Pocono 500 - Chevrolet Post-Race Quotes

MIKE BLISS, NO. 0 NETZERO BEST BUY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Note: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Brendan Gaughan shares driving duties with Bliss, who underwent successful hernia surgery Monday morning. Bliss and Gaughan made the driver swap during the first caution, on lap 30.

"I think the Adrenalin is still going. But I felt great in the car, but the NetZero Best Buy Chevrolet was getting really tight. But I was really comfortable in the car. I felt really good. I didn't want to get out. But we had a plan, and we needed to stick to the plan. But I still didn't want to get out. I felt better in the car than I do now, standing here. When you sit in the car, everything is just compressed and you're not moving. If you'd get in a wreck, maybe it would hurt a little more. But we don't think about wrecking. But the car was way too tight. We had tightened it up in practice, so we knew exactly what to do to it to get it back. We were just riding along. At this place, you just kind of ride along and pick them off one at a time. But I was the one getting picked off. We weren't passing, so it wasn't too much fun."

JASON LEFFLER, NO. 11 FEDEX CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Sidelined by crash on laps 43: "I'm okay. We blew a tire out there in Turn 1 or broke a tie rod or something, and slid all the way through the corner. I was trying to get down out of the way and trying to control the car. It was going all over. But I hit (Dave) Blaney and from there I don't know. Kyle (Petty) said someone got in the back of him. It was a heck of a hit. When Kyle hit me I didn't expect it. I was all the way down in the grass then and thought the worst was over."

SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Sidelined with left front tire problems: "Our left front tire blew out on us. We're not real sure what happened or why. It seems like everybody is having a lot of trouble there. We just hate it. We backed up a lot at the beginning of the race and definitely went the wrong way on our adjustments. It seemed like we were finally getting our car a lot better right there. We were just trying to get some pit strategy to get ourselves back up front and try to be there at the end. We lost that left front tire and it tore the oil lines off the motor too, so it's going to take some time to repair."

(DID YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS NOT SHIFTING DURING THE RACE?) "No, when you come here you have to tell yourself that you have to get used to that because it's definitely different, but it was easy not to."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 6th: "We didn't have a real good car today. We worked on it and made it better. We started deep in the pack and got up front, so we had a very good day. We made forward progress all day. We just didn't have anything for the leaders."

(ON THE TIRE PROBLEMS) "A lot of guys were two-tiring it trying to get track position. I knew on a long run that those left sides were going to give up and it looks like that happened. I know the No. 12 (Ryan Newman) took fuel only on that last pit stop and eventually just wore the left front tire out and it popped it."

(ON THE DAY OVERALL) "We're working to get our momentum back and get the cars just right. We're working with some new things and we're showing some promise. The NO. 25 (Brian Vickers) and the NO. 5 (Kyle Busch) have been able to make it work a little better than we have. We need to get testing and we have some tests coming up. But we're just trying to be real smart with our test sessions and not burn them all up."

JEFF GORDON, NO 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 9th: (ON THE TIRE PROBLEMS) "Some guys were running on that curve, which may have had something to do with it. You'd have to ask the guys who had trouble. I know they dug a ditch over there in that tunnel turn and made that big bump we used to have into a another type of bump. It's pretty rough over there, but I don't know whether that curve would tear up the tires."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 5th: Note: According to team PR spokesman the front tire changers and carriers were switched between the No. 8 car (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and the No. 15 car (Waltrip) in an effort to have the very best carrier and changer because the No. 15 car had a chance of winning today. Chris Crumley is the changer, and Shawn Ward is the carrier on the No. 15. The call was made by the pit stop coordinator, Walt Smith, and was in effect for two or three stops.

(ON THE SWAP) "We just had some trouble today and so they wanted to address it. And boy when we needed a great stop, the combination of the Bud boys and the NAPA boys pulled it off. It was obviously a smart decision. We really benefited from their help."

(ON THE 8-SECOND LEAD HE HAD ON THE FIELD IN THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE) "We were laughing about it and that bit us. We know how it is. We were having fun and I said to Tony Jr., 'This is so cool.' He said, 'You got that right'. And then the caution came out. We had a little bit of trouble with our stops today and lost some track position.

