Food City 500 - GM Post-Race Quotes

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX (41ST):

(WHAT HAPPENED?) "All the air just came out of the right front tire. I went over and looked at the tire. It looks like it might have cooked the bead - I'm not sure.

"We had a great car. I hate that for Kodak and Pontiac and everyone that works on this thing. We've run so much better than we've finished (this year). We'll get this monkey off our back. We've just got to keep our heads up. We'll get it."

(YOU WERE RUNNING REALLY WELL UP TO THAT POINT...DOES THAT GIVE YOU SOME MOMENTUM?) "I thought we had a hell of a lot of momentum until the tire blew out. But, it could have been self-inflicted. Like I said, I think it cooked the bead. I'm not sure. They'll take it back and evaluate it and let us know the first of the week what happened.

"It's just terribly disappointing. We had a good car last week. We've had a good car about four out of the last five races and we just can't get the finishes. We're really proud of our Pontiac. We're trying to stay motivated. It's just a monkey we can't seem to get off our back. But, we were up front. We were competitive. It's just a shame. But, we've got to go to Texas next week and go in there with the attitude to try to win the race and see what happens."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (16TH):

(TOUGH RACE...) "Yeah, it was. We had about a fifth place race car. We worked really hard just to kind of stay out of trouble and had the longest green flag run in history at Bristol, I believe. Then, we got lapped in the pits, so there wasn't much we could do about it. The car ran out of gas. We ran as long as we could and that cost us a little bit of time, too.

"But, it was a good car and not a bad finish. If you get out of here with a top 20 in one piece - that ain't exactly what you want - but, we'll take it and go on from here."

(WAS ALL THE BEATING AND BANGING OUT THERE JUST TYPICAL BRISTOL?) "Yeah, and it's probably not all even intentional, either. It's hard not to run over people and slide into the side of people. You try not to wreck anybody or run into anybody, but man, it's such a tiny, little track. It's hard enough to go around it by yourself, much less with everybody else."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (9TH):

(IT'S A TOP 10, BUT PROBABLY NOT THE TOP 10 YOU WANTED...) "Hey, a top 10 is a top 10 here at Bristol. I've had fast race cars and been leading and everything else and come out of here with a whole lot less.

"It's disappointing because I missed pit road. I came to the back straightaway under green and should have gone to the front straightaway. It cost us probably two or three seconds and when we came back out, that's about how far ahead Bobby Labonte was from me. We were running him down and were going to get our lap back, but then the caution came out. That's just kind of how it went for us today. From then, we fought back a great fight to get back up to where we ended up.

"We'll take that. If you can come out of Bristol with a top 10 you can't be too disappointed."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/GOT MILK? CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (39TH):

(WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU TODAY?) "Any time you're in a race with a Bodine you're liable to get in a wreck and I did.

"I don't really think -- for people that watch races or people that are involved - that you need to say any more."

(HOW GOOD WAS YOUR CAR BEFORE THAT?) "The car was awesome. The guys did a great job on it. We had good pit stops again. It's unfortunate because we had a good car."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"We had a great car - just got hung out there in the pits. We had a car capable of winning if circumstances fell a little different. We played our cards and came up a little bit short. But, it was a good day for the GM Goodwrench Chevy."

(ON THE GAMBLE) "The reason we stayed out was because we didn't want to take a chance of having to come back through the field. We were hoping for a caution to come out before we had to pit, but we didn't get it. That's just unfortunate circumstances. Who would've thought we would have run a hundred-or-something laps there without a caution?"

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (30TH):

"This day actually started on Friday when we didn't qualify good. We knew that the main battle would be staying out of the wrecks, and unfortunately we got involved in one. The Pennzoil guys did a great job getting it fixed. We lost a lot of laps and from then on out we were just riding around playing the attrition game. It's a shame we got tore up, but that's part of it at Bristol."

TONY STEWART, NO. HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (26TH):

"I've never been hit so much in one day. Then at the end, the '43' car just stopped, for whatever reason. We tore up the whole front end and cooked the motor trying to finish the race. It was a bad day. I can't wait to get out of here."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 ADVAIR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (3RD):

"The guys on this Advair Chevrolet did a great job today. They worked real hard. We had a couple mishaps there and got behind, but everything worked pretty good to where we got back up there. Just right there at the end the car wouldn't go as good. I think something was dropping some fluid down and it got real slippery for a while. Then, it got better after that. But still, to come home third today is pretty good. I wish we could have run that as a green flag run there at the end instead of having a couple cautions, but that is the way it goes."

(ON HIS RACE OVERALL) "It was great. It was better than great. I spun out twice and finished third. That's a pretty great day."

(HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU WRECK TODAY?) "I got spun out twice or was in two wrecks. I was on the back straightaway twice backwards.

(ON COMING BACK FROM THAT...) "Our car was really good that one segment - we had the long green flag run before lap 380 or whenever the caution came out there. We made up a lot of positions and got to the lead there. We probably started 26th. The car was really good at that point in time - the best it was all day. We weren't quite as good towards the end. We needed a little bit longer run and then we had a caution and it screwed us up again. But heck, it could have been a lot worse. I can't complain about it. I just wish that we hadn't had a caution. But, at the same time I say that - there the last 10 laps the car got real loose, so I don't know. I might have cut down a tire when I tried to chop him off."

(WITH ABOUT 20 TO GO, DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE BETTER THAN THE '97'?) "I thought before that caution came out that we were gaining on Kurt (Busch) really good there. Then the caution came out. After the restart we weren't as good. Matt (Kenseth) got by us there. I think there was fluid on the track. I think Tony (Stewart) might have been dropping it. Somebody came in and then it dried up a little bit. But, I got a little bit better there the last couple laps. We were getting pretty good up until that caution came out with 30-some-odd laps to go and then after that, we couldn't get going again."

(ABOUT 40 LAPS FROM THE END, COULD YOU HAVE GOTTEN AROUND THE '97' OR WERE YOU JUST TRYING TO BE PATIENT?) "We had some lapped traffic there and we were both being pretty careful getting through it. I think I was getting a little bit better at that point in time. I saw his car was going up the racetrack a little bit more than it was the first few laps of that run and my car was digging on the bottom a little bit better. At that point in time, my car was getting better and his car might have been giving up just a little bit."

(ON GOING TO TEXAS AND TALLADEGA...WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES THERE?) "I don't know. We'll have to wait and see, but we look forward to each and every race we go to now. Yesterday afternoon I didn't think we were that spiffy there and we made a lot of changes this morning before the race started. It makes you confident. You go to a racetrack, you start off pretty good and you might stay pretty good. If not, maybe we'll pick up and get better as the day goes on, so we're looking forward to it."

(ON PIT STRATEGY TODAY, WITH ALL THE EARLY CAUTIONS AND THEN THE LONG GREEN FLAG RUN...) "It worked out pretty good for me because we had just taken the lead at that point in time. 'Fatback' (crew chief Michael McSwain) said, 'Pit.' The lap he said, 'Pit,' the '88' car hit the wall of turn four, so I stayed out there for two more laps and the caution came out. I'm not sure if it was for debris or something else. But, we caught a lot of guys a lap down or two laps down at that point in time, so pit strategy worked out good for us, just because we didn't strategize to pit any earlier than we did and it just worked out. We were able to pit under caution and a lot of guys were a lap down, just by virtue of having to pit under green. We got crashed earlier and pitted a couple times, probably later than some of these other guys did. At that point in time, I guess we could go a little bit longer than they could, so it was kind of unlucky for us at one point in time, but then turned out to be fortunate for us."

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