FORD RACING NOTES AND QUOTES Daytona 500, Page 1 February 17, 2002 Daytona International Speedway MATT KENSETH-17-DeWalt Power Tools Taurus (Finished 33rd) -"Looked like Harvick tried to block Gordon and Gordon turned Harvick, so, once you turn somebody here, if you're in the front of the pack, you're gonna collect a whole mess of cars and there's going to be a whole bunch of race cars getting tore up." DID THE CHANGE HELP THE FORDS? "I thought our DeWalt Ford was pretty good all day. I thought we were getting up to at least in the lead draft at the end. I got a little behind before our last pit stop and that got me toward the middle of the back of the pack. When you run anywhere near the back of the pack, and somebody turns somebody up front, it's just gonna collect a bunch of cars." WAS THAT THE BIG ONE THAT EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT? "I don't know. You saw it more than I did. It felt big to me." YOU LED TODAY. DID THE QUARTER INCH HELP? "It seemed to help. Today was the most competitive we've been all week. We worked really hard on our handling and we got our car to handle so we could hold it wide open all day and that seemed to be a big advantage. It seemed like a lot of people weren't handling as good and had to take their foot off the gas." WHAT HAPPENED? "I just saw it on the replay monitor. It looked like the 24 the 29, the 29 was trying to block, it looked like, and that was the start of it." MORE ON THE WRECK. "Well, it was all smoke by the time I got there, you'll be able to see it on the replay better than me, but it looked like on the replay that the 29 and 24 got together and once they spin it just makes a bunch of smoke and you just try to make through the best you can. Sometimes you make it and sometimes you don't." TODD BODINE --66-- Kmart Taurus (Finished 31st) -- "I don't know. Somebody got down on the apron and all I could see was smoke by the time I got there. We were all trying to slow down, but people were running into people. It's just a mess. It's probably the worst rules package we've had yet. There is no give and take. You cannot let off the throttle. It is brutal to be racing out there. With a Ford, I don't know about the Dodges, but with a Ford by the end of a run your car is pushing when somebody gets up behind you. With another quarter inch off the spoiler, it's just making you loose." WHAT DID YOU SEE? "I just saw smoke and everybody locking 'em up. There wasn't a whole lot to see." JOE NEMECHEK --26-- Kmart Taurus (Finished 40th) -- "I'm fine. It was just a big cloud of smoke when I got there and I just went sliding. I stayed up by the wall and I was all clear and then at the last minute I broke out of the smoke and Ricky Rudd came up backwards. I hit him in the door pretty hard. He's alright and I'm alright, it's just a tough day at the races. It's pretty tough out there today. Everybody was starting to get a little impatient there towards the end and things happen." WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS RULES PACKAGE? "Man, I don't know. It seemed like guys were trying to take more chances now because it was so hard to go. If you couldn't go, you had to make sure you blocked and did the things you needed to do." RICKY RUDD --28-- Havoline Taurus (Finished 38th) -- WHAT ABOUT THESE RULES? "These rules were supposed to maybe get you strung out a little bit, but it didn't look like they did that too much. I don't know. I didn't really see much difference in these rules from the last set of rules really -- everybody was right there in one big pile. It seemed like you were in a pile for at least 15-20, maybe 25 laps and then it would get thinned out and you could go race, but for about 25 laps everybody was on top of each other and that's usually when the action would happen." ARE DRIVERS TAKING MORE CHANCES NOW? "I don't know. The cars are going so slow. I mean, it feels like you're running about 60 miles an hour out there, so everybody feels like a hero and takes a lot chances. That's the biggest problem, the cars are going too slow." ARE YOU OKAY? "Yeah, I took a pretty hard hit in the door. It's the first time I've ever been hit in the door before, I think. Luckily, all the new seat braces and everything did their job." DID YOU THINK YOU GOT THROUGH IT? "I thought I was gonna miss it and then somebody got me in the back corner and turned me into it." COULD YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED? "No, I just saw the aftermath and the smoke, that was it." KURT BUSCH --97-- Sharpie/Rubbermaid Taurus (Finished 4th) -- "A lot of guys didn't use much patience and a whole new crop of drivers were up front today just because the veterans seemed to want to go to the front and bully everybody around. It seemed like it