NASCAR WCUP: Pontiac driver notes and quotes, Brickyard 400
7 August 2000
By David TrefferContributing Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 43 CHEERIOS/STP PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON WHAT HAPPENED) "I just went into turn three and blew a right front tire, I guess. I don't know why it did it. Last year guys blew right fronts because they were aggressive with the right front camber, and we were not. As a matter of fact, we were really conservative and Goodyear said we were good, so I don't know what happened. Maybe we built some more heat in there with the brakes or whatever. It's just real unfortunate because the Cheerios Pontiac was good.
"I don't know what to say. I'm not delirious. I'm just disgusted."
JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 AARON'S PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"It was pretty much a fairly tough day today. We started off tight, and then after one set of tire we got it was good. But it seems like from that point on every set we put on, the car changed drastically. I don't know why it did that."
RICK MAST, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"It was very miserable. When the race started we started picking cars off, and we were coming up through there pretty good. I was really trying to be patient and take it easy, and not lay on the tires or hurt the tires because I didn't really know what to expect with the chassis.
"I was kind of picking them off at will. Then I went into the first turn and I see the '6' car (Mark Martin) spinning. So I eased out of the gas and got my hand up. I was slowed down a good little bit, and all of a sudden, somebody absolutely just ran over me. I guess whoever it was either didn't have a spotter or didn't have his eyes open. That basically ended our day for us."
DAVE BLANEY, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"We were on and off. We handled good for a while, bad for a while. They kept telling me on our lap times we were probably a 12th to 15th place car, but we could just never get track position starting in the back. But that's not bad, though. We're getting better, for sure."
(IS IT TOUGH TO PASS HERE?) "It is tough to pass. I picked the wrong gear for it. I had too much. I had too much gear and fizzled out about halfway down the straightaway. I couldn't get my nose up in there when I needed to. But it was strong through the corners - stronger than we showed. But I'm pretty happy altogether."
MIKE BLISS, NO. 27 VIAGRA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"We were just too tight all day long. We kept adjusting and making changes. We should have spun out as much as we did to the car. It was good to finally be able to race at Indy. I just wish we could have run better today."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON HIS RACE) "About the last 20 or 25 laps we were pretty much locked into our spot. As long as I didn't kill the race car and kill the tires we were pretty much going to finish where we were at. We couldn't gain on anybody in front of us and we weren't going to lose anything to anybody behind us. We basically just stayed in there and at that point I was just asking for updates as to where Bobby (Labonte) was. It's nice to see him finish it up.
"I'm real happy. I'm probably more happy for Bobby, but I'm happy with it considering where we started. It's hard to come from 18th to the front here. We did a lot real early and after that it was just track position. It was hard to race guys today."
(ON NOT GAINING MUCH AFTER MOVING UP) "We weren't as fast as they were. That's all there was to it. We just weren't as fast as they were. That's why you don't gain time."
(ON THE DIFFICULTY OF FINDING THE PERFECT SET-UP) "You never get these cars perfect. It's very rare that you do. When you do, that's when you see a guy check out. But nobody checked out today because nobody's car was that good. It's hard to be good here anyway.
"We just couldn't get the car to rotate today. Wee were tight in all day long."
(ON THE TRACK CONDITIONS) "This track is so temperamental to sunshine and temperature that as soon as the clouds started coming it changed a lot of people's cars. We needed a hot, sunny day and we didn't get that. We got it for about the first 50 laps and that was it. The rest of the day we just kept chasing the race car. The guys did a great job making adjustments. We never got it perfect, but we got it really close - close enough to run as hard as we ran. I'm not ashamed of a fifth place finish here starting 18th."
(ON THE FRUSTRATION OF TRYING TO WIN AT INDY) "I feel real sympathetic for Michael Andretti now. It's just hard. This is a hard place to win and that's why it's so special. When you do win here you feel like you conquered the world and that's because this place is so tough. I don't think you'd appreciate it if it was an easy place to win at."
(COULD HE HAVE MADE A RUN IF THERE HAD BEEN A LATE CAUTION?) "I don't think it would have mattered. All it would have done is given me a good opportunity to watch a good race. This was as fast as we were. We were a fifth place car today and that's where we finished."
