Jeff Gordon Takes First Win of Season at Infineon Raceway

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS, STEVE LETARTE, CREW CHIEF, AND RICK HENDRICK, OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS (HMS) Race Winner:

JEFF GORDON: It was a great win. A lot of emotions because it's been a while. Obviously everybody has well documented that and reminded us many times. You know, I just had so much belief. I knew we had the right ingredients and we focused and put a lot of effort into this road course package last year. Not only did we have failures, but we got beat. We were getting beat on the racetrack.

We focused on those areas, making sure that we found some speed, as well. We were able to show that this weekend. It didn't come together too well in qualifying, and today we showed it. To come from 11th up to 1st was not easy to do today. Passing was tricky. Fortunately for us, the cautions came at the right time. At the end I didn't want to see any, but it was just a great day.

It just means so much to me and to the team to get back to victory lane and get that No. 1 in the season off of our shoulders. It's a relief. Now we can just go on and focus.

You have no idea how much pressure ?? I think it's for a lot of teams that have won, it's so important to get that first win of the season. Of course it couldn't happen a better weekend, too, because announcing an engagement and being here was a really special weekend for me all the way around; to be able to complete that with a win and go to victory lane, it's just fantastic. Everybody wants to get that first win when you know you're a Top 10 team and you know what you're out here to do week in and week out.

We struggled the last year, and even here at the road courses we were a 2nd to 4th place car, and we knew that just wasn't good enough for a team like ours. We tried to get it better. I was really proud of how we ran last week in Michigan and we didn't get the results and the finish that we were looking for. We've had that two or three times this year, so I was finally glad to come and get the results that we knew, we had the car and the pit crew and the team to do it.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about how important it is for you now to be in the Top 10 and in the hunt again for the Chase?

JEFF GORDON: Well, it's important because we've had some trouble not last weekend, but when you look at Pocono and Charlotte and glitches that we've had the last month. At one time we were solidly in there because of consistency, and I attribute that a lot to a solid team. But performance?wise we weren't where we needed to be.

Then we had problems, and that really took us back in the points, so we needed ?? to me, you have to always put those behind you, you have to figure out how to do it better and fix the problem the next time, but you have to put it behind you and focus on the next race.

We've got a real string of races coming up that are very good for us, and this was the first one ?? maybe even last weekend, but this is the first or second one in a line of races that are tracks that we can really gain some points, get ourselves solidly back into that Chase. Nice to be in there right now but we're not solidly in there yet, and we need to take advantage of the tracks that we're good at that we can really capitalize on; here, Daytona next week, Bristol, short tracks and road courses, and then we've got to run like we did last week in Michigan at those mile and a half's. That was a very important race for us, as well. We finished 8th, but leading the most laps, it meant a lot to us.

Q. This is your first win here at Infineon, and with your induction into the Hall of Fame and your engagement to Ingrid Vandebosch, is this the best one yet?

JEFF GORDON: It's definitely the most emotional one for me. You know, it's just been a special weekend all the way around. I've got to admit, I got a little choked up riding around in the car with the checkered flag. I don't know if it was getting to victory lane for the first time this year, whether it was the excitement last night with announcing the engagement or the pressure of not winning so far this year or just the road course. I don't know what it was, but it was there, it was real, and it felt great and I was excited. I think I did one of the best burnouts I've ever done, so I'm proud of that. I don't know what's left in the engine or the car, but it was just great.

Just seeing the look on Steve's face and hearing his voice, I could just tell how much it meant to all the guys. He'll tell you, I never, never, never do this, I called him this morning at about 7:30, 8:00, and I said I've got two things for you: One, we're going to win the race today; and two, I'm engaged (laughter). I'm not sure which one impacted him the most, but I never do that, and I just for some reason had that feeling that it was going to happen today. I don't have that very often, but I had it all day today, and it's great.

Of course I didn't have it had halfway through the race. There was a point in the race where I was worried a little bit. We weren't catching some guys and in the position we needed to be in at the time, but it really came through.

Q. Can you tell us about the proposal and getting engaged and when all that happened, and the second question is is she willing to sign a prenup (laughter)?

JEFF GORDON: Well, she's here. Maybe she can come over and talk to you for a little while and answer those questions.

I think she knows that I'm a lot smarter the second time around (laughter). She's got a much better guy this time around, too, and I've got an amazing girl this time around, too.

