Jeff Gordon Wins Rain-Shortened Pocono 500 to Give Team Chevy 13 Victories on the Season

Eight Monte Carlo SS Drivers Finish in Top-10 as Gordon Gathers Fourth Victory of the Year

Long Pond, PA - Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS, won the rain-shortened Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway to score his fourth victory of the 2007 season and the 13th for Team Chevy drivers.

It is the 23rd Chevy victory at Pocono, more than any other manufacturer and 11th Pocono victory for Hendrick Motorsports, more than any other team owner.

For the fourth time in five points-paying races, Mother Nature played a major role in the race delaying the start for more than three hours. When the rain came on lap 106 of the scheduled 200-lap race, Gordon was in the lead. Despite efforts to dry the track, more rain and impending darkness settled the event just past the half-way point.

The four-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) champion led twice for a total of 26 laps, taking the point for the last time on the 98th lap.

First-time winner on Monday at Dover, Martin Truex, Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Monte Carlo SS, finished third and moved to 11th in the standings.

Casey Mears, No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Monte Carlo SS, whose first NNCS victory came in May's Coca Cola 600 finished fourth. Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Monte Carlo SS claimed the fifth finishing position giving Team Chevy four of the top-five.

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Monte Carlo SS, was sixth followed by Mark Martin, No. 01 U.S. Army Monte Carlo SS and Kyle Busch, No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS in seventh and eighth respectively. Clint Bowyer, No. 07 Jack Daniel's Monte Carlo SS rounded out the top-10.

Gordon continues to lead the NNCS driver standings by 242 points. A total of 10 Team Chevy drivers occupy spots in the top-12 points positions with 14 events in the record books.

The 15th race of the 2007 season is set for June 17, 2007 at Michigan International Speedway.

JEFF GORDON AND STEVE LETARTE, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS:

GORDON: "Great, great call by Steve Letarte and all the guys on this DuPont Chevrolet team. We have a great race car, we just needed track position. We were having some problems with the brakes and unable to drive up there so what a great call to get us that track position. I don't know what is going to happen here for sure, it came down hard, it will take a little while to dry it.

"I trust Steve. I thought out in clean air, with a few cars behind us, we would be in good shape, which we were. That shows you just what clean air will do. The problem is, with the brakes, it starts vibrating and losing grip and then we faded right there at the very end. Feels like something is ready to break. I have had brake issues here before and it is no fun. I don't think the brakes are totally going to go away, they just pickup a lot of pad build up and a lot of vibration. The car is great for the first half of the run.

"The way I brake the car is not good for certain pads. I don't like to jump on them real hard and get straight off of them. I carry the brakes down in the corner. We had the same issue in Richmond and fixed it there with a little bit different pad than this. We had a few issues yesterday and thought it was brake temp, today I don't think it is brake temp. I think it is pads. It is something we are going to have to revisit. We know what our other teammates have on for pads. I know for a fact that Jimmie brakes so much harder and different than I do, we can't always run the same as him.

"If the race had gone back to green, we were in a little bit of trouble. It would have depended on what these other guys did. They were about half way through a run, or at least close to it, so they might have decided they wanted to come in to, then we wouldn't have been in too much trouble. If they had stayed out like we did, then yes we would have had a big hole to dig out of.

"You need to talk to Steve Letarte about that call, he was the one that made it. He was looking at this thing being close to a 100-lap race, which was really smart, he looked at the radar and knew the rain was coming any time. We weren't getting any farther up than ninth with the brake issues so it was a risk worth taking. He is the one that won this race today, not me. We had a great race car, but without track position and a great risky call like that, we wouldn't be here. I can't believe we just won this thing.

"Wow, Wow, I don't know what to say!"

LETARTE: "Our strategy changed. We had a decent car, but it is so hard to pass here and everybody gets so spread out. Shannon (McGlamery, spotter) called it, he saw some rain clouds coming and told me to go check the radar. We are just shooting for wins. That is the goal here. That is 10 more points for the Chase. To get as many bonus points as we can for the Chase. We just want to make this Chase and have as many bonus points as possible when we get there.

"When it rains, it pours, we have had years when we couldn't do anything right and some years you can't do anything wrong. You just have to ride the highs when they come and that is what we are trying to do."

GORDON: "We have had some drama on our wins this year. When we do it, it is in dramatic fashion. Glad Kyle (Petty) is enjoying his time in the booth, I know he is doing a great job. What a great way to bring TNT back to the track. I am just so proud of everybody on this DuPont Chevrolet team.

