NASCAR WCUP: Jarrett Still Approaches Each Race the Same, Continues to Lead Winston Cup Points

11 July 1999

88 DALE JARRETT -- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus -- IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BEING IN THE POINTS LEAD? "There's really no difference as far as the way you approach the race at this point in time. We still have to do our job because we have too many races left. I guess it's a good thing in what we have because in years past we've been trying to gain points trying to catch the guys in front of us. We would go and have a good run, a top five finish, and we would either gain no points or possibly lose points because Gordon and Mark (Martin) were having great races too. Now, we're kind of on the other side. The guys are looking at us like, 'we're gonna have a tough time catching them, unless they have a problem.' We've proven that if we don't have any problems that we'll pretty much be in the top five. It's a good feeling. It's a good place to be. It's much better than being behind and trying to chase."

WAS YOUR DAYTONA PERFORMANCE LAST WEEK A GOOD OMEN? "Yeah, I think that shows we learned something. We were a good car in the Daytona 500 with a chance to win, but I got myself in a position and didn't do the right things to get out of that position. We took what we knew about how the drove in the 500, made a few changes there, the car drove much better last Saturday night. Even though I got myself in that same position a time or two, being in the middle of three-wide, I knew I had a good enough car and finally worked my way in line further back. Those are the types of things we need to do, so I think Saturday night was a good indication that as we go back to these tracks that we're gonna be better the second time."

HOW MUCH GAS DID YOU HAVE LEFT? "We had a little over a gallon left...The car under race conditions would have been fine. As it turned out we would have had plenty of fuel because that would have been a couple of laps worth or three laps worth with the car going at full speed where the centrifugal force was gonna feed the fuel over to the fuel pickup."

CAN YOU ASSESS YOUR CHANCES IN TOMORROW'S RACE? "The biggest thing is staying out of trouble. It's such a tight race track that to make a good lap around here one car has to take most of the groove that is here. That's what makes this place fun is finding that groove lap after lap, which is difficult to do. You have to be consistent and you've got to go through the corners extremely good. I think the two guys to beat are Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon, but Jeff Burton seems to really get his car through the corners consistently and that's what we're gonna have to do. We were good this morning in practice, but I think in a long run that Jeff Burton is a little better than we are as far as consistency through the corners, so we're gonna work on that a little bit. I feel very good about our chances. I think we have a good chance to win here. Making the right calls and the right decisions toward the end of the race will be key because we realize how difficult it is to get the right track position and how difficult it is to pass cars late in the race. We'll have to make the right calls and, hopefully, that'll help get us in a position to win."

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