Jarrett Gives Taurus First Daytona 500 Victory

 

AutoWorld.com - David Lee  

Dale Jarrett's win in today's Daytona 500 was the first for Taurus since it was introduced to NASCAR Winston Cup racing in 1998. In addition, it represented Ford's 499th all-time win in the series meaning it needs only one more to become the first manufacturer with 500 victories in NASCAR's top division. 

In taking the checkered flag, Jarrett, who now has 23 career NASCAR Winston Cup wins and three Daytona 500 triumphs, became the first Ford driver to win the Daytona 500 since he won the event in 1996. 

VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW 

DALE JARRETT --88-- Quality Care Service/Ford Credit Taurus -- "If Todd Parrott puts it out there I have confidence in it and I knew when he told me yesterday afternoon that we could fix this car and that the suspension was OK, they would work on that, we would get the fabricators here to do the job. He knew how good a race car we had and we wanted to race this car. Plus, it wasn't fair to NASCAR to say, 'Look, is that wreck bad enough to bring out a backup.' We didn't want to put them in a bad position, but this is just fantastic. I tell you what, that's the money car. We hate to lose that. It won a million dollars at Talladega in '98, won another million here, it won a million dollars for Melissa Brown from Pittsburgh, we're excited. Man, this is fantastic." 

WHAT ABOUT THE START OF THE RACE? "I didn't know what to expect. Did we get the front end back right, was it gonna stick, especially with my teammate on the outside I wasn't sure I wanted to find out with him out there. I wanted to make sure the car was gonna turn, so I held back a minute. But, then, once we got into it I knew the car was just as good as it had been...got out front and led. Mark was strong. Bill Elliott's car was strong. Johnny Benson did a great job. That was a great call on his part. If it hadn't been for this Robert and Doug Yates horsepower I don't know what I would have done there because I kept trying to get a run on him and he was doing a great job. Jeff Burton gave me the push that I needed. As I said on TV a minute ago, the one thing I regret is that Mark came over asked whenever he was in second behind the 10 if he went high I would go with him. We tried it for a lap. The next lap Mark tried it again and the 99 dove down below me, so then I just dove down to protect the position and when I did it gave me a real push and I went by Mark. I wasn't trying to set him up or anything and I hate that. I know he'll never believe that, but we were just racing to try to hold onto spots. He did a great job all day and this crew is just incredible. They did a great job in the pits and the man right here is just the very best (Todd Parrott)." 

TALK ABOUT THE PASS FOR THE WIN? YOU WENT TWO DIFFERENT WAYS. "Yeah, I wasn't sure. I knew Johnny was gonna try to block me wherever I went. I knew that he knew it was critical time, especially with the horsepower that I have. I wasn't able to lay back on the start, I was gonna get a run, but Jeff Burton was laying back and Johnny kind of came back. We got a good start. The car really came up to speed really well and Johnny made just enough of a move when I faked to the outside that it let me get down to the inside. I just came down off the banking and I had a big head of steam and then the 99 came and helped me get by there. That worked to our advantage right there, and, again, just a great, great race car. I'm just the fortunate one to be sitting in the seat." 

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES HERE. "We definitely improved it. Last year I think we were 37th or 38th with a torn up race car last year. This year we lose our car but for a good reason because it's gonna be in Daytona USA for all the fans to come and see for the next year." 

DERRIKE COPE --15-- Fenley-Moore Motorsports Taurus -- "I'm not sure if it's a rear gear or if it's the motor. We were three-wide in the back straightaway and I pulled up behind Labonte, I thought I was gonna have a good run there, I was starting to come on, and then all of a sudden something broke in the rear end or the motor I don't know which yet." 

JEFF BURTON --99-- Exide Batteries Taurus -- "The last few laps weren't too wild. The run before that was really wild. A bunch of guys took on two and we took on four like most of the guys did that ended up in the front. I made it three-wide a couple of times to get myself in position. That's a good day for the Exide Ford. That's the best chance we've ever had to win a restrictor-plate race. My hat's off to everybody at the fab shop and the engine shop because we truly and legitimately had a shot. We never led a lap all day, but I got us messed up in the pits and we were like 14 seconds behind and we ran them down all by ourselves, so this was the fastest car we've ever had." 