(ON THE DIFFICULTY OF PASSING HERE) "It's real hard and it's not going to get any easier every year. These cars and these drivers are starting to get like Indy car racing. If you're not fast enough to stay in front of somebody, you start changing lanes and blocking, and that just makes it even harder to pass. The guys on the crew can gain me more spots than what I did today. It's just getting harder and harder."
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON WINNING HIS FIRST BRICKYARD 400) "It's definitely a thrill, that's for sure. We've been close a couple times.
"We started third and our car worked great all day. The only time we got passed behind fifth place was when we got four tires and some other guys got two, and we still got up to about fifth before we pitted again. The car just worked flawlessly all day long. We had great pit stops, a great engine, a great car - just everything worked great. We only adjusted air pressure all day long."
(DID HE FEEL FRUSTRATED IN HAVING COME CLOSE BEFORE?) "I don't think I was getting frustrated, but I don't know that I was getting closer either because coming back this year speeds were up, the car was a little bit different, the competition is always tougher. We just knew that over the past three years we missed a little bit here, missed a little bit there - by just a little bit if we could have had that, maybe we could have won then. But at the same time, it's going to happen when it's supposed to happen. "We had the car today that was fast and that thing would run on the bottom of the racetrack. Guys that have won in the past couple of years have done it there. Our car just happened to work good all day and that's what we needed."
(DOES HE HAVE A DIFFERENT MINDSET NOW THAN HE'S HAD BEFORE?) "I don't think it's a different mindset. It's just that things play in your hands. You see guys that go through it over the years. Rusty Wallace is more consistent now than he was last year. I'm sure he had the same mindset. "We feel like we can go out and run good every weekend. The past few races we haven't been as good as we wanted to be. We worked real hard on trying to get better on a flat track like this and today was a major accomplishment. We haven't been that good coming into this race - Pocono was a prime example. I think we're working through things all the time. There's always something that comes up that you've got to work yourself through. But consistency is what we want to do, and we work at it real hard. Right now it's working for us and we've just got to keep doing that and continue whatever we're doing right to do that."
(ON CHASING RUSTY FOR SO LONG) "We didn't talk a whole lot on the radio. But the last time prior to the last pit stop, I got by him there right before we did pit. His car was a little bit too tight, it looked like, off of turn two and maybe sometimes into turn three, and I could make my run there. That's again what happened after that last stop.
"All I saw was blue all day long it seemed like. I was never going to pass that blue car - blue, blue, blue, blue. I just kept working on him. A couple times I gave him a little shot at it, especially into four - that was my best part, off of three. We were talking down the back straightaway one time and didn't really think about it, and I got into three and by golly, he was up the racetrack and I was on the bottom, and I gassed it and went, and got underneath him there. It really kind of threw me for a surprise because I really didn't think I was going to be able to get him all day. Even a couple times he got on the right line and he pulled away from me, and I said, 'This is going to be bad because he is going to pull away now.'
"But then every other lap we might switch off; I'd hit a good lap and he's have a bad lap.
"I dueled him going down the front straightaway there and got him going into one, and once I got by I didn't look back because it was white. His car is white on the front and I thought, 'Man, if he touches this green I'm not sure what color it's going to make, but it's going to be pretty bad.' I knew he was fast. I was hoping he wouldn't catch back up."
(ON WHAT IT FELT LIIKE TO BE CLOSE THE PAST THREE YEARS) "I know the past two or three years we've been close, and it's still great. This is a great race. It's not all to be ashamed to finish second in or third in, or whatever. We knew (back then) we had a good car; we just got beat by a little bit better car those days. It's still good. All is good when you have a good day. We felt like we didn't have the best car to win, but we had a pretty good car to be second or third. You can't really argue with that a whole lot. When you have a car that's capable of winning or should have won and fell back, then that is something different. But yesterday afternoon we thought we had a car that was good. We worked on it a little bit this morning and made it better, and it was good all day. Today if I had finished second I probably would have been a little bit more heart-broken because we were a little bit closer than we have been the past three years, as far as to the leader. I didn't think we'd finish second, but I didn't think we'd win. I didn't think we'd finish second, but I thought, 'Well, maybe we'll win. Maybe we'll finish second. I'm not sure.' But you know, still all-in-all it was going to be a good day. It just turned out to be better."