"Once we got back in the field, we were really a commoner. And then at the end, we stayed and got two tires and were really gaining on it. We had a fast car at the end and got all the way up to 6th. I don't know how it works, but I think I passed him and then the caution came out. I know I passed him, but it might have not been before the caution."

(WHAT DID THE GEAR RULE DO FOR YOU TODAY?) "I don't think it did anything. It looked like typical Pocono. Guys get in the front and can stretch it out. It's just really aerodynamical here and real sensitive for getting in the front. There was good racing back in the field, but a lot of times at Pocono you'll see that."

(ON THE WEEKEND OVERALL) "It was very positive. To get a pole was big and then to perform like we did today driving off from them at the beginning and then being very fast again at the end and getting a decent finish out of it for us was really a good weekend for us. A lot of people had trouble and I don't know about the points. But we gained on the leader and probably on some others as well. And I'm not wore out like I was at Dover. I don't know what the heck happened there, but I didn't even feel like breathing at Dover."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 33rd (ON THE TIRE PROBLEMS) "There was nothing we could do to help that. We had two flat tires and were five laps down pretty much by the end of the day. It was going to be nearly impossible to make those up. The car wasn't terrible, but we didn't have a race car to be real impressive, but we could have worked on it. You can't change the camber and all that stuff on pit road. I mean you don't want to."

(WILL THERE BE ANY MORE CREW CHANGES OR MOTOR CHANGES OR CAR CHANGES?) "I'm probably not the person to ask, but hopefully there ain't no driver changes, that's all I'm worried about."

(DO YOU THINK RUNNING OVER THE RUMBLE STRIPS TORE UP THE TIRES?) "I don't have a very good opinion of the tires right now, so it's probably best that I just keep my mouth shut about it."

(HOW FRUSTRATING ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?) "Oh, not too bad, you know. You want to run better. You want to do better. But I'll get frustrated when people give up. As long as we don't give up, I'll keep coming to the race track and try as hard as you want me to try."

(HOW IS THIS AFFECTING YOU?) "I don't know. Just going through it ain't no fun. But hopefully we'll just keep working. We work hard just like everybody else around here. And we'll just keep doing that. We ain't doing nothing different that we can change or point to and say this is why we're not running good, or this is how to get back on top. We're not doing anything crazy, we've just got to keep working hard."

(WHEN DO YOU NEED TO REALLY START MAKING THE MOVE TO GET INTO THE CHASE?) "We should have been running better. We're trying to make the move. We need to make the move now. We're trying. We aren't taking chances. We had a bad day today."

(IS THIS TIRE ISSUE SIMILAR TO FONTANA, OR WAS THIS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT?) "I think it's a camber issue. It isn't the tire's fault. But the tire is pretty damn fragile if you ask me, if it can't handle that. It looked like a recap coming apart on you.I mean to have so many people have that much trouble..we're not doing anything extremely outside the ball park on the camber on the left front and stuff like that. Our air pressures weren't real low. It's tough. It's real frustrating."

(CAN YOU GET INTO THE CHASE AT THIS POINT?) "As long as it's mathematically possible, we'll just try to keep working at it. Even when the Chase opportunity is gone, we've still got to show up at the race track and try to win races."

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:
(ON WHETHER THERE WAS ENOUGH PRACTICE TIME AT POCONO) "With an hour and 15 minutes of practice, you can't make but three or four runs. Five laps here takes a long time. Then you've got to come in and work on your car. It takes you all that time to get in here and get back out. It's just a tough place.

"We didn't have the time. If your car was really good you could've went out and run 25 or 30 laps, but you can't do that. You've got to work on your car. It's not like a Bristol or a Dover where you can go out and just rip some laps off and get yourself some good tire wear and if somebody has a flat look at it. It's different here."

(ON THE TIRE ISSUES) "It's hard to understand why. We ran over half the race and didn't have a problem and then we had two flats there at the end and the left rear flat we ran over something. That's just the way it is. I don't why.

"We were higher on air pressure than we were at Vegas. We didn't have any more camber in the left front, and I know it's a different race track, but if you really look at it - banking and other things - it's not that different."