I can't say there's any big story to the engagement, other than last night was ?? we've actually been holding this to ourselves for about a month, and we just ?? because we didn't do it the traditional way and get down on one knee and go to some fancy restaurant or the Eiffel Tower or something, we kind of held onto it for a while until we were ready to tell people, and because we travel, we're just not typically in a place where you get a bunch of people together, and fortunately for me, I have a little croquet event ?? you can get a list of people that come to this event, and they're all very well-known. But I get family and friends that I grew up with and family that I don't get to see very often, and it was just a great opportunity for us to really make it public to everybody.

We wanted to let our family know first obviously, so it was great to be able to do that. The prenup thing, you're going to have to ask her (laughter).

Q. Were you using that new chassis, the Pratt & Miller chassis, and if so, how much of a performance enhancer was that for you?

STEVE LETARTE: No, actually we brought our tried and true chassis that we've run for years. I think the Pratt & Miller group that worked for General Motors on the Corvette has a good car here, and I've worked with them a little bit on some setup, not only setup but how you approach a road course. We're still stuck in our ways of racing week in and week out. All the gentlemen at Pratt & Miller really opened our eyes on how you even breathe, how you talk after a road course practice, and I put a lot of that emphasis on Doug Duchardt, the vice president here at the company, really important lining that up. I think that really showed this weekend that we put our road course program on high priority along with everything else, and I'm glad we got out here and showed it.

Q. You were able to reel in Labonte pretty quickly and pass him but then you didn't really pull away from him quickly. Were you in conserve mode at that point and how much pressure did you feel an those late restarts?

JEFF GORDON: Well, he kept telling me he's going to pit. He kept telling me don't worry about Terry, he's going to pit, he's going to pit (laughter). I'll be honest with you, I was conserving as far as fuel, but I wasn't conserving that much through the corners. Terry was really driving a great race and being smooth like he is, and he's a great road racer. I wasn't taking that for granted. That's why there was a few times Steve probably heard in my voice I was probably getting nervous because our car on the long runs really used up the rear tires, and if I had to battle with Terry it was going to be quite a battle because I may have been short?shifting and things like that to try to conserve fuel, but I wasn't doing as much as ?? put it this way: In areas that when I looked out my mirror I was concerned about, I wouldn't say that I was holding back, and he was driving a great race.

I kept asking is he going to pit? I can't believe he made it. He pitted so much earlier than we did, and we were concerned about fuel. At the end for some reason his car wouldn't take off on the restart, and it really gave me a nice breather for the first five or six corners to get the rhythm and get the heat in the tires and go on.

Q. Rick, if you could take a moment to talk about the race today.

RICK HENDRICK: It was a great win. You know, any win in Cup Series is a special win, but these guys who work so hard and have been so close, and it really hurts me to see Jeff have mechanical failure at Richmond, had the rotor in Pocono and got turned in Bristol. You put all those together, and we had had some pretty good runs, but it kind of felt like if we could come here and then go to Daytona, we would have an awful lot of momentum. We're just excited about the races now leading up to the Chase.

Q. Jeff, you mentioned a little while ago about the pressure of going week to week working for a win and not getting it. Could you elaborate a little bit more on what the pressure felt like and how did you cope with it?

JEFF GORDON: Well, one way I cope with it is I try not to read the paper or go to NASCAR.com or any other website that might show, oh, Gordon had trouble again, Gordon doesn't win again, when is it going to happen, how long is he going to go. I've been through it before so I know all those things exist, so I do my best to stay away from it as much as possible. I just really try to put as much effort and energy into ease and communication with the team. We've had some great meetings and talks and just really keeping the glue together there and knowing that we're going to each and every race with our best effort. I'm very confident in that, and I've been patient that it's going to come together for us. Because I've been through it before where we went longer than this into the season, that helped, as well, just knowing that you've just got to be patient and not pay too much attention to outside criticism.

Q. And the follow-up is did you lose any sleep over it? Did it keep you up at night?

JEFF GORDON: I lost some sleep Friday night not qualifying the other day. Any time I make a mistake, I definitely am hard on myself. Luckily I let it go pretty quick. I lose some sleep that one night but let it go pretty quick. It's all about focusing your energy on the next race and the next test. Steve or Rick might have a different answer to that, but I'm pretty good at not losing too much sleep over it.