was an odd race. Just sitting in the cockpit I wanted to bide my time. I knew the Fords were gonna run well. I knew I had a car to win the race. I was the victim of a restart. I didn't want to get too aggressive with blocking because people were getting sent for that." THERE WERE A LOT OF FORDS UP FRONT. "You saw a lot of Fords up front because we've been working so hard at getting the drag out of these cars. They kept knocking the rear blade off of it and that kept knocking downforce out of it too. We had a loose race car, but that made us good on a longer run. We got out front and could hang for a while because all of the Chevy and GM cars tore themselves up." HOW WAS THE RACE? "It was an odd race for sure." YOU STAYED OUT WHEN LEADING WITH 29 TO GO. "We stayed out with about 59 laps to go. That was gonna be the game." WHAT ABOUT YOUR RUN? "You saw a lot of unusual driving out there today. There were a lot of unusual circumstances with everybody trying to get to the front. A lot of GM cars tore themselves up and that's what allotted all these Fords to go to the front. I'm very happy with my guys. It's awesome to have this experience around me like Jimmy Fennig, Shawn Parker, Jack Roush -- the whole group. This is Rubbermaid's time and we're gonna march forward." GEOFFREY BODINE --09-- Miccosukee Indian Gaming Taurus (Finished 3rd) -- "In the beginning it was senseless to try to race in the middle of all that junk. We might have been in one of those wrecks, so we just rode in the back and kept adjusting on the car. Johnny kept doing things and I don't even know what he did the last stop, but whatever he did was perfect. That's what we needed. We needed to wait for the wrecks to happen. Unfortunately, they're a part of restrictor-plate racing nowadays and we just outsmarted them. We didn't get in a wreck." WHAT DOES IT SAY TO COME BACK AFTER THAT TRUCK WRECK AND HAVE A FINISH LIKE THIS? "I'm not over the hill yet. I still love this. I still have nerve. I still haven't lost my nerve, I still want to run up front and I think we proved that today. Hopefully, I showed I have the skill left. I'm not gonna ride around out here just to be here. I'm too proud for that, I'm too proud of a person and I think today I stood up for being a proud guy. We did a good job." WHAT WILL THIS DO FOR YOUR CAREER? "I don't know. Do you have a sponsor so we can run some more races? That's what we need -- more money so we could run some more. James (Finch) would like to run Indy, Richmond, California, Phoenix -- tracks like that this year. Maybe 10-15 races and then maybe next year the full schedule." DURING THE RED FLAG WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT HOW YOU WERE GOING TO WIN? "Oh yeah. I was thinking of a way, but we hit some debris in that last incident and knocked our nose a little bit. The car wasn't quite as fast after that, but still good enough to get third." WHAT ABOUT NEXT WEEK? "Next week I'm gonna be in Salt Lake City. I'm gonna see my bobsled run -- the four man. We're going down Wednesday and we're gonna see the four man races that weekend. I can't wait to get there." DO YOU HOPE YOUR LUCK CARRIES OVER TO THEM? "Well, third is pretty good. That's a bronze in the Olympics, so maybe the guys got bronze today." DID YOU THINK THE CLOCK WAS TURNING BACK TO 1986? "I never felt like it was gone, I never have. I've prided myself in staying in good shape -- physically and mentally. Yeah, the wreck was tough to get through physically, but mentally it was a breeze. I wanted to get back the very next day, but, hopefully this proves that I am back. I'm not afraid. I still have the desire to come out here and go fast." DALE JARRETT-88-UPS Taurus (Finished 14th) -"Just got turned. Just racin'. I was trying to make a spot. I thought I had a run, and came back down to the inside and just got touched a little bit and it was a bad place to get touched." YOU WERE RUNNING WELL BEFORE THAT. "Yeah. We ran a lot better than I thought we might. We put ourselves in a position to try to win or least have a good finish and just came up a little short." MARK MARTIN-6-Pfizer Taurus (Finished 6th)-"It was a good run. I'm proud of these guys. I was convinced we weren't going to be any good today, and they dug in and never gave up and put some stuff under the car for set-up that we had never practiced, and it was the best car I ever had during Speed Weeks. It was the best we've been since we've been here and it's a real credit to Ben Leslie and Bruce Hayes and all the new guys. Maybe this is a start of good things. My son gave me - I don't believe in luck charms at all, ever - but my son gave me some today and I was so desperate that I went back to get it before the race started because I knew that we were going to do terrible