Martinsville Ford Racing Sunday quotes

TODD BODINE - 66 - Blue Light Special Taurus - "We put this motor in this morning, trying to keep all of the race laps we could off of the race motor, and it backfired on us because if we would've had it in for practice it would've blown up in practice."

WHAT HAPPENED?
It's probably the motor. This is the race motor we put in this morning. We tried to do everything we could to prevent what happened by putting less laps on the race car, it's just common sense. You put in the race motor to keep the laps off it and it backfired on us. If we would've had it in for practiced it would've blown up first in practice. We had a good race car, the Kmart Blue Light. Like I said, we had a good car, I thought we could've been top 10, top five. I hate it for these guys. We've really run good a lot. We've made some of our own mistakes that have cost us good finishes, but we got a great future and that's what we're looking for. We're trying to build this team. The guys have got a great attitude. Travis and Carl have been great. We just can't complete the whole package for the whole day."

BRETT BODINE - 11 - Ralphs Supermarkets Taurus - "Typical Martinsville. Somebody got turned around and they checked up and a chain-reaction deal. We had a good race car today. That'll happen. We'll get ready for two weeks and go to Talladega and fix this thing and get ready to go to Loudon."

MARK MARTIN - 6 - Pfizer Taurus - WHAT HAPPENED? "I don't know. I didn't see it. I don't know."

ROBERT PRESSLEY - 77 - Jasper Engines & Transmissions Taurus - "I don't know. The thing just started missing, and then she just tightened up. I don't know."

DOES IS MAKE IT MORE FRUSTRATING THAT YOU WERE HAVING SUCH A GOOD WEEKEND?
"Oh, man, I'll tell you what, this Jasper Ford was really tearing 'em out. We were just sitting there just riding around and the race track was coming right to us. I mean the race car was great."

RUSTY WALLACE - 2 - Miller Lite Taurus - "There was oil all in our pits from the 29 car and we couldn't get all up for a while. It was so slippery we got behind on a couple of pits stops. We finally used some brake clean, got it cleaned up and had the best stop of the day. That got us back up to second. The 99 sort of backed up on us after one of those re-starts near the end. Our brakes were fading and we got up on the high side and slid back to fifth or sixth. We pitted there on the last yellow, following the 99 in, and just sort of fell apart after that. We put right sides on there at the end and the thing would not just run on right sides only."

RICKY RUDD - 28 - Texaco/Havoline Taurus - "I guess the decision was made way back not to get tires and then we had those re-starts at the end and we couldn't come in at that point. I don't know if we got outsmarted or they just made a luckier call. Congratulations to D.J. there and Todd. That's a good deal. They had a hard time getting around this race track, and Fatback gave a set-up and, dad-gummit, I wish they would've taken back because they beat us for the race win with it. But, I'm just tickled to death for all these guys on the Texaco/Havoline team, we've had a tough year. It would've been nice to get a victory but just wasn't meant to be today, we just got caught there at the end with old tires."

JEFF BURTON - 99 - CITGO SUPERGARD Taurus - "You can say a lot about this team. One thing you can't say about it is we don't quit, and we won't quit. It hasn't been a good year, but there's a whole lot of racing left to go. I know we got a really, really good race team and we aren't going to get down. This is what the 99 can do."

A GOOD RUN FOLLOWED BY AN OFF-WEEK. DOES THAT BREAK UP ANY MOMENTUM THAT YOU MIGHT'VE GAINED?
"No. I don't believe in momentum or anything else for that matter. It's all about what you do the race that you're going to. We had a great test last week, we learned a lot of things. I felt really good about our test and I think that led into this race., even though the race tracks totally different. I think leaving Texas running as poorly as we ran and going to California on that same set of tires is a big deal for us. It got our confidence back. It surely got my confidence back. And, we're ready to go. This is the start of our season right here."

