SELECTED PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “I thought it was a good day. You don’t know how fast you are, you don’t know how hard people are trying. We were just getting the laps in, trying to move forward, and just be patient. And being patient really paid off today. We took our time. The pits were amazing. Donnie did some changes with the pressures on the car, especially the second time, it made a big difference, and it was just good. We had good restarts. It was hard when I was running behind traffic and a lot of traffic because the hairpin can get really slow in Turn 7 and 11 and to get on the gas was really hard. It would spin the wheels really easy. It would bog down the spin the wheels but on myself it was a lot better. It was one of those deals. I know I’m running third with 20 to go and I don’t want to finish third. I do want to save a lot of fuel. I picked up the pace a little bit, passed Kevin, and then at the same time I started working on Jamie. I was trying to roll the car as much as I could. It’s really hard here to save a lot of fuel. In Turn 1 I was saving a lot of fuel through there and a couple other places just being very patient on the throttle and it really paid off.”

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “We kind of got ourself in the whole a little bit qualifying. We knew we were going to have to do something today to try to make up track position because we knew he could get half of ‘em if we could get the other half we’d be in good shape. When the caution actually fell about one lap earlier than kind of what we wanted it to and it kind of put us in a situation where we had to gamble. We didn’t have a choice. Juan just did a great job all day. He kept all the fenders on it. He passed what he needed to pass. The fuel mileage is what saved us. The motor shop, those guys have been working really hard on it and finally it paid off for ‘em.”

MONTOYA: WHERE DOES THIS WIN RATE? A LOT OF PEOPLE EXPECTED YOU TO WIN TODAY. “I’ll tell ya the truth, I was very surprised by the level of the drivers here on the road course. In Mexico we had a really good car and the top five or six cars were really strong but behind that it was pretty easy but here, man, the top-20 was like, whew, you had to work for your money. Where it really paid off at the end is when I was running behind Kevin I was just saving the tires, just don’t spin them and just keep up with them. And I did that for like 53 laps. When I started pushing, I started making ground on them, they started spinning the tires and I didn’t and that’s where everything fell into place. It’s huge. It’s hard to say this is bigger than that or that. I would say right now it’s the biggest thing I’ve done. It’s unbelievable, actually. In open wheel that was what I was meant to be winning in and in stock cars I wasn’t. To get our first win in our first year is huge. We know we are a little bit behind still on the ovals myself as a driver and the team we need still work hard but I think this is a big boost for everybody working in the shop. I was trying to save so much fuel trying to downshift so late. I was in third gear and when I went to clip first gear it went pup, pup, pup and I’m like ‘Oh no.’ And I just said ‘Be patient. We have a little of a gap, just be patient, get the car together and get a good exit and you’ll be fine.’ I said just don’t overdo it, don’t overdo it saving fuel. Do like you always do and you’ll be fine and that was pretty cool. It was good the way Kevin backed up in the last lap because it gave us a little breathing room. The reason I came to Chip is the same way I am. He wants to win as bad as I do and I think Donnie and the whole team wants to do the same thing. We’re going on the right track it just takes time. For some reason out of Turn 2 it was like every time I was starting to get on the gas it was like clank. I was thinking ‘That doesn’t sound good’ and you get that a lot in the pits sometimes. As soon as I backed myself up a little bit everything started falling more into place.”

WINGO: “This place here was the last time I went to victory lane. It’s been since 1993 so it’s been a while. The last time I was in victory lane was here with Geoff Bodine. Just like I said, I’m just glad to be a part of it, this big group of people, this organization. Everybody has worked so hard and we’ve been close over the past few years but we haven’t been able to close the deal. And to finally be able to do that today, it’s big for Texaco/Havoline. It’s just big for our whole organization and all our partners.”

CHIP GANASSI, CAR OWNER, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “Like Donnie just said, we’ve been close a lot of times and we didn’t quite close the deal. And it was close again today. We were saving fuel there at the end like everybody was. It means a lot for our entire organization. We’ve had our share of pundits and reasons for that sort of thing over the last four or five years or something since we visited victory lane and I had a hard time finding the place. My hat’s off to everybody in the organization because we all knew we had it in us. Everybody in the organization, from the top to the bottom, the people all running things, we’ve all won races and we knew how to win. We’ve got a guy that pushes the pedal now, pushes the button. That sure helps. It feels pretty good to be here, to tell you the truth.”

MONTOYA: WHAT ARE YOUR EMOTIONS? “I think more relief than excited. We work so hard in the whole Chip Ganassi organization to get here and as I said before I know we are a little behind on the ovals and I know we need to work hard to keep stepping up the program but there’s a lot of things for the future that is great. Working with Chip is an awesome feeling. It’s somebody that believes in me and makes my life a lot easier.”