Daytona 500 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes

DALE EARNHARDT JR. WINS THE DAYTONA 500...FIVE OF THE TOP SIX FINISHERS WERE CHEVROLETS

DALE EARHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (YOU'VE GOT TO RACE IN THE BUSCH RACE TOMORROW, YOU KNOW) "Yeah, it's going to be hard to do that, huh? I'm a Daytona 500 champion. I can't believe it. I'm just amazed. It's just awesome. I can't believe I passed him (Tony Stewart) by myself. I was trying for a while. I got a run on him and it happened somehow, I don't know. You don't know what you're doing at that point, you're just trying your heart out. I had a great car built by Tony (Eury) Sr. and all those guys. I can't believe it. This is just the greatest ever."

(YOU SAID IT WAS HARDER TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 THAN THE NEXTEL CUP CHAMPIONSHIP) "Yeah, I don't have to worry about that no more. It's just a hard race to win. It's a season in itself, that entire race. There's just so much going on and so much running through your mind. I've seen it be lost so many times by my dad over and over. I was taught so many lessons about this place by whoever got behind the wheel. Now I don't have to worry about it anymore."

(YOU ARE ONLY THE THIRD FATHER-SON COMBINATION TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500. YOUR FATHER WON IT SIX YEARS AGO TODAY) "He was over in the passenger side riding with me. I'm sure he was having a blast.

"Believe it or not I'm real surprised the Goodyear tire was good all day. I didn't expect our car to handle them so well. The car drove awesome all day. I was real loose there at the end, but it had to be that way to be able to run good on old tires. Tony (Stewart) had a good car. We've been good friends and we helped each other all day. And by the way, I'm glad Michael Waltrip is okay. That was a scary looking accident. I've got a full week ahead of me and it's real exciting."

(YOU'RE LEADING THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS) "Yeah, for the first time in my life. That's awesome."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It's been a good couple of weeks for us in the GM Goodwrench car. We just came up a little bit short on all ends of the stick - the Shootout and the 125's. It's a good way to start off the season. I just wish the racing was a little bit better for the fans. But NASCAR will fix it and come back strong. We'll come and do whatever they want us to do but I was just bored. My foot hurts from riding in line. Once we lost the pack and made a mistake getting on to pit road, we just never got back up there. Our car was capable of winning, we just didn't put ourselves in the right spot.

"Three-quarters of the race was pretty boring, if you ask me. But it is what it is and we'll do whatever they ask us to do.

"It was one of those deals where everybody got spread out. We just stayed in line and did all we could do. All in all, it's been a good couple of weeks for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. It's a good way to come into the season because we've been on both sides. Coming out of here with a good finish is the way to go."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "There just wasn't much you could do sitting there in a three or four-car draft - a single-file draft. When things really shuffled around the pit stop sequence that took place, we got into single file racing and heck, we were just sitting there riding in line hoping that we could catch the lead draft. But those guys were a lot faster with fewer cars up front. We didn't stand a chance of catching them."

(IF YOU COULD HAVE CAUGHT THE LEADERS, COULD YOU HAVE COMPETED WITH THEM? HOW WAS YOUR CAR?) "Yeah, we had a great car. We led some and worked our way through the pack a couple of times. My hat's off to this whole Lowe's team. This is a great start to the season for us to come out of here with a top five. We'll go on to the next one and have some more fun.

"Everybody wants to race for the win. We sat there in a larger group behind the front group and we just couldn't catch them. We were pretty frustrated with that. We thought when we had six and they had three or four, we'd be able to reel them in but we just couldn't catch them. We waved at each other to stay in line. We just sat there in line and just rode for 100 laps. A top five is a great way to come out of here. We want to win the championship and that's a good start to it.

"Staying in the to five is the key to the points. Regardless of the structure - the current one or the one we've always had in the past - you need to be consistent. If we would have been racing for the win and wrecked and finished 42nd, that would have been a terrible start to the '04 season. So, we'll take it. We're a little bummed that we were in the top five but we were so far away that we couldn't even see the checkered flag fall on the leader. I wish we were closer."

(WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE OUT THERE TODAY?) "Before the track got slick, it was real similar to what we've had in the past with side-by-side racing. But once the track heated up and the tires started sliding around, it got real slick. It just really fell into single car racing. Yet you just really had to watch your moves and opt not to pass sometimes because it would slow your whole lane down and you'd lose further touch with the lead group. It took a lot of patience. But still, our patience didn't pan out because we still couldn't catch the group."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We had a pretty good race. I think that getting a top ten based on the way our week went was a pretty good finish. That pit stall we had slowed the momentum down coming off pit road and we had people drafting with us but then he got a penalty. The day was perfect up until the very last stop and the last set of tires. We'll be happy to take an eighth place finish".

(WAS THE RACING DULL AND BORING?) "I could have told you it was going to be like that because of the tires. The aero package we have iis pretty good. I think the spoiler is a little bit big in the rear and it makes the car push and then the tires fall of".

(HOW IS THAT FOR FANS TO WATCH?) "From a drivers' standpoint I like it better. I like to be able to drive the car to make maneuvers out there that I wouldn't normally be able to make. But from an entertainment standpoint I don't know if it was exciting. At Daytona it normally comes down to a handful of cars and it's not always the best restrictor plate race. The nighttime races are better and Talladega puts on a really good restrictor-plate show".

