NASCAR WCUP: DuraLube/K-Mart 300 Post Race Notes, Dale Jarrett
20 September 1999
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
DALE JARRETT --88-- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus
(Finished 18th) -- "We had a good car. We just had to make the
green flag stop there. We were sitting in the pits when the caution came
out. We only had right sides on it, and we decided to come back in and put
left sides on it...pretty small pit boxes, the 20 car was already in his
pit. I knew with the 4, I would have to give myself room to get out there
and when I came in and turned back out to give myself some room, I guess I
got the right-front tire back out of the box. I've seen guys all year have
their front ends over and everything else, but we got caught for it and
that's the rule. So, it's just unfortunate. It's a lap penalty instead of
going to the back, so we made the most of it." DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH THE CALL? "That's the rule if you're outside, but you need to call it all the time. I guess that's just the breaks. If the right-front was out it was out. It just happened whenever I turned back right to make sure that I could give myself room to get out, since I knew we were only changing two and knew the 4 car was changing four tires. It's just unfortunate." IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO WIN? "I had a good race car. Man, the thing was really good on the one set of tires, just incredible...took off and got ourselves a good lead there, but I congratulate Joe Nemechek. I'm really happy for Joe. For a while it looked like Joe may come over to the 28 car and I know he's looking for work and, hopefully, this will help him get a good job out there because he is a good race driver. But, it could have been a lot worse. We didn't lose too many points, so we'll be alright."
YOU RAN WELL ON OLD TIRES. "The car was really good and it seemed that one set of tires was really the best we had been all day, so we decided to stay out and it got us off sequence where we had to make a green-flag stop. I was just sitting there hoping the race would go green from there and then everything would have worked to our favor probably. But, of course, we were sitting in the pits and the caution comes out. We got right sides on it, we thought that we needed four tires. We may have been able to just take two, but the car had gotten a little loose off and we decided we needed four. We came back in to get the other two and I guess Tony Stewart was in there and I was trying to give myself room to get out and when I turned back out I guess I got the right-front outside the box. These are just really small areas and when you've already got cars in the pits it just makes it difficult. You'd like to think there would be a little leeway there, but rules are rules and I guess the right-front was out and there was a lap penalty."
SO WHEN YOU COCKED THE CAR BACK IS WHEN IT GOT OUT? "Yeah. I knew that I had it in at one time, but I just let the car roll to give me a shot to get out because I knew the 4 car was changing four tires and we were only gonna get two and then I could be gone before him. I just didn't realize I had gotten it that far out and it's just a mistake. I've seen guys have their front ends out and tires out this year that didn't get caught, but I guess it was just our time, unfortunately. It could have been a lot worse. It turned out OK."
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