Chevy Maintains Lead In Point Standings With Second-Place Finish At Michigan

Jeff Gordon Finishes Second, Tony Stewart Third To Keep Chevrolet On Top in Manufacturer's Points

Chevrolet continues to lead the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series manufacturer's standings with a second-place finish by Jeff Gordon in the GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Gordon started 12th and gradually moved his No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS through the field and almost caught up to eventual race winner Matt Kenseth (Ford) in the last few laps. Last year's Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Monte Carlo SS, qualified 33rd but also moved his way up and rounded out the top-three after crossing the finish line in third.

The other drivers in the top five were Kasey Kahne (Dodge) and Mark Martin (Ford), but Chevy had two other drivers in the top 10 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS) finished sixth while rookie Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Freight Monte Carlo SS) finished ninth.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson of the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS holds his lead over Kenseth despite suffering a cut tire on the first lap of the race. He finished 13th. Pole winner Jeff Burton of the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS had less luck; he retired from the race after the 20th lap because of engine problems.

Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS drivers currently in the top-10 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup driver standings are Jimmie Johnson (first), Kevin Harvick (third), Tony Stewart (fifth), Jeff Gordon (sixth), Kyle Busch (seventh), Denny Hamlin (eighth), Jeff Burton (ninth) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (10th) with only three races remaining until the final 10 races of the Chase for the Championship.

The next event for Team Chevy Monte Carlo SS is the Sharpie 500 on August 26 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS - Finished Second

HOW MANY MORE LAPS AT THE END DID YOU NEED TO RUN DOWN MATT KENSETH? "We were really making some good laps there those last couple of laps and gained on him quite a bit but catching him and passing him is a whole different deal. I would have loved to have gotten to him and showed him and everybody else that we can race him and pass him clean. I'm just so proud of this DuPont Chevrolet and Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and all the guys. We had a great race car all day and when we had track position we were strong but when we didn't have it we really struggled. They made some adjustments on that last pit stop and then the DuPont Chevrolet just came to life. It was fun driving up to the front like that."

ON THIS BEING A GOOD DAY IN POINTS FOR HIM: "I'm not sure where that puts us but I saw a few guys that were having trouble. All I know is we finished second to a guy that was already up front in the points that's way up there that we can't really catch so I know it was a good day for us. These guys have been putting up that kind of fight a lot lately. We just haven't had the results show for it and today we finally did. I'm real proud of them."

YOU RADIOED IN THAT YOU WERE FASTER THAN YOU THOUGHT BUT COULDN'T CATCH HIM. "I didn't radio in that I couldn't catch him, I radioed in wanting to know the lap times and the difference between the two of us because I was trying some different lines and I wanted to catch him. I tried the high line there for a little bit and I thought I made some gains but I couldn't really tell so I asked them to tell me and it seemed like I was better on the bottom. Those last few laps we really made some good laps and we made up a lot of ground on him. I was getting pretty hopeful and I didn't want to see that white flag when I did."

HOW PLEASED ARE YOU ABOUT YOUR POINTS BOOST? "Today is a fantastic day for us. It builds momentum, confidence in the team, it gets us ready for California, big points. I couldn't have asked for a better day than this. It was an awesome day. Yeah, we were closing on Matt but I'll take it. I hate that I spun him in Chicago and maybe this is his way of kind of earning that win back that he might have had there."

PRESS CONFERENCE COMMENTS - JEFF GORDON

ON HIS RUN: "Well, obviously a great day for us. We were up there battling with Carl Edwards early in the race and having a lot of fun. Thought we had a good car when we were in clean air but when we got in traffic we got out of sequence that one time, man, the car, we just struggled with it. We put four tires on it a couple of times and tried to make some adjustments to it but nothing worked. Then there at the end Steve (Letarte) made some air pressure adjustments, some pretty big swings at it and the car just came to life. I think we started 12th or 13th and were able to finally pass and just make some moves and get good drive-off and get up there. I got fortunate with traffic; I was able to get by a couple guys that maybe were side-by-side and battling. That certainly helped. It was fun running Matt (Kenseth) down there and battling up front. I wish we had a few more laps but that's probably a good make-up for what happened in Chicago. I think that I would have liked to have gotten up there and shown I could pass him clean and race him clean, because I like racing with Matt. But it was a good day for him, good day for us and I'm real happy."

HOW MUCH OF THE LAST RUN WAS BIG-PICTURE RACING? "These days every race is big-picture racing. We're in such a tight battle that every lap, every position is so important. I fought hard one time today to the lead lap to get those five points. I was trying to do everything we can. But we go to every race fighting as hard as we can to get the best finish that we possibly can. You do that every week and whether you're battling for points or not battling for points, today I saw some cars in front of me that I knew we were battling with in the points but if I didn't have the car to pass them with then it didn't matter. At times in traffic we didn't and there at the end we did."