Q. Jeff, the engagement announcement last night was at a club?

JEFF GORDON: Well, the official announcement was last night. You know, I told my mom and dad last week, I told my sister yesterday, I told Rick Hendrick yesterday, and I told family and friends that were there at the Meadowood resort yesterday, I told them, and I called Steve early this morning, called John Edwards right after that. I told John the same day I told Steve; two things, we're going to win the race so get prepared, and I'm engaged.

Q. You've done so well here. Did you feel like today was that drivable a day? Was the car performing seemingly like it had been in the past here?

JEFF GORDON: The car was good, especially in the braking zones. My goodness, we've made some improvements there. In that scenario we needed to make improvements that the team really focused on. The first run took me ?? we had a horrible start there in turn 2. I don't know what happened but the guys were just all over the place. I lost like four spots. I was trying to run through the first lap in my mind, and in my mind I was thinking about making up three spots, not losing them.

So that was pretty frustrating. It got dicey and I had to be aggressive at times, and we started making some passes and I was feeling good about it. Then all of a sudden me and Stuart and Robby Gordon kind of stayed there, we didn't really go forward anymore. I was nervous at that point. We made some adjustments, and the adjustments just didn't work and the car was getting looser, and then the last adjustment was just dead on. It was a great adjustment and made me better on the right and better on the left, and then I was able to ?? we were definitely the best all day long on that last set.

Q. What made you so confident this morning to proclaim you were going to win? And for you or Steve, a couple strong performances in a row, how does that build momentum? It starts all over again at Daytona next week and the following race, so how does one thing carry over? You hear some guys say there isn't much carryover.

JEFF GORDON: Maybe it's different for everybody, but for us, it's not so much that it definitely carries momentum, it's just you want it to and you feed off of it, and for us to have not ?? I guess we're a solid team, and so when you go to victory lane, I think sometimes it impacts us. As good of an organization and team as we are, sometimes we just need that spark to get the confidence going.

We've been making gains in a lot of areas that maybe I feel like we are given credit for within the organization, but outside people maybe don't always see it.

So when you can add that to the momentum of a good run in Michigan and a win here, and if we can go to Daytona and take some momentum here and we run good at Daytona, so obviously it just builds confidence, and hopefully that builds some momentum, as well.

You know, I'm feeling good. I guess I've been holding onto a secret for a month and it was nice to get that off my chest and let the world know. I was excited about that, and the car has just been so good all weekend long, ever since we tested, really. When we tested VIR, we tried some new things, and man, it was just working so good that I couldn't wait to get out here to begin with.

Friday we were awful and I was so disappointed, and then Saturday, yesterday, the car was just amazing. I had that feeling. I don't know, sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't, sometimes you win races when you don't have that feeling, and sometimes you finish dead last when you do.

That's why I say, even when I've felt that before, I never do that. I don't know why I felt like doing it today, but I did, and I'm glad it worked out.

Q. Steve, you mentioned the car you've used three and a half years. Is this the same car that Jeff won with two and a half years ago here? And Jeff, how hot was it out there today in that car?

STEVE LETARTE: Yes, this was the same car we won it two years ago. We sat on the pole and won in 80 laps or so. It's been a successful car for us. It's won here and at Watkins Glen.

JEFF GORDON: I'd like to know how hot it was because I was hot (laughter). I was fine until they threw that red, and sitting out here ?? typically Steve tells me turn off all your fans, we don't want to run the battery down, but there's no way I was going to sit out there without the blowers and fans on me because it was hot, real hot. I made a comment on the radio, I said, this is the only time I know that it's a bad thing to be leading because I was the last one that they got to with the water. I sat there a long time. I was trying to be patient and knew that it was going to take patience to run those last however many, five or six laps.

I'm in so much better shape physically now than I was a couple years ago when we won this race and I was exhausted. Most of it is through finding better ways to hydrate myself and it gets you through the day. I did get a few cramps today, but other than that, it was good.

Q. Jeff, was there moments in this race when you found you were actually able to relax, maybe just the last lap, or was this pretty tense all the way through?

JEFF GORDON: I would say the last lap was about the only ?? Newman got in second on that last lap and I knew he was pushing really hard. I've got to give him credit. I haven't seen him be a challenger on the road courses in recent years, and that was an impressive run for him. So I think a lot of us are going to be taking a look at him going forward.

You know, I guess the last few corners and that last lap, I just kept telling myself don't miss a shift, don't wheel out, just don't do anything dumb. Sometimes you can over?think it, but everything went smooth.