WARD BURTON, NO. 0 NETZERO CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Our car was fast. We had a problem on a pit stop and left a lug not off, which cost us a lap. But, those last couple of runs were the best I was all day. We worked on the car all day and all our changes paid off by the end. We just couldn't make up that lap. We got lucky getting through that big wreck, so we'll take 17th and go from here."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO

(THERE WAS PLENTY OF ELECTRICITY WITH THE PRESIDENT BEING HERE, WHAT DID HE SAY TO YOU? "I pointed to my chest and said Army to President Bush. I then shook his hand, gave him my coin and told him that I am proud to represent you. He said, 'I'm proud to have you representing us.' He is the first president I've ever met up close. That was very cool."

(ON HIS 6TH PLACE CAREER BEST DAYTONA 500 FINISH) "Not a bad run at all for the 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet. I am really proud of this team. We've been fast since we've been here. I might have made a couple of bad moves that got us out of the lead draft, but coming back sixth...we'll take it. A great way to start the season."

(HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO THE BIG ONE?) "I was two cars behind it. I saw it happening and dove to the inside. I don't know how in the world it didn't get me. Someone shot across my hood, but never touched me. I couldn't believe it. I told the guys luck is on our side today."

(YOU'VE BEEN STRONG SINCE JANUARY TETING?) "Everybody has been calm, we get along great and know each other well. Ryan (crew chief Ryan Pemberton) and the crew have been great to work with. Hopefully this will be the way the whole season will go for the Army team. If it goes like today, we'll be a contender."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 "THE PASSION OF CHRIST" INTERSTATE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(ABOUT THE INCIDENT ON PIT ROAD) "Yeah, that wasn't very good on my part. (Fatback) said 'Pit if we can pit,' and I was on the high side and I didn't know if I'd run out of gas or not, so I figured it'd be better to try and pit rather than just stick it out, because if you run out of gas on the back straightaway or something, I'd be in worse shape. I slid through the pits there and the guys did a good job of getting me out.

"We lost a lap, but we were fortunate on the 'Lucky Dog' situation, and we got to make it back up. I was catching up to the pack -- I kind of lost the draft there on the restart, it just wouldn't go. They had a big wreck on the backstretch there, I'm glad everyone's OK there. We dodged that. We kind of played catch up there, but it was almost a top 10. I think last year we finished like 80th or something like that, so it was better than that." (Labonte finished 41st in 2003) "I wish we could have finished a lot better. This racing was pretty good today, for me. Early in the race, we could pass a little bit better than at the end. I don't know why it didn't get any better toward the end. For us and a lot of guys, it seemed single-file, I don't know if it was the wind or what. If we could have made up a little bit on one series of runs, maybe we could have caught a couple of cars, maybe we would have been in the pack of cars in front of us."

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The No. 30 (Johnny Sauter) got loose or something and I checked up and got into Michael (Waltrip). I hate it for everybody - especially for this GMAC Chevy team. I can't thank them enough. I want to thank the President for coming here today and all the support from the fans. I saw a lot of smoke and a lot of dirt flying and a lot of cars. But I'm fine now. I'm just a little bit sore. But other than that, I just held on and let go of the wheel.

"It's the big Daytona. It's kind of like a roller coaster. I heard that Michael is okay and I'm glad of that. I'm looking forward to going to Rockingham. We started last year just like this and we ended up winning the championship. So hopefully we have it come back like it did last year. Our car was handling great. Some cars were loose and some cars were tight. The tires were going off. But it made for good racing. The No. 30 car got loose under us and it was just one of those racing deals."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I know Brian Vickers was right beside me in the middle and somebody must have ran into him and knocked him into me. I didn't have any reason to think he'd come up into me. All of a sudden we hit the wall.

"When the car stopped, I was pinned way bad. I felt like I was in a box and I couldn't get out. I didn't appreciate the way the safety crews were going about it and I was trying to tell them just to turn the car over. I'd already flipped 10 times or five times or two times - I don't know how many times. All they had to do was flip it back over and I could get out. They were cutting bars. The whole car was on top of me. I don't know what bar they thought they were going to cut that would have alleviated the hole I was in. My brother told me the other day that all the great ones have flipped at Daytona. So I guess I'm one of them now.I don't know what happened. A couple of guys got together and swept me into the fence. It's just disappointing to have a good car and a chance to win another one and see it go up like that.

(HOW FRUSTRATED WAS IT TO BE PINNED IN LIKE THAT?) "It was kind of crazy. Racing cars is not the safest thing. Maybe at times it's not the sanest thing. You understand you're going to get into some things but you don't worry about what you get yourself into. You look forward to people helping you get out of it. I couldn't see where they were doing a whole lot of good to get me out. I was trying my best to explain to them what needed to happen. And what did they eventually do? They flipped it over and I got out. I hope that was a lesson learned.""

(HOW WAS THE RACING?) "It was all right. I figured things would be okay if everyone ran their race. Brian getting into the middle is just a little impatient and immature. But this is a race where young drivers do that."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I don't know what happened. I thought I had them all cleared. They were wrecking up in front of me on the high side and all of a sudden Michael Waltrip shot across the inside. I don't know how he shot across the inside but when he did, he popped out in front of me. I hope he's okay. Obviously we've gotten ourselves in a little bit of a whole here at the start of the season. We're going to have to work real hard and cross our fingers that we don't have any trouble during the next 26 (races) so we can get back on top of the game."