DALE JARRETT - 88 - UPS Taurus - "I've been racing here for a long time, going all back to about 1980. It's changed a lot, but this is a great race track. Clay Campbell and his grandfather before him, Clay Earles, have done great things with this race track. It's a beautiful facility and great place for the fans. Todd Parrott made a great call there to come in and get tires and adjust the car and we weren't good enough to win the way we were, I think we would've really struggled. That was the key again."

THE DECISION ON GETTING THE TIRES AT THE END.
"The car just wasn't sticking very good. It was pushing in the center and loose off and I knew that it wasn't going to come in and do any better, so we knew we could come in and make the car better - even better than that. That's what makes Todd Parrott invaluable, he's just a such a great friend and partner in there and makes the great calls."

MATT KENSETH - 17 - DeWalt Tools Taurus - "It was a good run for us. We were really happy to qualify 25th, that's the best we've ever done with the DeWalt car. This has probably been my worse track next to Sears Point, so for us to run up front most of the day after the pit thing worked out for us, it was big accomplishment for us. We had good pit stops and the DeWalt Taurus handled real good and had real good bite all day. We weren't as good as the winning cars, but to come from a last-place car we had the last two times to come to run sixth, that's a really good effort out of the guys."

THE HEAT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE IT AFFECTED YOU. HOW DID YOUR CAR HANDLE IT?
"Our car was pretty good. We actually didn't change anything all day and that probably hurt me a little bit, but it was running so good I didn't want to hurt it. We were kind of slow on new tires and after we'd get running the car would come in and get really good bite for me and turn pretty well and would run a pretty good time. So, heat really didn't have nothing with us, it kind of played into our hands for our set-up a little bit."

KURT BUSCH - 97 - Sharpie Rubbermaid Taurus - "Tough way to start out with the Sharpie Rubbermaid car. The crew did a great job of coming back after the broken caliper. We're either top 10 or 40th."

JIMMY SPENCER - 26 - Kmart Taurus - A GOOD RUN HERE MEANS A GOOD RUN - AND STAYING OUT OF EVERYBODY ELSE'S WAY? "I'll tell you, we didn't. Every time we looked around we were getting hit from behind. We were in a lot of accidents. I'm very fortunate that we didn't tear the car up too bad. We were really patient today with the Kmart car, the pit stops were good, we made some adjustments, got the car up to the top five. We made a bad call there at the end. Donnie said maybe put four tires on it and I said, 'Alright,' and then he said, 'Well, you make the decision.' I made a bad one there probably. If we would've put four tires on we probably could've come back up there and contended for a top-five, but we're happy with it. It's another top 10 after the top 10 we ran at Texas last week, and I really feel like if we can keep doing this we can get the Kmart car in the winner's circle."

IF YOU KEPT TRADING PAINT LIKE THAT, HOW DID YOU KEEP IT UP FRONT?
"I don't know, man, I'll tell you, every time we turned around somebody was hitting me. It was just racing at Martinsville. Nobody intended on spinning anybody out. It was close, you know, and one guy bobbles and everybody just sort of rammed into each other. And, I was lucky, I never spun out, but I had a lot of damage on my race car."

ELLIOTT SADLER - 21 - Motorcraft Taurus - "We had some good runs today, and that's definitely better than we've ever been here at Martinsville. We'll take that, we'll stay in the top 10 in points, and that's where we wanted to be. The way we were at Happy Hour yesterday, being the slowest car here, and all the changes we made, making it all the much better is pretty cool, so we're pretty happy about that."

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN BRING BACK?
"Yeah, I think we'll have a closer place to start when we get back. That means a lot. That's what you're supposed to do is learn and do the best you can, and we're gonna be a whole closer when we come back, so that'll be good, that'll help us in the fall race."

JEFF BURTON Press Conference

WHAT ABOUT YOUR TIRE SITUATION?

"We put on four tires - I think every stop we put on four tires, we never put on two, which was the right strategy for us. It never got us in position where we didn't have a chance to win. Early in the race, some people didn't pit and put on two and that helped them temporarily, but tires won the race. There was a lot said about not needing tires today, but any time I could get 'em, I wanted 'em. We didn't pit the one time that we should've. Frank said don't pit, I have the power to over-rule him, and I knew we needed to pit and I didn't pit even though he said don't pit, so he and I together didn't do a good job of that. That's what Jarrett did and that's what won him the race. And, that's probably what we should've done, but hindsight's 20/20."

