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| | Sunday, September 19 | |||||
| Here's what the leaders and others had to say Sunday after the DuraLube/Kmart 300 at New Hampshire International Raceway.
"I didn't know what was going to happen there when (the caution came out with about 15 laps to go). My front tires were going away because we were abusing them pretty good.
"(On the restart), the tires had loaded up with rubber (into Turn 2) and when I got into the corner the thing turned sideways and Tony got on my bumper and I thought he was going to hit me. I just stood in the gas and kind of drove it sideways off the corner. Evidently he had a little more stuff on his front tires than I did.
"Tony Glover made a good call there and we got two tires at one point of the race and we were real good. We saved that for the end. We put two tires on and adjusted the air. I then told them this car was a rocket ship. The cautions there at the end, I didn't know what was going to happen because Tony Stewart had been so strong, but my car stuck there on the bottom and that's what it's all about.
"I was trying not to watch the mirror, but I was watching every once in a while. I didn't know what was going to happen. I'm trying to find a ride for next year and I hope this helps.
"It's been pretty interesting (having Glover as a spotter). I've got to thank all the guys who work real hard making the power. We gambled on a few things today, but it paid off for us. Glover is kind of funny spotting, especially if Sterling (Marlin) gets in the way. He'll try to get the guys to move pretty quick. It's definitely neat, it's a great group of guys." -- Joe Nemechek Winner of DuraLube/Kmart 300 "I thought we could make it two in a row until about 25 to go. Something happened in the motor and it laid down a bit. But what a great day for this (team). Of any of the guys I have to lose to, Joe Nemechek is one of the finer guys in this sport and one of the best guys we drive with. I'm glad to see him get a win today. "We had a great day. This (car) ran real good. We got hurt on track position a couple of times. But the guys did such a great job on the adjustments that the car drove really good. "When the motor broke on that long run, we were still catching (Nemechek) a little bit each lap because we were able to get off the corner without spinning the tires. But once that yellow came out and the tires cooled off, we couldn't get back on the greens. As soon as the cautions came out, there was so much garbage on the track you couldn't get any grip and you were sliding around all over the place. So that really hurt us."
-- Tony Stewart "Actually, right there at the end, my car was real loose there in the middle of the corner. One of those deals, I don't know if a restart would have helped me or not -- I was about stuck there in third anyway. Tony was catching Joe, and we were breaking even with the 99 and couldn't catch the 20. It was just like we were sort of stuck there." -- Bobby Labonte Finished: 3rd Place "I want to congratulate the No. 42 car. That's real special, with all he and his family has been through the last three years. To get a win here is pretty neat. "We had a pretty eventful day. We got into a couple of wrecks, never did hit anything real solid. Kept hitting people in front of me and that hurt the front end a lot. We actually shorted out the the break fans and had no alternator for half the race. "On the second long run, the car was really, really good. We were coming up and were better than the leader. But when we got the front-end damage, whenever we got behind a car it pushed real bad. I couldn't make the pass. We got outrun by a few cars today, but we're happy with fourth." -- Jeff Burton Finish: 4th Place "I was just happy to stay on the lead lap (for a while). That was quite an eventful day for me. I was in about three wrecks and about three more. It was a great effort by these guys. "We were good early on and then we got real loose and started to fade. Then I got in some of those wrecks and we got so focused in fixing the wrecks that I was just driving the wheels off the car. We got to adjust on the car because we were so far back and brought it up to the front. Ray and these guys made some great calls in the pits to take two tires at the right time and get track position. Once we got track position, we were able to stay up there pretty good." -- Jeff Gordon Finish: 5th Place "The car was really good and that one one set of tires was the best we'd been all day so we decided to stay out. That got us off sequence and we had to make a green-flag stop. I was just sitting there hoping the race would go green from there and everything would work in our favor from then. But of course, when we were sitting in the pits, the caution comes out. "We got right-sides on it, but we thought we needed four tires. We came back in to get the other two, and I guess Tony Stewart was in there. I was trying to get myself room to get out and when I turned to get out I guess I got the two right front outside the box. These are just really small areas and when you already have cars in the pits, it makes it really difficult. You'd like to think there would be a little leeway there, but rules are rules. "It could have been a lot worse, but it turned out OK." -- Dale Jarrett Finish: 18th Place | ALSO SEE 'Front-Row Joe' finally finishes in Victory Lane
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