Pontiac Racing Dover II race notes

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE INCIDENT WITH BILL ELLIOTT) "I don't know. I was letting Bill go by and something might have happened to him underneath me to make him get up into me, I suppose."

RON HORNADAY, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
ON THE INCIDENT THAT CAUSED YOU TO SPIN) "There was a lapped car up there. Jeff [Gordon] and I got side-by-side because of the lapped car. Finally, I don't know if we cleared the lapped car or the lapped car got away from us, but I thought I cleared Jeff. Then we came off of four and I felt the back of the car come off the ground. You're already trying to free up the car now when you come to this track because in the long run the car gets tighter. I think if my car was tighter before that I wouldn't have lost it. But when your left rear tire is off the ground, it's hard to control it. I suppose I'm going to get blamed for it because I'm the rookie, but you just don't expect that kind of thing racing with Jeff Gordon. "We had a great race car and we showed that. We're still lacking a little bit on our pit stops and we knew that, but we were being patient. Ricky Rudd can vouch for that. I ran past him early, then the car went away just a little bit and got tight and I let Ricky go by. I raced probably three people that way the first 100 laps.

"My hats off to these guys. They're doing an awesome job. We just need to get our pit stops a little better. We're definitely coming out with good race cars. We're qualifying good and running good, we just can't finish good."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE INCIDENT WITH RON HORNADAY?) "Somebody sent the '14' around. I couldn't see who - I just saw the '14' was sideways. We waved our hand and backed everybody off, but I got run into from the back. But they really didn't have anywhere to go.

"I spun and I thought, 'Man, if I can keep it off the inside wall I'm going to be great,' but then I got into the outside wall and bent the A-frame."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
ON YOUR RACE OVERALL) "It was an awful tough day. The last 100 laps were the longest 100 laps I've run in a while. We just couldn't really find anything that would work for us today. The guys did a great job on pit road and kept us as close to the front as possible, but it was just tough to race with anybody today. I'm drained. I'm mentally and physically drained and I shouldn't have to feel that way after only 400 miles at Dover."

ON THE INCIDENT WITH DALE JARRETT AT THE END OF THE RACE) "Anybody that watched, he (Dale Jarrett) had been going in on the bottom, sliding halfway up the racetrack, and then when I'd get a run through the center he'd cut down. He's just doing it to protect his spot. But he's got to understand that he's putting himself in a bad position when he does that because if I get a bigger run than he thinks - three times I had to slam on the brakes to keep him from hitting the right front of my car - it's just a bad deal. "He is not a guy that I ever want to turn. I don't want to turn anybody. I'm so tired of controversy; I don't need any with this. I really like Dale Jarrett. He's a good guy and he's been a good friend to me this year. He is one of the last guys I would have liked to have seen that happen to."

-GM Racing-