WHAT ABOUT YOUR DRIVE BACK UP THROUGH THE FIELD?

"That was pretty awesome. We did a helluva job coming back from, you know, we started behind a lot of guys that we finished way in front of. We chose the right lines and ran really hard, ran the brakes completely off the damn thing there at the end, and that's what we needed to do. That got us back to third. The caution comes out with 10 to go, we have a great chance to win this race. And that's why we pitted. We knew we weren't gonna win if we stayed out and ran behind the 28. Maybe we finish second, but especially where we are in the points, hell, we're here to win. And the best opportunity for us to win was to pit and put on tires and hope that we could get back through and then hope for a caution."

YOU SAID ON FRIDAY THAT A GOOD QUALIFYING EFFORT THAT YOU HAD WOULDN'T NECESSARILY BOOST THE SEASON. WHAT ABOUT THIS?

"Well, this is more of what we're used to, without a doubt. You know, you can say a lot of things about us this year, but you sure can't say that we're quitters, and you sure can't say that we've given up. Every single time that we've gone to the race track, myself and my guys have put forth the same effort that we put into it last year when we were second and third in points. And, I'm real proud of that. We've been highly motivated and highly dedicated through a time when a lot of teams would've been fighting and pointing fingers. The truth of the matter is we haven't done any of that. It's been so cool to watch my guys and myself keep our spirits up. And I will tell you that I haven't just been saying it because it's the correct thing to do, even after Texas where we ran so bad, we left there and went to California to test and my guys kept their heads up. It's a long year. It's a long year, and hopefully this will get our year started."

WHAT WAS YOUR MIND-SET NOT TO OVER-RULE THE DECISION NOT TO TAKE ON TIRES?

"The car was the best it had been on that run. As soon as we took off running, we were too loose and that's when Ricky got by us. Hindsight's always 20/20. We were the best we had been and I thought, well, we'll stay out here and keep our track position. I watched the 55 be able to do that, keep track position and stay in the lead. So, all those things went through my head and then I didn't pit."

CAN YOU SPEAK TO "DRIVER COMFORT" IN TERMS OF THE HEAT?

"It's hot. This is the hottest place we go, I don't care what anybody says. This is hotter than anywhere that we go. I'm in the best shape I've ever been in in my life and this certainly wasn't as bad as the race that Ricky won here and it was so hot, but the cars get so hot anyway, even on a cold day here, and then you add the temperature to it and it's pretty grueling. I feel good about the way I feel right now. I got my heartbeat going up pretty good there the last 30 laps because we had to come from so far back and ran so hard, but other than that I really feel pretty good."

ALL IN ALL, IS THIS A GOOD DAY FOR ROUSH RACING?

"All in all, a good day is when we all finish in the top five, and that certainly didn't happen. It looked like Mark ran pretty well today. Matt ran well today. The 97, it was pretty much his first time here, although that hadn't bothered him very much lately. I don't know. A lot's been made about Roush Racing and how terrible we've done, but really it's all an individual case. It's not that we're all doing the same thing wrong, we're all doing different things wrong. When we win, and run in the top five, we always go out there with different set-ups and stuff. So, it's a credit to an individual team when you do well, and it's not a bad thing about Roush Racing when we all do poorly, because it's up to each team to get the deal done."

HAVE YOUR SPIRITS IMPROVED SINCE FRIDAY'S QUALIFYING?

"I was no more pessimistic about qualifying on Friday than I am when we qualify 30th. I know just because you qualify well it doesn't mean you're gonna run well. It certainly gets you a good starting spot, but it doesn't mean you're going to win, it doesn't mean you're going to run well. We qualified third or fifth at Rockingham and we finished 30-something, so it doesn't matter where you start, it matters where you finish, and when we do well I try to remind myself of that and my guys of that and also when we do poorly I remind my guys and myself that that doesn't mean we can't win. I wasn't pessimistic, I was just realistic, I guess.

