NASCAR WCUP: Mark Martin, Pontiac Excitement 400 Post Race Quotes
17 May 1999
MARK MARTIN: 6- Valvoline Taurus -- "Our car handled excellent tonight, but I felt we did a very poor job in Texas with managing the tire problems that they had there and became a victim. I didn't want to be a victim tonight at any cost, so we made sure that we did the best we could with that and let it all hang out at the end. We just weren't good enough to beat the 88." WHAT WAS HAPPENING WITH THE TIRES? "The tires were blistering. The sealer was getting such a bite on those tires. We came up and tested with the Busch car and we saw that with the Busch cars in the test. Burton and I both did that. If your car wasn't handling really perfect, it would abuse one particular tire. If it was pushing, it would obviously abuse the right-front and have it blister and go down. It was a case of the sealer having so much grip versus not having the sealer on. That sealer is awesome. I mean, that's really good stuff." HOW MUCH SLEEP DID YOU GET LAST NIGHT? "I got in bed at 1:30 and went to sleep at 2:30 and I couldn't sleep any longer after 7:30 this morning, so I'm looking forward to getting out of here." WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MANAGE TIRE WEAR? "Run the car loose and drive it slow." WHAT HAPPENED IN TURN FOUR? "I didn't give Ernie enough room. He was a lap down and I went in the turn. I was needing to clear him and get on with the business of racing for the lead and in the middle of all that I didn't leave him enough room. That's really what happened." WHAT ABOUT THE TIRES? "It's always something -- air pressure, camber, whatever. These cars are made to race. We have to race 'em hard, we have to run 'em hard, you have to run the air pressure low, you have to run a lot of camber. That's not what hurt the tires. What hurt the tires was the tire was designed for the race track without this sealer on it and the sealer was so good this time that it actually put a lot more heat than normal into the tires."
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