Daytona 500 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Notes: Wimmer is the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie in the Daytona 500 since Jeff Gordon placed fifth in 1993.

Unofficial Raybestos Rookie Standings

Scott Wimmer 11
Brendan Gaughan 10
Johnny Sauter 9
Scott Riggs 8
Brian Vickers 7
Kasey Kahne 6

KASEY KAHNE, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE:

WHAT HAPPENED? 'Something in the engine broke. It's disappointing: two days and 50 laps. We learned a lot this week and hopefully we'll be able to take a lot of it to Talladega and get our car a lot better finish at Talladega." WHAT BROKE IN THE ENGINE? "Something in the bottom-end, something big enough that it won't go back on the racetrack for a while. They'll get in fixed and it will be a lot better at Rockingham next week." HOW DISAPPOINTING IS THIS IN YOUR FIRST DAYTONA 500? "It's real disappointing. We've been here for just about two weeks practicing and testing at different tracks to get ready for here and we're out that soon. We don't even get to race. It's really disappointing but it's part of racing." DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A CAR CAPABLE OF RUNNING IN THE TOP-10? "Not really. Our car was all right if we just stayed out of trouble and just raced the race we would have, hopefully, finished in the top-20. But there was something going on that wasn't going on in the practices the week prior and it wasn't very good." DID YOU HAVE A VIBRATION? 'Everything was running good. The engine was fine; everything was fine the whole time. Something in the back just wasn't right and made the car really tight but the engine just broke suddenly." WHAT DID YOU LEARN HERE THAT YOU CAN TRANSFER TO TALLADEGA? 'The experience. You get so many laps down here you learn so many little things throughout all the practice sessions that I can take with me. Everything about restrictor plate racing I learned so we'll take that to Talladega." WHAT ABOUT TIRE WEAR? "There was a lot of tire wear. It was a factor and it was probably a factor for other guys more than us because our car didn't change much because of the way it started."

TOMMY BALDWIN, CREW CHIEF, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE:

"Something internally broke on the bottom end of it [the engine]. We were just doing what we were supposed to be doing, just staying out of trouble and staying out of everybody's way and wait for the last 50 miles and race a little bit. We haven't been really as good as we wanted to be all week. We were still working on it as the race was progressing. Who knows now? We don't know where we would have finished." ARE YOU SURPRISED WITH SO MANY ENGINE PROBLEMS TODAY? 'Everybody is trying to go over the limit to gain horsepower, I mean, it happens. There's nothing that you can do about it. We'll see how many more motors break as the race goes on." IS SOME OF THE PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE CHANGE IN WEATHER CONDITIONS THIS WEEK? "No, we've kept our water and oil temperature consistent throughout that weather change so I don't see a problem there."

BRIAN VICKERS, #25 GMAC FINANCIAL SERVICES CHEVROLET:

"The car on the inside of me got loose and slid up into us and then we slid into the 15 [Michael Waltrip] and it just kind of went from there. It was a racing accident; nothing was intentional. We started the year off like this last year and we ended up with a championship so hopefully we can do the same thing with the Raybestos Rookie championship. We're going to go as hard as we can and we're not going to give up. We're going to go to Rockingham and do our best." WERE OTHER DRIVERS DRAFTING WITH YOU TODAY? 'I had some guys working with me. I hope they still continue to work with me. I tried to be as calm and smooth as I could out there and we got into the top-10 and stayed up there for a while. I was proud of the team and proud of Ricky, my spotter, and everybody. And finally I was getting some help." HOW GOOD WAS YOUR CAR? "The car was really good. The car was handling amazingly well. The GMAC crew did an unbelievable job. I thought I could run wide open longer than anybody else and certain situations in the draft I just had to let off the throttle. It was handling good. I just needed a little bit more help but I will say a lot of guys did work with me and we worked our way from the very back to the very front. I was hoping our day would last a little bit longer."

