there and hadn't had to fight our back through the field, we probably would have had a top-five and even might have gotten two or three.  It was unfortunate  that the race track came apart.  I hear they are going to re-pave it.  I guess we were just one race early. It definitely took away any chance we had of winning but I guess that is part of it.  Our day would have had to go absolutely perfect to get back up there, the car wasn't quite the same.  I think it might have knocked the tow out just a little bit.  But we still had a good car, but we had to have perfect pit stops and it didn't work that way.  You hate to have a race slip away from you like that.  But I do want to congratulate Rusty Wallace.  He is a great race  car driver and a heck of a fighter.  I know he wanted this one really bad."

 

BRIAN VICKERS, #25 GMAC Chevrolet Monte Carlo (Finished 13th, started 35th inside row 18) - "This is a very demanding track. I am fortunate to have good team mates in Jeff (Gordon), Jimmie (Johnson) and Terry (Labonte), they help me a great deal.  We tested here and had pretty good results.  I learned a lot from the test.  We had a miscue today on a pit stop that got us a lap down but we got it back and ran back up to 13th.

 

I am really proud of my guys, things some times happen; we fought back and had a pretty good run at the end.  We just tried to run our own race, and learn something."

 

MICHAEL WALTRIP #15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - (Finished 15th, started 39th inside row 20) - Lap 284 on-track incident with Ricky Rudd, spun not much damage, 7th caution of race racing for 14th spot.

 

KEVIN HARVICK, #29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET - (Finished 19th, started 5th inside row 3) - Lap 428 hit wall after contact with Matt Kennseth.  Lap 456 had three car collision with Joe Nemecheck and Ricky Craven and all rejoined the field.  After running in the top-five and top-ten most of the day, Harvick dropped to the 19th finishing position, the last car on the lead lap as a result of damage to the car in two separate on-track altercations.

 

ROBBY GORDON, #31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (Finished 30th, started 21st inside row 11) - Suffered flat left rear tire, lap 26 - Pitted for tires, rejoined field one lap down.