(WITH THE NEW POINTS SYSTEM, IS THAT HOLE DEEPER THAN IT WOULD NORMALLY BE?) "Oh, yeah. It's a big hole. We're just going to have to be on it the whole time. We just can't make mistakes from here on out. We've got to stay out of accidents and have good handling cars."

TONY STEWART POST-RACE TRANSCRIPT

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined in the infield media center by second place finisher Tony Stewart.

Tony, great run today. Tell us about that late lap pass.

TONY STEWART: It's hard. I mean, Dale junior has been the class of the field all week. I'll be honest, I was happy to see him get by Kurt Busch. Kurt was making me real loose, even though he was trying to help me. For some reason, everybody all day tried to separate Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and I. Our plan was to get together and run together. That's what we did.

We knew if we could get together, people were going to have a hard time with us all day. That was true the whole race.

But late in the race there when it came time, when I saw him start moving around with 30 laps, 40 got by, I knew it was coming. I just didn't know where.

It's really hard to drive a car that's just a little bit on the loose side and be moving up and down the racetrack at the same time.

But, you know, there wasn't going to be any stopping him. It was just a matter of time. When he decided he was ready to go, he went. I'm not ashamed at all. I mean, I'm just flat tickled to death. Normally I wouldn't be this excited about second. But, you know, to come where we've come from since the Bud Shootout last weekend, this Home Depot team has done just a good job. We got up to second in the 125s, we felt like we did that because of how our car drove. Since the 125s, Mark Cronquist and all the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing in the engine department, those guys were busting their tails to find extra speed, extra power for us.

Sure enough, everything came our way. We had a couple things we wanted to try yesterday in happy hour, but John Andretti tried to wreck us for the second straight day in a row, tore our car up. It shows how dedicated this Home Depot team is.

They did such a good job, replaced suspension pieces, rear-end houses. That always makes a driver before the race knowing they're changing that many things on it, you don't know if everything is going to be exactly the same as it was.

Zippy and all the guys, we didn't make any changes. Two or three 10ths of air was all I asked for the whole day. It was just a matter of keeping Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and I together. When we were together, nobody could do anything with us.

THE MODERATOR: Did you feel like maybe you could get by the last 10 or 15 laps?

TONY STEWART: I tried everything I knew to do. There weren't enough cars behind us for me to get a good enough run. Our car still didn't spool up good. His car would really take off when he wanted to drop back and get a run on somebody. He could do that. If I tried to drop back, I couldn't do that.

I had to work hard to keep my momentum up. When we could get in front and do what we needed to do, it was a little easier.

But we were fine behind him, too. We were just going to run a constant speed. But to try to pass him where I had to back away from him to try to get a run up on him, it took the car too long to spool back up on him and I couldn't do it.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. The packs kind of broke up late in the race. What kind of style of racing was out there today?

TONY STEWART: I enjoyed it. I had to drive my car even when we were in a single-file line. Drivers had to drive their cars and adjust. You know, I was adjusting to how I was entering the corner, I was adjusting, you know, where -- there's so many -- this track is kind of a wavy track in the corners. It's not real harsh bumps like you have at Dover. Being able to time when you get to the bottom of some of those waves, knowing when to tug on the wheel to make it do something the car didn't want to do. It was nice for us as drivers. We actually got to race each other today.

And I hope everybody doesn't sit there and put a negative spin because we're not running three-wide. None of us want to run three-wide. You know, you guys, I wish you guys could all be in these meetings when we sit behind closed doors and talk about it. None of these drivers like running three-wide. It's not what these cars were built to do. Today we got to race. We got to race each other. We got to wear each others out, we got to make guys tight, loose. We got to make the difference today as drivers, not as motor programs and aero programs. That's not what made the difference today. The teams that made their cars drive well and could find the speed, the drivers that could save their tires, not abuse their equipment too early, those were the guys that had good days today.

I think NASCAR and especially Goodyear, I never expected Goodyear to have a tire that was going to be this good this soon. I know they got some criticism from some of the other drivers, but they're the drivers that like running three-wide, which there's a small majority of them that think that's a cool thing to do. That's because they don't want to have to work on their cars to make them drive good, they like it when it automatically happens that way.

Q. You were tickled to finish second?

TONY STEWART: Put whatever world you want there. "Tickled" is fine for me.

Q. That's because you're happy for Junior?

TONY STEWART: Both. I'm happy about the day we had. Considering what this kid went through losing his father here at the Daytona 500, and knowing how good he's been here and just something's happened, it's nice to see him get his victory here, too.

I think his father's really proud today. You know, I'd love to have won the race, trust me. I did everything I could to still win the race. If I could have held him off, had him finish second, I would have done in it a heartbeat.

But there was no holding that kid back today. Today was his day.

Q. We think of Michael Waltrip as his wing man.

TONY STEWART: You saw the 125, so (laughter). I think that question's already been answered.

Q. Was there any doubt in your mind, when Wimmer took the lead late in the race, that you and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., were going to get out front?

TONY STEWART: I'll be honest. When we caught him, I thought we'd go right by. The timing didn't work out. Where we caught him, we caught him at the wrong spot of the track. We caught him right in the middle of the corner. If you went to the outside, it just made the track longer.

We just caught him at the wrong spot and had to follow him for a couple laps.