Q. It was a long, tough afternoon. A couple of red flag periods, almost 25 minutes, about 50 minutes of yellow flag. Did you think it was ever going to end? Is it the toughest win you've had here at Infineon?

JEFF GORDON: Well, because I'm better hydrated these days and I think the team does a better job of keeping me cool inside the car with some hoses and blowers, you know, it wasn't the most physically demanding race on me personally that I've had in the past.

There were some challenging moments out there where I was concerned about the handling of the car being good enough to win. There were some challenges from some other competitors out there with Newman trying to take the lead. There's never any guarantees, so until I saw that checkered flag wave, I wasn't giving it up or relaxing at all.

Q. Will Steve keep you advised where your chief competitors normally are on a road course, Robby Gordon and Tony and Kurt Busch and the rest? There's quite a few good road course racers here this weekend.

JEFF GORDON: No doubt. I battled for a long time, passing and passing back, and I was so happy to get by him, and then he battled back and got back by me and I was pretty disappointed.

Right from the start with Stuart and Robby getting by me, those were the two guys that I was ?? all I could think of is ?? one thing I've got to do is keep those two behind me, and they got by me in the first corner. That was not too good. I thought the No. 2 car was going to be the guy to beat besides that. There were a lot of guys that were tough. I mean, we brought our best package and it was good, and I took advantage of having a great car in the right places.

I'll tell you, we were sitting there at 6 and I had just come on the radio and said, man, I'm loose here, I'm tight here, I don't know, I don't know, and we threw the caution and we sat under caution ?? we went back green, and I was getting one a lap. I wasn't expecting and these guys weren't expecting it, and I was just like, wow, maybe we're better than I thought we were.

Q. A lot of the people who are competitors of yours today sort of self?destructed. A lot of people made mistakes. Do you think winning on a road course, the precision and keeping your cool and making sure you don't make mistakes is more important than on another type of track?

JEFF GORDON: I don't think it's more important. It's important everywhere you go, but I think there are more opportunities to make mistakes here than there is on an oval. You have so much more going on from shifting to braking, turning left and right, curves, dirt, a totally unique Pit Road. It's really easy to stall in the pits. You're in first gear, Pit Road speed, so it's kind of a unique situation.

I can go on and on with all those things. Even though at times we weren't just driving to the front, I just kept telling myself, hey, we've got to come out here, solid finish, solid finish, keep it on the track, be smooth, don't make mistakes, and Steve was reminding me of that quite a bit.

We talked about that before the race, as well. We knew we had a car capable of winning, but it's as important or more important that we come out here with a top five finish or a solid finish and make some points up and capitalize on a track that we run good at.

Q. A two-parter. First of all, Jeff, today's race according to the broadcast was the 100th in the Cup Series history. How convenient was it that this win for you, not only was it the 100th in the series, but your 74th career, your 5th win here, your 9th overall, and the fact that this is essentially your home track?

The second question is for you, Mr. Hendrick. Overall how significant was it for you to have Jeff win today?

RICK HENDRICK: It was really special. I guess July five years ago Ricky won Kansas in the Track and then it went to the cars. We came out here to try and run this race, 17 was the number. So we decided we'd make the car look like Ricky's and all the crew that worked on his car was there. So it was a real special deal, real emotional deal, and I think we had fans up there that started chanting, "We love Ricky," and it was a pretty emotional deal for all of us.

And then to come back and have Jeff won here after we felt like we let him down the last two races ?? I don't know if it was the last two, we had the leakage problem and then a gear break and leading the race both times. So it was a sweet weekend for us. That will be ?? it's a bittersweet deal to see that car, but it was neat to have all the pit crew and all the guys that started with him there yesterday.

JEFF GORDON: For me it's not about the stats. One day I'll look forward to looking back at those stats, but when you're here right now it's about feeling that energy that comes. There's no greater feeling in the world than going to victory lane and all the hard work and effort that's put into it, especially when you haven't been there in a while. You appreciate it all that much more.

Ever since I was five and a half years old, I think maybe six years old is when I had my very first win. That's all I've ever raced for is to get that trophy, get to victory lane. He pays me a lot of money to do it, so he might say yeah, yeah, whatever. But I think everybody knows what drives me and this race team is to do that right there, to experience that. There's not enough money in the world that you can give to buy that feeling and to buy that opportunity. We just feel very fortunate to have gotten there today.