SCOTT RIGGS, #10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET:

"We were just biding our time there. Everybody was racing pretty hard. I don't know if the 50 [Derrike Cope] had trouble or he was trying to come in and his spotter told him he was clear or what but the 50 car came down on us and body slammed the side of us and that started our repairs. We kept working on it and working on it and trying to get everything off the tires and make sure that we didn't have anything dragging and then they had a crash in front of us and there was nowhere to go and mashed the front end up pretty bad. I just hate it. This was the kind of day and kind of temperature that we wanted. This is the way we set our car up was for the sun, the same thing that bit us in the 125. We were hoping for the sunshine and hoping for the hot temperatures and we got it and thought we were going to be pretty good. We had our car pretty free and circumstances just didn't let us race today." DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING TODAY? "I think I learned something every day all this week. I just wanted to finish the race on the lead lap. When we got one lap down I said 'Okay, I can swallow that; we'll still finish here' and then I got caught up in the crash and it ended up taking us out. We kept trying to come in and make repairs on the front end and get it fixed. The front end was just too flimsy, not enough material left up there to hold out the air and be stable. We had to come in and cut that off and that got us below minimum speed. I think we are getting Crash Course 101 underway right now. We learned about our cars, for sure. We learned about the tire, for sure. I don't know if the tire is going to be as much of an issue at Talladega as it is here, but it will definitely be a bigger issue than it has in the past. We'll go on to Rockingham and do some real racing."

SCOTT WIMMER IN THE #22 CATERPILLAR DODGE WAS THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE RACE IN THE DAYTONA 500. HE FINISHED A CAREER BEST THIRD IN HIS FIRST CAREER START IN THE DAYTONA 500. HIS PREVIOUS BEST NEXTEL CUP FINISH CAME AT PHOENIX LAST NOVEMBER WHERE HE PLACE NINTH. THIS IS WIMMER'S 11TH CAREER NEXTEL CUP SERIES START, ALL COMING WITH CAR OWNER BILL DAVIS. A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE HAS FINISHED FIRST (GREG BIFFLE, 2003 PEPSI 400) AND NOW THIRD IN THE TWO MOST RECENT NEXTEL CUP RACES AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY.