"What a great way to finish this day out. I didn't think we weren't even going to get on the track. Then to have it come down to great team strategy, you win some this way and you lose some this way. We won this one this way, I guess. I still can't believe it. I still won't believe it until I see John Darby or Mike Helton.

"I definitely want to send all of our best wishes out to the France family. Bill and his entire family have done so much to get this sport where it is, we wouldn't be here with sponsors all over the cars, all these fans in the stands excited about pit strategy and wins if it hadn't been for this sport getting as big as it is and that would have never been possible without Bill France, Jr. and Bill France, Sr. and the entire France family. Brian and Lesa, I know they are going to continue the tradition in this sport and we are going to play our part the best we can to keep it going as well."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX GROUND MONTE CARLO SS:

"Well, we'd like it to go green again, but if not, it has definitely been a good run for us. We had the best car again."

ON THE PIT STRATEGY OF TAKING FOUR TIRES "In hindsight, the risk wasn't worth the reward. When you get back there, you have to really burn up the brakes and run your car hard - harder than I'd like, especially how good it is. You never know how many cars are going to take two (tires) or none, so you don't know that. We take the smart, conservative approach and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER BOATS MONTE CARLO SS:

"I wish it would do one or the other - either rain really hard or just stop altogether so we could finish this thing. The Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet has been really good all day. We were catching them right there at the end. I was hoping for maybe five or 10 more laps before the rain. They guys are doing a good job for me and I'm really happy.

"I've got mixed emotions. I'd be happy to go home with a third place finish. But I think at the same time, at the end there, we were catching the No. 12 (Newman) and the No. 24 (Gordon) was coming back to both of us pretty quick. Who knows what might have been and what could be later, but either way I'll be happy."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 25 NATIONAL GUARD / GMAC MONTE CARLO SS:

WHAT A GREAT CALL BY YOUR CREW CHIEF, DARIAN GRUBB: "Oh, it was. We've got a couple of good weathermen on our team. It just worked out good. We had a car capable of running inside the top five, we just needed to get there and he made a great call. It was a great call for us."

IF IT GOES GREEN, WILL YOU MAKE SOME ADJUSTMENTS? "We're probably going to make some small adjustments just because it's a lot different when you're in clean versus dirty air. We have a couple of things we want to do differently, but not many. I think the car is pretty good. to be hard to hang in there, but I think we've definitely got a top five car and if we hit it just right we can challenge for the lead."

IT WAS A GREAT CALL, BUT IT WAS ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE LAPS OFF, RIGHT? "Yeah, he thought the rain might come four or five laps earlier and they started getting worried because the rain actually started to split the track a little bit and we didn't know if we were going to get it. But it actually worked out very good. These guys have learned over the years how to read those weather things pretty good. Darian did an excellent job. Stevie (Letarte, No. 24 crew chief) is also on the same page. So Hendrick Motorsports got some good track position so I think now we'll be good to go."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS:

BEFORE THE RAIN "I know what I want to do. I want to race. I think I can get one more spot for sure. We're just a tick of the 12 and the 1 and the 11 that's behind us. We want a shot at this thing. We're good, we're just a tick off. This place is one where if you pick up anything, you pick up a bunch. Its such a big momentum track that you gain a ton of time if you can make a change that works for you. I don't feel like we're far off, we just need a little bit of help.

"This is the weirdest daggone weather I've ever seen. It's like Zippy said; we could be standing here in the sun and it would be pouring on the other side of the race track. That just shows how big this race track really is."

HOW MUCH OF A CONCERN IS DAYLIGHT? I'm nocturnal, and I've slept half the day, so I don't mind it getting dark. I've raced in the dark before.

TOP-FIVE, FINISH, WILD DAY. "I had a good day. I wish I would have stayed out. We talked about staying out on that one caution where Jeff got the lead, but everybody else in front of us came and I didn't want to make a bad mistake and stay out and have it hurt us. We played it safe and came in with everybody else.

"We still ended up with a top-five and that's the best we've run here in a long, long time. We actually got to see our teammate during the race today instead of watching him on the screen going down the front stretch. I'm pretty happy with the day, but I would have liked to have gotten one more pit stop in to see what we could have gotten with it. I'm happy with the top five."