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 96 DLP HDTV MONTE CARLO SS and ROGER STAUBACH, OWNER, HALL OF FAME RACING - Finished 3rd:
Also includes comments from Phillipe Lopez

Q. Certainly a great run out there today, and Roger and Troy (Aikman) are looking really smart for their race strategy and for putting you in the car. Talk about that great run today.

TERRY LABONTE: Well, it was an awful good run. These guys did a great job. We had a really good car in practice yesterday, and we got here and we weren't as good as we needed to be and really (crew chief) Phillipe (Lopez) and everybody worked their part on the car and had a really good setup yesterday morning and I went out and ran practice. I think they knew when I ran ten laps in a row that that was pretty good because I usually don't run that long in practice. So we had a really good practice yesterday.

The hardest part was we were starting back so far and then the strategy. We got really good gas mileage, and then during the race today, the car was a little bit too loose under throttle, so I really couldn't use the throttle like I needed to, and I think that helped the gas mileage. We were able to stretch the mileage a little bit more. We knew exactly when we needed to pit. We used a couple of caution laps and we kind of gambled and it paid off.

We should have been second, but I didn't get my tires good and clean after that red flag. I was trying to save gas and I didn't want to try to scuff the tires up too much there, and I was hoping I had them cleaned off enough, and we took off there and they weren't good enough. It took me a couple laps to get going and the No.12 (Ryan Newman) car got me. It was still a good run for us.

Q. Roger, your thoughts?

ROGER STAUBACH: We were up there with our sponsor DLP, and I've never experienced such excitement. We've got such a class human being that's running up front. It was such an amazing race. Phillipe is not here, but between Phillipe and what Terry did and the team, earlier we talked about this today, and we wouldn't have dreamed we could do this this quickly, but we have just a great driver and a great person. He had the right equipment today, and Phillipe was our coach. He did a great job.

I don't know why I'm here. I don't deserve to be here, but I'll tell you, I'm involved with this team and we've committed to it, and it's been a lot of fun today. I'm really proud of you, Terry. Thanks a lot.

TERRY LABONTE: Thanks a lot, Roger. I've never told anybody this except for a few friends. When I was a kid growing up Roger Staubach was always my hero. I finally got to meet him with this deal, and we did a couple of appearances together, and he is everything I imagined, and that's really neat because a lot of times people that you look up to aren't really what you think they are. This guy is a class act right here, and it's just been a real thrill for me to be a part of your team, and I really do appreciate that.

Q. Terry, the last time you ran this well was when you won at Darlington the last race in 2003. You're not a very emotional guy, but with this being your last year, was there some emotion in the racecar today, and can you talk about what your feelings were as the laps ran down?

TERRY LABONTE: No, we'll have some more good runs before the year is over. Not really. I was running there with Jeff there for a long time, and we were running about the same speed there. He ran me down and passed me and then I hung with him there, but then he just slowed down trying to save gas a little bit, also. We were pretty close there and then he was able to stretch it out there at the end pretty good.

It was just a good run for us. Hey, this is my last year going into the deal, and I'm fine with that. I've been doing this for a long time and it's been a lot of fun and I've been able to win some races and some championships, so there just comes a time when it's time to retire, and I'm going to be 50 years old in November, so I think it's probably about time to retire from this deal. When you go to the drivers' meeting and there's people sitting around that are younger than your kids, it kind of tells you something. I was just glad we had a good run today.

Q. Terry, as you were trying to save fuel and trying to keep up with the cautions and how that was impacting everything, did you ever think you might have a shot at (race winner) Jeff Gordon?

TERRY LABONTE: I knew he was close on fuel, too, so it was going to be my only shot was if he had a ?? if his car missed a little bit on fuel or something or if he got off course or something, and I've only seen Jeff Gordon get off course by himself one time, and that was during qualifying this week, so that doesn't happen very often. It was going to take a slip from his part probably for us to get him.

Q. Roger, this morning you were saying that you were going to be really celebrating if you guys were 24th or so (laughter), and here you are up on the podium. What sort of celebration plans do you guys have and what do you do next?

ROGER STAUBACH: We're going to celebrate. We have a lot of our team with TI and DLP, and Troy had to leave early. He really got engaged out here with Rhonda, his wife, so they went off, and we've been emailing each other back and forth when we were leading there at the end. So I said, hey, Troy, I'm going to pull us through here, which is kind of crazy because Terry pulled us through and Phillipe, but it's been neat.

