NASCAR Cup

Fontana Monte Carlo race notes

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 2nd): "Heck, I was just happy to reel him in (Rusty Wallace). I tell you what; the guys just did an awesome job on the Dupont Chevrolet. I've got to thank all them and all the ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 2nd):

"Heck, I was just happy to reel him in (Rusty Wallace). I tell you what; the guys just did an awesome job on the Dupont Chevrolet. I've got to thank all them and all the people at Dupont, Pepsi, Chevrolet, GMAC, and Quaker State. Robbie Loomis and this team have just been doing an awesome job - especially this weekend. We unloaded a great car. We had a lot of fun out there. Track position is pretty important and we didn't have it there at the end. I was able to dodge (Tony) Stewart, but once I caught Rusty I just really started losing the front end. I tried everything I could but I didn't have anything for him."

Did you make many changes on the car?

"Well, we weren't that good during Happy Hour. So what's funny is that we were really bad when we first started Happy Hour and we actually ended up starting (the race) about the way we started Happy Hour. We thought the car would go on the longer runs and this thing was incredible on long runs. But it almost took too long for it to come in today."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 3rd):

"I've got to thank Budweiser and everybody for their support this year. They've been great. The car handled great. We've kind of turned the corner the last four weeks and started running in the top 10. And we got back up there in the points and I'm real happy about that. I know it makes the guys on the team happy. They've worked real hard to get here. It's been a bad week. But it's my daddy's 50th birthday and we come home 3rd so we've got something to celebrate."

Jerry Nadeau, No. 25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 8th):

"When we started out, the car was really really tight. We freed it up a little bit and all of a sudden the track did a complete one-eighty turn and we got really really loose. Man we struggled for about 100 laps. We spun out there and we realized we were way too loose and we got it tightened up. We came from 25th, so we're actually pretty happy."

Jeff Green, No. 30 AOL Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 21st)

"Well after a hard day at California Speedway in our AOL Chevrolet, I think we ended up 21st. We had a little problem with the brakes. The car was really, really good at first. We climbed our way up almost to the top 10. But what a weekend. It's a great weekend for me as a driver and hopefully for our first venture for AOL, hopefully they had a good time and got a lot of exposure. My Busch car was exciting and my first start of the season in my Winston Cup car was very exciting for me as a driver. I'm proud of my guys and what they did today. We're learning and we'll do better next time."

Comments from Kevin Hamlin, crew chief for Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 25th):

"We just couldn't make it pay off. Somehow, we ran out of gas. Still haven't quite figured that out, but we did. We recovered from that and were working out way back up there and we developed a 'miss'. It appears that we broke a valve spring I guess. Other than that, I don't know what to tell you. The car started out a little bit loose and we worked at it and got it to where it was real good. I thought we had a good solid top five car, maybe better. But we didn't get it home so we got to take what it give us today."

Steve Park, No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 15th:

"The car was real tight early in the race. Paul (Andrews) and the guys kept working on the Pennzoil Chevrolet to free it up and we found the right combination late in the race. After that late pit stop, I really felt like something was broken, whether it be a spring or something, but the car just got incredibly loose. The guys assured me that nothing was wrong, so I went back out and passed as many cars as I could."

-Team Monte Carlo

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