Dodge victory celebration

Monday, Aug. 20, 2001. Dodge victory celebration from DaimlerChrysler Technology Center in Auburn Hills, Mich.

JIM JULOW (Vice President -- Dodge Global Brand Center)
"It's a great day for Dodge. It wasn't that long ago I think we were showing you guys some race cars for the first time. In fact, it was about a year ago to the day we announced that Felix Sabates and Chip Ganassi were going to join the Dodge racing team. It seems a lot longer than it's been. Looking back on it, it's almost like I had brown hair when all this started. Now it's gray and falling out, but we had a pretty decent day yesterday. When we launched this program, every now and again I'd have this nightmare that it was Daytona 25 laps into the race and we wouldn't have any cars running. We worked very hard as a team to make sure that was not going to happen. I think as we've progressed along through this entire program, which is now probably 200 days or almost 200 days old, I think we can all be proud of the way all our teams have performed, qualified, raced well, raced strong. We finished four cars in the top 10 Sunday, and we won another truck race -- 12 out of 17 -- on Saturday. So like I say, it's something we can all look at with pride and say to ourselves, not just for Dodge but for the whole company, when you can put together a tandem that really talks about the people that designed the cars, built the cars and sell the cars, that's a pretty powerful combination of people, and I think it's finally beginning to show us the results we all hoped we could have. I'm going to bring up the guys I like to call Frick and Frack, the owners of the winning No. 40 car Sunday. If I could please have Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates."

CHIP GANASSI (Car owner Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Dodge Intrepid R/Ts with drivers Sterling Marlin and Jason Leffler)
"I sat here at this podium on Jan. 11, and I told you how honored I was to be a part of this program. I'm even more honored today to bring you your first win. When Dodge came to us with this plan to be a part of their return to Winston Cup Racing, they proposed a program that was different. But let me tell you folks, it was more than different. It was better. It was better than anything else in this sport. It was better than any program that any of these companies across town have in Winston Cup Racing today. I'm proud personally to be a part of it, let me tell ya. We had support from a lot of people in this building, and I had an opportunity this morning to meet some of those people. I can tell you ladies and gentlemen it takes a huge team and a huge effort on a lot of people's part to put this car in the winner's circle. Dodge raised the bar in that area. They raised the bar in both technological support and the way they're leveraging this program to reach the fans and customers.

"Did we expect to win? We didn't expect to win, but we knew we could win. That's why we're racers. We knew we could win with this program. It's been a constant learning process and everyone has been working very, very hard. You know what? It wouldn't be a team if you didn't have a great driver. We've all seen Sterling all year knocking on the door. The guy finally broke through. Let me introduce, Sterling Marlin."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"How 'bout them Dodges yesterday? This is really great. It's great for me to finally get back to the winner's circle. I just felt like when the year started that with the program Dodge had put on and Chip and Felix had give us the resources to do what we needed to do. I just felt like we were going to win some races this year and contend for the championship. It's really hard to do without a great crew at the shop, a great sponsor in Coors Light and all the support from everybody here at Dodge. It's been great, tremendous.

"I drove for a lot of different manufacturers or other car makes. I've never seen the enthusiasm and support that these guys have given, and it's been great. Hopefully, if we keep plugging along, we're going to be at the Waldorf=Astoria on the stage and get all you guys up there. We're going to work real hard and keep plugging away. Hopefully we'll be there. It's really hard to do this without a great bunch of guys. I'd like to introduce three key players of the race team -- Andy Graves, Tony Glover and my crew chief Lee McCall. They made good calls yesterday, put on four tires and we got right to the front."

LEE McCALL (Crew chief No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"First of all, I'd like to introduce the members of our race team. No one guy can do this, and it takes a lot of people to bring this victory. These guys certainly make my job a lot easier, and we've got 80 more guys back at the shop working today getting our cars ready for Bristol. We hope we can get you your second win. I'd like to thank all you guys standing up here. Without you guys, we wouldn't be here today."

DR. DIETER ZETSCHE (President and CEO DaimlerChrysler Group)
"What a race day. Unbelievable. I have been present at one of the other races, but that was the best one I've been present at yesterday. We came in yesterday morning, and you could feel it. You could smell it in the air. It was our day. We didn't know how it would end, but we knew it was a Dodge day. What it showed really was this thing was a team approach as you've heard before. Everybody was there. Everybody was presented. Of course in the end, the teams and the drivers have to do it all. The dealers, UAW and members of the great engineering team of Dodge and of course all racing folks of Dodge. Everybody was there. You could see we were strong as a team. The strongest obviously won, which was Sterling at the end. We are so glad with the momentum that has built over the season. Although it was 23 races, we knew it had to come, and it came yesterday. I think this is kind of a symbol for all of us. This is what makes up this team standing around here. You can see here what we can do if we work together as a team. We know we work as a team. We will be in the winner's circle as a company all together with Dodge our performance brand in the forefront, but all three brands of course, and that's what it's all about. There is no better symbol for this kind of spirit and mindset than racing is, so I'm extremely glad that we are back with Dodge in racing and that we are back as winners and that I can be a part of this team. I want to thank you all and congratulate you all for this wonderful performance. Thank you very much."

-Dodge Motorsports