NASCAR WCUP: Pepsi 400 Post Race Notes, Dale Jarrett

23 August 1999

DALE JARRETT --88-- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus (Finished 4th)-- "It was a lot better than I thought it was gonna be after yesterday. Obviously, we wanted to try to win, but at times I thought we were good enough and then the last set of tires just didn't seem to stick very good. I couldn't get it turned and couldn't get into the corner like I wanted and couldn't get off. The adjustments that we made there just weren't exactly right, but it was a good day. We finished ahead of Mark and, even though we lost a few points to Bobby, we still came out of here in pretty good shape."

DID YOU HAVE FUN? "Yeah, a lot of the time it was fun. I wish I could have gotten up there when Gordon and Bobby and Dale were racing for the lead. I would have liked to have been a part of that, but I just couldn't quite get there then, but I had a lot of fun."

HOW WAS YOUR DAY? "We were pretty good at the beginning and a little bit on the tight side, which was a relief to me because I wasn't sure we could get to that, but we did. Then it stayed tight and then we got it too loose again. It was awful fast, but it was real loose. Then the last set of tires did something that none of the others did, it just didn't stick quite as good. I don't know if it was a combination of the race track getting slicker and we just didn't make the right adjustments, but we did what we had to do. I'd like to congratulate Bobby Labonte. He had a great run and Tony Stewart did a great job, so we'll just keep battling." HOW WAS THE CAR AT THE END? "We ran a lot of oil temperature there at the end. I don't know if a lot of stuff got on the grill, so I saw I couldn't beat 'em and just kind of eased off a little bit. I didn't want anything to happen and I was just glad to make it to the end. We gained a few more points that way and that's what we have to keep doing. We've got one more race down and we'll keep battling."

IT'S ANOTHER TOP FIVE. "When you've got a car that good you can just kind of bide your time and pick and choose your time to make passes, and when your car is that good you can race up front and it keeps you out of a lot of trouble. Those are the kinds of things we need to do. We'd like to win, but, more than anything, if we can finish in the top five, we know they'll have a difficult time catching us. It's one more race down and they know they've got one less race to be able to catch up. We did our job and everyone did a terrific job. Todd Parrott, this is what makes him so good. We just couldn't get a handle with this tire all weekend and finally last night we came on something and made those changes this morning. That's what makes that man so good."

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