Meijer 300 - Ford Post-Race Quotes

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus (Finished 1st) - "We had to fight for this one. That's what the Marines do; they don't die." TALK ABOUT THE MISCUE IN THE PITS. "As good as our car was, it didn't matter. If you listened to our radio chatter, I told them it didn't matter. Everyone did a hell of a job on this car. Harold Holly, that's my new man." TALK ABOUT THE FINAL LAPS. "I laid back a little bit to save my right-front (tire) because it would get tighter and tighter. I was out in the high groove and I remember that deal with Todd (Bodine) last year, and I said, 'This is working.' I kept getting a run and getting a run and just drove under him. I drove it in there too deep and I thought he got under me, but that Robert Yates horsepower picked me up. This is awesome. This is what we work for all year long. Sam and Ed Rensi redid this whole team within a month. We've never finished outside the top 13 the last month. I've got to thank all of the guys that support his thing." YOU WERE SURPRISED YOU WEREN'T ON THE POLE WITH HOW DOMINANT THIS CAR FELT. "I don't know where the 59 got his lap, but I'll take a second any day in qualifying to get this trophy tonight." THIS IS GOOD FOR YOUR STANDING IN THE POINTS. "I told them if they gave me Harold Holly that I would deliver the championship at the end of the year, and I'm going to keep my word for it."

HAROLD HOLLY, Crew Chief-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus - "That was pretty good. I can't say enough about Bobby Hamilton, Jr. It has been a while since we've won one. I can't say enough about Bobby Hamilton, Jr. as a driver; he's a hot rod. The Team Marines Taurus was awesome tonight. This team is awesome. These boys are hunting for a championship right now and they deserve to win one; Bobby Hamilton, Jr. deserves to win one. That's what we're after right now. These guys are fantastic." WHAT ABOUT THE MOVE HE PUT ON JASON KELLER TO TAKE OVER THE LEAD? "How about that? The old saying goes that quitters never win and winners never quit and we ain't quitting."

JASON KELLER-57-Albertsons Ford Taurus (Finished 2nd) - "It was a great night for us. The 25 was a little better than we were at the end of the race. I can sleep tonight because I know I didn't have anything left. He had a little bit better car than we had, but we did all we can do." DOES THIS FINALLY GET THINGS GOING BACK IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION? "Yeah, we started to do that last week, but this proves that we can finish them off."

KASEY KAHNE-38-Great Clips Ford Taurus (Finished 11th) - "We started so far off, we were so tight that we could never get even close. We didn't crash, we stayed in the race and the guys made pretty good pit stops. We just about got a top-10 out of a tough week. We crashed one car, so it would have been bad if we crashed two, so we're leaving here with good finish, but one wrecked car to fix. To finish right out of the top 10, we got some good points and that's all we can ask for.

WALLY DALLENBACH-17-Aleve Ford Taurus (Finished 12th) - "We wanted to get one under our belt, and we have five more, so this was a good test. I hadn't been a race car in eight months, so it was good for to get back in a car, it was good for me to work with them. Now they know what I like, which is totally different from a lot of guys that they have worked with, so this is what we needed to do. I wish we could have stayed on that lead lap, but we were off just a tick there. Once we got that lap down, I think we could have been sixth, seventh or eighth, but if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their rearends when they landed."

SCOTT RIGGS-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Finished 30th) - WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND HORNADAY? "We went down into the corner and I gave Hornaday the outside line off of turn 2 and gave him the outside line getting into (turn) three down there. To me, I thought he just came down. I don't know what happened; I've got to watch the tape." IS THIS AN INCIDENT THAT THE TWO OF YOU NEED TO DISCUSS? "We're just trying to keep a level head and remember what our job is here. You're going to have people that lose control of their car or do things that they shouldn't have, and this time it just cost us and not them. We're sticking to our same game plan at Milwaukee of qualifying in the top five and running in the top five in the race."

JASON KELLER PRESS CONFERENCE

"I'm glad I was in the battle for the lead. The last four or five weeks have been really bad, so to get back on track is great. We did everything we could. The 25 was better than we were late in the race. I'm disappointed we didn't win the race, but I can sleep tonight knowing that I drove my heart out but just got beat. Sometimes you do that. He kind of got me bottled up behind lapped traffic there and took advantage of it and won the race. No disappointment in finishing second."

"We knew we had a pretty good race car last night and we were just able to move our way up. I thought I had a top-five race car last night and I knew the 25 was going to be tough, and that's the way it worked out. I can't say it enough, it just feels good to get back on track. I want to win races, naturally, but I just want to get back on track as well, and that's what we did tonight. I hadn't even been mentioned in a late-race battle for the lead in a long time, to even be a part of leading laps and being a part of what we were a part of tonight is a step in the right direction."

