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South Carolina 200 - Post-Race Quotes JEFF BURTON --9-- Gain Taurus -- VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW -- "It feels awfully good. We've struggled this year in our Winston Cup program and our Busch program and to come out and dominate like this means an awful lot. It puts a lot of confidence back into us and the guys just did a great job. I'm proud of them. I'm not the easiest the guy to work with, especially when things aren't going well. These guys have put up with a lot of my nonsense, but I'm real proud of them. They worked real hard and it was good to see this Gain Taurus out in front." COULD YOU HAVE MADE IT ON FUEL? "We could have made it on fuel, no doubt about it. We were gonna go the whole way under green, but once the caution came out with three cars on the lead lap you've got to pit. There's nothing else to do but pit with only three cars on the lead lap. If you hadn't pitted, you would have been in the way so we were gonna go the whole way under green, but as soon as the caution came out we knew we had to pit." WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE GUYS WHO GOT BACK ON THE LEAD LAP AND GOT TIRES? "That's the thing about guys getting back on the lead lap. Elton Sawyer got his lap back, I didn't give it to him. He beat me through the wreck. Some of the other guys, I gave it back to them. If Elton would have beat us, he beat us because he beat me through wreck. Kevin Harvick is upset because I didn't let him have his lap back, but you can't let a guy have his lap back that late in the race when they can pit and you can't pit. That's just the way it is. I'll let a lot of guys have their laps back a lot of times, but I'm not gonna do it when it's gonna hurt me." ANY CHANGES THROUGHOUT THE RACE? "We changed a lot today before the race and we did most of the right things, obviously. We made one air-pressure adjustment and one wedge adjustment. Other than that, that's all we did." RYAN NEWMAN --02 -- ALLTEL Taurus -- "It didn't look too good when we had that rain delay coming from the back there, but the guys did an excellent job recovering. It's just a really good day for us to come home in the top five, but I wish we could have done a little better for the ALLTEL people." HOW WAS THE CAR AFTER THE TIRE CAME OFF? "The car felt really good. I think we did a hundred percent recovery on the car with the exception of the quarter panel and the body there, but once you get behind here it seems like it's hard to get back up front and we struggled to do that." GREG BIFFLE --60 -- Grainger Taurus -- "We weren't that good all day. We kind of copied somebody's setup a little bit for the race today because we didn't feel we were that good and didn't have that much to lose. We probably should have stayed more conventional and used what we did last time, but the cautions didn't fall too good for us and got us a lap down. I let my teammate go because he was the leader and then the caution came out. Looking back at it, I wish I wouldn't have let him go but I was trying to help him. That was unfortunate. But, it was a pretty uneventful day until after the checkered flag when we got wrecked pretty good. I don't know, I can only speculate. What the NASCAR people were telling me in the trailer is they think he was after the 10 car for wrecking him (Wimmer) coming to the checkered or something and he was kind of chasing after him and I happened to be a victim. I turned across in front of him and he hadn't slowed down from the checkered flag yet. Everybody else is slowing down -- the entire field -- except him and I just happened to cross in front of him not knowing that he was coming like that. There was nothing I could do about it, but it wasn't anything between he and I." WHAT DID YOU FEEL FROM THE SEAT? "He was on top of my roof. His whole car was on top of the roof, but I don't know. I was pretty shocked. My neck is a little bit sore just because I wasn't expecting it, but it happens." ELTON SAWYER --98-- Starter Taurus -- "First of all, these guys did a great job. When we had the rain delay we had a left-rear tire flat, so we had to pit. I lost a lot of track position and then we had to work on the car. The thing was really loose. My hat's off to Jeff Burton. He had a hell of a car there at the end. He let us get our lap back and a couple of more laps, maybe, but, still, a great day for the Starter team. We had a heck of a race there with Mike McLaughlin and the 26 car and I was really catching the 9 and thought I might have a shot. When I saw the white flag I gave it all I had going into one and two, but Jeff was just a little better." SAWYER PRESS CONFERENCE -- COULDYOU HAVE CAUGHT BURTON AT THE END? "That's a good question. When we went back to green there, obviously we were picking him up pretty good, but we knew coming here