Dodge Dover II race notes

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We had a real good car. It seems like when we've got good cars, our motors aren't any good. When we've got good motors, our cars aren't any good. It just continues to work against us. It's frustrating. It's a shame when you can't get more than 15 laps out of a motor."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I saw what was happening up front. Everybody checked up, and I just couldn't get it slowed down in time. We weren't as good as we needed to be, but we had a lot of time to get it better, and I think we had worked our way up to the top 20. Hopefully we'll do better next week. I'm OK, but it's frustrating to end the day early. The crew did a good job fixing the car and getting us back out. I think we could have had a decent finish, but nobody gave up and that's what it's all about."

BUCKSHOT JONES (No. 44 Georgia Pacific Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The motor blew up. We had run good from the time we unloaded. We were seventh in practice. I messed up in qualifying and ended up 20th. We tried to make changes all day and stay on the lead lap. We were biding our time. I don't know what happened to it. Something happened under the caution and it blew up."

DAVE BLANEY (No. 93 Amoco Ultimate Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We didn't take any tires on the last pit stop, just fuel. We just got the car handling good right before then. We just took fuel and went back out. We only had 20 laps on the tires. It was way tight, but I didn't think it was going to blow that quick. We were staying right with them, but the last couple of laps it slowed down pretty good and blew out the right front. It's a shame. Every time we get this thing going good something happens to it. I didn't really think we were taking a chance with the tire. We hadn't run that many laps on it. I guess we overworked it and blew it out. We had the car working good, but we didn't take advantage of it. We were honored to have the Red Cross and the New York Fire Department on the car today. We didn't want to end up in the wall with it, but those things can happen."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Marlin finished eighth Sunday to go along with his sixth-place finish at Dover earlier this season. That's been his best showing in both races at Dover since 1995 when he finished sixth and seventh.

"We were probably a fourth to 10th-place car. We were tight and loose and just fought it all day. We got it balanced a couple of times on the long runs, and that's when we came up to the top five. A caution came out. They throw too many cautions here. A man spins out, gets out of the way, puts it in gear and drives off. Why throw the yellow? I've run real good here at Dover, but we never seem to have any luck. We usually blow up or something, but it didn't work out that way this year. We gained some points on the 18 today, but the 8 gained on us. We've got nine to go, so we'll get all we can every week and see where we wind up."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Atwood's ninth-place finish was his career best on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. The 21-year-old Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender had finished 10th on two other occasions.

"I'm real happy with it. It was kind of an up and down day. We started off and we weren't too good. Then we ended up sixth or seventh and fell back again. At the end of the race the car started to come back again. We were able to come back and get a ninth-place finish and we're happy with it. My car kept getting loose. I was good and then the track loosened up again. We just got it tightened back up at the end of the race. It did seem a little bit long, but when you're running good and you've got positions to gain, you don't want it to end. We had to stay patient today. We had a lot of adjustments to make, but we knew we could get it there. We rode it out and fixed it. We were terrible last time here. I know the track changed three or four times today, so I'm sure it's changed since the last race."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I couldn't help it. I just busted my butt and got into Bobby Labonte. I hate that happened. I told him I was sorry, but that doesn't help too much now. It wasn't that slick. I just did something I shouldn't be doing. On the positive side, the crew did a good job keeping us in the race, and we've still got our streak of no DNFs. It wasn't a bad finish considering."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We were a little bit loose in and then we got tight and stayed tight the rest of the day. We got really tight on that long run and pitted and then the caution came out and we lost a lap. It just hasn't been our year."

STACY COMPTON (No. 92 Kodiak Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"Anything that could have gone wrong today did. The alternator wasn't charging today, and we had to keep stopping to fix that. We never did. We ran over something on pit road and on the next lap the caution came out. We lost two laps on pit road. The car was good. It's just frustrating."

-Dodge Motorsports