NASCAR BGN: Driver Notes and Quotes, MBNA.com 200, Dover
23 September 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
MBNA.COM 200 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES RACEDOVER DOWNS INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
Friday, September 22, 2000
Pole Sitter: Mike Skinner, No. 15 Albertson's Chevrolet Monte Carlo (first career pole at Dover): "We rolled off the truck and this Albertson's Chevrolet was pretty fast. We just made it better and better. I walked out to pit road from the (Winston) Cup garage to get in my car - we were supposed to be the second car out - and there was no car there. I thought, 'What in the world is going on? Just the way my luck's been this year, Something's happened.' I walked down to the Busch garage and sure enough, they'd broke a lifter in the engine. On the last run, when they was warming it up, they'd found it. They had to change engines. So I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm sure that was our best engine and we're in trouble now. They got the thing through inspection. Never got a chance to really get the oil warm in the motor or nothing (during qualifying). Coming to the flag I thought, 'Man this thing's a slug. It's not getting to speed. By the time I came off (turn) two, the car started getting a little heat in it and the car ran really good. We lost about a half-a-tenth or a little better from our practice run, but it was good enough to sit on the pole. I was kinda surprised by it. I felt like there was three or four cars out there that would probably be a little better than that, but we'll sure take it. I'd like to thank Albertson's and Andy Petree for giving me the opportunity to race in the Busch Series this weekend."
Comment on the tires: "As usual, Goodyear's brought a healthy tire here. It is, obviously, quite a bit different from what we had here earlier in the year. The balance on the car was much different. The car seems to be a lot looser. We ran some pretty exotic air pressures in the thing to tighten it up good enough for a one-lap run. So, the jury's still out on long runs. We gotta untape the car and pull the fenders out and see what the thing will do in race trim. But it was pretty good in qualifying."
Comment on the Lowe's sponsorship of the (Winston Cup) No. 31 Monte Carlo: "I really don't know anything about it. Nobody from Lowe's has contacted me and told me anything. Richard (Childress, car owner) came up and basically told me not to worry about anything, that I had a two-year contract with Richard Childress Racing and that I would be driving a RCR car next year at Daytona whether Lowe's or whoever is the sponsor. Like I said, I don't really know much about it. Nobody's contacted me and told me anything."
Kevin Grubb, No. 37 Timber Wolf Chevrolet Monte Carlo (qualified 3rd): "I got a little loose in my first lap and then got a little looser in the second lap, so I just came in. There wasn't any need to run my guts out if I'd already messed the lap up, so that's when I came in. But I felt we had at least a top five car.
"We've had pretty good luck here - been on the front row three or four times. We had to work on the car a while. Made a lot of changes. Springs, shocks, sway bars. We had to work on it. My crew chief, Terry Shirley, and everybody on the Timber Wolf team made good calls. And we got the car fast. We were a little bit off. We were about a tenth off of what the pole was. But we were happy with it. You know when we came here for the Spring race, we were terrible. We worked on it and couldn't get it better. So, to come here and run good with a different car - it's a car that's only run once this year and it ran awful, we took a provisional with it and just really fought it all weekend. They worked on that car and made it good.
"The main (difference or improvement) is the chassis. The car that we ran here in the Spring was totally different. It was a car we built just to race this race track and Bristol with. It really didn't run very good at either of them. We're back to running just whatever we've got, and things seem to be working better that way."
Comment on the Dover Downs track: "It's a fun track to go around. A lot of people say you don't need much brains to run around here. You just go as hard as you can. That's pretty much it. You just let it all hang out and it's fun. It's something I like to do. It's been working so far and hopefully we can keep on running good here at Dover. It's one of my favorite tracks, and we've had some back luck here the last few races. But hopefully all our back luck's gone and we can start finishing these top five runs that we've been making. We've had several top five and top ten runs, but we haven't been able to finish 'em."
Jay Sauter, No. 43 Quality Farm & Country Chevrolet Monte Carlo (Top qualifying rookie): "The car was a little free in practice. We tightened it up quite a bit and it was a good run for the Quality team. I like this race track. It was a lot better this time than it was in the Spring. We struggled in the Spring. We don't know exactly what it is. The biggest thing for me is that I was scared to get in the window then, and I'm looking forward to climbing in the car now. The team has worked real hard and the Monte Carlo body has really come along for us. Everybody involved with our team has done a great job. Before, we just didn't have the set-up in the car quite right. This is one of those race tracks that in order to run fast, stuff has to be right. It's an exciting race track, I love it. Of course I like Bristol as well, and I like Texas. But this is just a fast race track and it's enjoyable to race on. It's not the same car we ran in the Spring. We went to Bristol with a different car for the Fall race and ran real well there. We finished sixth. And we decided to bring that car here. That's probably one of the main reasons it's better."
Text Provided By Nancy Wager
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