(IS THE TIRE TOO FRAGILE?) "I don't know. Some people ran and didn't have any problems. Some people ran fast all day and didn't have any problems. If half the field can do it and half the field can't, I guess the half of the field that didn't do it - we didn't do our job well enough. We were relying on something. We weren't over-wear as far as the left front went on that long run. Our tire wear looked really good. And we weren't that low on left side tire pressure. So I don't know what the reason is. I told him (Tony) not to hit the rumble strips and he said he stayed off of it that whole time. So I don't know what it is.

"We ran over 100 laps and didn't have a left front flat, and then all of the sudden we had two of them. I'm kind of puzzled as to why. The first one we had we thought it was because we hit the fender brace and that had cut the tire. Then the second one just went down by itself. And the third tire was a left rear flat and it had a big cut in it. We ran something over when the '12' car hit the wall over there.

"But I know there were a lot of people who continuously had left front flats. We didn't feel like we were over-aggressive on camber. We didn't feel like we were over-aggressive on the shock at all. I don't really know. It's hard to say. It's frustrating, for Goodyear's sake and for everybody else's. This isn't something that anybody wants. And some people had problems and some didn't. I guess there is a fix out there because a lot of people didn't have a problem."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVRLET MONTE CARLO: "I just went down underneath some cars and the back end (of my car) got loose and started to chatter. Next thing I know, I'm in the wall. Not sure if we cut a tire or if it was something else, but I think that was one of the hardest hits I've ever taken. We struggled all day, and were just trying to hang on and finish the race."

Post Race Press Conference: Busch, Vickers, & Nemechek

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE - Finished 4th: (ON STARTING 38TH AND RUNNING FOR THE WIN IN THE END) "It was definitely a tough battle out there. It was a lot of fun in order to race with all those guys. To come from the back to the front was definitely a long task at hand. I knew that from qualifying all the way back there and of course hitting the fence and making the guys work extra hours here after the garage closed last night. But they did an awesome job for me in getting it back in one piece. We were able to drive up through there. I knew we had a really good race car. I wasn't sure exactly sure why it didn't qualify good and that was kind of a shame. But we just kind of proved we had a good race car here in the race."

(ON THE REASONS BEHIND SHORT-PITTING ON LAP 32 AND WHETHER IT WORKED OUT LIKE HE THOUGHT IT SHOULD HAVE) "We thought basically we could get a good track position by coming in and jumping in early on the guys and getting two tires to try to beat them out there. We knew if we short-pitted and a caution came out with four tires that we'd go a lap down. So we wanted to make sure that if a caution did come out, we didn't go a lap down. So we decided to come in for two tires. It made all the difference for us. We were just able to go out there and we moseyed around for a while and kind of ran really good lap times there and weren't quite as good as we needed to be there at the end of the race, but a bunch of other guys came in later and ended up taking tires and then they were just faster than us because of the fresher rubber that they had."

(ON EARLY PROBLEMS IN THE PITS) "Yeah, I think it was the last pit stop under green there, so it was later. But I ended up sliding through the pits just going down pit road and got in the boxes over there. The No. 8 pit, that was two behind us, I think they had fire extinguishers out earlier in the race and there was still some of that dust down. But still, it was my fault. I overshot the pit just trying to get in there as fast as I could in order to get the tires done so maybe we could come out and have the lead. So, I ended up screwing us up there and we fell back a few positions but we were able to make that back up on the race track."

(WHAT DOES ANOTHER TOP 5 FINISH DO FOR YOUR TEAM'S CONFIDENCE?) "That's just the way we should be finishing every week. It's not really any confidence that's any different. It's just the cars that we've had. We've had some really good cars. It's just all about trying to build that consistency on a regular basis and trying to run up front that way. It's been fun that we've been able to participate with some to these guys and run up front that way. It's neat to be able to race with everybody else who is up there and of course with Carl (Edwards) and Brian (Vickers) leading most of the race today, it was neat that Hendrick came out of here with a two and a four."