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS:

ON THE BLOWN TIRE: "We lost the left front tire and when that happened it went flat and ground through the sway bar arm so we had to come into the garage area and put on a new sway bar arm. It was just the sway bar arm. That was the issue. And when he (Johnson) lost the tire, it was coming off of Turn 3 and he had to go a full 2.5-miles to get around the race track. When you have steel and concrete, the concrete is going to win over 2.5-miles."

MARK MARTIN, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY MONTE CARLO SS:

"We had a pretty good car today. It handled really well, but we lacked the speed to run with the leaders. We got behind qualifying and passed a lot of cars early. Then we had a mix-up on pit road and had to come back from that as well. But the team just dug in and we were able to stay out and get back the track position. The gamble worked and the caution came out and we were able to get a top 10 out of it.

"I just can't say enough about this U.S. Army team. They just don't give up out there and we got another top 10. It's just a pleasure to work with them and drive this car each week."

J.J. YELEY, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS, 17TH PLACE FINISH:

ON ONE HAND, IT'S TOUGH THAT ON STRATEGY THAT YOU WERE IN 17TH PLACE, BUT ALSO YOU MIGHT BE A RELIEVED BECAUSE THE ENGINE APPEARED TO BE GOING BAD? TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY. "I guess I'm glad that it was raining. We took two tires on the second to last pit stop and thought it was the right decision. I got bunched up behind a couple of cars and probably should have made a move but didn't and got hung out. In a matter of about three laps I got freight-trained by about seven or eight cars. It's disappointing because I was taking it easy. It's a really long race and last year I was borderline running out of brakes. I was just cruising along and then I started picking up the pace a little bit. I could see the rain clouds rolling in and I started running harder and harder and then it felt like something in the engine might have given up. I hadn't lost a complete cylinder but it still wasn't running one-hundred percent. I think we could have definitely finished in the top-10 at the end of the race if the engine stayed together. We won't get 200 laps in so it's just as well that it rains."

WERE YOU AND STEVE ADDINGTON (CREW CHIEF) DOING THE RAIN DANCE WHEN IT STARTED RAINING BECAUSE THE ENGINE WAS GOING SOUR? "Pretty much. We couldn't finish the entire race and with the engine issue and it being questionable, I would just assume that we load up and get out of town and go on to next week and see what I can get in Michigan."

EVEN THOUGH THERE WERE ABOUT A HANDFUL OF GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU AT THE END THAT WOULD HAVE HAD TO PIT IF IT HAD GONE BACK TO GREEN AFTER THE RED FLAG, ARE YOU STILL HAPPY THE CALLED THE RACE BECAUSE OF THE WORRIES ABOUT THE ENGINE? "There was a some guys out of sequence that we would have picked up some postions, but at the same time if the engine would have broke we would have finished close to last. You have to take the good with the bad. It wasn't a great day. But at the same time you can have days like this and survive points-wise but you can't when you finish 38th like we did last week in Dover."

JEFF GORDON, DRIVER, AND STEVE LETARTE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS - RACE WINNERS

GORDON: "I felt like we had a top five race car, and I was a little disappointed that we didn't qualify better than we did (18th). We weren't able to show what we had until we had the track position. Once we got out front, we showed what we had. But that's the place where we put ourselves on Friday. Steve made a gutsy call based on looking at the radar. Our spotter also noticed it was getting darker and that contributed to making that call. It was risky, but he knew exactly how he was going to play it out. We were going to come in whatever is was -- 15 laps -- and then you've got to run hard and hope you force those other guys to come before the rain comes. And they did. It worked out pretty awesome."

GORDON: NOT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM THE CALL THAT STEVE LETARTE MADE, BUT IS THIS ONE OF THE MORE BIZARRE WINS OF YOUR CAREER? "Absolutely. It was bizarre for many reasons. I didn't know if we were going to get on the track today. And, we were floating around there in 8th, 9th, or 10th, and every time we'd start to move forward, I'd start to have brake issues. At one point, I just wanted to finish the race. I think we knew from the beginning of the race that this was going to be a shorter race. We knew making it to the halfway point was very important because the rain was around us. It was certainly bizarre walking to victory lane. It was extremely bizarre. On one side I feel guilty for even taking this win. On the other, I don't because Steve made a great call that worked out in our favor. Other people had that same opportunity to make that call."

