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Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 - Dodge Post-Race Quotes
"It's great for these guys. Between Mike Ford (crew chief) and Ray (team owner Evernham) and all the guys back at the motor shop, I can't say enough about those guys. It seems like whatever has aligned here in the last couple of months has really come together. We've got good motors, good chassis, good bodies. Ray has believed in us well enough when we started this program almost three years ago. I don't know what else to say. I'm pretty much speechless. We had a great car here today and ended up having a motor problem on Friday. We qualified well and ended up starting supposedly fifth. We had to go to the back, and that thing came on when the race started. I said, 'man, we've got a good racecar here today if it all plays out.' It finally played out in our hand. I knew Jimmie Johnson would be tough to beat on a short run. I felt like I had a better car after 40 or 50 laps on the second side of the run. He was good on the first side. We finally got it adjusted and got good there at the end. We did what we had to do. The pit crew did an excellent job getting me in and out there at the end and put it all together.
"I don't think it plays a part because the cars are so different than they were a few years ago. You've got to run as hard as you can all day long. As many good racecars as there are, today because the track is so abrasive on tires, you've just got to have your car that much better. Mike and all the guys do an excellent job getting everything tweaked like I like it. That's what wins a race. You've got to drive as hard all day long as you can. I knew I had a good racecar. I knew I shouldn't take unnecessary chances trying to get positions, especially there before the mid part of the race when a lot of cars were on the tail end of the lead lap. We kind of started way back. I knew that was going to be a touchy situation. It seems like everything happens here early on the run. Guys on fresh tires are good for three or four laps, but on long runs, my car was so good. To me, it just comes back to setup. I think experience doesn't count. The last two or three times we've been here in the spring, we haven't been good at all.
"Just to see the guys work hard on Friday. We tore the engine up with 10 minutes to go in practice before qualifying. They got the motor changed, the oil tank changed, all the oil lines and got it back out by the time qualifying time rolled around. When we qualified, that was our fourth lap on the racetrack. It was an awesome lap. The guys do such a good job.
"When I went to Sonoma this guy went with me from back home. He went with me out there and we ended up finishing fourth at Sonoma. Then he went with me when I went to the test at Kansas City, and I finished second. I came here and tested, and he came with me. Before he left he went over and told Mike that we were going to win the race. The guy runs dirt back home. His name is Ray Cook. Mike looked at him like 'man, you're crazy.' I've got to go buy him a box of popcorn or something. Ray is a great guy. He's funny and works hard in his profession. I hope he runs good tonight where he's running. For somebody to say that is one thing, but to come back and put it all together is pretty amazing.
"The main thing was getting a good, clean restart and getting the thing pointed in the right direction, keep it on the bottom and make it work. The sun was terrible getting into one. On the next to last restart I drove into one on the apron because I couldn't see the corner. When they pull the strips of plastic off the windshield, when they pulled that last one off it left a lot of glue on the windshield, and I couldn't see anything, especially getting into turn one. The caution came out again and Tim Fedewa the spotter said find something and pick a point. I believe that helped me. It made it a little easier getting into turn one.
"It seemed like we gave Kansas City away. To bring it all in perspective, we hadn't been all that good at Charlotte the past few times, and we ended up running well at Charlotte. We came here and had about half a day test because of the weather. Mike and I tried to go over the stuff, and it ended up raining practice short yesterday. Everything kind of played to us to some extent. I wanted to win bad for these guys, not only for myself, but for Ray and all the guys at the shop. I was trying not to make mistakes from my side, but we put it all together. I asked Mike how many cars were still on the lead lap, and he said 30 something. At one time, all the cars were still running. It's amazing to me how good all the cars are.
"Matt's a great kid. He's a great driver. I've watched him throughout the year, and there's a lot of times he's had a less of a car and he's finished very well with it. He did a great job for me back in '98 when my dad passed away. I had already gone to Dover and I remember going in there that Thursday night. I knew my dad was real sick when I left that day. It all happened and the next morning we ended up flying back home. We talked about several people to put in the car. He did a great job for me that day. I've watched him and kept up with him and always respected and admired what he's doing.
"Right now we need to focus on one race at a time. We'll worry about next year next year. I think collectively Ray and I have got some decisions to make, but all-in-all I'm so proud of this race team, and I don't want to take anything away from this race team. We've still got another race left. Once Homestead is over with we'll worry about next year and what we all end up collectively doing. All-in-all I'm very proud of the guys and very proud to be part of it. They've done an awesome job for me. To come here and everything that's happened this weekend, to win the last fall race at Rockingham, to win the last Unocal Pit Crew Championship as we know it today, as much as Unocal has meant to this sport. My first start was at Rockingham back in 1976. All that's kind of an ironic deal. It's like a storybook that's come together.
