NASCAR BGN: Sam's Town 250 Post Race Notes and Quotes, Memphis
30 October 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
SAM'S TOWN 250 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES RACEMEMPHIS MOTORSPORTS PARK
Sunday, October 29, 2000
David Green, No. 34 AFG Glass Chevrolet Monte Carlo (goes behind the wall): "We broke an oil pump belt. A piece of rubber or something got underneath of it and just ripped it in half. The car was pretty good. You can't do good when you can't finish these things. We've had a lot of bad luck. I'm happy for my brother, Jeff, wrapping that deal(championship) up. Hopefully Mark (Green) will have a good run today."
Brandon Butler, No. 83 Link Belt Chevrolet Monte Carlo (goes behind the wall): "Well I tell you, we were having a great run with this Grubb Motorsports Chevrolet. Looks like a wiring harness burned up on us up underneath the dash. We had a great race car."
Jeff Green, No. 10 NesQuik Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finishes 3rd, clinches championship): "It's been an awesome year. It's been an awesome year. We've been on such a high this year. Things have been awesome every week. We came up a little bit short today, but we did all we could do. It was a great day for us. We've got Harold Holly and the Holly's NesQuik guys behind him. And they made for an awesome year. The sky's the limit when you've got them guys working on your car. To have these guys - man, it was awesome. And we worked hard for it. We had a good year last year, but we stepped it up a level, and hopefully we can step it up even more next year. We took the lead at Talladega and we never looked back. Those guys just kept having problems behind us. We kept having good runs. When you have 25 or 26 top five finishes, that's a championship season. There's no doubt about it."
Kevin Harvick, No. 2 ACDelco Chevrolet Monte Carlo (winner): Did you jump the start? "Honestly, I think the No.10 (Jeff Green) laid back. But you know, I guess that's just a rookie lesson I guess you could say. I can't help it if ours went and his didn't. I mean it was a judgement call and NASCAR uses their best judgement and you can only do what they say. We'll take our lumps and learn by 'em (stop & go penalty).
"The biggest difference for me in stepping up from the Truck Series to Busch is there's more people that can win every week, there's more people that qualify good, there's more people that do everything better. It's just a whole lot different than the truck. It's got less downforce, it's got more power. It's just a whole different deal. Not knowing what to expect at the beginning, it's been a whole year of learning. One thing Richard (Childress) told me when we started was, 'Don't make the same mistake twice. Every time you make a mistake, sit down, think about it and don't do it again."
Did you ever think you could make up a lap, let alone win? "You never know, but I knew we had a good race car. We spent two days down here testing and we left here pretty happy. Luckily the weather was the same. But I mean, you never know. When the cautions start flying and you get in the middle of the pack, there's going to be some bent-up sheet metal and it's going to be a little bit tougher. Luckily we had that long run and we got our lap back and we were pretty fortunate that everything worked out our way today.
"That last caution, the car was pretty good. But the two cautions before that, the thing would go in there and get loose and Randy (LaJoie) got under me one time and Jeff (Green) was right there the second time. I don't know if I wasn't scuffing the tires off enough or if I was overdriving it. Like I said, we were fortunate that everything worked out. We got away with a mistake today, and we need to keep it from happening again.
"That's something else I've learned this year. My guys are never going to give up on me and if I give up on them, they're not going to be real happy. That was the first thing that I wanted to do was show 'em that I wasn't going to give up. I learned this early in the year. The second thing is when you get mad, get angry, and you start trying to overrun the car, mine usually ends up with the right-front tire wrapped around the window. So it doesn't do you a whole lot of good to get mad. You just put it behind you and keep going. It does make you a little more determined."
How much help was your test session here at Memphis? "The main thing we worked on was getting up off the corner. We made a couple 100-lap runs and worked real hard at making the thing turn and get up off the corner. We stumbled across a couple of things and luckily they still worked here today. The car we tested here with is sitting outside the shop right now with the left rear tire shoved up under the frame. We wrecked it at Kentucky. We had a pretty good package and thought it would work. Luckily it would."
Randy LaJoie, No. 1 Bob Evans Chevrolet Monte Carlo: (finished 4th) "The guys had the best pit stop of the year. We come in fourth and went out second. It happened. They cut a good pit stop when it counted. We just didn't have enough for the front three cars. Our car was just a bit too tight. We worked on it all day and got it better. From 37th to fourth, with two races to go, it was a good day. We'll take it. Top five."
Did Jeff Green give you the squeeze when you were running in second? "I guess, you know, him (Green) being the champion and stuff he figured we was just going to pull over and wait for him. First time I've raced him all year. I wanted to race him. He narrowed-up the front straightaway pretty hard. I figured eight tires go through the corner better than four, so we just leaned on him a little bit."
Tim Fedewa, No. 36 Stanley Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 5th): "I have one of those LaJoie safety seats and it works pretty good. My back really didn't hurt so bad. What I exactly knew would happen and what I tried to prevent all week was getting cramped-up elsewhere, you know in my legs and all. I stretched real good and have been doing a lot of therapy in the pool to just try and get loosened-up. There's nothing that compares to just getting in one of these things and going for a few hundred laps. It's tough and it'll wear you out. Our Chevrolet was good. The package was really good on it. We've had good downforce all year. The track was hard to get a hold of.
"We qualified decent and qualified up front and that really helps. It helps mentally and you don't have to deal with a lot of traffic. As you well know, these fields are so tight. When you start 30th, all them guys in front of you qualified better then you and even if you're a little better than them, you can't pass them. So track position means a lot. That did help that we were running good and had great pit stops. We needed this 5th place finish. I'm lucky to be here, let alone finish 5th. We were really bad in Happy Hour and we changed everything. They did a good job on this car. We've got a great short track program. We're at a bit of a loss on the speedway (program), but man when it comes to short track, we're pretty good."
Jimmie Johnson, No. 92 Alltel Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 8th): "There was something about our set-up where we were a little slow in (turns) three and four. We could hold our own for the most part, but to really get anybody, we needed to be a little bit better in three and four. But all in all, a good day. I think this will put us solidly in the 10th spot in points. We gained on one of the cars in front of us, I think, Purvis. Casey (Atwood) finished just ahead of us, so we didn't gain anything on him. But it'd be nice to finish this year up inside of the top ten."
Text provided by Nancy Wager
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