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NASCAR WCUP: Pontiac Driver Notes and Quotes, Post Race, Pennsylvania 500

24 July 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 43 CHEERIOS/STP PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON BLOWING AN ENGINE) "When the other guys (Mark Martin, Sterling Marlin) broke motors I thought we'd be OK. Unfortunately we ended up being one of them. Sometimes it bites you. It's been our season. That's the way it is. "I don't understand why the other guys blew up, but I understand why I have bad luck at Pocono because it always happens. I just expect it."

(WHY HAVE THERE BEEN SO MANY ENGINE FAILURES AT POCONO THIS YEAR?) "Pocono is just really, really hard on them. You're up at the peak RPM all the time for such a long stretch. It's really hard on the valve train; it's really hard on the bottom end. Everybody is squeezing more and more and more out of these motors, so they just break."

KYLE PETTY, NO. 44 HOT WHEELS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON BLOWING AN ENGINE) "I thought our motor stuff was getting better, but I guess it's not. That's two races at Pocono - I blew up two races and John blew up one, so that's three-out-of-four races. That don't get it in Winston Cup racing. We're going to have to figure something out."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON THE RACE) "We ran better today than we did last time here, so that was a step in the right direction. We still didn't have what a lot of guys had. We finished sixth by virtue of some other guys having problems. I still think we were a little bit better, but still not quite as good as we need to be. All-in-all, it was a good day."

(ON THE POINTS RACE) "Every little bit counts. We fought pretty hard today to finish sixth. We had great pit stops. We're still missing a little bit on the set-up here. We're just a little bit off this year, and some guys had it better than we did. But I think we learned a little bit, and maybe we'll learn a little bit more before we go to Indy."

(CAN HE WIN AT INDY) "You never know. We tested good up there the other day, but so did a lot of people, so we'll have to wait and see. Track position means so much anymore. We saw that today. We gave up a little bit and got a little bit."

(DID HE WORRY AT ALL ABOUT THE NUMBER OF ENGINE FAILURES TODAY?) "No. I didn't even pay attention. I don't worry about stuff like that. If something happens, it happens, and there is nothing you can do about it."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON TODAY BEING ABOUT SURVIVAL) "That's about all you can say. We survived today. It was just one of them bad days. But with 34 races on the schedule we haven't had too many of those. But was today was one of them."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 MB2 MOTORSPORTS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON FINISHING 12TH DESPITE SUFFERING AN ALTERNATOR FAILURE) "Man, we had a great race car - stress on 'race car' - no sponsor, yet. It was one of those deals where I don't know what happened. The battery was draining on us a little bit, and it finally went dead on us. Talk about extremely lucky - to have the caution come out (right then). The guys did an awesome job changing that battery and getting us back out. We started way back in 28th and got back to 12th. I'm just real proud of everybody. They've done a tremendous job. I drove the thing as hard as I could and that's all I had."

(HOW GOOD WAS HIS CAR BEFORE THE BATTERY PROBLEM?) "It ranked right up there. Everywhere I've been I've had some pretty good cars. But this car was pretty consistent all day. It was a top-three race car. I don't know if it could have won the race, but it was top-three, for sure. And that would have given us an opportunity to maybe pull it off. But it just wasn't meant to be."

RICK MAST, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON HIS RACE) "We were kind of off and on. I kept adjusting the car the first part of the race and we kept getting it off. Then we got two sets of tires that messed us up a couple of times. Finally I put it back the way it was and said, 'Just leave the car alone. It's a top 10 car if we just leave it alone and quit messing with it.' That's what we did and that's where we finished.

"We needed that. We never had track position all day. We just had to keep working at it. We were 12th at New Hampshire and eighth today. But we're getting more competitive each week. Maybe we can run with them at Indy.

(ON THE NEXT RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS) "They're going to have to run like hell to catch me. I can tell you that."

DAVE BLANEY, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON POSTING HIS BEST CAREER FINISH) "We definitely weren't too bad all weekend. I think I got the crew headed the wrong direction on the car a few times. We kind of fought the same problem all day. No matter what, we couldn't fix it. We'll look at it and go on. But, this was a pretty encouraging day for us."

(HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO RUN A RACETRACK FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A SEASON AS A ROOKIE?) "I was just up to speed a lot better on Friday, for sure. You can just start working with the car instead of learning the track. It just puts you way far ahead of the game."

(DID HE LEARN ANYTHING TODAY FOR INDY?) "I hope so. The stuff here isn't too different than Indy, so I hope so."

DOUG RANDOLPH, CREW CHIEF, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON EARNING DAVE BLANEY HIS BEST CAREER FINISH IN HIS FIRST RACE AS A CREW CHIEF) "This was a great effort for Amoco/Siemens Pontiac. Dave did a great job today. We just fought hard as a team. This whole team rallied around the new changes this week. Everybody worked their guts out to get where we are, and it's a great effort. There are going to be days that are going to be worse than this and there are days that are going to be better than this. But like I said at the beginning, we started some place and we'll learn and grow from here as a team."

(HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO RUN ON THE LEAD LAP ALL DAY TODAY AS A ROOKIE TEAM?) "It was all important. If you're running around the back, laps down, you can't really learn anything. I learned a lot as a crew chief; what to do during a race, what adjustments work and didn't work. I think Dave learned a lot racing guys. He can help with adjustments better now. The pit crew learned, too. Pit stops are a lot different when you're laying it on the line and you're really picking up positions. I think it really helped. It sure helped us find a lot of weak points that we can work on now."

JAMES INCE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 10 MB2 MOTORSPORTS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON THE RACE) "I think we had a top-three race car on the performance side, regardless. If things would have gone our way, I think we had them covered on fuel mileage. But it didn't. So we'll go home, we'll work on it a little bit harder and we'll try to make this thing better. Considering the fact we had an alternator failure today and had several things to overcome, we still come home 12th. Johnny started in the back on the last restart and passed a lot of race cars. This race team is getting stronger and stronger and stronger. We just have to keep working on it." (ON INDIANAPOLIS) "I can't wait to get to Indy. Indy is a place that I always like to go. There is a little bit of redemption for this race team there. We were one of the fastest cars that tested there last year and we missed the show. Johnny has performed excellent there. I feel like we have a point to prove and I think we've got the equipment to go do that right now."

A.J. FOYT, OWNER, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON THE TEAM'S RECENT IMPROVEMENT) "We're gaining. I think we're getting our stuff together. Everybody is working good together. I'm just very happy. I was cutting up with the team this morning and told them not to embarrass me in Pocono. I won four of the '500s' here, and I always ran pretty decent here."

(ON GETTING THE TEAM TURNED AROUND) "When you start something new here...let's face it. NASCAR is so tough with such close racing. I knew it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. But I'm very happy with the turnaround. We've still got a long ways to go. I'm just looking at this year here as a learning curve, really. I think by next year at this time we'll be in the top 10 consistently."

MIKE BLISS, NO. 27 VIAGRA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We just chased the set-up all day. The car was too tight and we kept adjusting on it. It got gradually better, but it never quite being tight."

(ON THE EARLY INCIDENT WITH STACY COMPTON AND JEFF GORDON) "I was trying to make move on the '9' car (Compton) and I got bumped in the left rear by the '24' car (Gordon). The right front of the car got into the '9..' We made several stops and the crew kept working on it and we didn't lose a lap. We finished the race on the lead lap and got a decent finish. We'll take it."

Text provided by Al Larsen

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