"That was a lot of fun. We didn't get our car adjusted very good at the beginning -- for about the first 220 or 230 laps. We kept making a lot of adjustments, just none of them were changing the problem. We finally got a spring rubber in the right-rear and that set the car to sailing and I could get a little bit aggressive and have a little bit of fun like the rest of them were."
YOU HAD A FEW THRILLING MOMENTS YOU DIDN'T
PLAN ON.
"Oh, certainly. It was tough to
pass. I had a good car and a couple time I got
myself in a position that was kind of hard to get
out of, but that's just racing and that's part of
it. We came out of it OK. How about Dale, Jr.?
Who would have ever thought he'd be the first
two-time winner on the circuit? But he does a
great job, a lot of talent and they do a good
job. Terry (Labonte) did a great job tonight and
we had good race there. I thought we might come
across there three-wide."
HOW GOOD DID YOU FEEL YOUR CAR WAS AT THE END?
"It was good, but for that period of time it
was no better than Terry's or Junior's was. If we
could have had 60 or 65 laps (I would have liked
to see) what it might have done. It seemed my car
was really good on the longer runs, but maybe
theirs would have been to. I would have liked to
have seen what that would have done."
WHAT HAPPENED WITH GORDON AND BOBBY LABONTE?
"I went in. I got a run on Gordon and I beat
him into the corner down there and I think he
drove a little further to try to keep me from,
and I slid up and he got into the right-rear of
me. When he did it turned me up into the marbles
and I came back down and he got into me again.
Then, I was just trying to get out of the way,
sort of, and I guess Bobby was trying to go to
the low side and he came by and clipped me in the
front. I'm sure he just saw a hole and tried to
go for it and it just didn't work out for him. It
was just racing, it wasn't anything anybody did,
we were all just trying to get another spot."
DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM IS IN BETTER SHAPE THIS
YEAR AT THIS POINT THAN LAST YEAR?
"Yeah, I
actually feel like that we've run better and that
hasn't even been great, but it's been better than
we did last year. We just don't have some of the
finishes to show it. This is what we have to keep
doing. We don't need to struggle at the
beginning, but we need to have these type
finishes and if we can just continue to do that,
we'll be OK in the points because things will
even out as people have problems. Again, I feel
like we're in better shape. Going to Charlotte in
a couple of weeks, it's been a good track for us
and, hopefully, we can continue this."
WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK?
"You had to drive
the race track differently, I think, because it
was slick and you didn't have that grip. You had
to make the car turn in another way and I think
that's what we thought. Most everybody that I saw
that was struggling was just tight in the center.
You didn't have that sealer there to make the
front grip as good as it normally does, so you
just had to make some adjustments throughout the
night."
WHY THE RIGHT-FRONT TIRE PROBLEMS?
"The tire was a good tire and that's about
the only thing. Unless you run over something,
the only other thing is if you're using your
brakes to much and it just melts that bead and it
just blows it out."