Koolerz 300 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

CHAD BLOUNT IN THE NO. 19 APP PRE-PAID GAS CARDS DODGE WAS THE HIGHEST FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE IN THE KOOLERZ 300. BLOUNT FINISHED 11TH IN HIS FIRST CAREER START AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY. "We really are (happy with the finish). The guys worked their butts off this week. We had some trouble in 'Happy Hour' yesterday; we got tore up a little. The guys worked their butts off this week fixing the nose and getting the right side put back on. I can't say enough about this team. The APP Dodge really ran good. Patrick Donohue (crew chief) made some great calls. Loren Ranier (spotter) did a really good job. I guess we need to earn some respect from these guys. I guess that yellow stripe scares a lot of people off but hopefully when we come back here they'll know that we are a team to be reckoned with." HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO THE ACCIDENT AT THE END OF THE RACE? "I was there I just didn't hit nothing, I guess. It was pretty tight but luckily Loren pointed us in the right direction so that made all the difference." HOW IMPORTANT IS RUNNING WELL AT DAYTONA? "It's big for the team. It shows what is yet to come in the future. This is a really, really good group of guys; really good car owner and really good sponsor. And how 'bout those Dodges?" HOW IMPORTANT IS STARTING OFF THE SEASON WITH A GOOD RUN? YOU MUST BE HAPPY WITH A GOOD RUN OUT OF THE BOX. "We really are. We knew we would be good coming in here but we really didn't know how good. We felt like at the end of the race we had a top-five car but things just didn't go our way. That's a good way to start out the year and we'll just make the most of it."

DAMON LUSK, NO. 6 STA-RITE INDUSTRIES DODGE, FINISHED 21ST. "I had a horrible car at the beginning of the race. We came in and Tommy (Baldwin, crew chief and car owner) worked on it a little bit. We had a decent car there at the end. I couldn't run on the bottom, no matter what. I could not run on the bottom. Once I figured that out I'd move up top and we'd start gaining up there real good. The car drove well, just a few rookie mistakes but not bad. We were pretty good in the pits. The 26 got into me in the pits. I don't know what he was thinking. He was about 20 car lengths off his spot. I had to rebound from that. I had a good run. We finished 21st which is not bad for the first time here. We'll work on it and got to Vegas and run from there." WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE AN ILL HANDLING CAR BETTER HERE AT DAYTONA? "The car was pretty good. All week long we had been on the bottom and then I got up to the top. At the beginning of the race I switched over, my ignition box quit. I switched to the B box and picked up about 600 rpm. I was like 'Oh my gosh, somebody put nitro in the gas.' What we learned today we can take to Talladega and Daytona in July and work from there."

DOUG HEWITT, CREW CHIEF FOR COY GIBBS AND THE NO. 18 MBNA PONTIAC, FINISHED 39TH. "For some reason the car was real tight today and we had a hard time keeping in there at the beginning. We got back there and then they had that wreck. We were back where we shouldn't have been and got in it. We've been good all week and good off the truck. Everything was good until today. Today it just went away on us." ARE YOU ENCOURAGED TO RUN AS WELL AS YOU DID THIS WEEK? "We're happy. Everybody did a good job. We had a good car and a good motor. Everything was good. I don't know what happened today. We had been fast every time we have been out up until today. We just have to figure out why."

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win