Quotes and Notes from New Hampshire
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by Mike Wells ~ July 1st, 2008 @ 5:57 am. Filed under: Water From The Well(s). 471 reads |
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What a day what a day! I myself was not happy at all with how it ended, but you have to take the good with the bad. Who could have called a day like this? The winner makes less money than the runner-up. The runner-up starts the race last due to an engine change and the 3rd place finisher didn’t even make last week’s race.
At first it looked like Casey Mears was going to drive away with it and maybe put the spotlight on a new job. Then Tony Stewart got a taste of that clean air and checked out. But even Stewart’s efforts were no match for Mother Nature. He would have to settle to 13th when it was all said and done. His career long, 31 consecutive winless streak had him not too happy during his in car interview.
Kurt Busch would only lead the last ten laps of the rain shortened race. Waltrip took 2nd and Yeley 3rd. Busch made about $5,000 less than Waltrip because he is not eligible for as many contingency awards as Waltrip is.
They secured their fate when they decided to pit during a caution on lap 218 while the rest of the field didn’t. The rest of the field took their pits during a caution on lap 273, moving Busch, Waltrip, Yeley, Truex Jr and Sadler into the top 5. When the rain finally moved in a little later, they were in position while the leaders most of the day were further back in the pack.
Every race has controversy. Dale Jr. was rammed so hard from behind, that his rear tires left the ground as he spun around when Jamie McMurray hit him. Dale Jr. was moving down below the yellow line trying to make his way to the pits as Jamie McMurray rounded the corner. The announcers made light of the situation claiming that as a driver, McMurray was focused down the track and never seen Jr. Well Jr, put a flashing light on your car like the pace car and maybe other drivers can see you then. You mean to tell me that you can NOT see a car with flashy colors and logos? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!! I have nothing against McMurray, but maybe he should go make an appointment with a local optometrist and get him some specs.
Let’s not forget “Rowdy Busch”, “Little Shrub”, “Wild Thing” or whatever they are calling him these days! I never got the full story, so I don’t know who was in the wrong first. It looked like they were both racing back to the line after the caution and got a little rough. I did see Busch give Montoya some tire rubs, then Montoya said enough is enough and spun him around. Bad thing for Montoya was that he spun right back into him, and the other was that he admitted to doing it on purpose on a live televised interview. I have nothing against Montoya or Busch, but they are both hot heads and very impatient at times. This reminds me of Kyle spinning Jr. Sometimes that karma comes full circle don’t it?
Enough with the notes, how about them quotes?
AFTER THE RACE QUOTES
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Race Winner:
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR WEEKEND? - “It was a good weekend for us working through our new test data that we put together from Milwaukee (test) this week. We came with a different package and felt that we were a bit more competitive. I made a joke in practice that we passed somebody (laughter). It’s been a long year trying to get Penske Racing back to form. We started off with a bang at Daytona. We feel like we have all the right people. I love Pat Tryson (Crew Chief) and all the crew guys right underneath him. I like all the guys back at the shop. We just can’t quite put our finger on what we need.
“So today was a good car for what we’ve been normally, and that put us in position to stretch our fuel a little bit. When we could make it to the end, we pitted. We needed a few laps to help us. But we were gonna be loaded for bear and ready to rock n’ roll if it came down to the end. When everybody pitted with, I don’t know, 30 laps to go, when I was told, you’re in the lead, there’s 26 laps to go, that’s the most motivation a driver could ever ask for because you want to hold it off and bring it home for your team. So we were gonna have our work cut out for us. I felt we could have held off some the guys right behind us, and pit strategy worked out perfect. It’s all credit to Pat Tryson.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE STRATEGY TO PIT EARLY LATE IN THE RACE? “The last couple times here fuel strategy has been fairly important and track position is important. So we only give up a little bit of track position at that time, put us within a couple laps of making it to the end. We just needed one caution. Fortunately we got that caution. Then obviously we got another caution. Everybody else came down pit road, left us up there. The rain came sooner than we thought it would, but it all worked out.”