The whole DLP team and TI, we are going to celebrate. It's really fun. This is a tough sport, it's a great sport, and it's fun to be part of a legend like Terry and to have a good day out here in Sonoma, and it's amazing that we really have hit a dream this year. We got over our heads in a way, but we also put together a great team, and to finish and be competitive, it's been fun this year. We were 16th, 17th, and Terry got us started those first five races, he gave us the qualification. But to come in third today, I feel like we've won the Super Bowl. Well, almost won the Super Bowl (laughter).

Q. For both of you, the last red flag, what was running through your mind in the car? And Roger, in the suite what was running through your mind?

ROGER STAUBACH: What was running through my mind, we're in the box up there. People are going crazy. We were No. 1 and then Terry was fighting the gas deal, and I'm thinking, oh, my Lord, it's like the Dallas Mavericks, I felt like we were Mark Cuban on the Letterman Show. We were 2?0 and we thought we were going to win.

We just wanted to make sure that Terry finished and it worked out, and obviously it was a tight deal at the end. You get a little greedy, when I walked by out there and saw all those people celebrating, but we just had a magnificent run today. We're not greedy, but it's fun to be a champion, and to be in the top three has just been something very special to us. And again, I can't say enough about Terry's commitment to our team and what the day has meant for the future and the momentum that we have as Hall of Fame Racing.

TERRY LABONTE: I didn't like sitting there. I was hoping we were going to run another lap or two another caution because I knew that would help us on the fuel deal. I hated to see them red flag it. I was thinking, oh, my Lord, I'm going to run out of gas.

Q. Terry, we heard that you had run 56 of the 100 road courses; is that correct?

TERRY LABONTE: Well, I don't know. You know, I don't know. I've run since ?? every road course race, I guess, since 1979, going back to Riverside. We won a couple at Riverside, and it's been 20 years ago, I guess, or so. Yeah, there's been a lot of them.

Just a couple notes on that, won at Riverside in 1984 and 85, and your best finishes here were a second and two thirds at Infineon.

Q. Given that this was the 100th road race in NEXTEL Cup history and you've been participating in over half of them, how significant was it for you to be in such close contention for the win so late in the thing today for you, being such a veteran of these races?

TERRY LABONTE: Well, of course it felt good. We had a good car yesterday at practice, like I said a while ago, and then we had great pit strategy today and were able to get up there and lead the race some and wind up with a good finish. I didn't realize it was the 100th road course. I've always enjoyed running the road courses, and over the years we've done pretty well on them. I always look forward to coming here and going to Watkins Glen.

PHILIPPE LOPEZ (Crew chief, No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevy)

How close were you at the end?

Well, by the time we got to the end, we weren't. When we made the call on Lap 60, we were a half a lap short. We knew that, and we pretty much asked Terry right from the beginning to save gas. We had an 18 second lead on Gordon, but it was more important to save gas than it was to try and hold off Gordon. He was just flying. As we got the cautions, I felt better. But I didn't feel completely better until I saw him come around (Turn) 11 on the last lap.

Were you nervous after making the call on Lap 60?

No, because the originally the call was to just get the tires then and that would enable us to come down pit road under green and while everyone had to take four (tires), we were just going to splash and go. That was going to save us 12 seconds on the racetrack. So, coming in on Lap 60, that was a no-brainer, I'm surprised more people didn't do it. But, then it turned into another decision five laps later and that was not to come in and see what we could come up with.

How nervous were you that last 15 laps?

There is always the fear of the unknown. We're dealing with computers and they're telling me gas mileage and all this is based on something you don't know. And that's what the driver is doing with the gas pedal. You don't know how hard he is pushing it, you don't know how much he's saving, you don't know any of that. So, I felt good about what we were doing, but I still didn't know until I saw him come around Turn 11."

Talk about Terry's drive today:

He did an awesome job and that's why he's a two-time champion and won two road course races. He knew we were stuck at 25th and that's why I think he wholeheartedly agreed with what we were going to do. It got us track position and he showed he could run right there."

What does this mean for the team?