But I knew Junior could give me a good enough push to run on him. We got a good enough run on him. He blocked us down, then moved back up, and thought we were coming back the other direction evidently. We got underneath him and held him off.

Q. You never thought he could hold you off?

TONY STEWART: He wasn't with two tires. Handling was going to be a bigger issue. Even at the end, you guys saw how he dropped back at the end. That was the good thing. Wasn't going to let guys go out there and steal this race on track position and fuel mileage.

Q. Really looked like a race out there today. What made the difference? Was it the tires? Wing adjustments?

TONY STEWART: I honestly think it was the tires is what made the difference. You know, guys had to drive their cars. I mean, you couldn't -- you know, when you can just hold it wide open around here all day long, you're going to go for any hole you can find. That's what promotes three-wide racing because guys are going to go whenever they can go when they get a good tug off the air.

You know, no matter how good a tug you got, if you got to the corner and couldn't make your car turn, it didn't matter how fast you were going at the end of the straightaway. Even I struggled a couple times with Kurt Busch behind me leading the race in clean air, was having to lift just a couple times because evenings making me loose.

You know, it put the driver back into it. We may not have had 20 guys go across the line within 5/10ths of a second of each other, but who cares. Guys got to race today. That's what this whole race it all about.

I mean, if I were Dale Earnhardt, Jr., I'd be extremely proud because he didn't win this because he got lucky and got in the right line at the right time. He out-drove us and beat us. I mean, plain and simple.

That's why I'm proud of my second place finish. That's why I'm sure he's going to be tickled to death to get his first Daytona 500 win.

Q. Do you see a day when you can beat Dale Earnhardt, Jr., at a track like this? Down the road do you pick another partner to work with?

TONY STEWART: I'll start with the second part first. We've been a good combination for three years. I think he's won Talladega three times, I run second three times doing what we've done. You can't do any of this restrictor plate racing without a partner. If it were two cars out there, which it was at the end, nothing I could do, because I couldn't get a push.

But that's good. I mean, it was all right to be that way.

But, you know, is he beatable? Everybody is beatable on the right day. You know, he's not invincible, he's not Superman. But they've got a really good package. They've got something that's working for them. It's a matter of time before these other teams find it, too. When they do, you'll see him getting beat.

There's something that DEI has found so far that the rest of the field hasn't found. That's the team making the difference again.

Q. About the DEI dominance, what do you think about that?

TONY STEWART: You answered the question. If we knew, we'd be fixing it right now. Whatever it is, it's substantial. But, I mean, they're not doing anything illegal. They're just finding something that nobody else has found yet. It's no different than any other sport. I mean, you look at Formula 1, there's teams that do that. You look at the IRL, there's teams that find something. It works for them for a while. It's just a matter of the other teams finding it.

Whatever they've found, nobody else has been able to find it yet. I guarantee you, they're not going to tell us what they're doing, for sure (laughter).

Q. Was there a point towards the eastbound of the race where you thought you didn't have a chance anymore?

TONY STEWART: Well, I mean, I've been like this whole race team has been all week: you never say never. As long as I had Kurt Busch and Scott behind me here, I mean, we always had a chance somehow. I mean, whether I could pull it off or not was the different story.

You know, I guess you guys probably saw me for six or eight laps, I kept trying stuff, kept trying to find things to do to get a run on him. I couldn't really get the run on him.

Then once we started losing Scott and Kurt behind me, at that point there's nothing you can do anyway, because you don't have that partner. That's still the disappointing part to restrictor plate racing. You still have to have somebody behind you to get something done.

Q. Is your relationship with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., respect, friendship? How would you describe it?

TONY STEWART: Both. You know, I think we admire each other for the fact that, I mean, we're both fierce competitors, but we like to have fun. We're a lot alike in a lot of ways.

Our backgrounds are totally different from each other, obviously. But, I mean, we enjoy a lot of the same things. I think we both respect each other for what we do and what we've been able to accomplish in our careers.

You know, we do, we just have a good friendship. You know, it's been a good situation. I mean, when I started in this series, when he started in this series, there weren't a lot of guys our own age. There weren't a ton of guys to do a lot of stuff with.

Obviously, we don't get a chance to do a lot of things together. There's projects like running his Busch car last year, that was fun to do with him. It's just a good friendship. We get together at these restrictor plate tracks. This started three years ago here at Daytona during the 500 week. Seems like every time we went on the track, we were around each other. A lot of our theories on how to run restrictor plate races are very similar. When you run with each other as much as we did, we kind of got a respect and a trust with each other. I mean, he knows that when I'm behind him, you know, if he goes somewhere, whether it's right or wrong, I'm going to go with him. The same with me.

I knew when he was behind me in the mid-stages of the race, I knew he wasn't going to try to go around, we were going to work together and drive away from guys.

So, you know, we both knew at the end, though, and we both knew going into this race, we knew if it came down to him and I at the end, you know, it's the Daytona 500, we both got to try to win the race. But during the race, you know, I think you guys saw as much as everybody did, everybody did everything they could do to separate us during the race because they know we're a pretty potent combination together.

Q. Did you learn something about Dale Earnhardt, Jr., you didn't know when you teamed up with him earlier this month for the Rolex 24?

TONY STEWART: Not really. Like I say, we've been doing this for three years with each other. We had a lot of fun at the Rolex together. It was kind of cool because he really didn't have a lot of road racing experience. I don't really have a lot of road racing experience. I didn't have any rain experience. We almost ran identical times in the dry and the rain. It was kind of fun for both of us to go out there. Neither one of us complained about the handling of the car. We have just got in it and drove. We just sat down in it and rode it around. We both had fun with it.

