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NASCAR WCUP: Southern 500 Post Race Quotes, Dale Jarrett

5 September 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Dale Jarrett
DALE JARRETT --88-- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus (Finished 5th) -- "It was just a long day. You just never knew what was gonna happen and the track kept changing and you just had to chase it around. It's just unfortunate to have a finish like this, but we got a top five and we had a decent car all day. At least we were more competitive."

WAS THERE A SENSE OF URGENCY WHEN YOU PITTED AFTER EVERYONE ELSE AT THAT ONE JUNCTURE? "Oh yeah, but you could see. I mean, NASCAR did the right thing there. I thought it was gonna be really dark and gonna rain some more. We took a chance. It didn't really effect the outcome of the race, I don't think. We had our chance to get back up there and to race with them, but a couple of the guys were just a little better than us. The 18, they made a great pit stop and got all he could on pit road and got him a victory."

WAS THE FEEL OF THE RACE DIFFERENT BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER? "Yeah, I mean you never knew what was gonna happen. You couldn't get overly aggressive because of the tire situation and you had to keep the tires on it, so if it didn't rain you had something to go with. You just had to be patient, but go hard."

IF THE RAIN DIDN'T COME HOW WAS IT GOING TO EFFECT YOUR DAY? "Oh, I don't know. We made some adjustments there on the last stop. We had been freeing the car up and we got a little too loose there and if we tightened it back up it would have fun to see, but you never know."

HOW DID YOUR STRATEGY CHANGE AS THE DAY WENT ON? "I don't know that we had any strategy all day. You just had to kind of play it by ear. Whatever the weather was gonna let you do you had to do that."

A STRANGE DAY. "Yes, you never knew what was gonna happen. We can't predict the weather. We can look at a radar screen and still not know what's gonna happen. You plan the best that you can and you adjust the best that you can."

Text provided by Ford Motorsports

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