NASCAR Cup

Texas: Dodge drivers race quotes

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid) NOTE: Newman scored his second career victory and his first in a Dodge Intrepid. It was the first victory of the season for Dodge. Newman jumped seven spots to eighth in the series standings, 242 points ...

Published: Apr 1, 2003, 8:41 PM

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RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid)

NOTE: Newman scored his second career victory and his first in a Dodge Intrepid. It was the first victory of the season for Dodge. Newman jumped seven spots to eighth in the series standings, 242 points behind leader Matt Kenseth.

"It was a great effort all day by the ALLTEL Dodge guys. They never quit. We got behind a couple of times. It was great when all those lead lap cars got caught in the pits. I was worried for sure when Junior passed me after that last pit stop. I thought sure they would have made their car a little bit better, too. After I finally got by Junior, I felt a lot better. It was just awesome to finally win."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid)

"That's better than we'd been. We were lucky to stay out of trouble on the track. I wish we could have stayed out of trouble in the pits. They called me down pit road and I didn't know they were under me. We've got to have better communication on that. It didn't really hurt the car, but it didn't help it any, either. I'm proud of the guys. They kept digging all day."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid)

"We had some trouble early and had to play catchup the rest of the day. It's a shame because we never really got a chance to see if we were going to be good or not. We'll try it again next week at Talladega."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Pillsbury Dodge Intrepid)

"The Pillsbury Dodge was tight off. We kept working on it, but it was still tight off. It was a good day. We managed to keep the car in one piece and that was kind of nice."

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Dodge Intrepid)

"It was a long day, but we never gave up. I've got to take my hat off to the guys on the team. They kept working and we got all we could. I think the car was pretty good at first, and we were headed to another good finish, but that's racin'. We'll get 'em next week."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid)

"There's a lot of moving parts in the motor. There's no telling what happened. It was pretty strong, but it's not too strong when it's loaded on the truck before the race is over. It's been par for the year. We've had a lot of problems. The first time you feel like you have a decent car and this happens. I've got to hand it to the guys. They've put some good stuff under me, and we'll get it. It'll take a little bit of time. I'm just happy where we're at. At least it tore up leading the race. That's one positive side. It's the best we've run this year.

"The track was pretty much one groove. I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't over turn it or miss a shift or anything. When I went from one gear to the next, it started missing. Then it just started smoking down the backstretch. We had a good strong race car. I just need to keep the morale up for all our guys. It was just one of those unfortunate deals. You can't ever tell. This is one of those race tracks that's hard on motors.

"We've worked hard and come a long way. We've had a tough start to the season. We're showing improvement every week. We ran good at Darlington. I feel like we had a good day at Bristol, and we were having a good day here. We've just got to figure out how to stick around until the end. These guys have worked their hearts out to make this deal work."

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI (No. 45 Georgia Pacific Dodge Intrepid)

NOTE: Fittipaldi subbed for injured Kyle Petty on Sunday, competing in only his third NASCAR Winston Cup race.

"The last 10 or 15 laps I was out there I think I was running out of brakes. I kept pumping my brake pedal. When I came out of turn two, Jarrett was right next to me. Because we were racing, I guess I forgot to pump the brake pedal. When I went into three, it was way, way low, like almost on the floor of the car. When I came in, I lost the rear wheels a little bit. I spun. I don't know if we would have made the distance. We were running out of brakes big time. Considering I hopped in at the last minute, I was having a pretty good time out there. The car was good. We were going forward, and that was a good thing."

-dodge motorsports-

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