(DID HE STRUGGLE WITH AN AERO PUSH BEHIND RUSTY?) "Yes. It seemed like when I got back a little and made a run my car would stick better. When I got a little closer it started to push up some - not as bad as it did early in the race because the speeds slow down a little bit there on a long run. But the track got slippery and you start sliding more. But to hit all four corners right here is pretty hard to do every lap. It was obvious. He (Rusty) would have a bad corner and I'd have a bad corner, and it was kind of offsetting itself. But you would have a little aero push if you got really close to him."
(ON THE CREDIBILITY THAT COMES WITH WINNING A BIG RACE) "It's definitely dreams come true when you win any race. Then when you can win the Coca-Cola 600, the Brickyard 400 now, and every race between the two and hopefully from then on, too - it's just a great feeling. We kind of say during the week that this is a hectic week for everybody because it's big and it's a lot more than a lot of the other races we go to. But it's definitely a lot more worth it now. It hasn't really sunk in yet. Jimmy (Makar) asked me that a while ago and I said, 'I don't think it's sunk in yet.'"
"You see the guys that have won this race and you just wish you could be part of it. Like I said earlier, Rusty Wallace hasn't won this race, but he will and to beat him today was just awesome because that's like a dream come true. I guess if we had come down upside down on the front straightaway on fire that would have been the ultimate. That's another story that we have that's inside. But anyway, it's just awesome. To know the guys that have won this race, the prestige behind this race, the amount of press that goes on here and the fact that there going to have a Formula One race here this year - that's cool on the same track. I think it's just neat. There are races that are more special and this is definitely one of them. When we're sitting in the cabin one day when we're done and retired, we'll say, 'Hey remember that day we won the Brickyard 400?' Nobody will remember it by then, but hopefully somebody will and we'll be able to talk about it. That's one that you'll talk about -- that and the Coca-Cola 600 and maybe one day, the Daytona 500. Those three come out in mind."
(ON RACING DOWN THE FRONT STRAIGHTAWAY) "It's cool. I told my wife, 'It's a real long straight, a lot of people on both sides screaming and hollering. You run by some bricks halfway down and they make a little noise and you barrel off into turn one.' But it's tremendous. Trust me, it's hard to pass here and that was a pass...I was puckered up on that one because when I got to turn one I wasn't sure what was going to happen."
(ON HIS BROTHER TERRY NOT RACING TODAY) "The biggest thing is I think it was a smart decision on his point and I think we should all applaud his decision to not race because he wasn't comfortable with it. The way I look at it is he parks beside me in his motor home all the time, and I'd rather him park beside me from now on until he wants to quit racing one day, than to have something happen and he'd have to quit racing. Not saying it would have happened today, but at least there was less of a chance of it happening. Streaks are numbers and the number came to an end. But the way I look at it is they haven't had that good a year, so here in a couple weeks he'll get to start over with No. 1 and maybe No. 1 will start off better than the last one he ran. It's definitely sad in a lot of ways. It's all good, though. He is safe and sound, and that's what's good. He stayed for the race. He was going to leave early, but he stayed, so that was cool."
(DID THEY TALK AFTER THE RACE?) "Just on pit road. It was a little hard to talk to him. But I grabbed him and about drug him down to victory lane. But he was excited. Like I said, I hope the new No. 1 race that he has that he starts he new streak with will be better than the last one he raced." (WAS HE CONCERNED ABOUT THE CONTACT WITH RUSTY) "Yeah, I was concerned to make sure I had my steering wheel straight because it wasn't light contact; it was heavy contact. He just gave me a push to make sure I could go faster, I guess. When I got by him my car slowed up because I got so loose when it got in front of him. My nose has big scratches on it, too, where I pushed a couple guys down the straightaway. It was just similar to that, so I just made sure that the green and white didn't mix too bad and make that ugly color that I didn't know what it wasn't going to be."
(continued from p. 5) (TWO STORIES HE HAD ABOUT THIS RACE) "The first time we came here in '94 I qualified fifth and Bill Elliott was fourth, and I rode around in the pace car with him. He said, 'I've seen a lot of things, but this is the biggest thing I've ever seen in my life' - riding around in the pace car at The Brickyard. To me, that's how important this race is. Here is Bill Elliott that has done a lot -- won a lot of money, won races, championships, whatever - and he said that.