today." WHAT WAS IT? "It was just a penny that he found." ROUSH RACING DID WELL TODAY. "We're happy with the performance, but we need more. We need to do better but that was good." RUSTY WALLACE-2-Miller Lite Taurus (Finished 18th)-"Forty-third to fifth was a good run for us. I was real happy with that. And then right there with a little bit to go, you know, we had a re-start and I just took off and Mark Martin didn't get going because some guy in front of him stopped and I got drilled from the back by Terry Labonte, but it wasn't his fault, it was just racin', it's just what happened." THE RULE CHANGE OBVIOUSLY HELPED THE FORDS. "Well, it really helped the Fords in the race, there's no doubt about that. We were competitive with the Chevrolets and everybody, we just didn't win, but, man, for a while there I thought I was going to win. It was just a great car today." WHAT HAPPENED WITH STERLING MARLIN DURING THE RED FLAG? "I was in the pit area when all that happened, so I wouldn't know. I guess he thought he had a tire rubbing, he thought he could fix it, and I don't really know the rule to that myself, so we all know now." WOULD YOU HAVE DONE THE SAME THING? "Yeah, I would've if my crew said I could've done it." WHAT'S RUNNING THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU'RE SITTING FOR ALMOST 20 MINUTES WITH JUST A FEW LAPS TO GO IN THE DAYTONA 500? "The guys said, look, we got six laps to go, but I said, in about 10 minutes the whole thing will be over with and I've been here for two weeks and I'm looking forward to it. I would've never believed that on a re-start we would've all bottled up and crashed, but it happened. What a mess that was. I learned a lot about our car today, and I think we'll be really strong in the Firecracker 400 when we get back here and really strong at Talladega." RYAN NEWMAN-12-ALLTEL Taurus (Finished 7th)-HAS IT SUNK IN YET? "No, it won't sink in for a little while, I'm sure, but it was a great effort by the whole team and I'm just happy to be here." WHAT WENT WELL FOR THE TEAM TODAY? "Just great pit stops, I messed up there once - we fell back, I think, to like 18th or something. It was a great team effort, our pit stops were really great, spotting was great. I got through that wreck in one and two that was really as much luck as it was skill. It's just a great opportunity to be a part of Penske Racing." ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 2nd) -- "That's pretty awesome. This Motorcraft Ford Taurus drove great today, it handled really good and our pit stops were unbelieveable. I tell you, it's a lot of fun to race in front of these great fans here at Daytona Beach. It's a great way to start the season. I'm shaking so much. I'm glad Ward Burton won, another Virginia guy. I had to go with him and help him because he had been helping me all day. This is a great start to the season for everybody involved with the Wood Brothers, Motorcraft Quality Parts, Ford, Air Force -- a great deal, great job." JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo Taurus (Finished 12th) -- "It was a wreckfest. We didn't handle that well early in the race, so we tried to be smart and kind of ran in the back and kept working on our chassis and we finally got it to really work well, but everytime I made a move the guy behind me wouldn't go with me, so I kept going backwards. I thought a few times I had people that were gonna go with me and they didn't and that hurt us. Then somebody missed a shift or whatever happened there at the end and we got into that. That pretty much finished it up for us." WHAT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF RACING TODAY? "It's the race tracks. They need to fix the race tracks. There's no fix until we can go fast enough and make them handle terrible. That's the only thing that will ever help it. Until then -- we've got to change the race track and figure out how to do that. I applaud them for making a change because what we did last year was wrong. We just need to keep working." ELLIOTT SADLER PRESS CONFERENCE -- "First of all, this second to us down here is like a win for our program. This is huge for Wood Brothers Racing. We didn't really end the season last year like we wanted to. We've had a pretty long winter. We've made some changes to some of the chassis stuff we're doing. It's tough racing in this business, so to finish second down here is unbelievable. We've been struggling all week. I think we took a provisional. We almost got lapped in the twin 125. We made a lot of changes in the car and it paid off for us today, so, the Wood Brothers for all their hard work -- the pit stops we had today. The best pit stops I've ever had in my entire life. Those guys must have been working a lot in the winter time. I just