DID YOU HAVE FRIENDS OUT THERE TODAY? "For a few laps you have a friend and the next few laps you hate him. That's just restrictor-plate racing. I had to pull out on my teammate late in the race and stuff like that just agonizes you because you work so hard to get yourself in a position to be able to run with your teammate and then you have to survive for yourself you have to turn left and go around him. That stuff just agonizes you." 

TALK ABOUT THE LAST FEW LAPS? "I knew what DJ was gonna do because that car always accelerates well. I committed to stay with him and Elliott had committed to stay with him and we got by him. It was kind of working in our favor. We had backed off the 88 a little bit and then we were gonna make a run at him with Elliott, but that's just the way it goes. It was a good race for us, the Exide Ford was strong all day." 

RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus -- "We tried hard we just couldn't get the pit stops working all day long. We kept losing positions everytime we pitted and it really killed us. We had a great car, but we just couldn't get the pit stops going." 

WHAT ABOUT THE JOB JARRETT'S TEAM DID? "He didn't tear the car up much, he just bent the air dam up under it, that's about it." 

HOW WAS THE RACING? "I thought the racing was fine, it wasn't single file and three-wide and all that, which the fans like to see but we don't like to see that us drivers don't. We like what we had today." 

WILL WE HEAR MORE FROM THE CHEVY GUYS? "No, I don't think so. The Chevy's just didn't get their cars handling good it looked like. They were having a problem there for some reason. They'd get looser and looser pushing the front end, I just don't think they hit on it. That's about it." 

WILL THERE BE THIS TYPE OF DOMINATION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR OR IS IT JUST A RESTRICTOR-PLATE DEAL? "Well, I think it's just a restrictor-plate thing. We'll have to see now when we get to Rockingham how we run, but we had a great race today -- a good, safe race and we ran strong. We started fifth and finished fourth and we were in the top five all week long. Ever since we unloaded off the truck we were in the top five and it felt good." 

DID THE WEATHER AFFECT THE TRACK? "I don't think it did. My car was great all day long. I got a little tight one time and took a little wedge out of it and took some air out of the right-front tire and it nailed the car. It was great at the end, but track position was the whole deal. You had to have it." 

COULD YOU HAVE WON IF YOU WERE IN FRONT? "If I could have got in front I could have stayed in front, but track position was everything in the world. That was the whole deal. When I didn't have the track position I lost a lot in the pits and that's too bad because we did a lot of practicing in the off-season and we had some mistakes today that hurt us." 

ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Citgo Taurus -- "I didn't see anything. I ran right into Michael, I didn't see anything. I didn't even know a car was spun out, so it's just bad luck again at Daytona. One day we'll learn how to finish one of these I guess." 

MARK MARTIN --6-- Valvoline Taurus -- "All I ever asked for was a chance, we had a chance, I tried and we lost. I'm proud of this Valvoline team. We had a really great car, but things just didn't work out there for us." YOU NEEDED A FRIEND WITH 30 TO GO. WHAT HAPPENED? "I got lied to." IS THIS A HEARTBREAKER FOR YOU? "No, all I ever wanted to do was be a contender down here. I just asked to have a chance and today we had a chance. I'd rather have tried to win and lost than not tried. I could have sat there. I did get lied to, but it was a good run. I'm proud of this race team, we did have a shot at it and that's all I ever ask for." CAN YOU TAKE SOME SOLACE IN A TOP-FIVE FINISH? "It's better than 38th the last two years, but better than that we led a lot of laps. We showed that we had a car that could contend. I haven't had much of that here. If I could run like that and never won at Daytona, that would be OK. If I come down here and never even have a chance, that kind of makes me sad." WHO BROKE THE DEAL WITH YOU? "Never mind." 

SCOTT PRUETT --32-- Tide Taurus -- HOW WAS YOUR FIRST DAYTONA 500? "I was glad to take the checkered. We had a lot faster car than I'd get out of it. The Tide car, with more experience, I think it would have ended up further in the front. We're happy with the way the car was working. We were loose at the start, we got it settled down, and then we were running pretty good we just couldn't go anywhere. We saw we could run with the leaders, but we just couldn't get there. But, we got the first one under our belt and now it's off to Rockingham." HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FINALLY HAVE THE FIRST RACE OVER WITH? "It's good to have it done. I was a little anxious before the race to see what was gonna happen and how it was gonna happen, but, overall, I'm pleased and we'll be ready for more next year." 