"This is a great run for the Caterpillar guys. That was a great call at the end for two tires. If we could have hooked on to a pack I don't think the guys would have caught us. Those are the two strongest restrictor plate cars here and we just couldn't quite hang on there at the end. The car got real loose. I'm excited for Caterpillar, everybody on this car, everybody that helps us out." THIS HAS TO BE A TREMENDOUS START TO YOUR RAYBESTOS ROOKIE SEASON. "It definitely is. It's going to be a tough battle. It looked like some of the Raybestos Rookies had some problems today but I'm sure they are all going to be there at Rockingham digging hard and so are we." DID KURT BUSCH HELP YOU OR HURT YOU THERE AT THE END OF THE RACE? "He really helped me. I couldn't hang on to the draft without Kurt there. They were trying to make deals for him to let me by but it was one of those circumstances where I wasn't strong enough to suck up to Junior and Tony. Two tires was a great call. If we could have just got some traffic where we could have drafted with them and stayed ahead of those guys but they caught me in a big hurry and kind of shuffled me back. I'm real happy with third place. Caterpillar has been really strong here in the past here and I'm just proud of my guys. They did a great job of getting this car to handle good." DID YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO WIN THE RACE? "I was real excited after that pit stop leading the Daytona 500. It looked like I had a pretty good lead and then they just came so fast that there was nothing that I could really do. I tried to block Tony and he got into me pretty good there and before he turned me around I figured I'd better just settle back in third and hope for something to happen toward the end of the race. I'm proud of all my guys. They did a great job and it was an exciting race for me." YOU STRUGGLED IN THE QUALIFYING RACE. ARE YOU SURPRISED TO RUN SO WELL TODAY? "We had a real good car in practice Friday and Saturday. The guys did a great job getting the car to handle better. I didn't think we'd run this well. I didn't think we'd be up in contention for the win and leading some laps and things like that. It shows you how good this Caterpillar team is and how strong they work." HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET SOME GOOD MOMENTUM ENTERING THE RACE AT ROCKINGHAM? "It's huge, especially in the 500. You can see a lot of people getting in wrecks and it puts guys down. You go back to the shop and you have a lot of work to do. We have a car that doesn't even have a scratch on it. I'm real excited going back to High Point [North Carolina, where Bill Davis Racing is located] and going on to Rockingham. We had a real good test down there and we had a good test at Vegas, too, so hopefully this is a sign of things to come." YOU CAME DOWN HERE WITH A LOT OF STUFF GOING ON. IT MUST FEEL PRETTY GOOD TO COME OUT WITH SOMETHING POSITIVE. "Yeah, it's real good. The second I stepped out of the race car I've still got to deal with my problems and we're going to work on those and get those straightened out. I'm just thankful that I've got a team owner like Bill Davis Racing and a sponsor like Caterpillar and NASCAR. They've really done a lot to help me out and they're going to be a big part of this. Hopefully we can get everything straightened out and make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else." YOU DIDN'T WIN BUT NOT A BAD WAY TO RUN THE DAYTONA 500. "There's two real good cars up in front of me and they're probably some of the best on restrictor plate tracks. It feels real good to bring our Caterpillar car home in third. Maybe we will have something for them at Talladega. The whole town of High Point gets pretty excited when the Bill Davis car does well. We ran real well, ran real strong. I'm excited about things to come. We need a second sponsor for Dave Blaney. He did a great job helping me through that pack pushing me around. He's just been a great teammate since I came down to Bill Davis Racing. I'm sure glad to have him back and hopefully we can get that car running and have a full season with them, too. I grew up racing little short tracks and it's kind of like a short track today. You're really slipping and sliding with the new tires and it's a lot of fun. It put a lot of the race back into the driver's hands and the two guys that beat me are great racecar drivers. It feels good to get third and maybe we can race like that this all year long with them." ON THE DECISION TO TAKE TWO TIRES AT THE END OF THE RACE. "It was a great decision. We kind of lost the draft a little bit before that pit stop. Frankie Stoddard [crew chief] makes great decisions all the time. If we could have caught some cars and latched on to them I don't know if Tony and Junior could have caught us but they did. It was a good call. I just got loose there at the end. They gave us a shot to win it and we just came up a little short." DO YOU FEEL THIS RUN TODAY SHOWCASED YOUR TALENT? "I don't know. My Dad always said I was a good racecar driver and I always doubted him. It feels good to come to Daytona and run up front in the 500 and run with great drivers like Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. They are the class of the field. They are going to be tough all year long and hopefully we can be right there with them." HOW MUCH OF A THRILL WAS THIS FOR YOU TODAY? "It's a huge thrill. I've had a lot going on with the off season and when I get in that racecar I can put that behind me and not think about that stuff and just do what I'm paid to do. I'm just thankful for Bill Davis Racing, Caterpillar everybody that surrounds me with great people like they do. It's a pleasure to drive this car and I'm excited about the rest of the year. Junior is a restrictor plate racer. He's got great cars for this place and Tony Stewart is good everywhere he goes. To come here and finish third behind those guys, we've got a little more work to do to catch up to them but my guys won't back down and I'm not going to back down either. It was real important to get on and off pit road: be sure that you didn't speed or you didn't run into the grass or things like that. It was real tricky. Goodyear brought a great tire here that really put a lot of play into the driver's hands. We were slipping and sliding, loose and tight. It was a lot of fun. I'm just happy to be part of it and it's definitely surprising to me. Hopefully we can run like this for the rest of the year." A GOOD RUN IS THE BEST TONIC FOR EVERYTHING ELSE, RIGHT? "It's what I love to do. It's what I have the passion to do. I'm just glad that I have people that don't give up on me. I've got a great car owner in Bill Davis and great sponsor, Caterpillar, people at NASCAR. I'm just excited. This NEXTEL Cup Series is a little bit of a new step for me but I'm out of here with a third place finish and it's a good start. We tested at the next two tracks and tested real good at them. I'm more known for my short track racing than my speedway stuff, anyway. I'm real excited that we could run with Dale Jr. and Tony Stewart. Hopefully we'll get our speedway package a little better and our short track program is hopefully right there." WOULD HAVE FOUR FRESH TIRES HAVE MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE AT THE END OF THE RACE? 'I was driving the car pretty loose at the end. Kurt was good enough to stay up in there and let me draft off of him. I started pushing and there at the end I just got real loose and decided to just back off and see if those front two would just make a mistake; do something to spin each other out or something like that but it didn't happen. Those two are great competitors. I'm happy with third. I'm proud of my guys. They did a great job and I'm looking forward to Rockingham." IS THIS THE BEST RACE YOU'VE EVER DRIVEN? "I don't know. I mean I've won five Busch races. This was a tough one. I was on the radio whining more about that car than any other car that I've driven. The guys did a great job adjusting on it all day long. They make me proud. The work hard for me and I try to work hard for them and hopefully I can give them the finishes that they deserve. Everyone at Bill Davis Racing knows what kind of person that I am. I'm just proud that I didn't let them down today. There's going to be some changes in my life and changes in other people's lives because of my problems. It's good to get away from it for about four hours in that racecar and just concentrate on what I love to do. We'll deal with my problems and move on to our racing, too." ON THE DECISION TO TAKE ONLY TWO TIRES AT THE END OF THE RACE. " Frankie Stoddard is really good at pit strategy and that was a great pit call. We lost the draft a little bit right before that pit stop. Two tires was the way to go. We just needed some people out to help us push us around a little bit. I'm real proud of my guys. They work real hard. NEXTEL coming aboard is making this sport great for us drivers and the fans. I'm real excited about the rest of the year. The tracks I used to race at were two miles shorter than this so this is a big experience. I remember in 1999 I was sitting in the stands watching the 125s and racing out at New Smyrna, just dreaming about getting here and when I'm finally here I got to lead some laps. A top-three isn't too bad, considering who we were running against." HOW WAS THE RACING TODAY? KEVIN HARVICK SAID HE DIDN'T LIKE THE SINGLE FILE RACING. "I mean it was single file. During the middle part of the race there we ran side-by-side it seemed for like 50 laps. Nobody could break free from anybody. The tire that Goodyear brought here really put a lot back in the driver's hands. I was loose, slipping and sliding and tight off the corners, all kinds of things all day long. The guys did a great job tuning on it. We were just too free there at the end. Anytime you can put the racecar back in the driver's hands I'm for it and they definitely did a good job of doing that." NOT A BAD DAY FOR BILL DAVIS RACING. DAVE BLANEY HAD A GOOD RUN FOR MUCH OF THE DAY. "Dave was the major reason I was up there. He shoved me up there. It's great to have teammates like that. I hope we can get a second sponsor for him and we can have a teammate all year long. Dave has been a big part of my career at Bill Davis Racing. It's good to have a teammate like that."