DO YOU BELIEVE IN RACING LUCK AND DO YOU DO ANYTHING TO CHANGE YOUR LUCK? -“You know, I learned early on, before I even really made it up to the Cup level, that luck is definitely a player in racing. I think Richard Childress defined luck the best. He says, ‘When preparation meets opportunity, that’s luck.’ And we were prepared today, and the opportunity presented itself to pit when we did. You have to have a fast enough car, a prepared car. So things came into play for us. A lot of cautions have been falling for guys like that this year. My little brother had a fast racecar last weekend and won at the road course. I didn’t see him all day, though. And he pops up right when he needs to. It’s something that’s always been in the game. You’ve got to have strategy. You have to have a fast car. Where we are in points, we’ve got our backs up against the wall. So we gambled a little bit and it paid off.”
WHAT DO YOU CREDIT THIS WIN TO? PIT STRATEGY? MILWAUKEE TEST? OR A LITTLE OF BOTH? – “You know, as hard as we’re working, you can’t just point to one thing and say that’s what helped us get to Victory Lane. Fuel mileage has been a big issue. We still need to work on that. We need to get our cars handling better. And we’re working. We’re working hard. We’re testing all the time. Ask my wife. Ask the crew members. You know, we’re on the gas trying to get our 2, 12 and 77 teams up, running competitive every week. So it’s hard to put your finger on one thing. We’ll definitely think about what Milwaukee gave us, our fuel mileage, and just the heart of this team. It’s not due to lack of effort that we’re not up front, because we’re putting a full effort forward trying to find what it is. I like the people.
I like the program. Pat Tryson is an awesome crew chief and team leader. I just wish there was one thing we could put our finger on to do better, but we’re going to keep working.”
DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE HELD MICHAEL WALTRIP OFF AT THE END OF THE RACE? – “Yeah, I felt like it was going to be a great duel down to the end with everybody on old tires. Everybody would have been slipping and sliding. I think he’s exactly right, that this was more fuel strategy to get to lap 301 than it was with the rain. So the rain aided us, but yet I felt like we had track position. I felt like my fire and desire was going to overcome anything today to get into Victory Lane. Once I saw that we were leading and we were out in front with 26 to go, that good old Kurt Busch jumped up on the wheel. I told myself, ‘Don’t let your team down. This is what you live for, this is what you race for, and that is to go to Victory Lane.’ I’m happy to bring it home for Miller Lite and Dodge today.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR PIT STRATEGY LATE IN THE RACE? – “We wanted to pit as soon as we could because we couldn’t make it on fuel. We were one of the front cars that pitted and so when you jump in that bed, you have to lay in it. And where we are in points, you need to take a little bit of a gamble. Pat (Tryson) made a great call and we were able to get our Dodge in Victory Lane.”
PAT TRYSON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CAR TODAY? -“We had a pretty good car all day. We topped off the fuel and were pretty close to making it to the end. We were hoping for some cautions, we got them, and I told Kurt (Busch) that we were going to stay on the race track and take a gamble. Today it worked and it got us a win.”
DOES IT REALLY MATTER HOW YOU WIN SOMETHING OR THE WEATHER? – “Well, we were watching the weather a little bit. But our strategy was to make it to the end. I think some of the other guys were counting on the rain getting here earlier than it did. We were counting on it holding off. It means the world to us. Like I said, we’ve struggled a little bit this year. It hasn’t been as much fun as it was last year obviously. But hopefully this will give us some momentum and put some more fun back in it. Hopefully, we can score some more wins and still make it in the Chase.”
HOW MUCH DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE THREAT OF RAIN? – “We saw it was coming. Those things (radar) give you a rough idea, but you never know exactly when it was gonna get there. At that point we were watching it more than we were anything. To be honest, we were rooting for it not to rain because we had the fuel mileage to make it to the end and other guys were going to have to pit. We weren’t really counting on the rain. It just kind of worked out that they all pitted there and it rained. You know, could have went the other way, too.”
Michael Waltrip after the race:
Waltrip said it was strategy, not rain, that gave him the solid finish.
“The reason why I’m sitting here is because we got an opportune caution late in the race and took advantage of race position,” the owner-driver said.