RICKY RUDD Press Conference

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END WHEN YOU DROPPED FROM FIRST TO SECOND?

"Tire management, not tire management, but cycles on the tires. When D.J. pitted for tires and when we pitted, I'm not sure exactly of the laps but probably 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 laps difference on tires, and Goodyear's got a great tire here that dictated a lot of the pit strategy here today, but you're sort of a sitting duck there at the end. The only thing we could hope for when we made the call to stay out that the guys that did come in and get tires were gonna get cluttered up in traffic. And had that last caution not come out when the 32 or whoever that was spun out, our strategy would've worked and they would've been sitting here talking about second, so it could've gone either way."

COMPARE THE HEAT TODAY AND HOW IT AFFECTED YOU TO TWO YEARS AGO WHEN YOU WON HERE.

"It just wasn't as hot today. It was warm in the race car, as it always is, but it was an unbearable day and the first of the race my coolant never worked and everything today worked so it was a completely different race for me as far as comparing heat. It wasn't a bad race at all."

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU, HANGING ON THAT END?

That's pretty much what we did after that last re-start. I looked in the mirror before the re-start and said, 'We got troubles,' because I could see Sterling back there on the same tires that we were on, and I could see a lot of guys didn't peel in on the previous stop when there was about 50, 60 laps to go, I've lost track of the laps, though. Whenever D.J. come in, he got tires, and I looked up in the mirror and I saw him on the re-start about fourth, fifth or sixth, and I knew he sitting there with a lot better tires than we had, and fresh tires just beat up old tires. Kind of an ironic situation. D.J.'s, they've run exceptionally well on big tracks, middle tracks and they struggle on short tracks. We got here last year and they were really struggling. Our crew chief set-up another car that beat us, so I guess if we could reverse anything, maybe we should've held back just a little bit of the information on that, and we'd be sitting in victory lane and he'd be sitting here, second. It was a good day for Yates Racing, you know, a 1-2 finish. Certainly we would like to be sitting there in victory lane. What was the right call? I don't think anybody could tell you at that time what the right call was and had that last caution not come out we would've made the right call. The chips fell where they did and there's no hard feelings and we'll pick up and go on. We had a good run today. We were probably one of the only good cars that lost a lap, almost two laps down at one time, at the beginning of the race we were sitting there fourth or fifth and we had a brake-line bleeder valve back out of a caliper. Hit the brake going into turn one and the pedal went to the floor, so I think the guys did a super job. I've never heard of a team taking a car with a brake-system broke, fix it, only lose one lap, and run second, so I'm real tickled with the job they did in the pits."

ANDY HOUSTON Press Conference

HOW HOT WAS IT?

"It was unbelievable. Every time I've ever raced here, when the race is over, I've been wore out. The most I ever run here was 250 laps, so half of this race. I was in pretty good shape up to about lap 300 and then it started getting pretty warm and the crew did a great job giving me ice packs and water. Matter of fact, the last caution flag, we elected to stay out and go for the track position. It helped us a couple of spots, but the last 15 or 20 laps I was just wanting to see that checkered flag. You know, it's part of the experience. Being a rookie and coming here and running 500 laps says a lot, I feel like. This really is the first Winston Cup race we finished on the lead lap, not that we shouldn't have in some others, but we've just had problems and things to keep us from it. It's a good way to get ready to go to a couple places that I feel like we'll be really good, Talladega and California. The McDonald's team is all pumped up and it's good to be sitting in this chair."

WHAT HELP DID YOU NEED AFTER THE RACE?

"I had them get the medical people ready before I was over because I burnt my heel really bad, and it was just 'get out.' They gave me oxygen and some fluids and I bounced back pretty good, so I'm feeling pretty good now. I heard that some other guys were fighting a lot of the same problems. One thing we had in our race car that I feel like if we come back here we'll do different is we had the exhaust pipes run out the left side under the driver's seat and it just creates a tremendous amount of heat being there. You want them on the left because of the weight and everything, exhaust pipes are pretty heavy and you need all the weight to the left. A lot of the guys had them out to the right, and when we come back we'll probably have right-side pipes. I think you won't fight the heat near as bad with those."

