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Auto Club 500 - Dodge Post-Race Quotes
FIVE DODGES FINISH IN TOP 10 - Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Jamie McMurray, John Andretti and Sterling Marlin scored top 10 finishes on Sunday in the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. It's the first time this season that five Dodges have finished in the top 10. The previous best was two weeks ago at Martinsville when three Dodges - Marlin, Wallace and Ken Schrader finished in the top 10.
"We were so close. We've got a winning team. We just haven't won yet. The only problem I had out there was Dale Jr., and he was trying to get his lap back. I would have been doing the same thing. He got up underneath me and got me loose and I fell from the lead back to about fourth. That's racing. I'm not disappointed about nothing. I had a good opportunity to win the race."
"We had some lugnut problems and lost track position. We lost all track position. As good as everybody runs, it's just hard to get up through there. We were a little bit off the run before, but that last set of tires was really hooked up good. We finally made up some ground. I don't know if I could have beat the 97, but I believe I could have beat those other two cars if I just could have got to 'em. Everybody races so hard and so long it's just hard to do. From where we've been this season, a top 10 would have been great."
"My car wasn't the best those first two runs. Then it started to get tight and lose grip. We never could adjust on it and get the balance right. We freed the car up and it would be too loose at the beginning and too loose at the end. The race track changes, and I kept looking around for a groove. At the beginning of the race I ran up high the whole time, and then I think everybody started running up there. It took some grip away and I had to start moving my line around. We just needed the long runs."
"I'm really happy. The guys did a fantastic job the entire weekend. It was a lot of fun. Racing hasn't been a lot of fun for awhile, but this was a lot of fun. Even though I was eighth, it feels better than an eighth-place finish. We were really tight to start. I told them I wasn't going to the top of the track. I didn't care what happened up there because I've been up there before and got in trouble. You get greedy up there, and I wasn't going to get greedy today. I was going to take what we had and go on down the road and that's what happened. My spotter did a real good job telling where the crashed cars were at the end and I didn't lift. It was real disappointing because we had run in the top 10 all day and now we were going to finish out of the top 10. That would have been a bad result. We just took back what was rightfully ours."
"That's another top 10 finish (three straight, fourth in past five races), but we still lost a spot in the standings. The car was a little tight at the start, and then we had some trouble in the pits, but the car was pretty good at the end. We didn't get a lot of practice with this car yesterday and we hadn't raced it since Atlanta. We ended up pretty good with it, but we should have been better than 10th. I guess that's not too bad starting from the rear of the pack. We'll load up and try it again next week at Richmond."
"I really thought I had a great shot to win the race. Our problem was early on we ran out of fuel and came in a little short. We couldn't get the car refired and finally got it started. We went back out 16th and drove it up to ninth. Right there at the end we two-tired it and took the lead and that was the key move. The car really handled good on two tires. I was racing really hard, trying to keep the lead. Dale Jr. was trying to get his lap back. He got behind me and got me really loose. We fell back to third after that, but that was just racing there.
"Right there at the very end coming at the flag, I guess there was two laps to go. I took the lead down in three. I flew up the race track a little bit. I just could not hold that bottom line. I let the 97 get underneath me. I tried to get him back in three. I drove it in real deep and slid up again and that was it.
"Bobby got past me coming to the line for second. The white flag is waving, the caution flag is out, all hell is breaking loose and I was hustling down through there. I didn't get out of the throttle. There was a big drag racing coming out of turn four and he beat me by six inches. It was a cool race. I had a great hot rod today. We have a winning team right here. Our cars are running great. We just haven't won yet. We're getting closer and closer back to victory lane where we need to be. I think we chipped away pretty good in the points today. That was good.
"I don't think that was everything (stalling car on first pit stop). I already had the lead once. I got through that and took the lead. I guess the biggest problem was when I was racing the lapped car, racing the 8 car. That really screwed me up there. I fell from the lead back to third. That was a big one there. There again, I had an opportunity to get it back and take the lead going into three. That last two laps was probably the most dramatic I'd been in a long time racing because I hustled down in there four wide going into three and everybody was going nuts behind me. I slid up and 97 goes underneath me. It was a cool race. I know the people in the grandstand had to be loving this race. It was exciting. People ask what makes this a better race. I think the race track is maturing a little bit. It's getting grayer. Things are getting slippery.
"Once you see a softer tire out there, once Goodyear and NASCAR finally see fit to soften this tire up you're going to see a really good race then. I know what I'm talking about. These tires nowadays are real, real hard. They're like four or five steps hard. Once we soften them up, it'll get much, much better.
"I saw two or three grooves out there today. It looked real good to me. Last year, it was one groove. In fact, when I was holding Bobby Labonte off I was using the whole race track up. He knew it too. I would go all the way up to the top. The air was everything. You'd lose the air so bad you had to be in the front. It was a great race.
"I never saw the 97 coming at all. When we went down into turn three with two to go and maybe it was Bobby pushing me. I don't know who it was, but somebody pushed me right through there. I took the lead going into three and said, 'man, I'm finally going to win a race.' I was real excited. I went in and that thing pushed up, and I still didn't think the 97 was there. I came off turn four and where the hell did he come from?
"The first three laps after a restart is the toughest part. If you can get through that and get the stuff off your tires and get going.... That's what we kept talking about. If we get through that, that's all right. I knew Dale Jr.'s car was pretty good. When I was leading the race and he got on my bumper, it just about turned me around. That's when I went from first to fourth, but I had another shot to get it back. I should have just gone in that corner a little bit easier.
"All the teams have got money, and all of them have got good people. You look at qualifying and it used to be a second and a half apart when I started doing this. Now the pole can be a 29 flat and last place can be a 29.40. It's that close. It's closer than I've ever seen it. If you win a race nowadays, your planning has been right and you've done right.
"It just looked like he couldn't get it hooked up and I saw him going up and I saw Ryan on the outside. I saw Park still going and Ryan on the outside wall. I didn't know if Steve didn't see him on the outside or what. I went to the bottom of the race track because I thought those two were going to bounce off on me. I looked up in the mirror and I saw everybody spinning, but I could see it coming in the middle of one and two when we started the race. Something went wrong with Steve's car."
"Our car was the best it was on the first two runs. We made some small adjustments, but everything we did the car was tight off at the end of the run. Everything we did seemed to hurt it more at the beginning and didn't seem to help it at the end coming off the corner. We needed 100 laps plus. Our car was not real good on the short go, but on the long run it was really good. If somebody was running down low, I just went high. If somebody was up high, I just went low. It was a lot of fun today.
"If you noticed early in the race I'd lose two or three spots on the start. Within 20 laps I'd gain 'em back and then be able to drive off just a little bit even. We just needed the last 30 laps to go green. It's weird for me because it doesn't seem like your car is that bad and guys pass you. You improve your car just a little bit and you can't believe how much your times pick up. Just picking the gas up early and not have your car binding off the corners makes such a big difference.
"We had our game plan set from the get-go. The only way we were going to take two tires was if it was the last stop with 20 something laps to go. We didn't feel it was going to be good early in the race unless we were way back and needed to make up some track position. We were going to take four tires every time unless there was 20 or less to go."
"I don't know if somebody got into the 1 car or not, but all I know is the 1 car got loose and got up and shoved me into the wall. That was pretty much it. He came up, and I don't know if he didn't have control or lost control or what. He just got up into me and shoved me into the wall. It happened on the first lap, but I knew the car was going to be good. Rusty is out there leading the race right now, and yesterday in Happy Hour our car was as good as his. It's just one of those things. It seems like we can't buy a break lately and we get involved in everybody else's bad breaks, too."
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