“ I’m here not [in the media center] because of the thunder you hear outside. I’m here because of strategy and the opportune caution that gave me track position. If the rain doesn’t come and we’re able to restart, I was faster than Kurt — I feel like I could have beat him.”
“We were able to hold off Harvick early when he caught me [while leading] and outran him for eight or 10 laps, stayed on the lead lap,” Waltrip said of how good he thought his car was. “Then I just got a break there at the end with my strategy — pitting and getting enough gas, we felt like, to get to the end and having a really strong car.
“I passed a bunch of guys to get into position to get to Kurt and race him. I really wished there were a few more laps, wished we could have went back to green. As bad as I need those 170 points, I’m very cognizant of the difference between first and second — it’s huge. To get a win for our team would have been very, very rewarding.”
Waltrip took issue with those who questioned his finish being the sole result of the rain shower.
“I will correct anyone, the rain isn’t why I’m sitting here,” Waltrip said. “The reason why I’m sitting here is because we got an opportune caution late in the race and took advantage of race position, the same thing we were unable to do all day long last Sunday in California.
“So I’m here not [in the media center] because of the thunder you hear outside. I’m here because of strategy and the opportune caution that gave me track position. If the rain doesn’t come and we’re able to restart, I was faster than Kurt — I feel like I could have beat him. But [Busch] probably thinks he could have held me off. And J.J. [Yeley] was kind of hoping we’d wreck.”
Yeley after the race:
“We had a lot of fun,” Yeley said. “I spent pretty much the majority of the race with Mikey [Waltrip] — I ran into him, he ran into me. I, too, wish we might have been able to go to green just for the fact those guys racing for the lead might have opened the door for me.
“We needed this finish really, really badly. I’m glad it’s in the books and we’ll look forward to Daytona.”
Martin Truex Jr. after the race:
Truex made the most impact of anyone in the points as he moved up three spots, from 17th to 14th, and now is within 71 points of 12th.
“Yeah — this year we’ll take anything we can get,” Truex said. “We’ve been on both sides of this stuff before, but I’m proud to get a good finish for all the guys — they’re working hard.
“We had a good car at the beginning of the race, drove up to the front, was looking really good and the track just completely went away from us — we got so tight we couldn’t do anything to fix it. That’s kind of been the way it’s been all year. We run really good at times. We can’t seem to finish the deal. We’re gonna get back to work this week. We’ve run a lot better than this all year and not finish good, so what comes around goes around, I guess.”
Tony Stewart’s frustration after the race:
Stewart took a while getting out of his car and could hardly believe his fate.
“It’s just been the oddest year I’ve ever seen for this race team,” he said. “It’s just frustrating. There isn’t anybody that’s going to tell you any different than that. There’s nothing you can do. If there was something we could do about it we’d change it.
“It’s not because of lack of effort,” added Stewart, who took two tires on his final pit stop and finished 13th. “I’ve got some of the best guys in the garage area and I’ve had ‘em for 10 years. It’s the worst string of bad luck we’ve ever seen, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Elliot Sadler happiness after the race:
Sadler was happy to make up for a seemingly certain top-five at Sonoma last weekend, when a flat tire knocked him back to 19th in the last two laps. He’s been mired in the mid-20s in the standings for nine weeks, but Sunday’s result was his third top-10 in the last six races.
“To get a top-five, it makes up for what happened to us at Sonoma because my team definitely deserved a top-five there,” Sadler said. “We played the pit strategy game [Sunday] and we look like heroes. I’m proud of my guys — they didn’t give up.”
Sorenson after the race:
Sorenson finished where he started, sixth, and made a critical advance in the points, from 34th to 31st in the driver standings and an even more important 35th to 31st in the owner standings.
“We struggled with rear grip all day in our Target Dodge. Once the clouds came in, the car reacted positive and really started to run good,” Sorenson said. “We just didn’t have a good car in the sun — we have to figure out how to make it better. But overall, it was good for us in the point standings and we’ll take a top-10 finish.”
