Dodge Watkins Glen race notes

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We changed everything on the car. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. We just can't get it to fire. It cut off, and the guys changed everything, but it won't fire. It's not getting any power from the battery to the motor. We had a pretty good run going, but that doesn't matter if you can't finish the race. We finally changed the distributor and got back out for a few laps. I think we could have had a decent run today, but who knows? The way things went those last few laps, no one knew what was going to happen."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The transmission messed up and then I over revved the motor and that got too many rpm's and broke a valve spring or something. It's a shame. I've never had that happen before. I thought we had our bad luck turned around after last weekend, but some time or another it's got to get better. We really weren't that good on the first run, and the team adjusted on it. Then we got where we could run with Jeff. We're making gains. We've just got to get where we can run all the laps. I really feel bad for the team. The team put a lot of effort into this race. It was kind of hard to tell how the car was because we weren't really running with the leaders, but the team definitely made the car better."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I had a pretty good car. I don't know that I had the car. If we could have stayed out of trouble there, we would have been a whole lot better. The only reason I got up there at the end was because everybody started taking each other out. That helped me those last few laps. I was just behind all that beating and banging on those last restarts. I got to watch it all happen. I saw who'll get to blame who.

"Tony (Stewart) got underneath me, and I thought he was anticipating me staying on the outside of him because the 29 was behind him. He just slid up a little bit. It was kind of a funny deal, not that I'm laughing. My right front fender got caught inside his left rear and I couldn't get away from him until it ripped off we were stuck. It's unfortunate because it cost us an extra pit stop."

STACY COMPTON (No. 92 Kodiak Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We got better. We definitely got better. We were too tight when we started out and kept making adjustments. The next thing you know we got loosened up and started coming up through there. We knew what we needed to do. We just haven't been able to do it all weekend. During the race we got loosened up and came from last to mid pack. We led some laps because of pit strategy. Jeff was right there with us and couldn't get by, so we had a decent car. Track position is so critical. We just started so far back it just predicted where we finished."

SCOTT PRUETT (No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"The carburetor went bad early. It started dying up through the esses. We came in and changed the carburetor. We almost went a lap down, but we kept fighting back all day long. The crew did a great job, and the car ran great. I wish we could have kept going green because our car just kept going faster and faster. Everybody was digging and scratching on everybody out there those last few laps. I came really close to collecting Dale Jr. I thought we were going to have a big crash, but I managed to miss him. That's the way Winston Cup racing is. Those last few laps, everybody is going at it. It feels great to get back in a car. I wish I could have given Dodge its first win, but hopefully it'll give the team a few more points and things will work out the rest of the season."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We just rode around all day and stayed out of trouble and got a pretty decent finish out of it. You can't complain too much. We finished 22nd. A lot of people ran off the track, and we didn't. We've just got to improve on our stuff. If we could have had some better brakes... My battery went dead and I had to turn my brake fans off and we didn't have good brakes the rest of the day. We just had a few problems. We'll improve on it next time. People were getting off the track and throwing dirt up on the track those last few laps. You couldn't see where you were going. You just had to pick a hole and hope no one was there. We picked the right hole and gained a few positions."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"Everyone was on top of everybody else. It got pretty wild. We were running somewhere in the top 15 and then the bottom fell out. The car wasn't great today, but we could have had a top 10 with a little luck. We sure didn't have any luck. We should have gained points today, but we ended up dropping a spot. That's the way it goes. We'll just keep working hard and try to get 'em next week at Michigan."

RAY EVERNHAM (Car owner Evernham Motorsports)
"We knew we were in for a long day with the 19 car. The whole rookie deal... We struggled all weekend, but I was pretty disappointed. The 9 car had a great day. He just got knocked out of the way at the end. On the 19, we have to quit making mistakes. Casey could have finished 15th or 20th."

-Dodge Motorsports