ON LAP 131, KENSETH DECIDED TO STAY OUT WHILE EVERYONE ELSE PITTED. ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT DIDN'T PROVE COSTLY TO HIM? "Matt's smooth and knows how to take care of his stuff and that car was working really well up front there. That track position paid off big time for him and it worked for us earlier in the day but we just seemed to lose a little bit there in the end so we wanted to take four. It did pay off for him today but like I said, a few more laps and we might have had him. It's still going to be a good day for both of us. If your car is working right and you've got the position, if he'd have come in then he might have been back there where we were and might not have gotten to the front. When you're the leader, man, that's the toughest call to make."

YOU MENTION CHIGACO. IS THAT STILL ON YOUR MIND? "Well, I hated that I got into him. I didn't just drive down there and intentionally spin him and as much as he might think different about that, I like racing guys clean and hard for a win and it's always more rewarding to know that you pass a guy by racing him hard, not by just taking him out. That's the only thing that was on my mind that I would have liked to have gone up there and raced with him again and done it a little bit cleaner this time."

Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Monte Carlo SS - Finished Third

HOW DID YOU WORK YOUR WAY THROUGH ALL THAT TRAFFIC? "I did my job. That's what the Home Depot and this racing team expect from me. Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) and all these guys did an awesome job today. We had a really tight car at the beginning and just kept working with it and kept making adjustments. We just battled our way through. The pit strategy at the beginning of the race really separated a bunch of people, kind of got two different groups grooves going and that kind of helped us get up there too. It wasn't like we had to pass 33 cars on the race track so that helped a lot."

ON HIS RUN TODAY: "Everybody on the Hope Depot team did an awesome job. Zippy did a great job too. I felt really bad for Clint Bowyer there at the end blowing a motor. We had an awesome run going too. To come from 33rd to third like that was a good day for the Home Depot team."

ON HAVING A SOLID DAY IN THE POINT STANDINGS: "Yeah, as much as you want to race for these wins right now these next three weeks we have to worry about the points and then we can go back to racing again. We did everything we could do today to try to win. Matt (Kenseth) had an awesome car. Him and Robby and the guys on the DeWalt team did an awesome job and when Jeff (Gordon) got up to me there was no way I was going to hold him up. He was so fast there was no doubt he was going to get by so there wasn't any point in holding him up any longer. We had a solid day. Like I said, I felt bad for Clint Bowyer who had a good day going and lost a motor there at the end and I'm just really happy with our Home Depot guys. They did an awesome job today."

ON HAVING MOMENTUM WITH THREE RACES TO GO: "We're back to form now. I think we got some of this bad luck behind us now. This is the old Home Depot team back so I'm hoping we stay like this now."

ON MAKING THIS LOOK EASY: "We're just back in form I feel like right now. This is the way we were last year at this time. We just had so much bad luck before all this that I think everybody is kind of surprised now. Hopefully this is a sign that we're back on track and we've got all the battles behind us now."

PRESS CONFERENCE COMMENTS - TONY STEWART

ON HIS RUN: "Pretty uneventful, for the most part. Even though we started 33rd and ended up third it was a good day for the Home Depot team. I think the differences in pit strategy early helped us a lot with track position and we just kept working on our car and just kept gaining spots every run. Finally got ourselves in a position there at the end to where we knew we could do it in one stop and got good track position that way. Still ended up coming in a second time anyway because of how the cautions laid out but just a solid day. I'm really proud of our guys. We didn't have anything for Jeff (Gordon) or Matt (Kenseth). We definitely made some big gains this weekend."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS - Finished Sixth

ON TRYING TO CATCH UP TO MARK MARTIN: "It was a lot of fun - I only battled him for 150 feet. I did catch him, we got side by side there at the end."

ON THE PIT STOP ON LAP 131 (YELLOW): "We got tight at the end and we lost a lot of track position on pit road - I don't know what happened exactly, you'll have to ask my crew chief. They messed up on something, maybe a lugnut."

ON JUGGLING THE BUSCH TEAM WITH CUP RACING: "It can be a headache. they know that this (Cup racing) is number one, my Busch team knows that. They do a good job of maintaining and doing what they can."

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Monte Carlo SS - Finished Ninth

"We struggled there. We weren't that great. We battled back there at the end. I know the potential of our car and I feel like we could have easily ended up top five had we been just a little bit better."

ON HAVING TOP 10 RUNS AND STILL SITTING WITHIN THE TOP 10 IN POINTS: "We're by no means a sure thing in there. We're just trying to survive and do all we can. It's still another a top-10 run for us which is good. It feels good to struggle and still run top 10. That's a good thing for us."