WIMMER RAYBESTOS ROOKIE POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

YOU MIGHT BE A RAYBESTOS ROOKIE, BUT IT DIDN'T LOOK LIKE IT TODAY. "I'm really excited about how well we ran today. Everybody on the Caterpillar team did a great job. We haven't been that strong down here. We've been struggling pretty much all Speedweeks. We didn't qualify well and didn't have a real good twin. The guys really worked hard to make the car better. And they definitely did that. We drafted real well with other cars. We ran up front. I'm real proud of the guys: they had great pit stops all day and really enabled us to get away in that front little breakaway. Everybody else was kind of stuck in the pits or got tangled up a little bit and we were able to get away." WHEN YOU TOOK THE LEAD ON THE LAST PIT STOP, DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO STAY AHEAD OR DID YOU KNOW THE FREIGHT TRAIN WAS COMING BEHIND YOU? "It was a great call that Frankie made to take two tires. We needed a little bit of track position. I almost lost the draft right before that pit stop. When I got out front, I was just looking for somebody to draft off of. I thought if we could have had two or three cars we could have hooked up with that Junior and Tony would have never caught us. But that didn't happen. I looked in my mirror one time and I didn't know what to do. I knew that if I blocked them they would have just knocked me right out of the way and ultimately that's what Tony did. It was tough. I thought we had a good chance to win it there but once they got by the car was too loose and I couldn't really hang on to it." DID THE DECISION TO CHANGE JUST TWO TIRES CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAR BEING LOOSE? "Yeah, I think it did. Goodyear brought a new tire here, which is a great tire, but it falls off and it really puts a lot back into the drivers hands. I know a couple times I got real loose out there and some other guys were real loose and some were real tight. Anytime we came down to Daytona we weren't lifting before and today we were lifting quite a bit. It was a lot like Darlington. We were running up against the wall. Guys were down on the bottom and couldn't really get the pass done and it was real exciting for a driver to have that much control of the racecar again. It's obvious that the two cars that won are great racecar drivers and I think they feel the same way, that they had the best setup and controlled it the best." GIVEN WHAT HAS HAPPENED THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, WHAT WOULD IT HAVE MEANT FOR YOU TO WIN THE RACE? "It would have been a dream come true. In 1999 I was racing out at the little short track down here at Smyrna, pounding it every night down there just trying to make a name for myself. Now I'm running the 500. I remember sitting in the stands, watching the twins, dreaming of day that I could run this race. I finally got the chance and it's a big momentum boost for me. I've been through a lot lately and I've kind of been down on myself but I'm lucky that I've got great people behind me: Bill Davis Racing, Caterpillar, NASCAR, everybody that's helped me through my problem. I've still got a long road ahead but we're going to get it fixed up and hopefully make it so nobody else makes the same mistake I did." WHAT DID YOU NEED IN THE CLOSING LAPS TO WIN THE RACE? "Four tires would have helped. Frankie made a great call to get us out front there and see if we could hold them off, but they were just too strong when they were teamed up together, Tony and Junior. I really could have used a drafting partner. I didn't have a lot of drafting help all day. I was just one of those drivers who would fall in behind somebody and let them pull me all the way to the front. It was tough because it seemed like every time I would get down on the bottom everybody would go to the top and whenever I would get to the top everybody would go to the bottom. When I had my teammate Dave Blaney behind me he pushed me right up through there, right to the front but unfortunately we lost him in some of the pit stop stuff. Hopefully we can get him a sponsor and he can be my teammate all year long." AT WHAT POINT DID YOU BEGIN TO FEEL LIKE THE CAR WAS BETTER THAN IT HAD BEEN ALL WEEK? WHEN DID YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE THAT YOU COULD MAKE THAT MOVE? "It wasn't until about halfway. At the beginning of the race I wasn't real comfortable in the car. I don't know. It might have been just a little bit of my lack of experience here at Daytona, especially in the NEXTEL Cup Series. I haven't raced against a lot of these guys. I've raced with them in the Busch Series for a little bit but they make a lot more aggressive moves. You can do a lot of things with your car that I've never felt before. Having Junior behind me, I learned so much on how he passes somebody and how he sets somebody up to pass them. I think a lot of it was me. The guys always build great speedway cars for down here. About halfway I started getting real comfortable and we started making some changes and I could really feel them. I kind of settled in and stayed up front and tried to stay out of trouble as best we could." HAVE YOU READ A LOT OF THE PRESS FROM THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS AND HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU'VE BEEN PORTRAYED? "I read a little bit of it. It's hurtful. I don't think a lot of you people know me, a lot of the press knows me. Some of the press has just been great and actually helping me out. It just seems like everybody has to put a negative side in it. I understand what I did was wrong and I'm the one who has to deal with it and I'm the one who has to go through it. Ultimately, I'm going to try to help other people not make the same mistake as me. I think I could be a role model to people in a way of a lesson learned. People keep saying that I'm not going to learn my lesson. You sit at home for a couple of days wondering if you are going to be able to drive a racecar again when it's all that you know how to do. That's a tough lesson and I'm going through a lot more. But we'll make it through. I've got a strong team behind me and a strong sponsor. I'll make those people that say those things about me like me someday." WERE YOU CONCERNED THAT YOU MIGHT LOSE YOUR RIDE AND DO YOU HAVE A DRIVER'S LICENSE? "Yes, I definitely was. I'm very apologetic for what I did and I realize it's not right. It was something that I made a major mistake in my life and embarrassed a lot of people: my race team, my family, my sponsor, everybody. It's something that went through my head that there is no way Caterpillar is going to let me race this racecar. We went through it and Caterpillar was willing to give me a second chance and Bill Davis was. It's something that means a lot to me. They know when I make mistakes I don't do them again. I don't make second mistakes. In 28 years I haven't really made a lot of mistakes. I made one major mistake, my Mom says I've made a lot, but I made one major one. I'm ultimately the one who has to deal with it and I'm going to deal with it the right way and I'm going to help people and make sure it doesn't happen to my friends and family and my co-workers. Hopefully one of my fans sitting up in the stands, they don't have the same problem. And no I don't have a driver's license. My wife has been driving me around the whole week." AS A ROOKIE, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO KNOW HOW AGGRESSIVE TO BE AGAINST TONY STEWART AND DALE EARNHARDT JR.? 'It's really hard. I watch a lot of races on TV and watch a lot of tape and those guys are just so good at these places with the experience they have. They knew how to set me up. They knew pretty much what I was going to do and knew I only had two tires and they had four. It's hard. I went out there the first day in the draft and I was afraid to go three-wide. I didn't want to run into the back of anybody or do anything stupid. You need to be real aggressive at these racetracks or you're not going to go. At the beginning of the race I wasn't and I ended up hanging around the back. Luckily I had a great teammate that pushed me to the front and I started getting more aggressive and we were able to stay up there. I learned an awful lot today and I'm going to take that and hopefully run good at Talladega and when we come back here for the 400."