Q. You mentioned your teamwork with him at Talladega. Is that kind of if you can't beat him, you want to join him?

TONY STEWART: When you know he's the class of the field, wouldn't you rather follow the guy that's going to go to the front with or without you?

I think it's been a good situation for him, too. You don't know whether who to trust and who not to trust out there. A guy that's your partner for eight laps might all of a sudden decide he wants to lead or he wants to pick up two spots or whatever. The nice thing is, you know, whether it's been the Bud Shootout here a couple years ago when I won, he ran second, I knew we were in good shape because he was behind us. He needed air at the end. Even though we were going for the win. He knew we weren't going to do anything stupid to jeopardize anything.

When he's the class of the field, and we haven't been a slouch either, we led the most laps today, I think, so if we didn't have a decent car, we wouldn't have been able to do what we did.

To be able to team up like that, do what we've done the last three years I think is pretty neat.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. AND TONY EURY, SR. POST-RACE TRANSCRIPT

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Tony Eury Sr. will be here in a minute.

Your eighth victory at Daytona International Speedway, but this is the big cash one. Your perspective on winning the Daytona 500, big piece on your mantle and talk about the pass you made on Tony.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Oh, yeah, well, you know, we had a great car this week, comparing myself to everybody in practice all week I thought I had the best car out of anybody, especially when I got out front, I really didn't have any challenges during practice and stuff. So I felt like I had the best car all week, and maybe -- there were times, the couple practices prior to and after the 125 race where I thought I might have had the best car I ever had down here.

I don't know. You know, the race started out. Biffle had some problems with the engine. He had to go to the back, so we got the inside lane, took off. Talked to Elliott Sadler. I told him, if the outside line goes, just haul, just go on. I figured I had to get up there somehow or another. If it don't, you know, don't.

So we took off at the start of the race. Me and him went and ran a couple laps side to side, then got the lead. Tony Stewart was right behind me. Tony told me all week his car wasn't running good. Right before the race, he said, "Well, we've improved my car a little bit, and I think I can help you." He'd been down, his car had been pretty decent all week. I felt his was a pretty good car to run with.

We run that first car for a long time, me leading, him running second. What was really the biggest surprise to me, which I bet you guys all were pretty surprised about, too, was how the field separated out. I mean, that was the strangest thing ever because normally you know, the package ain't a whole lot different than what we've run here in the past, but yet, I mean, we took off in little packs there.

After our pit stop, there would be cars all over the racetrack. We come down for the first pit stop, I was leading, and Tony went to the outside of me and passed me coming on pit lane, which I was coming in way, way too slow. But you're a guinea pig at that point because you ain't pitted yet. That's what Michael did a year ago so I kind of expected that. That's a lesson you never really learn, coming on pit road, the first guy to pit there in the 500-mile race is kind of the one everybody judges off of.

Tony said, "You're going slow, just shot on by me." Believe it or not, that was like a pass for the lead, basically for the rest of the race between me and him because he come off pit road in front of me every time. I give up quite a bit there. I was a little disappointed in myself.

We come off pit road every stop, Tony would be in front. We'd take off and draft till it was time to get tires and gas again. I was real glad the race didn't have any cautions, as many as it did, was glad to hear that Michael was okay after his crash. That was a nasty looking car once the crash was over with. It was good to know he was okay.

He's pretty big. I imagine he was, you know, potentially could have get injured pretty easy in a flip like that.

Then at the end of the rase, we come off pit road, and the 22 done a great stop. He was way out front. Me and Tony, the 97, was a lap down, was running second and third. I caught the 97, went to the outside of him, pointed to him to let me on in front of him since I was a lap down. He either di or just I passed him clean one way or another. So I was behind Tony. We tractioned it up on the 22, and we passed him. Tony got up under him with a good move, and we passed him. I was sitting there thinking, you know, what to do about trying to pass Tony.

I was kind of backing up a little bit to the 97, trying to pack the 97 behind me to try to get a run on Tony. The 97 would push me back to Tony, but wouldn't push me past him. Then my spotter told me that Kurt had been told or warned not to be a deciding figure in the finish one way or the other. He was not to help one nor the other in a pass for the win, at least that's what I was told by my spotter, that he was not to be involved in me and Tony's race for the win.

I really didn't know whether I would get by Tony at all by myself. I kept on backing up, kept on backing up, trying runs, trying runs, trying runs. Finally I got a great run through three and four, knew I was going to be able to go to one side of Tony one way or the other. Tony was going to block the bottom so I went to the top. He shot up in front of me at the top and I went across the back bumper of his car to the inside, had about a foot on him on his quarter panel. Once he realized I was down there, he give me the lane. We went through the tri-oval side to side into turn one. Went into the corner, the 97 went to the top with him, kind of back pushed him almost back by me. We come off of two, he was clear of me, Tony was, and the fact that he didn't pull down in front of me was what saved me from giving up a chance of winning again.

So Tony is clear of me at that point. I had a head of steam, eased up to him again, drafted off the side of his car, dove down into turn three. The run I had and the bend of that corner, me being on the shorter side of the racetrack, cleared me of him in the middle of that corner. After that, I just started counting down the laps one at a time.