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 2nd - joins the press conference:
(HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BEAT THE TWO HMS VETERANS, JIMMIE JOHNSON AND JEFF GORDON TODAY?) "It feels good. And then we've got to start over again and go to Michigan. But the No. 5 and the No. 25 shops were phenomenal all day. I saw Kyle out there a lot and he came by and we threw some hand signs out there and just waved at each other for good runs and just played around a little bit. But we both had good cars. It says a lot for the opportunity the Hendrick family has given both of us and bringing over Brian Whitesell and putting the crew chiefs in place and the whole team. The building is nice, but it's the people inside that are making the difference and it's really starting to show on both these teams."

KYLE BUSCH: "Oh, just what Brian said. It's great to have such a great team and to be able to participate with such a great team and have the great team leadership of Brian Whitesell and of course Alan Gustafson on my side and Lance McGrew on his side. It's just fun to be able to race up front every week and that's the main goal in NEXTEL Cup racing, and if you can do that you'll keep winning points and basically being able to run up front give you all that momentum boost week after week as well. We hope we can keep doing it week after week."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET - Finished 3rd - joins the press conference:
(HOW WAS THE DAY FOR YOU?) "Well, when they started the race I was able to pass quite a few cars the first couple of laps. I knew that was going to be short-lived. I got extremely tight and I think we dropped back to about 30th position by the time the first caution came out. So, we had to work on the car and make major adjustments - pull rubbers and put rubbers in - all of a sudden the car was good and then we started passing guys. Every stop that we made, Ryan Pemberton adjusted on the car and made it better. He kept making it better and better and we were able to pass and get up to the top five."

(ON THE TIRE ISSUE - THE MEDIA POLE INDICATED THERE WERE 22 TIRES THAT WENT DOWN ON 11 CARS)
NEMECHEK: "I didn't have a problem and Brian (Vickers) didn't have a problem. I think that's one of those deals (where) a lot of guys were taking two tires and the left fronts were wearing quite a bit. That's probably the tire that was wearing the most on the car. And when you only put two tires on, now you're going to ask that thing to do another 20 laps of work. And it's going to be tough. I contribute that to using two tires."

VICKERS: "I have to agree. We didn't have any problems. Our tire wear was good all day. We were real cautious about when we did take two tires that we didn't have too many laps on the left sides because they were wearing a lot. I don't know the specifics of the problems other people were having. But I thought Goodyear gave us a great tire here. It started out really good and it dropped off the right amount to make for some good racing and more than likely those problems are caused just by user error more than the builder.

"There was a lot of trash and stuff on the track today. It's like a snowball effect. You blow a tire and then you've got metal that's built into the tire all the way around the race track and then you cut another tire. And now you've got two rubber trails around the track and now you cut another tire and a lot of that stuff gets stuck in the rumble strips and thing that we use around this track. That probably added to it as well."

VICKERS: (GIVEN THE NO SHIFTING RULE, IS IT SURPRISING THAT THREE OF THE TOP FOUR TOP FOUR FINISHERS WERE YOUNG DRIVERS?) "I think it just says a lot for the teams as a whole. Myself, Kyle, and Carl were new to this race track. But it's still just another race track. We had great cars all day long. The only think I can think of that comes to mind is I like a little bit of a loose car. I could tell that Carl was in the same position and I think that helped keep your momentum today - kind of keeping your car on the right rear helped to keep the car wound up and free and just not bogged down tight."

VICKERS: (WERE YOU CONCERNED THAT CARL EDWARDS CAR GOT BETTER ON LONG RUNS?) "It wasn't a real big concern for me because right we're trying to build something in this GMAC Chevy team and that's constancy and top fives. So I felt like either way, we were in a position to do that today. Going after that win, which we want so bad, yes. And it's not something we did intentionally to set our car up for short runs. It just worked out that way. We started out a little free on a run real fast, and the car would get looser and looser. We were anticipating it would get tighter and tighter as the run went on, but it did the opposite for us for whatever reason today. And Carl was just great on long runs. We built air pressure up and we slowed down and he didn't. He just kept digging. I don't know where he got the speed from but those guys did an awesome job on long runs. The only thing we were doing at that point was the best we could to adjust our car with good pit stops. We just hoped that a caution would come out with 20 to go and we'd come in and get four tires and we'd be good for 20 laps. Anything after that, it was going to be tough. We just did the best we could at that point to make a solid day of it."