"That's what really special about it, too. It's like when Donna and I rode around a while ago, you see the people that are still there whooping and hollering. So I think that was special.
"The other thing, today riding around the racetrack with Darrell Waltrip, who qualified second. We were on the back straightaway and gets a little quiet back there and he asked me, he said, 'Well, what do you think?' And I said, 'I think it's just an honor to riding with you today, sir.' So I gave him my hat and he signed my hat for me. All the way back around, all those people were cheering and none of them were cheering for me. They were all cheering for him because this was his last race (here). So I thought that was one of the greatest things today that I felt was riding around with he and his family, coming around for two and a half miles, and seeing all those people. It is an awesome feeling riding around this racetrack that slow with all those people that you see that they fit in this place. To me that's the most special thing. His youngest daughter, Sarah, said, 'Doesn't your arm get tired of waving all that time?' I said, 'Yes it does.' But to me that's what The Brickyard is about, too, is all the people and all the fans. Special. It's real special."
JIMMY MAKAR, CREW CHIEF, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON WINNING TODAY) "Really special. It's the kind of thing you dream about as a kid, getting an opportunity to come and be a part of history. This place certainly is very historic. Getting the chance to kiss the bricks out there on the racetrack, I found myself thinking about what it really represented, and how many race cars have crossed that, and how many champions were part of The Brickyard. It's just really neat and special to be a part of that history now."
(ON THE STRATEGY WITH REGARD TO THE POINTS BATTLE) "Continue like we're doing. We're working the game plan. The game plan is to go into every single week with the race of that week in mind. Monday morning the focus will be on next week, and that's what we've got to do is go into every race trying to win every race, trying to be the best every week. If we do that and we do our job and we can be the best every week, then the points will take care of themselves by the end of the year."
(ON THEIR CAR GETTING STRONGER AS THE DAY WENT ON) "The car was strong off the get-go, but the track changed a little bit and I think it came our way some. But our car had speed all day long. Here is a place where, like Bobby said, we took four tires the first time and that got us back in the pack, so we sort of got lost in the field in a lot of people's eyes while they were watching what was going on up front. But we still had a very, very fast race car. We were faster than the leaders and were coming to the front. Once everybody started cycling on pit stops, getting the same amount of tires, I think it became more evident that we had a strong race car. I felt like we ran Rusty down several times today. I think we just had a good race car all day long. Things played into our hands. We needed long green runs. We didn't have a very good short, fast run car, necessarily. There were some other cars that were just as strong as us. But longer in the run, I think our car didn't go away as much as anybody else's did."
JOE GIBBS, CAR OWNER, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON WINNING TODAY) "I was just enjoying listening to these guys here (Bobby Labonte and Jimmy Makar) enjoy the race. Jimmy and Bobby are the guys that deserve this. I'm thrilled to watch them go through this. It was a great thrill for me and obviously, a great experience. I think these two guys will tell you, we have a great team and that includes the '20' car guys - everybody. They all work together great back at our shop. And Jimmy and Bobby will be the first to tell you that it's total team effort. Everybody from our group is just loving this - thrilled. The Lord gave us a great day today. We really appreciate it."
(HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO HIS OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS?) "I dreamed when I grew up because I was a big race fan of someday getting to come to The Brickyard and watch a race. I just wanted to do that. Then to have a chance to that and then to come here, I remember the very first lap we made around here in practice. It was a special time just to stand out there and say, 'Man, I've got a car that's even out there.' Then today to be able to win this race is just a great experience. This is one of the great sporting events in the world because of the tradition and everything that it has here. I think I probably felt that as much as anything. I was a little bit like Bobby; I was just thrilled to be a part of it. There were so many great stories for me in that I was standing there with Norm Miller, Interstate Batteries Chairman. I called Norm one day. I didn't have a race car, didn't have a motor. I had nothing and told him I wanted to go racing and he came on board, so Norm is a great story. Jimmy staking his career and Bobby coming to race here, and all the other people we've got at the race shop. So to me, I think today was as great a day as I've ever had with any win in any sport or anything else that you could have. It's a great experience. It's just as good."
Text provided by Al Larsen
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