NASCAR Cup
Bristol II: Michael Waltrip press conference
Originally-From: Judy Stropus <jstropus@earthlink.net> MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA PARTS CHEVY MONTE CARLO (third): "Well, the car handled perfectly. I ran a .48 and it took a .47 to get the job done. A hundredth of a second; I couldn't ...
Published: Aug 30, 2002, 8:45 AM
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Originally-From: Judy Stropus <jstropus@earthlink.net>
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA PARTS CHEVY MONTE CARLO (third):
"Well, the car handled perfectly. I ran a .48 and it took a .47 to get the job done. A hundredth of a second; I couldn't possibly tell you where that went. I did everything I wanted to do. I didn't get overly aggressive and I think at Bristol that's wise because if you overshoot the corner you're just wasting time. I was able to roll in good, get on the gas hard. Again, we came up a little short, but Junior's team and mine, they communicate really well. They understand each other, they compare setups really good. But today we had different setups. He had different springs all the way around his car than I did and we took different setups and wound up in the same place. I'm real proud of my team for giving me a car that I could get out there and really hammer on. I got big feet so I don't do very well when you gotta kind of do a little bit of throttle. I only do good when you can do a lot."
"I think I have a mental block. I cannot run the second lap fast. I always do my best on the first lap."
A LOT OF PEOPLE WIGGLING OUT THERE, IS THAT WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT OVERSHOOTING?
"No, I was talking about getting in the throttle way quick and that will cause that, but that's how you make a fast time. You roll out of the gas a little early, get to the bottom and get the throttle down way in the center. And then, like in Ryan's (Newman) case, he probably had a perfectly handling car, but he had so much speed that finally the conditions overtook the ability of the tires to stick to the road. He did everything perfect and the car just like that much sticking for him to get back to the start-finish line. If you drive down into the corner hard at Bristol then you're just wasting tons of time waiting to get back to the gas. The best thing to do is roll out early so you can get on it early and that's been my experience. That's how I'm able to run well here."
ON YESTERDAY'S BUSCH CRASH; WAS IT DEJÀ VU FOR YOU?
"It was really wild for me because as soon as it happened everybody came to me and said, 'what's that remind you of?' It was exactly my crash except for Johnny Sauter ran into Mike (Harmon) after he hit the wall and made it worse and then I was a little bit groggy and slow to get out of my car when I had the wreck that day and I'd be darned if Mike didn't just jump right out. He was standing there. It was a whole lot alike in that respect and I just really was thankful that I got to go to the infield care center and talk to Mike because I lived basically the same thing 12 years ago and so I told him, 'Get ready because you'll laugh about this the rest of your life,' because people come up to me all the time and laugh about the deal at Bristol. I said I'm just so glad that you're able to laugh about it. When you talk about the incident and it's over and it's fine and how wild it was, that's a laughing matter, but when you turn to the subject of the gate not being shut then it turns somber in a hurry. That's just a sad story; thankfully we have a happy ending to it."
-chevy-
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