HAVE YOU EVER RUN IN ANY DIVISION AT MARTINSVILLE BEFORE?

"Oh, yeah, several times. Run late-model stock cars here, ran the Craftsman Truck Series here for the last three years. Got a lot of laps around this place. The place is so flat and it's sort of down in a hole that you don't circulate a lot of air and I think that's a lot of the reason that people fight the heat when they come here because you just don't generate any air into the race cars, and what air that is generated is hot air. It was a good day for the McDonald's Ford and all the guys worked hard and they're all pumped up and now we're ready to go to Talladega."

DALE JARRETT Press Conference

ANY SPECIAL FEELINGS ABOUT WINNING AT MARTINSVILLE FOR THE FIRST TIME?

"No doubt. You know, we've been fortunate to win at a lot of race tracks, but this means as much to me as anything. I've been coming here for a long time, as a kid watching my dad race here, and this was the place that I was fortunate enough to get my very first Winston Cup start back in 1984 for Emanual Zervakis, and things have come a long way. I had a great time that day, and just fortunate to be associated with the people that I am right now - great sponsorship, great ownership and the guy that leads us, Todd Parrott, does just a fantastic job. We don't know that we were necessarily the best car, we were an awful good car here today, but at times were the best car, and this is as good as we've ever run here at Martinsville and this is really for me to get into victory lane." more

EVERYBODY WAS HOLLERING TRACK POSITION, TRACK POSITION YESTERDAY. WITH THAT IN MIND, WHY DID YOU COME IN AND GET TIRES?

"The set that we put on with like 130 to go, we made a slight air-pressure adjustment and a slight wedge adjustment, ant it just upset my car terribly; it didn't like that at all. I guess we run about 35 or 40 laps, and regardless of track position or whatever, I knew some guys behind us would get some tires, so I was banking on enough of them coming that we get all the way at the very back, and I knew we didn't have a chance with what I had on. So, there's no reason to sit out there and just run for that track position. I knew we had good race car and we could pass cars, I proved that during the day, so Todd and I agreed to come get 'em, they made a adjustment on the car and that's what won the race. Ricky had a really good car, but those 35 or 40 laps made the difference."

IF THOSE TIRES WOULD'VE BEEN BAD, WOULD IT HAVE BEEN A TOUGHER DECISION?

"Yeah, if the car would've been handling, I would've never come in. And it probably as much the tires as what it was the adjustments we made with them, by putting a pound of air in the right front and putting a round of bite in, I'd been a little bit loose before that. It was probably more the adjustments we made on that, but all of that together made our decision a lot easier."

RICKY RUDD SAID IF HE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SO FREE WITH SET-UP INFORMATION HE WOULD'VE WON THE RACE?

"He may have. They helped us an awful lot here last year and we went off of that and we also went testing this week at our old short track and we worked awful hard on this. We looked at what we did last year and made some adjustments from that and, yeah, I think the two cars were a lot alike but I think they were down there talking to us this morning, too, because we were pretty good in Happy Hour yesterday, or Happy 90 Minutes, whatever it is. But that's just teamwork. We have information for them, they have it for us. I can sit here and honestly say that as bad as I wanted to win, I would've much rather passed anybody but to take it away from Ricky and them because I know they needed a win but I drive for UPS and these guys work hard for our team and the opportunity was there and we had to take that opportunity."

AFTER LAST YEAR WAS THERE A BAD TASTE IN YOUR MOUTH AND ARE YOU MORE DETERMINED THAN EVER THIS YEAR TO REGAIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?

