Miami Nextel 250 pit notes

JON LEAVY (No. 18 AGT Comer Racing Camaro)
I felt a vibration for a few laps but kept going. Then when it started smoking I pulled over. There was a big hole in the pan that caused the fire. I hadn't even started. I was just cruising, letting the fuel burn off to get rid of the push. I had looped it in the downhill turn in the infield the lap before the fire. I must have had the oil leak then, but I didn't know it.

BUTCH LEITZINGER (No. 16 Dyson Racing Team Ford Riley & Scott)
The team just did a wonderful getting the car ready. James, as you can see, commanded the race. He did a fantastic job driving it, and while he was out there he was telling me what the car was doing, so that I wouldn't go out and ruin the tires in the very beginning. I was able to take it easy in the beginning so we would have some in reserve in case something happened like it did in the end where we have a 10-lap sprint to the checkered flag. I didn't want to have worn out equipment for that so we took it easy a little bit in the beginning and it paid out ... (On fuel, without the last caution) It would have been a lot closer. We ended up with a couple of gallons left in the tank. Those yellow flag laps probably saved us a couple of gallons. We would have been about in fumes. It would have been close.

JON FIELDS (No. 37 Intersport Racing Judd Lola)
It was a great race. I thought we had a shot at it in the end, but it just kind of slipped away from us. Oliver was driving great. We thought they would fall into a fuel window where they would have to pit. We were in a good position, but that didn't play out. Oliver did phenomenal at the very beginning we just got miserable build-up right on the beginning. On the out lap at the start of the race and luckily there was a caution, my car, I couldn't hardly drive it. So we put new tires on the car and run right with James and we were back in like fifth. So if we didn't have that caution we would have went back further. To say, we got through it. Then the car was good for the rest of the race.

OLIVER GAVIN (No. 37 Intersport Racing Judd Lola)
Well, it was quite long for me, cause I got in the car for about 30 laps then as the race sort of went by, the car got a little harder to drive because of the understeer. It also has a big, big vibration in it, which I never seemed to get rid of. Couldn't quite keep up with James and Butch there, but I didn't mind, it was a good second place. To start the season off here the way we finished off at Watkins Glen, so I'm really positive about the whole thing. I'm pleased to be back racing for Jon. He did a great job today. And all the boys back in the team won this weekend. We had a lot of problems with this car and they really worked extremely hard.

JAMES WEAVER (No. 16 Dyson Racing Team Ford Riley & Scott)
It was a perfect weekend. The car's been quick all weekend. This is what we came to try and do. It doesn't always work out like that. It's nice. They put all their effort in and got the reward simply after Daytona where we led for ages and ages and then broke down. This has gotten the team back up on the balls of their feet. So we look forward to the rest of the year now.

KEN BUPP (No. 11 Hamilton Safe Motorsports Camaro)
It's very hot. This is supposed to be wintertime, but no it's great. We live here in South Florida. It's a great event. Magnificent planning by the Grand-American folks so after our win in Daytona to come here and finish third is exciting for us to be this high in the points.

CRAIG CONWAY (No. 09 Team XR-1 Corvette)
Yeah, it was great. This is a brand new car. We only had six laps on it. To set the board and come out winners is a dream weekend.

ANDY LALLY (No. 21 Archangel Motorsports Nissan Lola)
It was a crazy race. Tracks like this really bring out the drivers. We had some good battles. We led some laps. We came away here in the points lead still; But, all in all, it's good. We lost a little bit of ground but leading the points is the goal. We just have to keep doing that for the next eight races. Then we will be good to go for the championship.

PAUL MACEY (No. 21 Archangel Motorsports Nissan Lola)
The yellow flags worked for us and against us today. We were pretty close to finishing second when the half-shaft broke, but as Andy said, we are still in the points lead. It's a long season and we expect to be there at the end.

TONEY JENNINGS (No. 54 JET Motorsports BMW)
We had a great time. I just wanted to thank all of the people who work for JET Motorsports, they put together a good team for us. The BMW with the Yokohama tire combination worked really well for us. We're just happy to be in the series. It's our first win, and we're very excited.

DOUG GOAD (No. 09 Team XR-1 Corvette)
It was fun. It was a lot of fun. Well basically, we were just running to run at a pace and keep the car out of trouble and see how it goes. All of our competition ran into one problem or another and we all of a sudden found ourselves making up some laps. We backed the pace down to take care of a brand new car. Craig did a great job to start in the car. The car is actually in perfect shape. It was just a matter of staying out of trouble. Not running the car too hard and keeping an eye on the gauges, the car just worked perfectly.

-HMS