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS - Finished 11th

"I got a little over anxious there in the beginning trying to get five points and just lost it. The guys did a good job repairing the nose and getting everything back. Then we had one set of tires there at the end that were really loose and just lost a lot of ground. They were able to make some great adjustments and come back and finish 11th so it wasn't too bad."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS - Finished 13th

"Yeah, we definitely fought. We came back and got a good finish out of it. I'm disappointed with how we finished. We got inside the top three and was really going to fight for the win. Now that those guys have had a few minutes to look at the car we found that the right rear tire is down 30 pounds of pressure so we had a slow leak luckily. That depends on how you look at. We're disappointed that we couldn't finish any better but the tire is almost flat sitting here and I guess we're lucky to finish. A great day. These guys, God, they impress me. When I'm down they pick me up, when they're down I pick them up. We had some mistakes today. I made a mistake at the beginning of the race. The 31 (Jeff Burton) was loose inside of me and drifted up. That made me real tight and then really ran out of race track and got in the outside wall. I didn't expect that to happen with somebody coming behind you real fast but it adjusted the gear enough. I'm real proud of these guys. I'm very, very happy."

IS THIS THE KIND OF DAY THAT PUMPS YOU UP FOR CHAMPIONSHIP RUNS? "Yeah, we'll always try to find a positive out of it. We'll take today and have our meetings and make sure all the guys understand we've been able to overcome a lot. We'll find some good out of it, definitely."

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS YOUR YEAR SINCE WHEN SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS YOU BOUNCE RIGHT BACK? "No, I don't have sensation. The reason I say that is because with 10 races to go that's when it really counts. We've been very fortunate. We've had good races. I think we've earned our spot in the top 10 so far but until we get in the final 10 we'll see how our luck goes then. I'm not getting too excited yet."

Travis Kvapil, No. 32 Tide/Downy Monte Carlo SS - Finished 21st

"We fought a loose condition all weekend at the beginning of a run and it continued during the race. I really felt it on fresh tires and it cost us to lose some spots early on but after 10 laps it was really good and cars started to back up to us. This was a real solid run for us so I am very pleased. We continue to make gains and that's awesome for us."

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS

Note: Jeff Burton goes to the garage on lap 20 and retires from the race.

WHAT HAPPENED? "I don't know. I have to say the guys have done a great job. Our reliability has been incredible. But here the day got us. I think it gets everybody all the time and today was our turn. We won't use this as an excuse. We have three races to get our business done and we're going to go get it done."

YOU JUST GOT YOUR TEAM IN A HUDDLE LIKE A FOOTBALL TEAM. WHAT DID YOU JUST TELL THEM? "I just wanted to remind everybody that this a good race team and this happens to everybody. Today was our turn and we're not going to get down about this. This is nobody's fault. We're all in this together. We've got great race cars. We break engines. We mess up from time to time. We'll just keep fighting and we'll come back and try to win some races."

LOOKS LIKE AN ENGINE PROBLEM. "Yeah, broken engine. But we've had great reliability with our engines and today we didn't. We're in a disappointing race but that just makes it that much more exciting for us and we just have to bring it to the next three races and just do a good job. I'm not down at all; I think this is a great race team. We will overcome this and we'll be fine."

ANY INDICATION THAT THERE WAS A PROBLEM? "No, we just took off there. We were really loose and the car started coming and we were in really good shape. I was really happy with the way the car was driving right until the time it broke. You know, this stuff happens and we'll go to Bristol.

"This happens to everybody and right now we're in the heat of the point race, but stuff's happened to everybody all year long. It was just our turn today. We've had some great fortune and our engine program has been extremely reliable and today it wasn't. But that's no excuse for not getting our business done in the next three weeks."

IS IT MORE DISSAPOINTING SINCE YOU WERE ON THE POLE? "No, sitting on the pole doesn't mean you're going to win a race or finish last. It just means you did a good job on qualifying on Friday and like I said, we come to race and qualifying went good but we're here to race."

WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT? "I don't know. Maybe a broken valve."

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT YOUR POINTS CUSHION? "As I've said all along, I don't think we have a cushion. I don't think anybody has a cushion. We have to keep fighting and bring it to the race track every week. We can't afford to get into wrecks, we can't afford to break motors. but when we do, we just have to fight and overcome it and we'll do that."

IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE YOU HAD TO END IT THIS EARLY. "Everybody has. I've had to do it and it's not a fun feeling but again, life goes on, the sun's going to come up in the morning and we've just got to go back to work on Monday and keep doing what we've been doing. We're not going to change what we've been doing, we've been doing a really good job. We're just going to keep doing it."

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/Delphi Monte Carlo SS

Note: Kyle Busch brings his No. 5 Kellogg's/Delphi Chevrolet to the garage on lap 43.

WHAT HAPPENED? "Typical Michigan luck, I guess. We can go up there. We can lead the race from the beginning of the race. We can have a great race car, a fast race car for that. I must have had a right front tire going soft or something like that because it went off into Turn Three and fenced itself the first time unexpectedly for no reason and then a couple of laps later it finally let go and blew out and killed the fence. So it's a touch break for all the Kellogg's/Delphi guys. They worked their hearts out. To have this predicament this early in the race is pretty harmful but we'll just have to go on to Bristol and see what we can do there."