Ford Atlanta race notes

JEREMY MAYFIELD --12-- Mobil 1 Taurus (Finished 38th) --
"I don't know. We had this problem a lot last year and it seems like we're having it again this year. The steering box or something went bad. It's about time to do something different. We've had some bad luck. We've run good week in and week out, but it seems like something always bites us and it's always something loose in the front end. It's a shame for this Mobil 1 Ford and the whole team. Everybody's working hard, but, obviously, we're not doing something right."

MARK MARTIN --6-- Pfizer Taurus (Finished 41st) --
IT MUST BE A HEARTBREAKER TO LOSE THE MOTOR AT THAT POINT.

"Yeah it was. We were just getting in position where we could halfway run there and the next stop was gonna be even better. We had a tire that was starting to equalize right there and by the time we got to the next stop and got four tires and one adjustment, we were fixing to probably have a chance to sneak up into the top 10 in points and in finish. I'm disappointed."

WAS THE CAR GOOD TO THAT POINT?

"Not good enough, but we were doing all we could with it."

MATT KENSETH --17-- DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 37th) --
"The motor blew up. We thought it probably would because we've had some problems there lately. Everybody is working really hard. Robbie Reiser is a great guy and he's got a great team built here. The guys have been putting forth 100 percent and giving me the pit stops and cars we need to run up front. That's the only part letting us down right now and somehow we need to fix it."

WAS THE CAR GOOD TO THAT POINT?

"Yeah, it was handling good. We weren't as good as the two leaders, but we were a third, fourth or fifth place car, so I was generally happy with the car. We had one more adjustment left there at the end, but we didn't make it."

WAS THERE ANY PROBLEM GETTING OUT OF THE CAR WITH THE HANS DEVICE?

"No, it's no problem at all."

IT LOOKED LIKE THERE MAY HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM.

"No, my radio cord was just taped inside. There was no problem with the HANS. I wanted to make sure the car was stopped before I got out."

THAT WAS KIND OF A TEST CASE FOR GETTING OUT WITH THE HANS.

"They're not uncomfortable.  It's easy
to get out of the car.  Whoever says that you can't get out of the car with
it on is wrong.  For a guy my size it's very easy to use, it's very easy to
get out of the car.  I've been wearing it all year."

DALE JARRETT --88-- UPS Taurus (Finished 4th) --
"I really thought we had the car in good shape. Maybe we should have pitted there. I don't know if we got beat on tires, we were just sliding the front there. I still thought I had a chance, though. I got myself in a position there, but when the 29 got on the inside of me it just got me in a bad spot but we had a good car."

IT LOOKED LIKE THE CHEVROLETS GANGED UP ON YOU AT THE END.

"When they got me in the middle, that was the hard thing then. I just couldn't get out of there and you just lose too much momentum there like that. The car was good, but not quite good enough for those Chevys."

WOULD YOU HAVE PREFERRED TO TRY AND PASS NADEAU ON THE OUTSIDE?

"Right at that time my car was actually working the best low. I just needed room to make the run by myself without Harvick or somebody else -- trying to protect a position. I needed to just be able to run and not try to protect anything. I was needing to use up a lot of track, but those guys were racing. Harvick did a great job and that's great."

KURT BUSCH --97-- Roush Racing Taurus (Finished 10th) --
"All in all it wasn't too bad. We struggled real bad early on and we just had to come from 43rd up to the top 10. That was an exciting run for the team and everybody was pumped up about it. It was good to run competitively all the way through the race." IT'S ANOTHER GOOD FINISH, BUT ANOTHER ROOKIE FINISHED AHEAD OF YOU. "There's another rookie that's tough and we've got our work cut out for us. His car won the race here last year, but we put our Ford up on the top groove and were just running around the best we could. We've got some things to learn. That 29 car was ready to go and this 97 is building."

RICKY CRAVEN --32-- Tide Taurus (Finished 13th) --
IT LOOKED LIKE YOU AND JARRETT WERE THE BEST FORDS EARLY IN THE RACE.

"I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the fact we've run so well at the beginning of the year and really proud of the fact that even though we had a lot of problems today, we salvaged a decent finish. We ran top five. We showed some strength and I really think we substantiated Rockingham."

IS THIS A CASE WHERE QUALIFYING COMES BACK TO BITE YOU ON RACE DAY?

"We've got to get better there. I'm gonna work as hard as I can, but the problem with that is I think we're working a little too hard now. I think we've just got to get whatever we need to get the job done. All of those things have a way of taking care of themselves. If we can keep running like we ran today, we're gonna win a race. I believe that and it's really important for us to run like this -- to build our confidence and build some momentum."

ROBERT PRESSLEY --77-- Jasper Engines Taurus (Finished 36th) --
"Bad luck got us. I think we had a good race car today. We were real happy with us, but our bad luck found its way back. You're gonna have these kinds of days, but we're gonna keep going."

ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 31st) --
"We haven't been good since coming off the truck. We just had a bad weekend. We brought a new car and really had high hopes. I usually run Atlanta pretty well, but I didn't run it well today so I guess we'll have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do differently. We probably lost 10 or 15 spots in the points today, so we've got to figure a way to try and get 'em back."

WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT SPIN ON LAP 3?

"They had a wreck in the front stretch and I went through the grass. There was so much smoke I didn't know which way to go and I probably bent the valance up a little bit."

-FRT