"I think in fairness to everybody, Ray's got decisions to make. I've got decisions to make. Nobody is going to live my life for me or vice versa. The way we're running right now, you can look at it one way or the other. I'm eventually going to retire. Right now, we've fought through some things but we haven't made a decision. Right now, things have got to line up. On the other hand, as good as we're running right now and you get those stars lined up and as good as everything is coming together right now, it makes it hard in other respects. I want to concentrate on Homestead, get through there and we'll worry about what we're going to do next year next year."
"We came and tested a couple of weeks ago and had an excellent test. It was rain shortened by one day, but we had intentions of having some pit crew practice down here at the facility. We weren't allowed by the weather to do that, so we spent a little extra time at the shop getting the guys motivated and practicing with the format. We were able to win the competition and it carried over to today. Those guys were flawless. The car was good. We made just minor adjustments today, and the pit crew got him in and out well."
"It was a great weekend for the whole team really. Everyone has worked hard together. We brought our Busch car here for the first time and qualified in the top five and finished in the top five. We went on to the pit crew championship and of course the nine car won it and the 19 was fourth. We qualified both of the Cup cars in the top five and finished in the top five and won the race. I'm really, really proud of the guys the way they're working together and the progress they've made. It lets us know our systems our working. We're building our own chassis now. We're putting our own bodies on, we're building our own motors and lots of great things are happening for us."
"I think at that time we were about as low as you could go with a race team. The team was down. I was down. Our confidence was down. We could either sit here and cry about it or fall off the earth or we could start pulling together as a team and get better, and that's what we did. All areas of our race team have gotten better. It's every little piece of the puzzle, and that's where Ray (Evernham) is good. He's good at noticing what areas are weak and making them strong.
"We were better than he (Ryan Newman) was all day. We passed him early in the race. You pass him through the corners and you get on the straightaways and he drives right by you. It's pretty tough to do that, but I think we were better all the way around today. We finally beat him, but we know areas where we need to work more to beat him next time, but we feel like we've closed the gap. We've got a long way to go yet, but we hope we'll be able to beat him on a consistent basis.
"I've been in the relief mode for a long time now, about six months. I'm having fun now racing and finally get back toward the front and be halfway competitive again is feeling real good. Any time you've got that going on, it's a lot more relief than struggling or reading on Jayski whether you've got a job or not.
"I congratulated Bill when I went down to victory lane after the race. If I couldn't win, I wanted to see him win. I put a donut on his door and I told him I was sorry. I ran into him at the end of the race just for the fun of it. Our cars were pretty equal today. I think he was better midway on. At the beginning of the race we were good. We missed our chassis setup just a little bit about midway. About two runs there we were slow, but we started coming back at the end.
"It's been a long season. At least now we can go into next year with a lot of momentum we haven't had. I haven't had that since I've been here. This is the best I've felt since I left the 12 car and we were at the top of our game over there. Our cars are better, and we know what direction to go in. I feel real good about Homestead. It's a good racetrack for us. They've change it, so it'll be even for all of us, and to come off a run like this will be real cool."
"It was hard racing. I didn't spin him (Jeff Gordon) out, but he spun me out. NASCAR penalized him for it I understand. It's not good, hard racing when somebody spins you out. It cost us a lot of track position, but we made it back. We should have been able to make some benefits there in the pits and didn't capitalize on them. We'll go on. We got a top five finish here, and it was definitely a good effort for the team.
"Jeremy (Mayfield) raced me real clean. It's just tough at the end of the year. Everybody wants everything. We had to come back in. I'm not sure what happened, but we just had to come back in. It cost us a lot in track position. We still had a tight racecar there at the end, but the guys did a good job giving us something to work with. It was our first top five finish here.
"It was pretty tough today out there at times. It was a good Rockingham race."
"We were slipping and sliding. On long runs we were as good as anybody, but we just had to fight traffic all day. We were tit for tat with the 9 car on 50 or 60-lap tires. They could beat me a little on 20 lappers, but once the tires worn down it wasn't bad. It got to where we couldn't see. We pulled the stuff off the windshield and it left a lot of glue on there. With the dirt and everything on it, I couldn't see nothing.
"I think we had a top-five car. The 74 got into us and almost spun us out in turn four. We took a gamble, came in and got some tires and couldn't see. It was just one of them deals. We finished 10th, but we had a third or fourth-place car."
DODGE MOVES TO SECOND IN MANUFACTURERS' STANDINGS - Bill Elliott's victory Sunday at Rockingham was the ninth win of the season for Dodge and pushed Dodge to second in the manufacturers' standings heading into the season finale. Chevy leads with 18 wins and 255 points. Dodge has nine wins and 199 points, followed by Ford with seven wins and 197 points. Pontiac has one win and 119 points.
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