NASCAR- Pontiac Racing - Las Vegas
5 March 2000
NOTES AND QUOTES; LAS VEGAS; JAMES INCE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 10 LYCOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: (ON THE TEAM'S FAST 2000 START) "I feel like we're on track and we're moving ahead. Everyone talks about how quickly our team has gelled, but you really have to go back to last April. There has been a year of effort put into this program for us. We did have a round of musical drivers and a lot of changes and different motor programs, but our core people really never changed. We've been improving the entire time, and we're fundamentally sound with everything we're doing right now and it is starting to show. Now we have Johnny (Benson) in the car and it's very apparent the things that Johnny can do with that. So I feel like we've blended a really good race team with a good race car driver, and things are going well. Johnny has my confidence and I have his confidence in everything we're doing right now, so that part of it is pretty neat. But when you go back into the race team I feel like we had the confidence going a year ago. It's a pretty neat program. Tim Beverley has given us everything we possibly need to go do it. We're moving ahead. We're doing the right things to go in the right direction." (SETTING UP FOR TOMORROW) "We know what to look forward to and we think we know where we want to be at the end of 'Happy Hour,' but you never know. The biggest thing we're fighting right now is we're kind of getting our butts kicked a little bit. It's a good weekend to have a Ford or a Monte Carlo I believe - definitely a Ford. We're trying to play catch up with that and at least be 'best in class' tomorrow." (TWO TIRE STOPS) "In the past two tires were always good. I went back to my notes earlier and it kept saying, 'Two tires.' What we saw this morning, I don't think two tires are going to be the deal. The racetrack is wearing itself quite a bit more. The winters I guess have been hard on it out here. I'm sure there are people that want to try it. I'm sure if you're 20 laps into a run you may do it. But right now I think the more rubber you can keep on the car the better off you're going to be." GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: (CHOOSING NOT TO TEST HERE) "We chose not to come out here because it's a long trip and it's an expensive test. We tested here last year. We didn't get to run much in the race, but our flat track program last year in the second half of the year was as good as anybody's I feel. So that is kind of what we went off of. We did run good on flat tracks: Homestead, Phoenix, Loudon, Richmond - places like that. We thought we could bring some of that here. We just kind of put it all down on paper and split some things down the middle. We just kind of look at it all and try to put the puzzle together. Sometimes it works, and so far it looks like it's working good for our race package. It probably hurt us in qualifying, but in race trim we've been really good." (MAKING UP THE TRACK POSITION TOMORROW) "Our car is really good in long runs. Tony is really good here. These flat tracks - he like them. This is more of a momentum place. He is really smooth. We'll just stay out of trouble and pick our way to the front and I think we'll be fine."