NOTES AND QUOTES;  WINSTON CUP - NORTH CAROLINA;
POST-RACE;  FEB. 24
  
STACY COMPTON, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
"It felt like we broke a rod or something. It was something in the bottom
end. It shook pretty hard coming off of [turn] two and that was it. I knew
we were in trouble. It's broken something in the bottom end. I hate it for
the A.J. Foyt Conseco Pontiac. I think we had a decent race car, but now
we'll just have to go get them at Vegas."

KEN SCHRADER, N0. 36 M&M'S PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
 "I hate that we blew up, but we were lucky that we got out of that
back-straightaway deal (seven-car incident on lap 157). We were decent
before that deal and I think we would have at least finished on the lead
lap, but not now."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
"We got a top five today - that's a good run. We got pretty tight in the
center of the corner that last three or four runs, but other than that it
was a pretty good day."
(HOW IMPORTANT WERE THE PIT STOPS TODAY?)  "These things are getting to be
like Indy cars. They're real aero-dependent now. It makes it really
important to get out and get good track position, so you can get clean air.
Your car is going to drive probably 10 percent better than it is behind
somebody."
(HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO DECIDE WHETHER TO COME TO PIT ROAD WHEN RICKY CRAVEN
DID?)  "I was going to come, regardless. You just can't beat tires at this
place. The surface is so abrasive that, even though you're giving up track
position, you're going to get it back on the tire deal."
(ON POSTING FIVE STRAIGHT FINISHES OF SEVENTH OR BETTER HERE)  "This was
about where we were last fall. We had a good solid run today. Anytime you
can get a solid run like we had today, you'll take it any day of the week."

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
(HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO DECIDE WHETHER TO COME TO PIT ROAD WHEN RICKY CRAVEN DI
D?)  "There wasn't much of a thought process - it was going to be tires.
This place kills tires. To have that many laps on them and knowing that
everybody else was going to come, it was easy. We weren't good enough to do
that, and try and win. I felt like we needed to put tires on it, make an
adjustment and see if we could make it better. We just got pretty tight when
the sun went down and didn't adjust on it quick enough, so we were trying to
play catch up. That caution gave us a chance to do something to free it up.
We were kind of excited to see that caution.

GREG ZIPADELLI, CREW CHIEF, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
 (WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TOUGHER IF YOU WERE LEADING?)  "I don't know - it's a
tough decision. Next week we'll go to a place where, man, you won't know
what to do. More times than not, at a place like this, tires will win you a
race rather than cost you one. Next week it will probably be the other way
around. It will be a 50-50 deal."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
 (WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE 'RED-FLAG' ISSUE?)  "A lot of the series
have started going to the 'green-white-checkered' [finish]. I don't say that
I approve of that. I don't really like that a lot of times. For me, I'm
probably not that good on three laps, so I don't approve of it. But, at
least if they said, 'Hey, it's going to be 'green-white-checkered, ' or,
'No, it's not going to be 'green-white-checkered' and we're not going to
red-flag it. We're going to finish under yellow' - either one of the other
would be fine; instead of one time you know and the next time it's
different. If it was just a consistent deal it would be better - whichever
way it is it would be better. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong; just
make one decision, and who cares at that point in time."
 (HOW WAS THE EARLY PART OF YOUR RUN TODAY?)  "We didn't have any forward
bite there at the beginning of the race. We just struggled, struggled,
struggled and try to work on the race car some. We got a lap down, but then
DJ (Dale Jarrett) blew a motor right in front of us and we were able to get
our lap back. From that point on it was a whole lot better. It was a lot
different outlook. We were sitting there a lap down before halfway, but then
the guys in the pits, they adjusted on the race car some. We changed some
air pressure, wedge and everything, track bar adjustments - everything we
could really do in a short stop - and then got some track position out of it
and got better and better as the day went on."
 (WAS IT A REAL DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE AFTER THOSE CHANGES?)  "Yeah, I was
about 45 degrees sideways there the first part of the race. There towards
the end we had a lot of forward bite and the car was a lot better handling.
We didn't quite have the steam at the beginning of a run, like Matt
[Kenseth] did, but for the most part we were pretty close for the last 150
laps."
 (WHY DID THE CREW GO UNDER THE HOOD MIDWAY THROUGH THE RACE?)  "Right after
we got our lap back it sounded like we lost a cylinder. I don't know if we
cracked a header or something like that, so we thought we'd just take a look
at it, in case a plug wire fell off or something. We didn't want to just
restart at the back, since we were at the tail end of the line anyway. We
didn't want to restart like that. We figured we'd just look at it and make
sure that it wasn't something like a piece of rubber that had come up there
and knocked a spark plug boot off - just double-check it. Everything seemed
fine. It didn't sound right after that. I don't know way, but it ran good,
so I really didn't worry about it too much."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
 (WHY DO YOU FEEL YOU RUN SO WELL HERE?)  "We've had some good, consistent
runs here the past two or three years. I've finished in the top five a lot
more later in my career here than I did when I started out. We have just hit
upon a good combination. It seems like when the '20' car (Tony Stewart} came
into existence with Tony, we hit upon a good combination together and it
seems like it works every time for us. We have to adjust on it quite a bit,
but yet, at the same time we start off with a good base. For about three
years now - nearly going on four years, it just seems like when Greg
Zipadelli and Jimmy [Makar] and those guys - we all kind of put our heads
together to come down here and race - we kind of hit upon a combination that
worked out for us. For whatever reason, it did and still does."
 (HOW DOES IT FEEL FOR THE GIBBS TEAM TO BOUNCE BACK SO STRONG THIS WEEK
AFTER LAST WEEK'S DISAPPOINTMENTS?)  "It feels really good. Last week was
tough for all of us, as far as getting involved in that wreck, but that's
the way it is. But you always look forward to coming back to Rockingham and
racing really strong here. We look forward to it and we're glad that we did
[run well].  It's a good confidence boost for us to go to Las Vegas. We
tested the other day out there. It's kind of one of those deals where we
needed a good run here to bounce back from Daytona and we had a good run
today. Hopefully we'll continue that and make a streak of it, I guess."
 (ON THE OVERALL START TO YOUR SEASON)  "It's kind of the same start that we
had last year. We just don't need to do what we did last year and fall out
of some races here in the near future. But our stuff feels pretty good. Our
car feels good, our race team is good and I feel real good about it. I feel
real confident about it."
 (YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ONE-ENGINE RULE)  "Basically we were doing the same
thing last year. We'd qualify one motor, and then practice the whole
practice and race the same motor, so we did that last year. We ran six laps
of practice before qualifying today. Other places we're not going to do
that. It's going to be good at times; it's probably going to be tough at
times."
 (IF YOU COULD MAKE THE DECISION AS TO WHETHER WE'D HAVE A ONE-ENGINE
RULE...)  "It don't make a squat to me.  I don't change motors anyway,
anymore. I used to, but I don't anymore. It's up to the guys on the crew.
They do all the work.
 "I'm sure the first time something happens to your motor with 25 [laps] to
go, you'll be crying."

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