NASCAR WCUP: Notes and Quotes from second 125, Daytona International Speedway
17 February 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
WARD BURTON, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"The Caterpillar car is really strong. Like everybody out there, we just have to try to get the handle a little better. We started off real loose, got neutral for about three laps and then got real tight. When Mike would go up a little bit higher, I'd run down low to try to get more air on my nose. But, still I was still having to lift. The track is changing and the cars are changing a lot more than normal." (ON SUNDAY) "I'm really proud of this Caterpillar team. Like all teams, they worked really hard on this race car. It's a brand new car. We qualified sixth and finished third today, so if we are not a victim of some unforeseen accident or something like that, we'll be in good shape. Like every week, this team has high expectations. The biggest thing Sunday is not to be behind the trouble when it starts and just have some good luck in that area. But, we're ready to go. " (TOUGH TO PASS?) "It's just tough. It's just tough the way they've got it set up out there. At first, the 31 and the 43 were on the outside of me. The 28 just got the best start and ended up getting to the front with a good push from me out of four. Then, we were able to squeeze back in front of the 43 with the help of my brother in the 99. Those first four cars looked like they were probably handling a little bit better than some of the others also." (THE SHOCK RULES) "With the shock rule, it limits our ability the adjust the race cars like we're used to doing. Everybody that follows this series knows how important shock adjustments are, and having a good man that can make shock changes on your team. So, we're kind of limited there with what we can do, and that's probably making the cars react in a way exiting the corners in a way that we didn't have before." (ARE GM CARS AT A DISADVANTAGE) "I don't know. Mike's (Skinner) car looked good. My car was good. I think if the 31 car had been the leader or had I been the leader, one of us would have won the race. I don't think the 28 could have passed us. It's just that that guy has the handling a lot better than everybody else because he's getting the downforce on the nose. We were lucky enough to have five or six car break loose and get single file. We were .lined up third when it all got single file and that's where we finished. It just appears that the guy that's in the lead - he's got the downforce on the nose, so his car handles a lot better. The rest of us are kind of struggling when the downforce is not on the nose when you're following somebody. But, I think all the makes are going to be real equal Sunday."
JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 43 STP/CHEERIOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON HIS ENGINE PROBLEM) "We weren't even playing that hard. We were trying to lay off of Ward (Burton) to save the car a little bit, so if we needed to run at him, we could run at him. If guys came up, you might get a run at him. That's the way things go. It's a typical Daytona 500 Speedweeks for me." (UNFAIR ADVANTAGE FOR FORD RIGHT NOW) "Probably if they've got Yates under the hood - yeah. You knew they were going to do a good job with their cars. You knew Chevrolet would too. New cars are always tough to keep up with. But, we can compete on Sunday. We'll just have to out-handle them. You can have all the horsepower in the world, but if you don't get through the corners all day long, you're not going to be able to have a good finish. I think we can get the handling. We're pretty close. We're not 'spot-on' but we can get it a lot closer." (STARTING A LONG WAYS FROM THE FRONT SUNDAY) "Well, there have been longer trips. I don't like taking them, but oh well. I guess it's better to go that direction than the other one."
DAVE BLANEY, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"We were here well into the night just getting the bodywork straight and the paint back on our car. With only those few laps on the car yesterday (before the wreck) and almost no drafting practice, we had no idea what to expect. Until we got out there, we couldn't tell what else was going to show up at speed. We've obviously got a lot of work to do to get it back to a competitive level, but our qualifying time was a good one (10th) and we're in the show. It's a good thing we've got two days of practice to work on it."
Text provided by Al Larsen
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