Jeff Burton
#31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
2nd position
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RACE
Well, that was all I had. Matt had the best car tonight and he was really fast. We were real fast there at the end. We had ran well all night-the Cingular Chevrolet was fast. We put ourselves in position to knock one off and came up just a little bit short.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FINISH SECOND?
Feel really good. This team has been doing a whole lot there that we haven't been showing. It feels good to get what they deserve. The last two weeks I really let them down. Tonight they had great stops and it was a real good night for us.
RE: RACING AGAINST MATT KENSETH
Well, you know the thing about Matt is that Matt and I are really good friends. And, he always races me clean and I always race him clean. I could have knocked him out of the way but that's just not how I race him and he wouldn't have done that to me either. You know, I'm real happy with the way we ran. We ran well tonight. We didn't just fall into a second-we ran well. I let us down the last two weeks but I'm proud of our effort.
PRESS CONFERENCE:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NIGHT
Well, we were pretty good all night. We started out not as good as we needed to be.
Kept working and making the car better and better. Had some good pit stops and got some track position. And then I was able to get by some guys. Little too tight there at the end, but it looked like to me that a lot of cars got looser and our car stayed the same. We were too loose to start, for sure, but it kind of tightened up a bit and I thought that was a good plus for us. It was a good night for us. We've run really well the past two weeks and I wrecked us at Watkins Glen and I got the wall last week, too. The last two weeks have been really disappointing on my behalf. But, we'll keep digging and try to make some good stuff happen.
Kevin Hamlin
Crew Chief
#31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet
TELL US ABOUT HOW IT FEELS TO FINISH SECOND TONIGHT
It kind of sucks because we wanted to win, but I mean, the way our season has gone we've had a hard time capitalizing on how we've run, so it's a tremendous boost for the team to know that we can finish how we run. We just have to keep digging and it will all happen. We've not met one of our goals this year and that was to be in the Chase, but every week in our meeting, now we reevaluate our goals and our goal is to finish 11th in the points. We've just to make sure we've got everything going our way for next season right now. We're trying to make sure that if we've got anything going wrong with the team, we're trying to fix it. Just make sure next year, when we get to Daytona that everything is the way we want it to be or the best of our ability anyway. You know, we've got good people, we've had strong cars. We've had things right we've just never been able to get to end of the deal. Tonight it's a good feeling for everyone that we can do that.
RE: TRACK POSITION AND THE EFFORT FROM THE TEAM IN THE PITS
Yeah, it seems like they've done a tremendous job tonight. They've been working really hard on trying to get regrouped. They are finally getting confidence in what they're doing and I think it showed tonight. Like you say, we pretty much picked up spots every time we came in the pits tonight and that's good. Getting track position is really, really crucial. You know, with the group being on, having a good car, it all added up tonight.
NEW ENGINE PROGRAM AND R&D PROGRAMS AT RCR-IS THIS FINISH A RESULT OF THAT?
I think tonight is not necessarily a case of that, but the engine group is working really hard to try to get us more horsepower every week. And we've hired a couple of smart people there to try to reorganize the engine program. Richard's putting forth every effort there to try to turn each of our three teams around to make them perform better every week. And that's not something that's an overnight thing by any means, but we don't quit trying to improve. We've been trying to make the bodies better. We've been trying to make the engines, chassis, pit crew better. All around, everything needs to be better. So, if you don't give up on that and you try to improve every week what's you're doing. Then sooner or later when you do make the improvements like we're doing, they are going to pay off.
TRACKS COMING UP WHERE BURTON HAS RUN WELL AT. IS THIS SECOND-PLACE FINISH A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?
Well, I certainly hope it's the case anyway. Each week is a whole new set of problems. You can't go to Fontana this upcoming week and say that we finished second at Bristol, it's just a building block. We run good at Bristol and Martinsville. We ran good at a lot of the short tracks. We didn't run good at New Hampshire and we're pretty disappointed about that. It's one of Jeff's better tracks so we've got another test scheduled at that. Basically try to go there and straighten our program out there.
MOMENTUM FROM THIS FINISH, WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON?