Well, the big thing is, every week we've been getting better. Michigan is a classic example. We thought we were top 10, but blew a left rear and finished 38th. We knew we could run top 10, but I'm not being delusional, we can't do that every week. We're not there yet. But, we knew we could do it on a given occasion. Now we've done it. It's one thing to think you can do it, it's another thing to do it."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 10th:

"Yeah I was just trying to mind my own business. I had the speed to run in the top five. There was a big group of us that kind of ran the same lap times and then the No. 60 (Boris Said) came in there and turned me around. It's unfortunate. I enjoy racing those guys coming out. I've known Boris for a long time but you get in those situations and those guys are so greedy and don't have anything to lose and put people racing for points in a bad position. Fortunately I didn't get hit. I was able to spin around and get back going. It's just unfortunate for us."

On the frustration: "Yeah, I made some mistakes on restarts where I'd give up one or two spots because I was so worried about racing the guys in front of me and playing offense, that I[d put myself in a bad position in the braking zones and then the No. 99 or the No. 31 got by me and I thought darn, here I worked my way all the way up there and I've got the speed to outrun these guys and I made some bad choices. So, I'm looking forward to Daytona. We've got a great car we're taking there."

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF:

"We ran in the top five most of the day and then we got spun out and that hurt us. The car was okay but it wasn't good enough to pass when we needed to. And the lap times were pretty inconsistent. But we got a top 10 and that's pretty good. That's what we needed to do."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 7th:

"It was a good day for us. I'm just real glad to get through it without any incidents. We ran well. I got off track one time leaving the pits. That hurt us a little bit but nonetheless we fought back and got all but one of those spots back. I'm real proud of my guys. We got good fuel mileage; good brakes and everything was good."

Are you relieved to get out of here?
"Oh, yeah. I came in here wanting a top 10 just because my track record here is terrible. We run decent but we finish bad. But we were able to get a finish today so I'm proud of that."

BRIAN VICKERS, DRIVER OF THE NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET: Finished 14TH

"Our GMAC Chevy ran well today. Starting 42nd, we knew if we could avoid the first lap mess that has caught me the past two years-- we'd have a good day. We just tried to be patient, picking them off one at a time. I think if we would have had just a few more green flag laps at the end, we could have gained a few more sports, but to start 42nd and finish 14th is still a good day."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 28th
GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF

GREG ZIPADELLI:

Was there any warning that the engine was getting ready to let go?
"A few laps before it let go it started slowing down. We didn't really know what happened. Knock on wood, we don't have very many motor problems. Mark Cronquist and everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing really do a good job there. That's really been one of our strong suits in the past. It's our second one this year. We'll just go back and look at it and see why and what broke to see if we can fix it for the second half of the season, if there is a problem. It might've just been a part that was bad and it was our day."

How tough was it keeping Tony focused when the engine started to go and he started falling back?
"He did a good job of staying out of everybody's way. We were just trying to stay on the lead lap there and be as easy on it as we could to try and salvage something. In all honesty, we probably would've been a whole lot better if we didn't have all those cautions because we had ourselves a pretty big cushion built up on a lot of those guys. But that's just the way it is."

The pit road speeding penalty wasn't that big of a setback, was it?
"Oh really? You come in second and you're back out 14th and you give up all of that under green. We were with the '24' and those guys and we had to race a lot harder to get ourselves back up there. We still did it. Tony did a great job. We had a pretty decent car today. We were best on the long runs and I think we picked up a lot of speed up in the last 15 laps or so of a run. When everybody else was falling off, we could really maintain. So I really felt like we would be good at the end. For sure, we were probably a second-place car, but we might've had a shot at him (Jeff Gordon) with all those restarts. You don't know."

How tough was it keeping him focused when he was battling Boris Said?
"It's just road course racing, short track racing. If they're not intense about it and getting upset about it then those are the guys you really don't want driving your car. That's what makes Tony who he is. He's fiery. He lost it for a minute but he did a really good job of getting it right back and getting back in his rhythm and passing all those cars to get back up toward the front."

It's been awhile since you've been to victory lane. Is it getting a little frustrating?
"I think it's frustrating that we haven't finished better than we have. We've had really good race cars. From Charlotte to Michigan to the All-Star race, we've never wrecked this many race cars or had this much adversity. But it's one of those deals you look back at the year after you win a championship and it seems like you get all the stupid things that happen to you that didn't happen to you the year before. You know, we're still in it. Right now, it's survival mode, trying to stay in the top-10 and hopefully we'll get rid of all this stuff and have a shot at it at the end of the year."