It's the longest 15 laps, whatever. But we had an awesome car, like I said, all week. We had been able to make passes like that in practice over and over, and I knew I was one of just a few cars, if not anybody else, that could make those types of moves, make those kinds of passes.

I'm just real excited to have won this race. It's really hard to win it. Some of our greatest competitors come in and out of this sport without taking this trophy home. I'm glad I can say I'm accomplished it and I can put the ongoing strive to win it behind me, you know, because we really wanted to win it so bad.

THE MODERATOR: Tony Sr., what does this mean to the team? The team is such a big part of detail's victory tonight.

TONY EURY SR: We worked real hard to win this 500 for four years now. We just keep coming up short every year, you know. We worked real hard, just leave here disappointed. Even when we ran, you know, behind Michael, and Michael won it, we still went home, felt like we'd been beat.

We worked real hard this winter. We tested a couple times. We learned a little bit of stuff. We built a new car and thought it would be better, tested it. Dale Jr. kept saying, "You can't beat the other car. You can't beat the other car." That was actually the car we ran in the shootout. We didn't think it was that good in the shootout.

You know, we worked the guys real hard. Probably for six weeks we worked 14 hours a day, for six days a week, then we went on seven days a week trying to get ready to come down here. Everybody was burned out when we got here.

That's how much that race meant to us. We worked as hard as we could to get here and pull this thing off, and we did it. We'll get a weekend off after Rockingham and we'll rest then (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Dale Jr., obviously the question is, you said something in Victory Lane about your father being in the passenger seat with you. This track has always been very special to you. Can you talk about going down turn four, talk about the emotions of that, your father, all the stuff that has gone on here for you.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, the things that have happened here affected so many people who are real close to me, myself, Tony, Tony Jr., the entire team. Every time we come to Daytona, we just feel -- we all feel it, you know, whatever it is. We just feel real strong about being here.

You know, in a way it feels like you're closer to dad, but at the same time it feels like it's a reminder of losing him all over again. So I wanted to come down here and win.

(Receiving telephone call from President Bush.)
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: (Into telephone) Yeah, it was the most exciting ride of my life. Yes, sir, I was glad to see you today. Thank you very much, take it easy. I will, thank you. Bye-bye.

THE MODERATOR: Just to clarify, that was the President on the phone.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I tried to look, tried to memorize that number (smiling). Take it easy, man.

But, I mean, you know, maybe all those things that happened in the past is what made us work harder, try to win this race more than any other. I'll be honest with you, this is more important to me than anything, any other race I run all year. I ain't ashamed to say that I put a lot of emphasis on coming down here and winning this race just because of what I've been through down here.

You see dad run second, blow tires out, flip over on the back straightaway, this, that and the other year after year after year after year and there was not many things, if nothing at all, that ate that man's insides out, but losing this race over and over, you could see that on his face. That's one of the things I think anybody could tell bothered him. He didn't show too much of that.

Inside of me, back then, just a little bit of wanting to win this race started up. You know, it's been building ever since. I came down here and pushed Michael to the win, pushed Michael to the win in the 400 here and I pushed Michael to win at Talladega races. We've run in the top five, Top 10 a couple times. Every time, I can just see the look of disappointment on Tony Sr. and Tony Jr.'s face, when we don't pull out the win, when they know we had the best car. I can say we brought one of the best cars every time we've been here, except when I was a rookie, we all agreed that one wasn't too good.

We just tried so hard, and it just means a lot to me that I was able to get out of that car and hug Tony Sr. and Tony Jr.'s neck first instead of going right to Victory Lane. That was the one thing I wanted to do as soon as -- that's why I pulled down there. I just wanted to see them two before I did anything else.

Yeah, it's awesome. It's just the greatest race. It's the greatest day of my life. And it's not -- you know, it's just -- can't really describe it. I don't know if I ever will be able to tell this story to anybody and really get it right. You know what I'm saying?

Q. Your spotter gets an atta'boy for getting the lap traffic up high.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, he was awesome all day. We read together, me and him talked about how we'd been hearing people -- didn't know whether we was going to be able to work together.

A spotter is a very important key to the team and whatnot. And we changed spotters and all. Seemed like everybody was pretty concerned about that. I was glad that me and him worked so good together.

You know, he would accidentally, I remember one time, he came over the radio, screaming and hollering, but didn't mean to, but he was screaming at the guy next to him. Scared the hell out of me. We was running side by side with somebody. He was keying the mic to clear me. The guy who spotted it was behind me and he was hollering at him telling him to go with me, go with me. I'm was like, "Wow, man, that's intense. He wants it as bad as we want it." That pumped my ass right up. I think that might have turned it on right then. It was a pretty big deal.

But Steve is a racer, you know. He's drove. He knows what it feels like to succeed and have success. He knows what's at stake. You know, that's hard to find in a spotter because spotters aren't quite as connected, I guess, to the entire team that's down there in the pits. You got to find a guy that really knows what's at stake, what's important that day, right then.

Q. Your dad once said during the frustration, "I've lost this race just about every way anyone could work it." Were you thinking about tires or birds going into turn three? Were you worried about anything?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: No, not really, I wasn't thinking of none of that at all. You know, I think seeing it lost that way so many times, me and Tony come out here, we done went through a hell of a heartbreak losing the 24-hour race the way we did. In a sense, you couldn't beat that sore hard enough to make it hurt anymore. You know what I mean? I done been through it enough.

