Monte Carlo Bristol notes

Food City 500 Sunday, March 25, 2001 Bristol Motor Speedway

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 4th):

"I guess Tony (Stewart) didn't realize I was underneath him down the back straightaway, 'cause it's pretty obvious to me. We were just racing real hard. I got a heck of a run and he slipped up coming off of (turn) two. I had my nose in there, and I guess somebody didn't tell him I was there because it was pretty obvious. I did everything I could to keep from hitting him. I was sideways too, and he just came down. I don't want to come to the last lap like that, but if you've got a position and you've been working on it for a long time, you're going to do it and your going to take everything you can all the way to the end. I thought that it was pretty clean.

"It was a great effort for us today. I'm just real proud of this entire Dupont Chevrolet team. They've done an excellent job. We got caught with track position there that hurt us. We were really good. We just needed to be up front. Unfortunately some of those guys made some great calls by not pitting, and that hurt us.

How about Tony Stewart's retaliation in coming back at you, is that okay?
"That didn't surprise me one bit."

Bobby Hamilton, No. 55 Square D Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 8th):
"It's still early. We're just trying to, and succeeding in, building a real solid race team. All the guys on this Square D Chevrolet have been working real hard. With the exception of Vegas, we've had good races. We got penalized in Atlanta, and other than that, we'd be fourth or fifth in points right now. We just done it like Darlington. We raced the race track and didn't try to race nobody 'til the end of the race, you know. That's sort of the way you have to do this place. You seem to be very consistent lately. Does that help?) "Consistency is what it's all about. You'd like to win, but if we just keep doing what we're doing, it's just going to fall in our lap one day. We'll get one."

It looked like you had a really strong car today.
"I haven't had a bad racecar all year, so I don't care really. All our racecars are identical; it really don't make any difference. Chevrolet's got us to where we share a lot of information with DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) and Childress (Richard Childress Racing) and that helps us along quite a bit. It cuts the learning curve in half. I don't think we have a bad car in the stable right now. We had a real good racecar. We just raced the racetrack all day. At times we was as fast as the leader. But we're not getting antsy yet. We still need to build this thing up points-wise in the next four or five races and try to keep us in the top 10 in points and use the second half (of the season) from what we learned the first half."

Steve Park, No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 9th):
"I'm not sure what the debris was, I never saw it. We were setting the pace and building on the lead. I can't believe that happened to us again. We got real tight toward the end. I'm not sure if it was the track or the car."

Looks like you're now 5th in the points
"I hate to talk about points already, but we raced a smart race and earned this Pennzoil team another top-10 finish. And the car's not in too bad of shape. That's a bonus considering this is Bristol."

Terry Labonte, No. 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 6th)
"My hat' s off to the Wood Brothers for their win here. I'm happy for them. It's a big win for Elliott (Sadler) and the team -- a big day for them at Bristol.

"This Kellogg's Chevrolet is barely scratched. And that's really something when you realize that it's Bristol. Somehow we managed to stay out of trouble and dodge some of those wrecks out there today.

"But we had a few problems. Our second pit stop wasn't good. And we had a bad set of tires about half-way through, and that lost us a lap. And pitting on the backstretch is always going to be a handicap at this track. You can go out there and gain track position and then you'll lose it every time you pit when it's on the backstretch. And that's what we did all day long. So with all of that, I guess it wasn't a bad day. It definitely feels good to get a top-10 finish."

-Team Monte Carlo