Is there a tendency to punish the car when you're trying to come through the field like that?
"You may punish your tires or your brakes, but as long as you don't miss a shift, you don't really hurt the motor. With the gearing that they have and the gear rules they have, we never even hit the chip this year. And in the past when we've been here we've just been banging it off the chip. If anything, I'd say what we had and the way we raced, we probably were easier on it than we had been. We had the mechanical fan on and it never got hot. So you know, it's just one of those things. I'm sure it was just a part that broke."

Are you feeling good about going back to Daytona?
"I was feeling good about coming here because we won but we're leaving here 28th. So, there are no guarantees. The only thing it means is that we can win there again. We've won a Duel, a couple Shootouts and we won the 400, so I think our speedway program is strong enough to put us in victory lane if we can go and do our job and stay out of trouble and have no more bad luck."

TONY STEWART:

Do you have any idea what happened to the engine?
"We know a lifter was broken, but we don't know exactly how it happened. We just know it lost a cylinder."

It seemed to be a pretty rough race. A lot of people were banging into you.
"Normally, we're up front and we don't have that problem on a road course. But you look at some of the good cars that were beat up - I got a chance to see all of them as they were passing me at the end - and it seemed like it was an awful rough day to me. The ones that I was a little disappointed in were some of the ones I have the most respect for on a road course. You got some guys who should be the best quality guys out here and they're the ones blocking and chopping people's noses off and this and that. It's disappointing we've got to have a race like that.

Boris Said claimed that you're still his favorite driver ever, but he wasn't going to give you anything.
"I'm not asking him to give me anything. But if a guy gets a run, don't drive him across the race track. Yeah, this is a road course race, but it's also a NASCAR race. This isn't European road racing where you block and run guys all over the race track. We're not going to do that. They're not going to do that to me. I don't care if they do it to the rest of the field, but the one thing I think we established today was that they're not going to race me that way. When Boris got a run on me, I didn't change my line or anything. He got under me and got the spot. But both times I got underneath him it was squeeze, squeeze and run me across the race track and tear up the nose of my race car and it ends up hurting the way the car drives all day."

Greg (Zipadelli, crew chief) says that you're having all the bad luck you didn't have last year.
"Seems that way. For sure, it's been a rough road this month-and-a-half. The good thing is that I'm hoping we get it out of our system now. We get it out of the way now and we get back on that run like we're used to. Today was just a freak deal. There's nothing you can say but bad luck to that. We were running well even with a beat up race car. We were almost matching Jeff (Gordon) lap for lap and I'm sure he was taking it easy and I was taking it easy a little bit. Jeff was the class of the field today and it was exactly what I said it was going to be. It was going to be between him and me. But as good as he was today, you weren't going to catch him with a beat up race car. You just aren't going to do it. He was just too good today. Getting into those altercations with those guys who were blocking all day hurts you. And that all was a result of me speeding on pit lane. I think we figured out what happened. I think I was in second gear versus first gear and the gears are so close together that it was five mph difference. It was a mistake on my part being in second gear, because I knew I was below what my tach reading was supposed to be. But still being in second gear was too fast, obviously. It was just a mistake on my part. Everywhere else we go we're always in second gear on pit lane. Coming in on that first stop I just didn't get down to first gear, I guess. The second time I came through I was down to first gear and they said the speed was fine. That's about the only thing I can attribute it to."

You usually don't get caught speeding.
"Hardly ever. That's probably the first or second time I've been caught speeding. Normally, I'm pretty good about it. Normally, I'm the one griping because guys are pushing the envelope and I'm getting passed running what I know is supposed to be the speed limit. It was just a mistake on my part today and I got us behind and got us in the scenarios we were in. But with the motor deal, I never missed a shift and never wheel-hopped the thing all day. From a driving standpoint, other than the altercations on the track, I was having a perfect day.

I've never had a race where I haven't wheel-hopped or missed a shift or something and had trouble shifting at some point during the race."

How was it inside the car with the engine smoking?
"I'm sure if you look at the chemical makeup of smoke that it's not probably not healthy for you. I've got to believe it's as bad as a tobacco leaf. We couldn't shut it off (during the red flag) for fear that it wouldn't start back up. We were sitting there idling the whole time, and the way the exhaust was on the right hand side and where the inlet for the helmet blower was, it was pumping it out and sucking it in and I was breathing it. It wasn't a very good situation. I can feel the veins in my head because that's how bad the headache is. I felt bad for Michael Waltrip because he was sitting in front of me and its blowing right over the top of his car. Poor Elliott Sadler on the caution before that was behind me and dropping way back trying to get away from it."