"The racing conditions were great. This is an awesome race track, awesome facility. We've actually run in the top five both of the times that we've been here, but we haven't been able to close the deal. Our performance has been good here, but we haven't finished like we need to. It didn't surprise me to have a good race car. The guys did a good job on pit road. That's one of the things that we've been practicing on. We've got some young guys on pit road and to go in third on that last stop, right in the heat of the battle, and come out third, it was really a testament of how hard they're working, too. This place is a great place to race. If you're faster you can pass, and if your car is pushing you can find a groove up top; it's not one groove. NASCAR needs to take a good look at this place and give it a lot foe credit because it is really, really a great race track."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR. PRESS CONFERENCE

"Since the get-go, we led since lap one. Scott (Riggs) had a pretty good car. We just kept saving our stuff, saving our right-front (tire) and him and Hornaday got together. It worked out good because that was one less car that we had to pass that was pretty fast. I kept working on the 57, high, high, high. I remember that Todd Bodine won this thing a year ago running high. I just kept digging. Kept digging, backing off early, getting in the gas early. It hooked one time and I got me a good run, and it just worked. Jason is one of themes people that you can race with and not have to worry about any kind of incidence. He raced me clean and it worked out perfect, so here we are."

IT LOOKED LIKE THIS RACE MIGHT GO CAUTION FREE. "That would have suited me fine. That was when our stuff was the best, out front in clean air. The longer it ran, the faster we got. I would kind of keep tabs on second and third and run about their speed. That's how good the car was. I could just run my pace and stay ahead of pull those guys. The team worked hard where I could get in the gas earlier than anybody and it stayed that way all night long. That's hats off to all the guys and Harold Holly. Just one guy came over here and changed the whole team."

TALK ABOUT THE PASS AT THE END. "I kept running the bottom with him. The bottom, the bottom and I kept feeling the right-front give away. I went to the high side one time and it worked for me. He kept running the bottom, and it just worked. I got an excellent run and just pulled under him. Like I said, he's a class act and he gave me plenty of room. We raced off into one real clean and got by him, and once I was in clean air, I could get in the corner and just mat it from the center out and just pulled away. It worked."

TALK ABOUT THE MISSING LUG NUT ON THE LEFT-FRONT TIRE ON THE LAPP 88 PIT STOP. "I don't know, I think it just fell of when they slammed the tires on there. We had such a great car that I got back up to second and started riding because it was so early yin the run. I didn't want abuse my right-front because I didn't know if it was going to go green forever. When you have that type of race car, you can pace your race. The 10 wasn't getting away; he was staying right there with us. If they give you that type of race car every week, you can do this every week. It makes my job look easy."

YOU MADE A LOT OF RUNS IN TURN 2. WHAT DID YOU DO? "I would just take a real wide arch entering the corner, and before the center, the car would rotate so good that I could just be wide open before the center. They were having to wait for theirs to rotate. Harold has got the best saying in the world: if you can beat them to the wood all day you're going to kill them."

WAS THE LUG NUT A WAY TO MAKE THIS RACE INTERESTING? "I would just assume kick their butt all night long and stay in the wind. If we're going to win one, I'd just assume it to be like that where it's a head's up battle down to five to go. That shows what type of race team that can give you a race car that can run up front. The car would just rotate so good that I could just get in the gas early. If it was up to me, I wish it would have gone green from one all the way to 200 because I'm sure we would have lapped the whole field."

PUT INTO WORDS WHAT HAROLD HAS MEANT TO THIS TEAM. "He gets the cars driving so good. In bad air, good air, no matter what kind of air it is, I can pass cars. I can go to the outside, the inside, and he keeps the people so jacked up. When he speaks, they all stop what they're doing and listen. He's just one of these people that whatever he says, there's never a doubt; you just believe 100 percent. When it started to get free in a run he told me that it was the exhaust and it wouldn't get any worse than that, so I started driving harder and harder and picked up and wondered, 'How did he know that?' So much knowledge, tons of victories, a championship, it's just like I said, he's got the team so fired up when talks. He makes sense on everything. He's just got the guys so jacked up right now that I can think they can go right into war and take some bullets if they have to."

HAROLD HOLLY PRESS CONFERENCE

ARE YOU THE WORLD'S GREATEST CREW CHIEF OR WHAT? "I don't think so, but I think this is the world's greatest team right here and definitely the world's greatest driver; this man is definitely a hot rod. You're going to see him in victory lane a whole lot more. This whole team, these boys have a desire to win second to none. All they need is to be pointed in the right direction, and I'll tell you what, anything you ask them to do, they're so receptive to it. They want to win. There's no fussing, no gripping, this is a championship team. It's really cool to be a part of it, especially tonight."

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING THE LAST FEW LAPS, AND WERE YOU COACHING BOBBY ON WHEN TO MAKE THE PASS? "I pretty much left that all up to him. I just tried to tell him every now and then that it was his. All that comes from behind the starring wheel there. He's pretty much a man when it comes to that."

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win