MATT KENSETH --17-- DeWalt Tools Taurus -- "It was alright. I didn't do a very good job in the pits. I overshot the pits twice in a row and I killed it the third time, so I'm the one who got us behind there. For those guys to come back was great. They gave me a fast car. We really handled good all day, we just could never get with the lead pack because I did such a bad job in the pits." WHAT DID YOU LEARN OUT THERE? "Mainly I just learned it's a long race. If you can try to make a couple friends out there and keep them with you and you can keep with them, it makes the day a lot easier. I hooked up with the 36 and the 12 and us three together drove past about 10 cars the last 10 laps or so. You can't do anything by yourself. If nobody will go with you, you're gonna run bad at these plate races. If people think you have a fast-enough car and they want to draft with you, then you'll run pretty good." ARE YOU SURPRISED WITH A TOP 10? "I'm a little surprised. I didn't expect to run that good, but I'm real happy with did. When the day started I felt like our car was capable of running in the top 10 if I had the right drafting partners and everything went our way, but I'm kind of surprised it did." 

BILL ELLIOTT --94-- McDonald's Taurus -- "It turned out great for us. I was tickled to death to come home third after about halfway in the race. I got behind. My car got pretty tight and I couldn't do anything and I got to running a good bit of temperature. I said, 'Man, I've gotta get out of this.' So, we made a stop and gained some spots. Then we came back in and changed two tires there at the end and that's what put me in position to run third." IF IT STAYED GREEN DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR THEM? "I don't know. It depended on who helped you. It was one of those situations that whoever went if they'd go with you you'd be OK, but if they didn't go with you you were dead. That's just like what we did to the 10 car." WHAT ABOUT THE TWO-TIRE STOP? "I finally got my car handling halfway decent and I felt really good about what I had. I said, 'Guys, we can't take four tires, we've gotta do it with two.' Man, that thing could still run on the bottom, so that's what we needed to do." DID THE CAR ACT DIFFERENT AFTER TAKING TWO TIRES? "No, but we didn't run long. We were pretty short on time, so it worked out well." YOU MUST BE HAPPY AFTER FALLING BACK? "I'm tickled to death. It was one of them days." WERE YOU HOPING TO MOVE ON JEFF BURTON WHEN THE CAUTION BIT YOU? "I was hoping to. I was either gonna try to move on Jeff or help Jeff move on Dale, but it was one of them deals if somebody didn't go with you and help you, you couldn't do it by yourself. You just help the car in front of you just enough that you couldn't get by them, but I'm just tickled to death for where we ended up. This McDonald's crew worked late last night and re-did this car after getting into Dale in one and two and I'm just tickled to death to come home third today." WHY DID YOU FALL BACK? "I got a little bit tight and I was running a little bit of temperature and I could never catch back up. We just worked on it as time went on and finally we got some cautions and were able to pull back up through the pack a little bit." 

RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus -- "It took about six laps before it started pushing and it was really bad when I was behind. It wasn't bad in three and four, but in one and two it was pretty bad. I had to completely get out of the throttle to get the front end to stick. The other day when I was leading the 125, we never cracked the throttle over 50 laps so I knew I was in trouble. They worked hard to adjust the car and finally got this Taurus turned around with about 15 laps to go on the restart, but at that point it was too late. We had no track position. If we could have just lifted our car up and sat us up front we probably could have held our own, but it took all race to get it dialed in." AFTER THE WEEK YOU'VE HAD IS IT DISAPPOINTING TO END IT THIS WAY? "Well, we had such a good week I guess we can't get greedy. We've gotta face reality. It's our first race together, we learned some things and we actually got the car dialed in at the end of the race but it took us too long to get it going. That just killed us on track position after that." THERE ARE STILL 33 RACES TO GO. "There are. We just got a reality check today, that was it." 

ROBERT PRESSLEY --77-- Jasper Engines Taurus -- "We finished, that's about it. It was a great race car for 15-20 laps and then we just got a push and never could get it out all day. We could put drag in the car and slow it down on the straightaway but it still wouldn't help it turn. This is very disappointing. Last year we finished 19th and we're a whole lot better than that this year and we finished 19th again this year. But, if this is our worst finish of the year this won't be bad." 