want to thank everybody with Motorcraft Quality Parts. We had a lot of customers here in the stands today, a lot of big guys from Ford Motor Company, so to put a couple Fords up in the top five was special for all of us. I do want to thank Geoffrey here beside me for pushing me to the front one time on the inside line. I was supposed to work with him at the end, but I got a little bit of a push on the outside and I had to go around him a little bit. This means more to this program than the win we had last year at Bristol. This is huge for our Wood Brothers program, so, hopefully, this will get us off to a good start here in the 2002 season." GEOFFREY BODINE PRESS CONFERENCE -- "I really don't know how incredible it is. This team only runs a few races and James Finch only has two cars. We had them both here -- two speedway cars -- but they're two darn good cars and James, I need to thank him for allowing me to drive his car. I thank the Miccosukee Indian Gaming Tribe in southern Florida for stepping up their program. They've helped us for about four or five years and they've certainly stepped up this year with a lot of money to get this car here. We're gonna run again here and they just told me on pit road, 'don't worry about Talladega,' they're gonna sponsor us for that, so things are already on an upswing for us. But, you know, especially after two years ago. Two years ago I was in the hospital just listening to this race. I heard these guys over here running around. I watched TV when I was awake. It was a little tough there, I had a lot of morphine in me back then, so to come back here and prove -- not only to prove because I knew with good equipment I could do the job, but I guess I did prove that the wreck didn't take anything out of me. From day one I wanted to get back in a race car and I did pretty soon after that wreck. GEOFFREY BODINE CONTINUED -- "We didn't do all that well, but, like I said, you need good equipment to show what you can do as a driver. Elliott will tell you that and every driver will tell you that. I'm happy for Elliott and the Woods. My team did a great job in the pits too. It takes all of that. We can't do anything without those guys changing those tires and putting those springs and shocks in the car and waxing it down and bringing it here. We all know the Wood Brothers are super. I've been a fan of them forever. I almost got in their car a couple of times to drive it. I probably wish I had, but I'm just so thankful that I'm here and I'm still racing and James gave me this opportunity today." SADLER -- WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT JARRETT AND WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS GOING ON OUT THERE? "You all listen to that and monitor us that closely? We knew it was gonna be tough. I was restarting behind Geoffrey. If you all were monitoring me, you know everybody was trying to figure out who you're gonna work with. All the spotters are trying to go to each other, all the crew chiefs. 'So and so is gonna help you -- maybe they're not gonna help you.' You never know who is gonna help you. What my comment back to them was, 'Hey, this is the Daytona 500. Nobody is gonna help anybody unless they think they can win the race.' That's really the way I feel about it. I didn't know whether the 88 was gonna try to help me or not, but I did know he was gonna try to pass me on that restart. I blocked him low and I blocked him high. I mean, I drove DJ pretty bad. I blocked him really bad and for somebody you look up to, that's kind of a bad feeling, but it's the Daytona 500. This is special to us and I really wanted a good finish. That could have made the difference from me finishing second or finishing 12th, so I had to do what I had to do. I've seen other people block that bad on restarts, so I figured that's what I had to do to finish second." BODINE -- IS THIS ONE OF THE WILDEST 500 FINISHES YOU'VE BEEN A PART OF? "As far as closeness in racing, yes. Accidents, we've seen some bad accidents here, so I don't know if this is the wildest in that respect. The finish, we've seen some great finishes here, so this is just another race at Daytona and a couple of years from now people will have forgotten how good it was." SADLER -- HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE THE WINNER FROM VIRGINIA? "I think that's pretty cool and I mentioned that to all my guys after the race. We made a big deal about who is pushing who the last couple races -- the 15 pushing the 8 and the 8 pushing the 15. Well, I finished third here in July and the reason I finished third was the 22 car of Ward Burton pushed me. He finished fourth and he pushed me by a couple people on the last lap to finish that way, so my exact words to him when I ran into victory