"I don't know that I could ever be any more determined. We just didn't hit on it last year. Todd's had the time now to build some new cars and our engine department is great, but we've also added some very key people, some engineers. I think it made a big difference in helping Todd and myself look at what we've been seeing. A couple of times last year we weren't far off, we just didn't know how to go about moving on from there, and these guys have helped us to do that. And the new race cars, this was a brand-new car again today, we're building all of these in-house and Todd's had time to take and build these cars for specific tracks, and that's making a big difference. Certainly, after last year, we wanted to come back. Once you win the championship, you want to do it every year. It just seems like nothing else will suffice if you don't. Right now we have things really going our way."

ON THE HISTORY OF THE SPORT (AMONG THE DRIVERS JARRETT PASSED ON THE ALL-TIME WINS LIST WAS FRED LORENZEN).

"That means a lot. I do know a lot about the history. Do they still give a clock here?

YES, IT'S WAITING FOR YOU.

"Cool. Man, I've been trying to win one of those for 20 years, so that's good. I don't know where we'll put it, but we'll find somewhere. It does mean a lot to me. I came here and watched Fred Lorenzen and my dad and Richard Petty, those guys battle a lot of times. I had no idea I'd have the opportunity to win as many races as Fred Lorenzen did. He was a terrific race driver and Ford had a tremendous fleet of drivers during that time and it was always fun to watch them, and fortunately I was able to go to victory lane a lot with my dad during those year. It does mean a lot to me to do that, to pass someone like Fred Lorenzen, who meant a lot to this sport in the early years."

DID YOU THINK THAT IT WAS A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE YOU WON HERE OR DID YOU SAY MAYBE YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO WIN HERE?

"I was hoping it was a matter of time, if just had enough time left, I wasn't sure about that. We've run well here in the past but probably never good to win. We've run good enough to run in the top five, but I honestly thought yesterday in practice if we could do the right things in the pits and make the right calls that we would have a chance to win. I felt like our car was good enough. I was one of the few I cars I saw that was able to pass in practice yesterday, and we were able to pass today. We were fortunate to make the right calls. Things have just gone our way that way this year. Todd has made great calls, and it's benefited us greatly."

WHAT WERE YOU MISSING IN THE PAST THAT YOU CAME UP WITH TODAY?

"Even though we had been somewhat on track, I'm gonna give Ricky Rudd some credit here. When he came on board at Robert Yates Racing, they helped our program at this place. We ran better last year and between Todd and Michael McSwain working together and working around and racing around Ricky, that helped us a lot. Ricky helped us understand what we needed to do to hook up the power that we had. When he came here he said he had to change his set-up a little bit because of the power, and that always had been a problem is having all that power which benefits us greatly at a lot of other places, but creates problems for us here. But we worked hard in the area of manifolds, of headers, tailpipes, spring-and-shock combinations. Certainly the 28 has been a big part of that. Again, the new car that we have, that was probably the biggest thing, getting something that really was made for this race track is what Todd built this car for and that makes all the difference."

DID YOU NOT HAVE A CAR MADE FOR THIS TRACK BEFORE THIS?

"We had a short-track car but we're really into fine-tuning these things for looking at the banking and things that we're doing with the tires now and it's made all the difference in the world in getting all of the pivot points exactly right for each track."

BETWEEN LAP 325 AND LAP 425 JEFF BURTON WAS PULLING AWAY. WHAT DID YOU FIGURE YOU HAD TO DO?

"Jeff had a good car. I thought that my car, we needed to adjust on it just a little bit from that point. Another set of tires and a slight adjustment, we would be okay. The track seem to tighten up a bit, you were sliding more in the center and that made hard to get a hold of a little bit, so we made an air-pressure adjustment with like 90 to go for that and got the bite back out of it because it seemed the track got tighter, and then helped me to run some better laps."

IT SEEMS LIKE YOUR WINS ARE A REVERSAL OF THE PATTERN FROM YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP YEAR.