GORDON: AT ONE POINT, WHEN YOU STAYED OUT AND DIDN'T PIT AND THEN HAD TO PIT, AND YOU HAD NOT ALLOWED YOURSELF ENOUGH GAS TO MAKE IT HALFWAY, TV COMMENTATORS CALLED YOUR STRATEGY, "INCREDIBLY STUPID". IT WORKED BECAUSE OF THE WAY THINGS FELL "I didn't make the call. You need to talk to Steve. He deserves the credit and the stupidity. He explained it to me on the radio. He didn't think the other guys could make it to the halfway point either. He had it in his mind that we were going to stay out and come early enough to then we could make it to halfway and hope we force the other guys to come in just before halfway. So I don't see how it could be lucky when you see it happening in your mind and feel like it could happen that way and it does. I've got confidence in him. He's a smart guy. And he's made great calls for the past couple of years. He's building his confidence and my confidence. I think he knew in the back of his mind that the weather had to come at the right time for it to work out. Our goal was to get to lap 100 (halfway) and hope that those guys pitted at lap 98 and the rain comes at 100."

GORDON: ON THE BRAKE SITUATION "When you've had a brake issue here and you've hit the wall as hard as I hit in Turn 1, then you don't mess around with brakes. This is not a track to play around with on brakes. And we're getting the cars working so well these days that we're driving in the corners extremely deep. Ever since we had that problem, we put so much brake on it that brakes going away is not an issue. So I was very surprised. We actually had a little issue yesterday in practice. I thought it was heat-related. I don't think it's heat related; I think that it's actually the amount of temperature or lack of temperature we're putting on the brakes and the type of pad we put on there. We had a little bit different pad than our teammates because I brake differently than they do. We're trying to compensate for that. But I think they started vibrating and what was happening was that as I ran longer, it started building up pad and started kicking the pads out as I was going down the straightaway. So I was having to pump the pad to have a hard pedal when I'd go in the corner to brake. But sometimes I couldn't pump them enough. I'd go in the corner and they'd go halfway down and then they'd grab. They were always grabbing. I just wasn't sure which time it was going to happen. I'd go in the corner and push it and it wasn't going to grab. That's a scary feeling. It seemed like it got worse each time the run went on. I didn't understand why it wasn't staying the same throughout a run. On new tires, it was great. Everything was good. Into the run it got worse. But the brakes were so much better being out front. Maybe I didn't have to use them as hard or maybe it was a little bit more clean air getting to them. I don't know. But they just didn't see to be as bad. Although in those last couple of laps, I was fading fast. And not only were the brakes an issue, but it was making the handling of the car go away too. When it vibrated like that, the right front tire wasn't sticking to the track and it started sliding in the nose as well."

GORDON: HOW MUCH DID THAT FORMER BAD CRASH BOTHER YOU WHILE YOU WERE HAVING THESE BRAKE PROBLEMS? "It bothers you when the vibration is getting worse and you feel like the parts and pieces are going to fall off the car. As a race car driver, you don't have much of a choice other than to just keep putting it in there. That's not any fun. So I did. I just kept trying to make sure I had a pedal before I got in there by pumping them down the straightaway. If anybody was listening to my radio they would know I was concerned about the brakes. I was concerned whether we would make it to the end. But now as I'm thinking about it, they were going to last. There was plenty of pad. The rotors are fine. It's just that they were vibrating and that vibration was going to hurt us performance-wise over the long run of the race. I don't think it was going to be an issue whether we made it. But it was on my mind. Those couple of laps it was hurting the speed and I just had to back the corner way up to not overuse them."

GORDON: COULD THINKING IT WAS WORSE THAN IT WAS ACTUALLY MAKE IT WORSE? "It is what it is. I drive in the corner and I push on the pedal and the pedal and steering wheel tell me what it is. I can tell you that it might have made me back the corner up a little bit - knowing what happened to me the time before. I didn't think it was the same issue though. So I wasn't afraid of the rotor flying up through the hood and sending me sideways into Turn 1. I was concerned that the pedal was going to go long and it was going to all of a sudden put a ton of rear brake into it when I did get to it. Actually, I did crank some rear brake to it to try to take some pressure off the front brakes.

LETARTE: "The problem was that our mileage wasn't very good so even if we had pitted there we couldn't have made it to (lap) 100. And you can't race to halfway like it's the end of the race even if it's going to rain because it might rain at 99 or it might rain at 103 and you'd look even dumber if you had to come in at 102. So we just race Pocono like a road course. We back it up from the end and that was also putting us in a fuel window for 200, which was another option. We had a good car but I really wanted to see what it was going to do in clean air. It's hard to judge a car back in forth in fifth or sixth. I guess it was incredibly stupid but maybe sometimes stupid works."