Well, definitely to try to finish how we've run. Like you said we've been running good, we just haven't been finishing good. Somebody else has probably got into or one we create ourselves. You know, our goal is still that we don't create any problems ourselves and do our best every single weekend we can and capitalize and get the finishes that we seem to think that we deserve, anyway. Next week at Fontana we're bringing a whole new car there-a whole different design. And the motor is actually a whole different design, so hopefully we can make all that work for us.
Jeff Gordon
#24 DuPont Chevrolet
6th position
GREAT FINISH TODAY
Yeah, man, I'm real happy with the comeback. We got way off and a lot of it is my fault. You know, I asked the guys to make some adjustments on the car and it was totally going the wrong direction. That took us some time to get the stuff back in it, and when we did, we started coming back to the front.
ALSO GREAT DAY FOR THE CHASE STANDINGS
Yeah, that's what I'm happiest about. You know, it's a solid day, solid finish and I think it was a good points day for us-I don't know where the other guys finished up.
DID JIMMIE'S ENGINE FAILURE CONCERN YOU?
I didn't hear anything about it. I had no idea.
RE: ON TRACK ACTION
We just fought through a typical Bristol night where sometimes things are going your way, sometime they are not. You know, luckily there at the end we got the car a lot better and drove our way up to sixth.
YOU SEEM MORE COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR STANDING WHEREAS BEFORE THERE WAS MORE PRESSURE?
Yeah, and I still am. The way our season's gone, no matter how good we're running, no matter how bad, you just never know what's going to happen. You know, tonight is one of those nights we wanted and needed to happen. Glad it happened here at Bristol.
Mike Bliss
#0 CertainTeed Chevrolet
7th position
GREAT FINISH FOR YOUR TEAM TONIGHT
We had a fast car all day. This was the first time for CertainTeed, so I guess the CertainTeed Chevrolet was really good. Pit strategy-we just couldn't get any pit strategy. We had tires at the end. Good call by the crew because they made a big difference. We stayed out one time and we just got ate up. So, tires are the big thing.
SEEMS LIKE YOU WERE ABLE TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE WELL, TOO
The car was awesome, relatively speaking. We just adjusted a little bit all night. But, that was the biggest thing I wanted to do-stay out of trouble.
Tony Stewart
#20 The Home Depot Chevrolet
8th position
ONE OF THE HARDER EARNED 10th PLACE FINISHES YOU'VE HAD?
Yeah, I mean everything really fell into place for us right there at the end. Not sure I was real happy with the tires. The tire change that they made here coming into this week, it's put us all in a situation where it's just so hard to pass. You could run behind guys you could just never get enough.you know, their cars never fell off enough to pass. I wasn't really happy with the selection, but whether we like it or not there's a reason that Goodyear did that and thought that that was the right thing to do, so, we've got to stand behind them on that.
I think we just missed the setup tonight. But, Zippy and the guys just did an awesome job all night-just kept working with it. Right there at the end we were back enough where it made sense for us to come in and pit. We didn't lose but about four or five spots doing it and got those back in the first couple of laps, so you say it's probably the hardest top 10 finish we've ever run here, but we did exactly what we needed to do tonight with the circumstances that we had. It finished out just fine.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
#8 Budweiser Chevrolet
9th position
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RACE
Man, that was fun! I know a lot of people are probably wondering how we got a top-10 out of this, but this ol' Budweiser Chevrolet was fast tonight, and we passed a lot of cars to get that top-10. Starting so far in the back (41st) hurt us, because we had a lot of traffic to deal with. Matt (Kenseth) was stalking me for a long time, but we were lucky enough to catch cautions and get the lucky dog and stay on the lead lap every time. Great pit stops all night. I can't say enough about the guys on this team. I'm proud of them. They work hard to give me a good car, and all I can do is drive the hell out of it."
ON FIGHTING FOR A TOP-10 IN THE CLOSING LAPS
It was real hard to pass, and I knew when we stayed out (during the 15th caution with 28 laps to go) it was going to be hard to hold off those guys with new tires. I was kind of (upset) at myself for staying out. We were in ninth at the time, and I knew those guys behind us were going to get tires. But track position is really important here. I stayed out because I didn't want to give up our track position. We were able to hold on for the top-10, so I'm happy about that.
RE: OVERCOMING TWO ACCIDENTS TO FINISH NINTH
So much happened tonight I barely remember (the two incidents). There were people bouncing all over each other out there. I know the first one I ran into somebody when everyone was checking up from the wreck ahead of us. I don't know, I might've got hit, too. not real sure. The second was kind of the same deal. We were lucky to get no real damage other than flat-spotting the tires. Our incidents were minor compared to some of the stuff I saw out there.
