NASCAR Cup

Monte Carlo MIchigan II race notes

Driver comments under red-flag conditions due to a 1 hour, 45 minute rain delay at the halfway mark Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (in 9th): "I would like to lead a lap. I'm not so focused on DJ (Dale Jarrett) in the points ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Driver comments under red-flag conditions due to a 1 hour, 45 minute rain delay at the halfway mark

Jeff Gordon,
No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (in 9th): "I would like to lead a lap. I'm not so focused on DJ (Dale Jarrett) in the points race. I've got five or six guys ahead of him (Jarrett, in 7th) that I'm focused on. We've just been steadily working on getting our car better and better. It's been doing that. We've been working our way to the front. So we were coming. We just need to get up there and deal with those leaders to see if we've got something for them."

Steve Park,
No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo (in 10th): "My hats off to Paul Andrews (crew chief) and the guys on the Pennzoil team. We were not this good in Happy Hour yesterday. We got together for dinner last night and decided what we were going to change to make this Pennzoil car a better racecar. Right now, it looks like it's working pretty good."

Kevin Harvick,
No. 29 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet Monte Carlo (in 16th): "Well, I'm definitely hoping it keeps raining because we're broke. Our engine has blown -up. We're on seven cylinders right now and in 16th, which would be a lot better than 30th or wherever we would end up finishing. We're hoping for rain, but it looks like it could clear up."

Driver Comments at the conclusion of the race (red-flagged due to rain on lap 162 of 200 laps)

Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender, Kevin Harvick,
No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo (sidelined with motor problems): "We just broke something in the motor. We didn't over-rev it or anything. We don't have a lot of problems finishing races, so it's just a fluke deal. Richard Childress is known for not having a lot of problems with a lot of things. It's very rare for us. We'll just try not to have this problem again. I wish the race would have ended when it was raining. We'll just go to Bristol and hope for a little better circumstances."

Jeff Gordon,
No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo (7th): "We had a pretty good car in clean air, but we could just never get it. When you're back there, the cars just don't drive. You're all over the place. And then as soon as you get in clean air, the car's pretty good. We're pretty happy to get back up to finish where we did because we got shuffled back there in those pit stops. We were pretty fortunate to get back up there and finish seventh."

Could the Dodges cut low in the corners? "Yeah, they could really stick that thing down in the bottom pretty good. I wasn't up there with Sterling (Marlin) and Bill (Elliott) and those guys that were really running fast. I never got up there to them. Rudd was pretty fast too. I don't know what the Fords are complaining about because they were pretty stout today too. I don't think any of us have anything to say, really. We even had Pontiac up there in the end (Johnny Benson finished 5th). It was a good day for us. That's what we need to do. When it comes to the championship, it wasn't a day we were looking for in order to win, but it was what we were looking for toward (winning) the championship."

What do you think about your two closest rivals, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd, having problems today? "You can't control when you're going to have problems and they're going to have problems. You've just got to make sure that you keep coming home on the lead lap with as few problems as possible. And I've been saying that the guy who has the least amount of problems is going to be the guy who's going to win this thing. Right now, it's going in our favor but it could turn around any time."

Steve Park,
No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 9th): "We didn't have anything for them after Happy Hour on Saturday, so we're pretty happy to get a top 10 out of it. When the race restarted (after the rain-delay), Paul (Andrews, crew chief) made some good calls. We got fuel before the green flag (re-start) because we thought it might start raining again and we'd end up stuck on pit lane. And then when the caution came out and everybody pitted, we only took two tires. In the end, we weren't where we wanted to be, but all in all it was a pretty good day for the Pennzoil team."

Mike Skinner,
No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo (finished 18th): "I've said this before, but the Lowe's car was awfully competitive right there at the end. If we could have started the race like we ended up, I think that car would have stayed in the top 10 all day. We sat there and ran fifth or sixth in line, right there with the leaders. I didn't want to mess up anybody's race.

"You know, we're really happy for Sterling Marlin. It's been a long time coming. I'm happy that they won the race. I just hate that we couldn't have started out like we finished up. Everybody on the Lowe's car really worked hard. They did really smart adjustments all day and they got it adjusted pretty good. It just wasn't quite good enough.

How do you feel physically? "I'm fine right now. Of course we had a little break right in the middle of the action. This place is relatively easy. We'll see how we do at Bristol."

-GM Racing

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