LETARTE: DID THE FACT THAT YOU ARE IN THE POINT LEAD ALLOW YOU TO MAKE SUCH A RISKY CALL? "Absolutely. The way we performed in the first 11 or 12 races has allowed us to try to go out for wins and 10-point bonuses. I can't say that at most tracks, but I think today I question that if we were back in 12th maybe we would have just gone with the norm and tried to finish in the top 10. But what people forget about Pocono is that it ended up raining out, but even if would have gone back to dry and we all would have pitted at that point, we still would have gained track position. So, it worked in two ways. It was good and we won. At the same time, it was an easier way to pass eight guys because we just didn't give Jeff a car good enough to do it today and you saw after we got out in clean air we had speed enough."

GORDON: YOU'RE REALLY ON A ROLL NOW. DOES THAT COMPARE TO OTHER TIMES WHEN YOU'VE HAD GOOD YEARS? "There's no doubt that good fortune is on our side this year. But at Charlotte, good fortune wasn't in our favor. So it can reach out and grab you at any time. I don't think there's a point lead safe enough to have because you just never know when things are going to go the other way. It feels great to have things going our way. It's building confidence. I feel excited about going to the race track. And we're putting great race cars out there. We get better as the weekend goes. But with the Chase, it only matters what you do in those last 10 (races) once you make it in. For us right now it's to try to secure that we're in the Chase and then it's about momentum and our cars and our communication and everything being at its peak and best in the last 10. That's the only time it really counts. We're in it to win a championship. We're not here to try to improve one or two positions over last year. We're here to win. We've got the tools to win I feel like we've got the crew chief and I have to do my part as well."

GORDON: SO IF YOU'RE A JEFF GORDON HATER AND YOU'RE SITTING AT HOME AT ON LAP 104 AND THE 12 CAR COMES DOWN TURN 2 GETTING READY TO PASS THE NO. 24 CAR AND A CAUTION COMES OUT "If that were (Dale Earnhardt) Junior, we would have had an issue (laughter). But it wasn't Junior. I was hoping they'd throw stuff at me so they'd have to call the race for that reason. Anything that was showered down on that race track today would have been fine by me."

GORDON: SO DOES THIS REMIND YOU OF WINNING TIME AND TIME AGAIN LIKE IT USED TO BE? "Maybe after today's race or Darlington. We've definitely had some dramatic wins this year. I think that you go back to Kurt Busch winning the championship a couple of years ago and when we were at Homestead and his right front tire falls off as he hits pit road and the caution comes out and you think how can that happen. My gosh, how lucky. I'm a big believer in things happen for a reason. Sometimes when it's your time, it's your time. Right now it's our time. We're doing something right. We're positive about how we're living our lives and how we're approaching each and every race. At this point in my life and at the age I am with a baby on the way and a great wife and all that, I've never appreciated good things and good fortune more than right now. When positive energy is surrounding you like it is Steve and this team, good things happen. And I don't think those good things happen just because you're lucky. I think they happen because you put yourself in those positions to make good things happen. That's through preparation and hard work and utilizing the resources and tools that you have. You add up all those things, among other things, and that's when good things happen for the right reasons."

GORDON - ON THOUGHTS OF "TORTOISE AND HARE' SCENARIO AS RACE PLAYED OUT WITH STRATEGY AND WHETHER IT IS A GOOD THING OR A BAD THING. : "I would like Steve to answer this so I will give you a quick little answer because he is on top of this a lot more than I am. Today was going to be a fuel mileage strategy race regardless of what happened with the weather. Steve and I talked about this before this race started. Because of the smaller fuel cells, we were treating this more like a road course just because of fuel mileage being cut down so much. It does change it, but does it make it more interesting, more exciting or less? That is up to you guys (referring to media members).

LETARTE - "I think it is like any other change made in the sport, it changes how you have to race. It is no different than harder tires, softer tires. You know, four or five years ago they changed the tires. No one ever would have stayed out on tires at Darlington or Atlanta or any of those places and now you see that winning more races. I think that it forces the crew chief, the team and even the driver to be studied up on all of it. A lot of what people see if luck. It goes back to what Jeff said, today with weather, it is a lot of luck. With other races when you see teams win, even when it is not us, it is preparation that goes in to that. It is knowing the trends. There are trends to these races when the yellow is called. There are trends on how many tires you need to take. It is just stats and studying and I think that is why you see teams that seem lucky win a lot of races."