RE: POINTS CHASE
Not even worried about it. I'm having fun driving these race cars, and that's all I think about. We dug ourselves a pretty big hole (in the points), so I'm just going to keep driving and have a helluva good time doing it.
Joe Nemechek
#01 U.S. Army Chevrolet
12th position
Note: Nemechek's finish (12th) was his career best result at Bristol Motor Speedway
I have to say we're pleased with the 12th-place finish. It's been crazy for me here in the past. Bristol hasn't been one of my better tracks and considering we haven't finished one of these (Bristol) races for a long time it feels pretty good to make that charge at the end and get a solid finish. The Army Chevy was very competitive, but we were stuck in the back for most of the race. I just had to be patient and use my head about what I did. I wanted to stay clean and take care of the equipment so I would have something at the end. It worked out and we'll take our finish with a smile. We didn't need that last caution because Dale Jr. and the No. 97 (Kurt Busch) were sitting ducks. The U.S. Army team is strong and I am proud of Ryan (crew chief, Pemberton) and the crew for the excellent adjustments and pit stops tonight. We're fired up, and next week in California, we'll be on it.
Bobby Labonte
#18 PowerADE Flava23 Chevrolet
21st position
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RACE
It was okay. We pitted there out of sequence and we got the lead, track-position wise. We didn't pit there at the end and that hurt us a little bit. Still, all in all, we came home with four fenders on it, which we haven't in a while.
Kyle Busch
#5 Kellogg's Chevrolet
33rd position
Note: Spin and crash on Lap 183
RADIATOR PROBLEMS AFTER THAT IMPACT? WHAT HAPPENED?
The thing is the car was handling great. Pretty much had the save of the year-almost spun through turn 1 and 2. For some reason the right rear tire went flat. I don't know what happened but I spun out going down the back straightaway and it got me into the fence. That's what broke it. It's been the worse night of the year as far as pit selection goes. Every time we came in we had about a 30-second stop because we picked a stall that qualified in front of us. And the guy behind us picked in front of us. So, every time I had to nose it in and then we had to push it back so I could get out.
Jimmie Johnson
#48 Lowe's Chevrolet
36th position
Note: Engine failure on Lap 410, retired.
THIS IS YOUR FIRST ENGINE FAILURE OF THE YEAR, CORRECT?
Yeah, it is. It's too bad. That's racing and stuff like that happens. I just hope my teammates don't have the same issues. It's a shame.
ANY WARNING SIGNS?
Just blew up in turn 2. No warning signs or anything.
Kevin Harvick
#29 GM Goodwrench / Reece's Big Cup Chevrolet
37th position
Note: Accident on Lap 316
DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED AHEAD OF YOU THERE?
No, Just got caught in the wreck there. Turned down and thought I had the wreck cleared and the #25 popped left and I hit the #12. Spotter never said nothing, so I wrecked.
Scott Riggs
#10 Checker's Chevrolet
40th position
Note: Retired on Lap 309
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU TONIGHT
We had some transmission problems. It jumped out of gear one time during practice and we were thinking we might have trouble but it didn't do it anymore so we didn't think it'd be a problem. Then when we got in the race it jumped out of gear almost right away. We put two bungee cords around it because we needed to have a lot of tension to keep it in gear. I was actually having to hold it in place and drive with one hand for a while. Even with the tension to keep it in gear, it was still hard to get my shift. I guess when we did get it hung up one time, that's probably when the engine let go.
Stanton Barrett
#95 Langley Properties Chevrolet
41st position
Note: Engine failure on Lap 251, retired from race
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE
Just blew up going into the corner. Right away, locked up. I got in my own oil and spun around. Blew up right going into the corner, not the best place to blow a motor.
HOW WAS YOUR CAR UNTIL THEN?
Not bad. The guys are pretty rough out there and trying to stay out the way. I had a really good car but it started to fall back and I was just trying to be conservative. We got a few laps down. Just trying to run. Obviously we had a good car and started running in the top 10 as far as track position there and pulling away from the guys behind us. It's unfortunate and we'll have to fix another car but we'll be out here some more.
