The Winston - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

LARRY FOYT, NO. 14 HARRAH'S DODGE:

"We got up to 12th through some of the accidents but we had so many problems with our car that we had no need being up there. The gearbox was hardly working for me, we had something down by my feel, and a piece of metal I think sliding around. We thrashed. We did a good job and I appreciate Sammy Johns from Ray Evernham's coming over and helping me and looking over our stuff. He really helped. The guys are working hard but it's tough racing week to week the way that we are doing it, but hopefully it will keep getting better. I think we learned a lot for next week. I think we learned that we need a little more front downforce on the Harrah's Dodge and we are going to go to the shop and do that. This is my 600 racecar and I was pretty worried about that. It was pretty crazy out there for some laps."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

"Welcome to the Winston Open, I guess. Everybody was fighting for a spot, you know, I think Todd (Bodine) had got loose there in the middle of one and two and we were splitting them. He was coming up high and I was trying to get by him and we ran out of room. It ain't no big deal, really, it's just typical racing. We'll take what we learned next week for the 600." DID THE DAMAGE MAKE THE CAR DRIVE RADICALLY DIFFERENT? "No, but we were worried that it was going to cut a tire or something. We've only got two good cars for Charlotte so we didn't want to risk it, you know. It really wasn't worth it. The risk really wasn't worth the outcome. So we came in which, obviously, track position obviously hurt us. We learned a little bit tonight that we need to work on for the 600. It was kind of a disappointing early exit."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"We probably had a car to win with but track position is just everything. Jimmy Spencer or the 4 car (Mike Skinner), I don't remember which, but leave it up to either one of those guys and they are going to go into the corner three wide at Charlotte and cause a big melee down there and I lost all my track position. I just never could gain it back. We were looking at lap times there and we were a little quicker than the leader but we were a half-straightaway behind him. It's unfortunate. I think we had a car that we could have run good in The Winston with, maybe not win The Winston, but could maybe have run in the top-10, top-five in The Winston. These guys have worked hard to get our cars where we need to get them. Without testing here I don't think that was a bad effort." HOW CRITICAL WERE THE RESTARTS HERE? "Really critical, because they are double file. The outside was good, the outside was good, and I'd have to start on the bottom and start on the bottom and I'd move to the outside instantly. Well, the last one I'm on the outside and the outside was the slow line so I can't win (smiles). You don't have a choice to pick but that's just where you end up and I'm in the outside and I was all excited and then it was the one that go stopped."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"I'm real proud of the guys. We were horrible yesterday in practice, I mean absolutely horrible. Jimmy Elledge (crew chief) made some great calls. We started that race and we had different front springs, different rear springs, different track bar, and different truck arms. We changed everything on the car. We could have been either real, real bad or real good and we were a lot better than we were. We weren't good but we were a lot better so I'm real happy that they did such a good job. The car is much better and we have something to work with for the 600. We stayed out of trouble. This is one of our better cars and we wanted to do that and keep her good for the 600. That was our main focus." THIS PUTS YOU AHEAD OF THE GAME FOR NEXT WEEK BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT DOESN'T WORK. "We ran the first morning practice and we ran great and then the second practice and the 'Happy Hour' at night we were absolutely horrible. It was really bad so we said 'Hey, we're going to use this as a test for the 600 and go out and make some changes and see what it gives us.' We've got a lot better car to work with going into the 600."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"We just missed it tonight. The car was tight on the gas and we made a track bar adjustment on the pit stop, but we had lost so much ground by that point that we couldn't catch up. It's very disappointing because I thought we'd have a good night but obviously it didn't work out the way we hoped."

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