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NASCAR WCUP: Dale Jarrett Post Race Quotes, California 500

3 May 1999

DALE JARRETT -88- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus -- "I don't know where to start with what happened. We got a lap down there when the 10 car blew up. We got behind on a pit stop. Then we were able to stay in front because they had the caution right after that and got our lap back. Then I came down pit road too soon, and I don't understand why you get a penalty when you don't stop, but I guess that's the rule. Then we go back to racing and we cut a left-rear tire down. I don't know why we didn't wreck then, but we got lucky and didn't hit anything. The caution came out and we got to stay on the lead there. We adjusted the car. I couldn't run on the bottom, but the car was pretty good on the top. Other than getting the trophy and the money, I feel like we won this race." ARE YOU SURPRISED TO FINISH FIFTH? "Absolutely, yeah. Until 20 laps to go I would have never figured we could finish in the top five. I was hoping we could finish in the top 15 and not lose too many points at one point because you just don't know what's gonna happen. We weren't gonna give up, but things weren't looking too good. You just have to keep battling because you never know what will happen." DID THE CAR JUST COME IN WHEN YOU WERE ABLE TO GET PAST WARD? "We got it better, but we still never got it where we exactly wanted to be. We worked hard on it, we just never could get it. I was a little too loose in and then I'd be loose or tight off depending on where I was on the race track. We just missed it a little bit, but when you miss it and have all kinds of things happen, and come back and finish fifth, those are the kind of days you look back on at the end of the year and say, 'This is what made the difference.'"

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