I mean, I don't know if anybody in this room can explain it, but if my tire would have blew out on the last lap, I don't think it would have bothered me one damn bit. You know what I mean? We just had to come back again and again and again and again.

Q. Did you ever allow yourself to imagine what it would be like to win this race, how you would celebrate, and why no burnout today?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I just -- well, the plate cars don't do good burnouts, for one, because they're geared so differently. Plus I didn't want to do anything that might be detrimental to my car as far as the post race inspection, spinning around doing doughnuts, tearing the tires up for something.

I just really wanted to chill, you know, because I don't want to sound like -- make this a rant at all, but the Victory Lane program is kind of difficult especially when this is the biggest race of my car, most important win of my career and I just wanted to stand there with my team for a second and enjoy it with just them for a minute, and the fans. Because when we go into that Victory Lane over there, you just basically shut the door on everything else outside.

So I just wanted to shout at the fans, wave at them, hear what they had to say. Then I wanted to see my team and hug all their necks, just shout at each other a little bit, with nobody else hollering about, "Put this hat on or stand here for this picture, hold this trophy," none of that. Just wanted to have just a minute for me to let it come in, you know, let it sink in before we got to get to work in Victory Lane there.

Q. You've kind of answered some of this. Explain what it was like for years and years on Monday, when it kind of sinks in, it becomes a dull pain, the way you or your father had lost this race.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, as far as me, every time we'd come down here, it was hard to go back into the shop on Monday and face everybody because you didn't have the look of motivation on your face, and you didn't want them to see how disappointed you were because you wanted -- the one thing you wanted to do was to try to pump everybody up for the next week, the season. You know, forget about what happened, let's go try to race at Rockingham, do good there.

But you can't. You know, you just can't. So it's hard to go in there because you didn't want them to see how disappointed you were, because it just kind of adds to their disappointment. Everybody feeds off each other.

But as far as my dad, you know, just a bunch of, God almighty, that was hard as hell. I mean, there was times he'd run out of the house screaming. There's times when you just didn't know what to do with yourself. I mean, because I don't know, when we all wanted him to win it so bad, he lost it in the third turn with that flat tire, that was probably the hardest one because he just dominated that race. He had a 22-second lead at one point. To see him get spun off out off of two a couple times, racing for second, you know, wasn't no fun either. You know, just didn't have a good enough car that day.

I don't know, it was tough on all of us. I remember coming into the Busch shop, seeing it on Tony's face. He was Dad's friend at that time. They probably won the Busch race two days before that. Still to be disappointed two days later. It was not a whole lot of fun back then.

Q. Tony said this was the best race he had been in, I don't know if he said best, but there was driving, racing. How would you respond to that, talk about that?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, we finally had a great -- we had a good handling car all day. We started off a little tight. Tony Jr. made adjustments throughout the day and freed the car up till I said stop. Keep tuning, keep tuning. "Whoa, right there, that's far enough."

It reminded me a lot of like turn three or four at Atlanta. You'd go into turn three or turn one real, real loose, come off the throttle a little bit, ease back down on the throttle, try to get the nose to slide up a little bit in front of you, then you'd just be -- catching the front, catching the back all over the off the corner, just kind of lifting down a little bit, lifting down a little bit. There was a lot of lifting, not because you was going to run in the back of somebody, but because you was going to spin out or hit something.

There was times when we just were in the wrong place at the wrong time, should have wrecked. It was interesting, especially at the end, everybody had freed their cars up so much because everybody was like, "Look, only way of really running good here is be sideways."

I was behind Tony. You'd see him go off in a corner just turning right. It was an incredible sight to see. You know, we were all just driving as hard as we could drive. I just never imagined we'd all be in such control of our own little destiny there. Instead of just pushing each other around, we got underneath the 22, hell, he was doing all he could not to spin it, back it into the fence. He was sideways at that point.

There were times when I come off of two, you'd watch Tony just chasing his car all over the place, you know. I mean, I think we were all like that most of the day, you know, because it was getting pretty hot and heavy up there towards the front. We were all driving as hard as we could drive.

Q. When you came down here as a kid to watch your dad, where would you normally watch the race from? Specifically, in '90 when he blew the tire, do you remember where you were watching that race, specifically when that happened?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: The first Daytona 500 I saw was from the fourth row when I was a rookie. I watched all of them at home because of either school or a concussion I had when I ran the -- flipped the Busch car down the back straightaway. So I went on home. He won that one. Just probably would have been here if I hadn't flipped down the back straightaway.

Every race I seen at Daytona up till I was old enough to get into the garage, I watched at that old score stand down in turn one that used to be there. All the wives and kids would be down there.

Q. You said you never seen a 500.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I never seen a 500 from here till I started driving.

Q. The other races were?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: The Firecracker 400.

Q. I wondered what it was like for you to hear so many of your competitors, the guys that want to beat you all day, so happy for you to win this race? It seems to have stirred a lot of emotion. Guys were saying, "I'm so happy he won."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I wish I could have heard it all (smiling). That's part of the reward, you know. You know, I don't know, I guess I just chalk it up to having a good working friendship with everybody that I race against. There's only a few drivers that I don't talk to by choice. Most of them I really get along with good.

I guess most of those guys had a good day today. I don't know, you know, it was just -- you know, I raced with them, we're all friends. I'm happy to see them win. They're happy to see me win.