DARRELL WALTRIP --66-- Route 66/Big Kmart Taurus -- QUOTES COURTESY OF BRIAN VANDERCOOK. "Our car was pushing too much early. All it took was for me to miss it a little bit and there I'd go up the race track and the pack would get away from me. Then a right rear started rubbing after our second pit stop (lap 92) and the unscheduled stop put us way back and out of any chance for a decent finish." ANY SENTIMENTAL MOMENTS ON YOUR LAST DAYTONA 500? "Yeah. There was a time when I was running along all by myself out there and I fantasized that I was leading the race -- and there was no one in sight." 

JIMMY SPENCER --26-- Big Kmart Taurus -- "That's two years in a row. We got slowed down up there for that one accident, Michael just drove in, we got three-wide and put something down on the tire but then we cut the tire down. Dumb, we thought we could make it but we fell three laps short." YOU WERE RUNNING STRONG AT THE END? "I think we could have finished in the top 10. I think we just had to get in the right situation. I felt at the end we were in pretty good shape and the car was really adjusted well. We were tight in the beginning and then got it a little bit better. Right there at the end we were really, really pleased. It just wasn't meant to be." WAS IT A GOOD RACE? "I think there was still some racing because there was a lot of passing going on when you could. The cars are real fast and it's hard. You've gotta get in single file because of the draft and every time you'd slip out of draft you'd lose two or three tenths to the leaders so you know you'd better get back in line because you're losing valuable ground and you didn't want to lose a lap. I think that the race, from where I was sitting, it was a decent race but it wasn't one of the better 500s." WERE YOU SURPRISED NO MAJOR WRECKS? "I still don't think there were any major wrecks. Nobody got hurt, thank God for that. We shouldn't have even been in that accident, we should have pitted after flat spotting a tire. It was just dumb on our part. When that happens you're gonna get into the fence." DID THEY PUT YOU ON A STRETCHER? "I hurt my ankle pretty good and I wanted to get it x-rayed. It's been x-rayed and it's fine." 

JEREMY MAYFIELD --12-- Mobil 1 Taurus -- QUOTES COURTESY OF CHIP WILLIAMS. "That race looked like they passed out spiked coffee in the old folks' home. It was just ride, pick your spots...ride, pick your spots...until the end there. Then all of a sudden it was party time. Guys who wouldn't even go two-wide before were going four-wide and considering five at the end. We were 20th with 20 laps to go and finished 11th. Guys at the front with four laps to go were behind us at the end. Mentally, everybody looked at it like it was war. I guess a couple of guys treated it that way physically too. After the week we had, 11th was a pretty good finish. We didn't qualify as well as we'd hoped. Our practices were a little better but not much. We did OK in the qualifying race but we blew an engine right at the start of Happy Hour, so we had no final practice and started on a brand new engine. I tried to be patient but, man, that's hard to do sometimes. It paid off for us though." 

EXCERTS FROM JEFF BURTON-BILL ELLIOTT PRESS CONFERENCE 

JEFF BURTON --99-- Exide Batteries Taurus -- WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND MARK? "What went on back there was my car, I couldn't run in the middle I had to run on the bottom. We came off the corner and Dale had started under Mark and I was under Dale, but I wasn't beside him. I was just below him. I was gonna move back up and when he started under Mark I looked in my mirror and Bill was right behind me. I was scared to not follow Dale. If I hadn't followed Dale then Mark and I would have been on the outside and we would have slowed the whole line up and everybody would have caught us. It was kind of one of those survival things. I flipped over to Mark's radio and told him, 'Hey, I'm sorry.' He knew what happened, so I'm OK with my teammate." 

BILL ELLIOTT --94-- McDonald's Taurus -- "I got a little help from my friends and we were all just trying to stay in line and do what we had to do. Even when the 10 car was leading we were trying to stay in line to make some time on the other guys to where you could put yourself in a postion to run at them because as soon as you got side-by-side with somebody, I mean, if you didn't clear them then the whole pack caught you and you didn't want that. You wanted to race a couple of cars because if you hadn't of cleared him, you might have put yourself in a position to lose a lot of spots. If you tried to pull out on somebody and if you didn't make the pass, you had a good chance of losing a lot of spots. That's where the caution and everything coming out right there at the end kind of threw things in a tailspin because you wanted to protect your position. You want to put yourself in a position to win, but it's still hard to do." 

Continued

 


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