Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

LARRY FOYT, NO. 14 HARRAH'S DODGE:

"I guess the motor broke. We were struggling all weekend and changing a lot of stuff and still we were really struggling. The motor broke coming off two. I hate that it happened but we were in everybody's way anyway. It was a tough day."

DID THE LIMITED AMOUNT OF PRACTICE AND THE FACT THAT YOU DID NOT TEST ADD TO YOUR PROBLEMS? "It's just tough. I haven't driven these Cup cars much and I'm kind of struggling telling the guys what I think the car needs to make it better. I hate it because it's tough on everybody."

JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 0 NETZERO PONTIAC:

"The Netzero Pontiac was good most of the day. We fought a tight condition in the last half of the race and it got so bad I could hardly hold on to the thing. Somehow we got a hole in the radiator so we had to go on into the garage to change it. Unfortunately we found we had bigger problems than that and our day was over at that point."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 STAFF AMERICA CHEVROLET:

"We're twenty fourth-ing them to death, I think. We were horrible at the start. We're not going to quit; any time, any where. We just kept working on it and working on it trying to make it better and got it to where it would drive halfway decent. We're logging laps trying to get these finishes, avoiding DNFs and that kind of stuff. Later on in the season when we really need this type of job the team is well familiar with it and we'll just keep working on it. We can set a tone now that we can keep doing later. I mean, 24th is not great but from the way that we started 24th is good (laughs)."

GREG BIFFLE IN THE NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT ATLANTA. BIFFLE FINISHED 13TH, HIS BEST FINISH OF THE 2003 SEASON. BIFFLE'S FINISH AT ATLANTA MATCHES HIS CAREER BEST FINISH OF 13TH, WHICH CAME AT CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY IN 2002. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN 2003 THAT BIFFLE HAS COLLECTED RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE HONORS.

A DIFFERENT DRIVER HAS TAKEN HOME RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE HONORS IN EACH OF THE FIRST FOUR EVENTS: JACK SPRAGUE (DAYTONA), JAMIE MCMURRAY (ROCKINGHAM), CASEY MEARS (LAS VEGAS) AND GREG BIFFLE (ATLANTA).

"I felt like we could run in the top-15 and that's what we did today, run in the top-15. Our car is not as good as those other guys, not as good as our teammate, the 17 (Matt Kenseth). We pretty much copied his setup, a little bit of his and a little bit of Mark's (Martin). We've got to be happy about it. We're working on getting our cars better every week. We'll keep working on that and keep working on me getting used to these things. Obviously I made the right adjustments today to go from running 26th to running 13th. I almost got my lap back chasing the leaders down. I've got to say that's an improvement over where we were last week."

HOW IMPORTANT TO YOUR RACE TEAM TO RUN WELL TODAY? "I think it was really important. I've always run decent here. In qualifying practice we were pretty good but we didn't qualify like we wanted. It's important and it's paid off for us, probably."

YOU BATTLED A FLU-LIKE BUG ALL WEEKEND. HOW WELL DID YOU HOLD UP PHYSICALLY IN THE RACE? "I tell you what, I was whipped. Once I kind of relaxed and wasn't so tense it wasn't so bad but about lap 100 I was kind of hurting a little bit."

RANDY GOSS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"That's really what we need for this team. Missing a race like that you're behind on getting all your pit stops right and working on stuff every week. We needed to finish today and also our car is in one piece so we're going to send this thing to the wind tunnel. We came to this race without even having the thing in the wind tunnel. I'm really pumped about the way that Greg drove. You know how he is, he gets everything out of the car you give him. There wasn't nothing left in that thing. He didn't rub anybody the wrong way and drove everybody pretty darn clean so I think that's the direction that we needed to be headed in. This team is not used to being a lap down so that's a hurdle for us and to get past that hurdle and still function under control and not tear ourselves apart was a good thing for us today."

DID YOU THINK AT SOME POINT IN THE RACE YOU COULD UNLAP YOURSELF? "Don't forget that I come from truck racing and Busch racing so when you get in that position all heck breaks loose. It doesn't break loose as much in Cup because the guys have been around so much more. Whenever we get in that position where we can see the front we think 'Well, there's always a chance.'

HOW BIG IS IT TO COME BACK AFTER THE LAS VEGAS WEEKEND AND RUN WELL AT ATLANTA? "It's big for us but what I'm hoping for is just a steady climb up where Greg is always racing with these guys and the team earns respect from everybody here and then just be on our way.

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win