that it was a 147-lap race and we had to get it done in that amount of time and we just kind of ran out of laps there at the end. But we had a good car and to go through what we went through early with the rain delay and the left-rear tire was flat. Biffle, his left-front was flat, so we both had to pit and go to the back and then to work our way back up there and at least be in contention was a good day. There at the end, everybody is kind of getting all they can get. We got by the 26 and then Mike and I got side-by-side going into one and we got by him. That was good, hard racing there and he had to give a little bit and I appreciate that." WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE IN THE LAST 11 RACES FOR YOU? "Brad Akins, our car owner up until June 1st laid a great foundation. He did a great job. He sold our race team to Michael Kranefuss and Marty Gaunt and they came on board. I think all the pieces to the puzzle had been there for some time. We've had a great engine program with Cosworth -- really good people -- Ricky Viers, our crew chief -- they work extremely hard. For whatever reason we never could quite get it put together on a consistent basis. Michael's background is obviously well known. His 25 years with Ford Motor Company and his experience of running race teams and he's kind of got everybody lined up now. Believe me, you don't want that German on your ass so we decided we better run better." WHAT'S THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS BEEN LIKE? "Obviously, it's been a lot of fun. This is what it's all about. As Michael has told us many times, it's all about winning. We don't show up to run second. We don't show up to run fifth or 15th, it's all about winning. So when you're at least putting yourself in position to win it's a lot more fun. Obviously, it's taken me many years to get in this position with the right amount of people and get the experience on all these race tracks, so now I feel like maybe we're a legitimate contender for the championship next year." WHEN DO YOU START WINNING AGAIN? "We thought about doing it today, but it just didn't work out. It looked like Jeff Burton needed to win more than we did, so we'll start next week at Richmond. That's closer to Chesapeake anyway, they'll like it better." DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED WITH PARK AND FOYT? "Not exactly. Obviously, when the caution came out for the rain, we were right behind Steve so we get out and he's the one that actually pointed out that we had a left-rear tire flat. So we were in the back when we were getting ready to go back to green, but I'm not sure of what happened. The only thing was I looked up and they said they were wrecking and I was like, 'Wow, that's a big-time wreck over there to be under caution.' And then to keep riding around for the amount of laps we had to ride around -- nobody was saying anything on the radio and that's usually not a good sign. The first thing I asked Jim Phillips when the race was over was 'is Steve okay' and he said they were gonna keep him overnight. The best thing is he's okay, but it was a bad looking deal over there. I don't know what happened." SCOTT WIMMER IN THE JANI-KING PONTIAC FINISHED 12TH, AND TOOK HOME RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE.HONORS FOR THE FIFTH TIME THIS SEASON AND SECOND CONSECUTIVE RACE. WIMMER WAS INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT WITH GREG BIFFLE AFTER THE CHECKERED FLAG, HEAVILY DAMAGING BOTH CARS. "We had that restart when we were running third and slid up into the wall off of turn four. Then on the white flag lap the 10 car (Jeff Green) stuck me in the wall off turn two. After the race I was going too fast down on the flat and Greg cut down in front of me and I just slammed into him. He just came down out of the banking and I was going too fast on the bottom and I just hammered him there. That was a bad deal; it kind of scared me a little bit. It was kind of like (Steve) Park and Larry Foyt. We hope that Park is Ok. "We had a good race car. I hate that it ended this way today, all torn up. We'll be back at Richmond." GREG BIFFLE, GRAINGER FORD, FINISHED 15TH. "Our car wasn't as good as we wanted it to be. We just tried to stay out of trouble and run the best we could. We had a perfect car until after the checkered flag. I'm not sure what happened down there. We just got together in an accident or something. I'm not sure what happened." JAMIE MCMURRAY, WILLIAMS TRAVEL CENTERS CHEVROLET, FINISHED 23RD. "We struggled all day. We had a good car here in the spring and I thought we'd have a really good racecar. We just missed the setup; it just never had any grip, new tires, old tires, whatever. We never could get it to the racetrack. We'll go on to Richmond and I think we'll have a good car there."
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