VICKERS: (ON THE LAST RESTART) "I was kind of glad we got that. I was hoping maybe our tires would cool down a little bit and we could take a shot at him (Carl Edwards). Usually I was a little better than him in Turn 1 all day and I was hoping I could get him there. But we both took two tires. Both of them were old - even the right sides and especially the left sides. He was just better on older tires. I went down in Turn 1 hard and tried to get under him and go after him and the car just got a little tight and I just lost my momentum. And then Mark (Martin) just jumped under there but I don't think that really hurt us a lot. It didn't help. It took a little bit of my line away on the exit. But they were good on old tires and the race ended on old tires and that was just the bottom line."

NEMECHEK: (ON THE LAST RESTART) "I was very fortunate on the restart. I got past Mark Martin and Kyle Busch. I just got through Turn 1 on the restart really good and so did Kyle. We got up beside Mark going in the tunnel turn and once he got past Mark, Kyle actually got loose and he slid way up out of the groove. Once he slid up out of the groove, my car was on track and hammer down and got past him. The caution came out not long after that. But my car was really good there at the end of the run. We elected to take four tires. A lot of these guys took two, but I think the lap times they were all coming back to Mark Martin and myself."

NEMECHEK: (FIVE HENDRICK ENGINES FINISHED IN THE TOP 10 TODAY. IS THE SAME HORSEPOWER GOING TO MICHIGAN NEXT WEEK?) "That makes me feel really good. The engines were great today and we were bogging those things down to 5800 rpms in the corner. They were down pretty low. It was incredible that they pulled up off as good as they did. My engine ran as good as anybody else's out there. Brian, Kyle, and everybody ran good today. We're looking forward to Michigan."

VICKERS: "I think the Hendrick engine department is doing a great job. They've been working real hard and continue to try to get better and better. I'm thankful to be there and have the engines we have. I wouldn't say it's in the bag going to Michigan, by no means, because the Roush departments have their stuff together too and we've got some competition on our hands. So we've got to get it together as a group and go after them."

NEMECHEK: (HAS THE RULE BEEN ABLE TO CONSERVE ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS?) "Because you weren't shifting, I think you're not going to have a transmission failure. The only guy I knew who was shifting was Robby Gordon. How did he do today? Did he break a transmission? I think so because he was smoking pretty bad there after about 20 laps.

NEMECHEK: "But the way the transmission rules are now you can't hardly do it and make it work. Last year, we were turning 10,000 rpms and you make them run from 8500 to 10,000 and fix your gear ratios. Now, it's kind of old school to get more bottom in because we're in the lower rpms more. The engine guys work so hard. It's a whole combination of stuff that makes this deal work. You've got to have the whole package to make it go. On the other hand, you can have the best motor in the world and if your car doesn't go good, you're going to run 20th. It takes the whole package."

NEMECHEK: (WHAT GAVE YOU THE EXTRA BOOST AFTER LAP 117?) "We took four tires every stop. I knew when they made an adjustment what it would do. We had one set of tires in there. I had them free the car up just a little bit and we got too loose. But we made a gain on it. At first we were tight. We made it better and we were able to pass cars. We had good pit stops today and we were able to pass one or two in the pits every stop. Every time they'd get the car better, I was able to pass guys right and left, high or low - whatever it was. You've got to have a good handling race car. They kept making it better and better. Maybe if we could have gotten to the front earlier to run with these guys, maybe we could have run with them."

VICKERS: (WHY DO YOU THINK CARL EDWARDS HAD SUCCESS HERE ON HIS FIRST TIME AT POCONO?) "I think it's a fun race track and he does too, obviously. It's a result of good teams - of young drivers being in good cars. And they had a great car all day and he did a great job driving it. I wouldn't say that not shifting didn't help him any, but it probably didn't hurt any. But I don't think it was a big advantage for him. Anybody who is talented enough to run in the top five in the NEXTEL Series is capable of doing that. Not shifting is going to keep them from doing that. You're going to be able to drive a car up there whether you shift or not."

NEMECHEK: "We had to have our race cars free here. With him not having any experience here, shifting and having his car tight - they went at it a whole different way and it's just natural. He was just going after what he thought he needed and I think he hit on it. We were way too tight when we unloaded. That was the same set-up as last year and it was terrible. We had to work on our car."