NASCAR Cup

Winston: GM drivers race quotes

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: YOU WON THE FIRST SEGMENT - TELL US ABOUT THAT RESTART ON THE LAST SEGMENT WITH JEFF BURTON AND JIMMY SPENCER. "Well, they set the rules in this thing and they leave it wide open. It's a 10-lap ...

Edited: May 19, 2003, 1:04 AM

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MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

YOU WON THE FIRST SEGMENT - TELL US ABOUT THAT RESTART ON THE LAST SEGMENT WITH JEFF BURTON AND JIMMY SPENCER. "Well, they set the rules in this thing and they leave it wide open. It's a 10-lap shootout, take no prisoners. There's not a mark on the nose of my Kodak Pontiac. The nose is just a clean as when I started this race. I have not hit anybody. The man (Spencer) opened the door and I stomped that door down. Nothing Jimmy wouldn't have done to me. I like Jimmy. He might be a little bit mad at me. He don't forget, but Mike Skinner don't forget either.

WILL YOU STAY AND WATCH THE WINSTON? "I'll probably have somebody tape it and I'll beat the traffic out of here. I sure hate that we weren't a part of it with this Kodak team. We've got such an awesome sponsor and our Pontiac, great bodies this year on these cars. The motor ran pretty good tonight - I used it up. I ran it awful hard. We just got too tight. We made an adjustment to free that car up on that last little 10-lap shootout with a little air in the tires and a little tape on the grill. We had a piece of tape that we left on there and the car just got tighter. I guess we just got a tight set of tires. I don't know. No excuses, we just lost. We tried real hard and we'll come back in the '600' and qualify and then try and win that one."

STEVE PARK, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

YOU WON THE POLE, BUT IT WAS KIND OF DOWNHILL AFTER GETTING PENALIZED AT THE START OF THE RACE. "Look at California. Maybe I'm just not supposed to start on the pole or something. The green flag was waving, we're at the start/finish line, everything seemed right and we get black-flagged. So what is right? What's wrong, what's right. Who knows? Maybe Steve Park shouldn't set on the pole or something. It's our first race together, so you got to look at the positive side of it. We finished eighth after having to go to the back, and we got a good heads up on what we need for next week. We'll just go from there."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

AFTER FINISHING 1ST IN THE 40-LAP FIRST SEGMENT) "It wasn't near as good as we'd like, but the good thing is we can make it better than what it is. We just got to keep doing what we're doing. We've been talking to Zippy here and the guys on the Home Depot team, just trying to figure out what we're going to do to this thing to make it even better than what it is right now." .

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

YOU TOOK A WILD RIDE THERE BUT KEPT IT OFF THE WALL. "I've got a pretty good car here. I thought I was a lot stronger than that and I guess Kurt Busch got real close or touched me or something. It didn't take much and got me sideways off the corner. Just very lucky I got it recovered and kept going straight and didn't lose too many spots. The ol'cars driving good and putting up some good lap times. We just need to get in the next top 14 there."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

CAN YOU TELL US WHAT HAPPENED? "I talked to Terry (Labonte). We got down into (Turn) one and I got a big run and went down to the inside, and if I could've carried the momentum I would've tried to go on and run three-wide into one and make him lift, but I didn't get that big of a run. So I just sat back and tried to basically just get back in line. I got back in line and evidently his spotter told him that I was still inside, so when we went down into the corner he checked up, and we checked up. I was right behind him and I hit him square in the rear end. He thought I was still down there and I was already behind him, and when he checked up to help both of us down there, there wasn't anywhere for either one of us to go. Just fun racing at Charlotte."

IS A WRECK LIKE THAT INEVITABLE WHEN RACING FOR THAT FINAL SEGMENT? "I don't know, I think next year I'm going to take the weekend off and somebody else can drive this thing next year for this race. I'll take the night off. It's starting to become not worth it. I want to be racing a long time, and I don't want to get wrecked on a non-points race that has turned out to be a hackfest every year."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED? "Not really. I saw a couple of guys spin, and I saw the "5" get sideways and just didn't really know what to do. I think I ran into the back of somebody and got ran into the back of, and I lost control of the car after that. I hate that we tore the car up because I didn't feel like we had a car to win. I was trying to get in and out of here in one piece. It's "Winston" excitement though. You kind of expect that going in and you can't really complain after it's over with if your car's tore up because you go into the race knowing what you're up against. We'll just go home and try and fix it. We've got the '600' car on the trailer, so we're not really worried about that. But that was a brand new car and those guys put plenty of heart into it."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"We had a great race car all night. Getting up to third in that last segment and second in the second segment, the guys did a great job. The car was really good, it was fast. It was just hard to get by. We caught a couple of lucky brakes there and had to check up a little bit, but all in all a great night. It seemed like people got backwards or something happened, and obviously you can see that happens a lot here, so we're happy.

WAS THE TRACK SLIPPERY OUT THERE? "It looks like nobody's car is very stable looking. Everybody sems like they're really on top of the racetrack as far as grip goes. And it's rougher than ever. They patched a couple of places, and the patches are actually rougher now than I remember them being. The aero deal is good except it's hard to pass, and hard to get a clean move when someone gets underneath you or beside you. It messes you up and you don't get a good line and your car's just not stable. That's the big thing. The track's not slippery, it's just that everybody's got a little tightness and a little looseness at the same time. It's a little bit for The Winston, but it's kind of the way the package is right now."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"I'm a little disappointed. I thought we had a car that could win the race. On that one restart I went to get past Michael (Waltrip), and if I would've had about two more feet to clear up in front of him, it would've been clean sailing trying to get Jimmie (Johnson). But he came right down on my right rear quarter panel and the car turned sideways and we lost a couple of spots. A heck of a night for this whole UAW Chevrolet crew."

-gm racing-

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