"Yeah, things are kind of falling into place. We had the caution right at Darlington. The first things is we've run well at each of these places to put ourselves in this position. We had a great car at Atlanta and Las Vegas and we ran up front, just didn't get wins, there. Darlington, we were fortunate to get the caution late and our car was good on short runs, where Steve's was good on long runs. Things are just falling into place. There's 28 to go or something, and that's forever and we've got all kinds of racing to do. I really like what I see happening. We're taking advantage of opportunities and situations, and that's what you have to do, when you put yourself in that position, you have to take advantage of those and we're doing that right now. Yeah, it's a little different than the norm for us, but we'd like to make this another different year, kind of like '99.

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR WEEK OFF?

"Going to the Bahamas."

TODD PARROTT - 88 - Crew Chief - ON THE DECISION TO CHANGE TIRES.

"Like Dale said, we made the wrong adjustments there with 150 laps to go, thinking the race track was going to get looser, put a round of bite in it, change the air pressure in the right front a little bit and it wasn't three laps into the run and I saw the car coming off the corner and I saw that that was the totally wrong thing to do. We were very fortunate to have gotten that caution with 95 laps to go, whatever it was. It wasn't a hard decision. Like he said, we came to Martinsville to win the race. Yesterday in Happy Hour we had a great car. The car turned well in the corner, in the center, came off the corner real well and that's something that we weren't doing at the time. Yesterday, the truck race, the race track was a lot different, it was a lot greasier, a lot slicker today, I saw after about 70, 75 laps, guys really started sliding around, and that's when our car really started to work. It wasn't that hard of a call. We weren't going to win the race at the present time so we came in, put on four more brand-new Goodyear Eagles and readjusted the air pressure and the wedge and we were very fortunate to have gotten that caution with 30, 40 laps to go, but I still think with the hard racing and stuff that we had to do that the car was good enough and we had the fresher tires to have made a run at Ricky at the end."

EVEN WITHOUT THAT LAST CAUTION, YOU FIGURE YOU WOULD'VE GOTTEN HIM?

"It would've been a little bit harder, it would've been more than whatever it was, six or seven laps to go when he passed him for the lead. He would've had to work a little bit harder than what he was doing if he wasn't working hard."

HOW HOT WAS IT?

"It was hot, I mean really, really hot. Typically, always, we'll have cool races and you can't get yourself used to it until we come here. You just don't dissipate any of the heat because you've got the brake heat, the engine heat, right under you and you're around cars all the time, so, it was hot. I felt good. I'm just a little bit dehydrated there at the end, but I'm refreshed and ready to go."

TODD PARROTT - HOW MUCH HAS RACE AND PIT STRATEGY CHANGED AT MARTINSVILLE? IS IT JUST AS CHAOTIC, OR IS IT LIKE ANY OTHER PLACE?

"I can honestly tell you that I've got a Goody's headache right now because it was a very stress-related race. You had to make the right calls. Was it two tires? Four tires? Do you pit for tires? What do you do? It's a chess match and you just have to be lucky and fortunate enough that I've got the Good Guy upstairs close to me right now, everything's going right, I'm living right. It was one of them deals that we were very fortunate to have the things happening that are happening right now with our race team. Dale's driving a great race and the guys are producing great race cars and great engines and I wish I could go to the Bahamas with him."

HAVE THE NEW TIRES MADE IT MORE DIFFICULT?

"The new tire has made it more difficult, your decisions that you make because Goodyear has got such a great tire right now, it's incredible. It's a pat on the back to all the engineers that have worked so hard for so many years. They've gotten a common tire that they're bringing to these race tracks, the racing is great. The sad part about it is the tire doesn't fall off any on lap times so that's what makes it so hard on your decisions on what to do. Knowing that four new tires may not be the answer, they may be two-tenths slower, but that's just the chance you take. Goodyear's got a great tire and it makes my job hard."

DALE JARRETT - HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU'LL FARE AFTER THE BREAK?

"Excited about going anywhere right now. Our program is really good and those have typically been good race tracks for us. Right now we're looking forward to getting the guys some time off, and myself some time off and relax a little bit but when we get back to racing it'll be a fantastic race at Talladega, four and five wide all day, so go there and get used to that and then on to California and Richmond, I guess, after that. So we got some good tracks coming and, again, our program is really good right now so we're excited about going."

-Ford Racing