“We were close [on fuel], so we decided ‘what the heck.’ The rain was close so we decided to stay out and see what happened,” Sorenson’s crew chief Donnie Wingo said of their first top-10 together and only the second of Sorenson’s season. “We needed a day like this, not just for this team, but the whole organization. Hopefully we’ve made some gains on it this week.”
Mears after the race:
For Mears, who was announced as being out of his Hendrick ride at the end of the season, it was his second consecutive top-10.
“It was another good run,” Mears said. “We had a really good car and it showed when we got the track position. I’m just real proud of everybody. There are a lot of things going on lately and to have as good of a run as we did [Sunday], I’m just real proud of that.
“Unfortunately right there at the end we got out of [pit] sequence. Fortunately it worked for us. But we definitely had a top-five car and we came out seventh, so that’s a good day for us.”
Kenseth after the race:
In the end, Matt Kenseth, who ran on the verge of the top 10 for 40 of the last 50 laps of the race, until it came time for pit decisions that knocked him back to 18th at the finish and one position out of being qualified for the Chase, about summed up the day for all the rain-washed losers.
“We didn’t run as good as I hoped. I thought the car was better than that and it really wasn’t, plus we could never get track position,” Kenseth said. “We couldn’t get on pit road and the way the race played out, we just couldn’t do anything except for about what we did.
“With the rain and all, some people pitted and some people didn’t. I think we did the right thing. We did what all the rest of the guys in front of us did and it just didn’t work out.”
Jamie McMurray said:
“I never saw the 88 until I hit him,” McMurray claimed. “Typically when guys pit like that, the spotters all get together and wave their hands and whatnot, and the spotter never said anything.” “Certainly it’s my fault,”
Tony Eury Jr:
“The car was really good at the start of the race,” said Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt’s crew chief. “We were going to pit a little bit early and just basically got run over.” “It’s just a part of it,” crew chief Tony Eury Jr. said. “I don’t know, I guess Jamie didn’t see him down there. But all in all, it looks like the 18 [of Busch] had a little trouble so we didn’t lose that much ground in the points, and we’ll just look forward to getting to Daytona.”
David Ragan’s take on the wreck:
After hitting Earnhardt, McMurray’s car bounced off the outside retaining wall and hit Ragan.
“I saw the wreck and thought I could go between them,” Ragan said. “I probably slowed down a little too much.”
Ragan said he felt like he did Red Sox Nation proud.
“We had one of the fastest cars on the track and passed a lot of cars all day long,” he said. “We were just in the wrong place at the right time.”
Jeff Gordon:
Jeff Gordon admits it - he and crew chief Steve Letarte chose poorly.
“It’s frustrating,” Gordon said, “because it was the first time in a while that I had a pretty good car and didn’t make the right call.”
Letarte kept an eye on the weather radar, and even though it should have been raining, it wasn’t.
“Our conversations were that we really had no choice,” Gordon said. “We could have made it about eight more laps. If we didn’t come and it didn’t rain, we would have run out of fuel.”
Montoya’s version of said events:
“We always give each other lots of room,” Montoya said of Busch. “But he went wide like I wasn’t there. Then I got beside him and he started banging me like he was trying to wreck me. I looked at him like, ‘What are you doing?’ ”
Montoya had no problem admitting he deliberately ran into Busch’s car.
“Yeah. I did what he did to me,” Montoya said. “I don’t appreciate people who race me like that. There’s a fine line and he crossed it.”
Apparently, NASCAR officials felt the same was about Montoya’s retaliation move. He was assessed a two-lap penalty for rough driving outside of race procedure. It dropped Montoya to 32nd in the finishing order.
Busch finished 25th, but still leads the Cup standings by 64 points over Jeff Burton.
When Kyle Busch was asked why Montoya spun him?
“I have no idea,” Busch said. “I got a run on him earlier. I didn’t turn down into him. He ran me up the racetrack.
“The caution came out and he thought he had to beat me. I touched his door and he spun me out. I don’t know what his beef is.”
Well, it’s all in the history books now. So let’s look forward to next week’s Saturday night race. It will be on July 5, 2008 at 8pm, race 18 of 36 or 18 of 26 (Race for the Chase) however you look at it.
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