LETARTE - ON HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO FOCUS, THINK CLEARLY AND COME UP WITH STRATEGY SUCH AS TODAY: "Well, you know, it is interesting. The more rules there are with the chassis and the body, the more time a crew chief has to spend studying other things other than chassis and body. That is what we study, how races fall and it is very hard. You have people giving suggestions and helping you out. If you watch during the race, I walk a lot and sometimes I just have to walk away from someone giving a suggestion or thoughts because I just need to think and it worked out good today. The strength of our team is the team. I didn't make that decision today, I was part of the decision. Our car chief had a hand in it, our engineer had a hand in it, Ken Howes had a hand in it, our spotter had a huge hand in it because he could see the clouds coming. It is a huge group of people who are pulling in the same direction and that is what is going to make it work. I am not smart enough to go out and make that decision to win that race, but me and 19 other guys are collectively smart enough to get lucky and get a little weather and win the race."

GORDON - ON THOUGHTS WHEN YELLOW LIGHT FLASHED WHEN IT DID: "If you only knew how excited I was. You probably couldn't hear me on the radio cause I was screaming so loud 'It is raining, it is raining - throw the caution!'. I have always hit situations where it started raining and ended up backwards on the other end of the it. When the rain hits that hard, I knew Newman was getting ready to pass me at any time, he had a heck of a run, I had already pretty much said this wasn't going to work. I just didn't think the rain was going to come soon enough. Steve kept telling me, let's just get what we can get, just get what we can get. He (Newman) was coming on me pretty hard and pretty fast when we were coming down the back straightaway. When it hit, I just didn't know what was on the other side of it. I didn't know if it was raining all the way to the tunnel turn or what so I started to check up and when I looked up, he wasn't checking up so I hit the gas because as I got through it, it cleared up and I knew the tunnel was clear. But the whole time I was on the radio screaming and yelling at NASCAR to please throw a caution. Luckily there must have been some other guys that said the same thing. It is a dangerous situation when on a track like this it doesn't take a whole lot of rain for you to completely lose control of the car. I was really more concerned with losing control of the car at that point than I actually was about losing the race. Once we got in the tunnel turn and the track was dry, so at that point, I was in the gas, trying to win the race because I knew they were going to throw the caution at any time and that could be the end of the race and we might actually pull this one off."

GORDON - ON BEING HELD UP BY TONY RAINES: "Me and Tony, we have had a time lately. He is a great driver and I love racing with him and watching him, he is doing a good job, but my goodness, I just don't know what it is, there is a magnet between us right now. He had fresher tires so he could get through the corners good. We were just killing him down the straightaways. My car was pretty good, but not good enough to pass him. Knowing he is not on the Hendrick side, he is on the Gibbs side, we weren't getting a lot of help there and we finally got by him but it cost us a lot of time. I understand, he is racing to try and stay on the lead lap but I saw the No. 12 coming as hard as he was and we needed all the time and laps we could get, I wasn't real happy about it, but you have to put yourself in his shoes every once in a while and understand it."

LETARTE - ON WHETHER THIS HAD BEEN PLAN ALL ALONG OR WAS IT SOMETHING THAT CAME UP AS THE RACE UNFOLDED: "Once we realized that there was weather coming, I think I maybe mentioned it to Jeff about lap 50 or so, we were racing for half of that. Throw the theories out the window, throw 200-laps out the window. I know he didn't, but I quit worrying about the brakes because we aren't going to have an issue for 200 laps.

GORDON INTERJECTS - "Obviously. I had asked him to take the tape off the front and they wouldn't take it off, because I thought it was a heat issue."

LETARTE - "Yes, we were trying to keep our pit stops as fast as we could. It goes back to the first race we won at Martinsville. That day, you just feel something. I just decided to stay out that day in Martinsville and it paid off. We decided to stay out today and it paid off. I wish there was specific spot or a detail but the only thing I remember thinking when I was sitting up there is that I had a note from last year's race that Greg Biffle was 16 seconds behind the leader and pitted and didn't lose a lap. That was the only note I remembered is that you won't lose a lap here. So it doesn't matter if it doesn't work. It is going to cycle around and everybody is going to need fuel and you would be ok. Sometimes you are just going to get lucky and make the right decisions and I imagine that at some time this year, it will turn out as stupid as it might have seemed."

