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2001 Schedule and Results
Virginia 500 - John Andretti Notes
John Andretti Notes, Quotes: Virginia 500
‘Martinsville, a tough track to win’
Heading into a track where he has visited victory lane, John Andretti and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the .526-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for Sunday’s Virginia 500. Andretti won this very race in 1999, coming back from a lap down. The win was Andretti’s first while driving for Petty Enterprises, adding to the organization’s record 17 wins at the famed NASCAR oval.
Andretti is in his fifth consecutive season with Petty Enterprises, but his vast racing experience ranks him as one of the most versatile and talented drivers on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. He is one of only two drivers to win in two different major racing series and also win two or more NASCAR Winston Cup races. Winner of the 1991 Gold Coast Grand Prix in Australia, one of CART’s premier events, Andretti was also a winning driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1989 in the series then known as IMSA.
In 1994 Andretti became the first driver to run both the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte and the Indianapolis 500 in the same day- leading the way for others who have attempted the "double."
The thoughts of Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge driver John Andretti heading into Martinsville:
“I guess some people out there like eating Frosted Cheerios, others like Honey Nut Cheerios, and then you have some that just like Cheerios. That’s how I feel about Martinsville. It’s my Cheerios. I really don’t know why I like going there more than most other tracks, but I always have. There is so much you need to get out of your car at a place like Martinsville. It makes it more challenging than other tracks.
“You race around for 500 laps and it’s like asking a girl for the first date. You worry about so many things that might go wrong instead of the things that might go right. You have to worry about the brakes, keeping the front fender on the car, and not running into other cars. It’s all these factors that make Martinsville pretty tough.
“When we won this race a few years ago, that was pretty special. It was the way we won that made it so special. We fought back from spinning and getting caught a lap down, then raced back and won. A win is a win, but that one was really special for me. Martinsville is a pretty tough place to start with. You put 43 cars on that close a track, and it makes it really tough. It’s the smallest track, the slowest track and, outside of the road courses, the flattest. For those reasons alone it makes it one of the most difficult. To win there is really special.
“I haven’t forgot winning there. I remember when we were caught a lap down early, and that sure wasn’t good. We had a car that I felt was capable of winning, and I knew it at the start of the day. We spun early, got a lap down, but we climbed right back. Under the green flag we unlapped ourselves, and in that same run we were in the Top 10. That took most of the day and we only had about 150 laps to make things happen there at the end. It ended up that the top four guys were racing pretty hard and they wore down their tires. I was able to drive right around everyone, except for Jeff Burton. I think it was with two or three laps to go that I was able to get by him for the win. It was a special day for us. We believed we could win that day and we were right. It just proved to ourselves that we were right. We are looking for one of those races this weekend.
“Qualifying at Martinsville is such a hit and miss type of deal. It just seems like it’s more hit and miss for me than some of these other guys. I can go out and run a really good lap or I can go out there and start in the middle of the pack. It always helps to start up front, but no matter where this car starts on Sunday I know I have a crew that can get me to the front. I would take my guys who work on this car right now and put them up against anyone. I have some really great guys that are working on my car. I think that Greg (Steadman, crew chief) does a great job, and I believe he is a phenomenal crew chief. He is going to be a champion one day and I just hope that I am the one behind the wheel. This year some of the results haven’t been there, but we have had cars that have been very competitive. It just seems like we haven’t had good luck, or we have had other things that happen that are out of our control. This team never quits though. They never put the blame on each other. We just go to the next race and try it again.
“Right now we have Kyle (teammate Kyle Petty) and his team running pretty good and that is helping all our teams out. We all help each other over here at Petty Enterprises and we all try to give support to one another. The best is to have all three teams just flying for we can all feed off each other. We look over at Kyle’s team and see that they are running good and it gives us all a boost. It really helps. If we can find something here, and the Sprint team finds something, and the Georgia-Pacific team finds something else, we are only going to keep getting better and better.
“This weekend we are looking for a good finish. You never really know how good you are until you get there. We tested at Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway and that track is really similar to Martinsville. We have had some good runs in the past and I like the track. Hopefully we can get this #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge running up front this Sunday.
2001 Schedule and Results
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