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NASCAR WCUP: Driver notes and quotes, Rockingham Post Race

23 October 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 AARON'S PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We were just off. We finished a lot better than we probably should have. We were just off when we unloaded. We made some great changes for qualifying and great changes during the race, really. I don't believe we deserved 11th, but the guys kept working hard, kept working and kept working, and we ended up 11th. We could have maybe even been a little bit better, but yet in the same token shouldn't have.

"It's tough to run here. The tires fall off fast, but everybody's got to deal with it. The tires would last a good eight laps and then you would just sit there and fight from that point in time on. But there again, like I said, everybody had to deal with the same problem."

RICK MAST, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"If we had started the race the way the last 10 laps ended up we would have been OK. We missed it big-time on the set-up and kept adjusting and adjusting, and nothing was working. Finally, we changed the fender around a little bit and the thing started working the last 100 or 150 laps. We just needed more time. If it had been a 500-lap race we would have been better. But we'll take it the way it started out."

WARD BURTON, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We just had no happy medium. We cannot get the push out of these damn race cars, and when we do, we just take the rear out of tracks. There is no happy medium. It's been like that all summer. We had one stretch, one set of tires, one set-up that stayed under us pretty good, but the car changed so much it was just all I could do with it."

MIKE BLISS, NO. 27 VIAGRA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ARE YOU MAKING A LATE-SEASON STATEMENT BY FINISHING AS HIGHEST FINISHING ROOKIE TWO WEEKS IN A ROW?) "The only thing I don't have on is a shirt that says, 'Will work for food.' I'm looking for a job, but our team is getting better. I'm getting better. I think it's just taken a while. Winston Cup is a lot harder than I ever dreamed it was -- even (for) Barry (Dodson), I think, coming back over here. It's just taken a while for us to get going and it starting to show."

(IS RETURNING TO THE TRUCK SERIES AN OPTION FOR THE FUTURE?) "It was an option as of last Monday, but I turned it down. I'd like to stay here. I made it here. I'd like to stay here and pick up another ride. But there is some Busch stuff that is starting to open up and I'd do that. I'd go back and do that - happy to do that - race and get some more experience on these racetracks. It's the racetracks that I need to run."

Text Provided By Al Larsen

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