LETARTE - ON WHETHER IT WAS THAT HIGH OF A RISK: "I think a lot of people are making it out to be a bigger risk than it was. If we had been in the top two or three cars and given up track position, I think it would have been a huge risk. A lot of times at Pocono the only way you are going to win a race or run up front is to get off cycle. We decided at that point we had run 60 or 70 laps or whatever it was and eighth was about as far as we were going to get, so we were going to try and get off cycle and gain a little track position. Everyone has said how great a idea it was to doit but there were other teams that did it. The No. 01 missed his pitbox and he finished seventh. It worked for him. The No. 25 did it. We were just fortunate enough to have a good enough car, a good enough driver and a fast enough pit crew to make it work for the win. But it worked for others too, we weren't alone."

GORDON - ON WHETHER TIRES WERE AN ISSUE AT THE POINT YELLOW CAME OUT: "I think the brakes were playing a little bit of an issue. The car was driving really good out front for a good portion of that. In the beginning when Newman came out after he pitted, I knew he was running some good lap times but I thought maybe they would balance out because the car was as good as it had been right then. Getting behind the No. 96 just killed us. It started to hurt the right front tire and we were having to use more front brake which obviously wasn't helping. Those last couple laps, I came on the radio and told the guys it was really vibrating bad. I just had to slow down and he was catching me pretty fast by that point. There just wasn't anything more I could do, I was doing all I could at that point. Steve was encouraging me because I was getting a little frustrated on the radio. It was just a matter of whether the rain came or if it didn't, to maintain the best position that we could before we came in for our next pit stop and maybe make some adjustments but the rain came."

GORDON - ON SHORTENING THIS RACE: "250 might be a little short, but I think we have always felt that 500 is way too long. It is one of the longest lap times that we have on the circuit. If you look at 500 miles here, it is a long long time. I thing the racing, especially with these fuel cells, I think the racing would be a little bit more exciting if it was a shorter race. But I don't make those calls. I think tradition is extremely important here and 500 miles is the tradition that we have had here for a long time. If they tell us that is what we are going to race here is 500 miles then that is what we are going to race. My personal opinion, yes I would like to see it shortened, I think it would be great racing at 400 miles or a 500K."

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER BOATS MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 3rd:

ON TODAY'S RACE: "It was a great day for us. Kind of a weird race thinking the rain was coming and everything but we just tried to do our own thing and stay up front all day. We had a really good race car, Bono (crew chief Kevin Manion) and the guys did a great job with it. Right at the start, we were pretty tight. We rode out that first run and pitted, made some good adjustments and from there on out, we were pretty good. Still, we were off just a tiny bit; we were maybe a second or a third place car, but on the long runs we seemed to be pretty good. It was a good day. The No. 24 snookered all of us pretty bad, but I think five or 10 more laps we had a shot at the win. I was catching Newman there and the No. 24 was coming backwards fast then. It was a lot of fun and a great race for us today."

ON HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT WHEN FASTEST CAR DOESN'T NECESSARILY WIN THE RACE: "That is one of the things we deal with out here, especially now with the smaller fuel cell. I was out there running and they said we would be pitting in two or three laps and I am thinking 'Already? It seemed like we just go going. That changed it a lot I think, the smaller cell, but you just never know. They could have been kicking themselves if the race went six more laps because they had to pit. It just worked out in their favor, it could have gone either way. I felt like we were doing the right thing along with the No. 12 and the other guys running up front. We didn't have to take any chances or try to work a strategy to get there because we were already there. We just did what we thought was right and those guys tried to get an advantage and got lucky, but just the way it is."

ON ENGINE THAT WAS IN HIS CAR: "We ran the standard SB2 today, the one we have been running. I think Paul might have run the R07 today, but I am not sure. Maybe not, maybe it was in the ARCA car, but he blew a tire."

ON IF THEY COULD HAVE USED DIFFERENT STRATEGY BECAUSE OF RAIN: "You just have to let it play out. If the race had run a few more minutes, the No. 24 would have had to pit and we would have still been out on the race track. It was just the way it worked out. They made a gamble to get track position and they were able to do that and didn't lose it before the rain came."