NASCAR WCUP: Post Race Notes and Quotes, Phoenix, Jeff Burton (Winner)
6 November 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus
-- VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW -- "We did loose track position every now and then. We broke a jack in the pits and then we had a lugnut hang up one time. We just didn't have a good day in the pits, not because we don't have good guys but because it didn't work out for us. I thought us and the 12 car were the fastest cars for sure. This is a good day for us. It feels really good to get Citgo SUPERGARD in victory lane. I feel bad for Ricky Rudd. He looked like he was in good shape. We were gonna catch him, but catching him doesn't mean you're gonna pass him. Ricky is obviously a great race car driver, his wins will come again. He's showing everybody that he can still do it, there's no doubt about that."
SO YOU FELT YOU COULD CATCH HIM? "Well, we were gonna get to him. I'm not saying we were gonna pass him. Catching Ricky Rudd and passing him are two different things. We were certainly gonna get to him, we were a little bit faster, but that doesn't mean we were gonna win. He was in great shape, but I thought the two best cars for the majority of the day finished first and second. I felt bad for Jeremy too because he got a lap down, made it up and came back to finish second. That's two weeks in a row he and I have run really great and had things happen to us that hurt us, but this time we overcame 'em."
ANY THOUGHT ABOUT FOUR TIRES ON THE LAST STOP? "Not at all. We saw Jeremy put on two early in the race and he really went fast on 'em. We put on two and went really fast on ours. There was no question what we needed to do. Frank made a great call. He wanted to put on two early in the race and he put on two and I didn't want that, but come to find out that was the right thing to do. It taught us what we needed to do for the rest of the race."
HOMESTEAD IS SIMILAR. ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC? "We are optimistic. If you look at the last four months how many laps we've led and how we're running in the front, we're real proud of that. We struggled in the middle part of the year but we've overcome that and we're running better now than we've ever run, so I'm really proud of guys for not getting their heads down. We've worked really hard. I'm really tired right now. We've tested a lot. We've worked really hard. This has been a team effort -- all of our engineering support, everybody, has worked real hard to get us back in line and I'm real proud of the team effort we've been able to put together."
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