lane to hug him and tell him congratulations was, 'Hey, that's my payback to you. You helped me here last July.' There's nothing wrong with working with him. I worked with him a lot during the race -- the last 50 laps I saw that Caterpillar Dodge right much, so it was pretty cool to work with him." BODINE -- WHERE WERE YOU A YEAR AGO TODAY AND DO YOU THINK YOU HAD A CHANCE TO BE BACK IN RACING? "A year ago today I was here in Daytona, but I never came to the race track on race day. I was here for my brothers. I love those guys and I was here for them, but I just couldn't bring myself on Sunday morning to come to the race track. It wasn't because of the traffic jams either, it's just very hard to be here and not be in the Daytona 500. Today felt a whole lot better when I woke up knowing that I was gonna be in the race." SADLER -- WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE RULES TODAY? "I think some of the fans were worried about how much we were gonna be able to race today with the rule changes and if it was gonna be spread out because the first twin 125 probably wasn't the most competitive. But from where I was all day, we were beating and banging. I wasn't leading the race every lap, but it was pretty competitive to me. Even the last 50 laps, running in the top 10, there was a lot of pushing and passing going on. So, yes, I'm happy with the rule change. I didn't know how much spread out we would be. I know it was not the race like last year where you had 43 cars all within a second, but if you had a good handling race car, you could pass people whenever you wanted to. I think the rules changes were a good plus." BODINE -- WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE RULES TODAY? "That's the way it's supposed to be -- drivers are supposed to put a little skill into driving these cars and, today, if you had a good car and a good driver you could make some moves." SADLER -- HOW DID THE FORDS HANDLE AFTER THE RULES CHANGE? "I was a little free with people behind me. I was a lot of out of control compared to where I was earlier in the week, but I could suck up a lot better. I could actually get up and push the guy in front of me, but I had a lot of times where I had the wheel probably more to the right than I did to the left. I think a lot of cars were backing off and using brakes. With this new rules package, we probably had half the downforce that we had last year with all the stuff on the spoiler and the roof and all that, so all the cars were dancing around a lot. I think the Fords, yes, it helped us suck up a lot, but it also made our cars drive a little looser -- it did mine." BODINE -- DID THE YELLOW LINE CAUSE SOME OF THE ACCIDENTS? "No. We all have to race by those rules. In Thursday's race, I made a mistake. I was crowded below the yellow line. I didn't do that on purpose. I should have backed off, but I haven't raced here in a while and I forgot. I didn't really pass anybody, but I should have backed off and fell back a little bit and I would have been okay. Today, we used the yellow line. We got as close to it as we could without going underneath it to protect ourselves. If somebody wanted to go down there, it was up to them. We saw cars going below it in wrecks and spinning around. I don't know what happened in all of those wrecks, but all I was worried about was missing them. I'm sure Elliott was too." IS THIS A ONE-RACE DEAL WITH FINCH? "James Finch is a super nice gentleman. I brought him a sponsorship to both Daytona races and Homestead and he said, 'Well, we're gonna run Daytona. We're gonna let you drive Talladega even if we don't have a sponsor.' That's the kind of guy he is. Hopefully, today we did get some sponsorship for him for those races. These things cost a lot of money to put together and take to races, so, hopefully, that will all work out good for us." COULD YOU RACE SOONER THAN TALLADEGA? "I don't really know. Like I said before, James only has two Winston Cup cars and we used them both here. We need sponsorship and once we secure sponsorship for some more races, then we'll start building some cars and be ready. There are a lot of cars out there for sale. Maybe we'll get one from the Wood Brothers or somebody else, but I really don't know what our future plans are. Hopefully, they're gonna be good and we'll get racing sometime." YOU WERE 16TH ON LAP 180 AND THEN GOT TO 3RD. HOW DID YOU GAIN SO MUCH? "I drove my blank off. Johnny made some adjustments that one pit stop. We came in and changed tires and that car just took off. I never lifted. You couldn't out there today. If I was inside, I kept it wide open. If I was in the middle it was wide open -- outside it was wide open. Other guys were having to lift and giving me spots and we just kept working our way