Q. With winning and being able to match your father with Daytona 500 wins, does that put you closer, on the same pedestal in your eyes? What does that mean to you?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, there's days when I feel like I'm as good as he was. But, you know, then you're reminded by something that reminds you of what he did that you will never be able to do. And that doesn't have to be a race he won.

But, you know, there's times on the racetrack where I get real confident and feel like I -- he couldn't have done it no better than that right there. But it ain't long before I figure I was wrong, you know. I mean, he was pretty tough. Even if you thought you were better than him, he just had a way of proving you wrong at anything. I don't know.

But it's just been so long since I raced against him or watched him race or watched him drive, I guess you kind of forget just how good he was. You have to watch some of those old tape, things that he did on the racetrack to remind you how slick he was and how determined he was.

He always kind of figured it out, you know.

I'm fortunate. I mean, I don't have near as much common sense as he had. And he banked on that just about all day, every day of his life. Tony Sr., Tony Jr., several of the other people, my sister, JR, Jade, they all are my catch net for some of the foolish things that I do or some of the stupid mistakes I make, where they kind of make up for it a little bit, make me not look so bad.

But, you know, yeah, I couldn't have -- you know, there's just times where they can tell when I need to be told something to keep me going in the right direction. There's a lot of people that should get credit.

Q. Did you feel like you were better than your Dad at any point during the race today?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: No. I never sat there in the seat today and thought I was better than my Dad. I wouldn't even think to do that.

Q. With all the tension on the new championship system, how good does it feel to come out of here with the lead on this thing?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I'm leading the points the first time in my career, so that's pretty cool. I don't know. I just get real excited to look forward to reading all the papers tomorrow, reading the Winston Cup Scene when it comes out, seeing all the pictures, seeing how everybody else tells this story. Y'all are the professionals, you can tell it a hell of a lot better than I do. I'm looking forward to it.

Q. Are you going to run the Busch race tomorrow? What will your frame of mind be tomorrow?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I'm going to run the Busch race tomorrow. I don't know, might have to put a whip to me. I mean, I'm going to be pretty laid back. I'll probably still be enjoying this part, this here, this win. I might have to get reminded about getting back in Victory Lane tomorrow.

Q. As much as this race meant to your father, as many years as it took him to win it, do you think if you won it sooner, you wouldn't sit here with the same kind of appreciation?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I think the fact that I witnessed how he went about winning it, good and bad, and everything else that has happened here, the races I've been in here. It means a lot more to me than if all that hadn't happened. I mean, that's pretty obvious, I feel like, to me.

Q. If this one obviously meant so much to you, you have this one put away, is the championship the next really big goal for you?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Yeah, I think the championship's the big goal. A tougher goal would be trying to win at Sonoma or Watkins Glen. I mean, I remember what a hell of a surprise it was to win that race at Watkins Glen in the Busch Series. It was like, "Man, I'm going out there trying to stay on the blacktop." Next thing I know, I'm in Victory Lane. I'm like, "What the hell happened?" We all was shocked as hell.

Winning the race at one of them damn tracks would be pretty cool. But, of course, I mean, yeah, it's good. I mean, I don't know how that sounds, but it's good to get this out of the way and put this aside so, yeah, championship time. Now we can just focus. You know, we focused so hard on one thing, we always seemed to let a little something slide by. We focused so hard on our road course stuff, our short track stuff, flat track stuff, the tracks we weren't good at last year, we kind of didn't do so well.

Personally, that's always been a fault of mine, is I get on one thing and stay on it so hard that maybe winning this race, I can concentrate more so on winning the championship.

Q. Earlier in the race, about lap 44 to 45, you ran into Kurt Busch, you both touched. Obviously we saw how it affected his car. How did it affect yours?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I didn't even know we hit, you know, till after the race. Tony was telling me that we'd flattened his fender and he didn't want to help us in the draft. So I don't know, you know. I didn't even know that we'd had contact because somebody was telling me about it. I hadn't even realized it.

I remember one point we were going down into turn one, seeing him in the mirror. I didn't know he was up on the inside of me. We normally run one of the tiny mirrors off the left side window so I can kind of see what's on the inside. But we didn't put it on there today. I probably could have used it.

Q. You were critical of tires after your win in Thursday's Gatorade 125. How do you feel about it now?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, we didn't tear any tires up. I expected to have problems with them. I think the 10 car blew a right front tire. A couple of guys throwed the tires off their cars in practice. That just made me nervous.

We ourselves chucked tires out and were having a lot of problems with the right front tire in practice. We tore up probably eight tires probably off the right front of our car, right front only, all week.

I had a right to say what I said. I still feel pretty strongly about it.

Had today been 75, 80 degrees, we would all be singing a little different tune, I believe.

Q. The style of racing was a lot different today than in recent years at Daytona. Did it improve?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: "Improve"? I mean, I don't know what you want to call improvement. But I was damn glad I wasn't in a pack of race cars all day long. It was kind of fun and felt -- I felt like I had backed up 10 years because we was all spread out all over the track, and guys were losing the draft. I mean, damn, when is the last time somebody lost a draft that was running 10th?

It was cool, because you would run along 20 laps, the guys that were handling good would stay there, the guys that were handling bad would start getting smaller and smaller in the mirror.

I thought it was awesome. It probably wasn't much fun to watch, but it was an interesting race myself.

THE MODERATOR: Dale, congratulations.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Thank you very much.