up through." BODINE -- HOW DID YOU HELP WARD AT THE END? "I don't know. I was helping myself. I don't think I helped Ward. On the restart, I watched where Ward was gonna go and then I watched was going on behind me and I moved low. Elliott moved high because they were gonna go around him. I really didn't help Ward at all. Elliott got by me on the back straightaway and I gave him a shot and helped him. We were all trying to help each other at the time because once you got a line it's really hard to pass. Those Dodges are fast and I had a little damage to my front end, so I thought it was gonna be tough for me to do anything but just hold my spot. Elliott helped me by just being right there and staying low. That's all I did." SADLER -- HOW DID YOU HELP WARD? "I knew with the restart that we had a lot of big-name guys behind us that had been in these situations before -- right here in the Daytona 500 or the Pepsi 400 or whatever. They've got a lot more experience than me, so I just went through the gear box and I was meaning to push Geoffrey, but when I looked up and the 88 and the 2 and the 97 -- all of them were gonna go on the outside and I had to make a quick decision, so I just swerved hard right and they pushed me. They ended up just pushing me by Geoffrey and I just helped Ward down the back straightaway by Geoffrey and back in front of him. Then he gave me a shot and we kind of broke away from everybody. I'm thinking, 'this is pretty cool -- a single car, let's get a little bit of a breakaway here and then we'll worry about it ourselves.' So I just helped Ward some down the back straightaway as far as making sure he was in front of Geoffrey and then he kind of pulled me by the 09 and then Geoffrey pulled in behind me and we kind of got away from everybody. I guess just pushing him down the back straightaway was probably the only way I helped the 22 car." DID THE FORD AND DODGE RULE CHANGE HAVE AN EFFECT ON TODAY AS FAR AS FINISHING ORDER? "I don't know how much effect it had on the finishing order." DID NASCAR GO TOO FAR? "I don't think so. A lot of good cars that were a lot faster than me -- like the 24 and the 8 and the 29 and some of those guys, the 15's front-end damage that he had -- were all taken out in wrecks. I think a lot of us were just able to miss the wrecks and that's the reason we were up there. It's not like a Ford led every lap of the race or anything. It helped some for us to be able to draft up with the guys. For the first time all week I actually could pull up and push somebody in the straightaway instead of just holding on, so that makes a big difference on how you finish. But our cars were dancing around a lot more than they had been all week too, so I think it was a pretty even trade." BODINE -- DID NASCAR GO TOO FAR WITH THE RULES CHANGE? "I'd just have to repeat what Elliott said. He's exactly right. The cars were faster in the draft, but they moved around more. That's why the pay us to drive those things and I thought it was great." DAVE BLANEY-77-Jasper Engines and Transmissions Taurus (Finished 25th)-"We were running fine early and it just shut off. I don't know if they found out for sure what it was. I think it was the steering wheel kill switch, but I don't know for sure. But, we got it back out and rode around and I guess we gained a little bit by it." DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING THAT YOU CAN USE HERE LATER? "Not a thing. It was so beat up you couldn't tell, so it was a wasted day, really." RYAN NEWMAN PRESS CONFERENCE "Well, it was pretty exciting on certain laps, and kind of a ride-along program on the others. We started out, got shuffled back toward the back of the pack, and then got hooked with Rusty, and kind of drove up through and got up and, I think, we rode in fourth or fifth there for quite a while. It felt really good, the car felt really good. It started to get a little tight. Came in and made some adjustments on it. The guys did an awesome job in the pits today. I actually made one mistake and went over the line and cost us some time there. I think we fell back to 18th, but got the opportunity to work back up through traffic again. I mean, it was hairy at times there, the big wreck down there in one and two, I had to go down through the grass and I was telling some guys earlier I actually turned the thing to the right going through the grass, which you're never really supposed to do and it cut right, went back up to the bank and took off. I looked back in my mirror and I said, 'Man, I don't know how we made it.' Just a great team effort today. Rusty Wallace's team, the Miller Lite team, and the ALLTEL Ford Taurus really ran great. Just great for us to come home in the Top 10."

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