Sunday's Daytona 500 Quotables
Posted: Sunday February 14, 1999 08:24 PM
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Jeff Gordon's winning car will automatically go to the Daytona USA museum. AP |
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (CNN/SI) -- Quotes from Sunday's action at Daytona International Speedway:
"Got beat."
-- Dale Earnhardt on trying to catch Jeff Gordon during Sunday's final two laps.
"Keeping him behind me is one of the toughest things I've ever had to do on a race track."
-- Jeff Gordon on beating Earnhardt to the checkered flag.
"Ah, we'll build another one."
-- Gordon's crew chief Ray Evernham on the mandatory forfeiture of Sunday's winning Monte Carlo to the Daytona USA museum.
"There was gonna be a wreck and I was gonna be in it. That's all there was to it."
-- Mark Martin on lap 135's 12-car pileup.
"Our motors are a lot better. Our bodies are a lot better. Our pit stops were incredible all day long. We never lost any positions in the pits. We picked up spots in the pits whether we took on two, four [tires], it didn't make any difference. We just had a good, good day."
-- Kyle Petty on Sunday's sixth-place finish, his best Winston Cup showing at Daytona.
"He gave me a little doughnut, and he waved."
-- Gordon on what he took as a congratulatory bump from Earnhardt immediately after Sunday's checkered flag.
"I woulda gone with Earnhardt. We're going fishing in two weeks. You can bet your butt I would have been with him. Ain't nobody else ever took me fishing."
-- Michael Waltrip on not being able to help Earnhardt catch Gordon during Sunday's final laps.
"This was the best car I'd ever had at Daytona. I felt like we were as good as anybody out there. Of course, those Chevrolets looked like they hit the after-burners those last five laps. So who knows?"
-- Jeremy Mayfield on finishing 19th after cutting a tire on lap 192 while running seventh.
"I had more fun today than I've had here in the last 10 years. We weren't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but they knew we were there. For the first out, we needed a run like this to serve as a confidence booster. This team reminds me a lot of the No. 1 team. I think we've really got something to look forward to."
-- Darrell Waltrip on finishing 21st and earning 100 points in his first race with the Big Kmart Ford team.
"Naturally you're a little frustrated. It's hard to watch people go draft with your opponents instead of your own team, but that's the way it goes. We're at Daytona, man. This is restrictor-plate racing. Nobody is going to help anybody if they've got a 31 on the door."
-- Fourth-place finisher Mike Skinner on the inability to hook up with teammate Earnhardt in Sunday's final laps.
"You can't just drive those cars over the tops of cars. If we could have worked together we would have, but we didn't have the opportunity. Look at the race car out there. You just don't move cars over say, 'Excuse me, I'm moving in here.' "
-- Earnhardt on the inability to hook up with teammate Skinner in Sunday's final laps.
"It was fun while it lasted. I made some mistakes in the race and I learned some stuff. It was just one of those things that happens. When you're racing 40 cars side-by-side, it's going to happen."
-- Rich Bickle on getting caught in lap 135's 12-car pileup.
"I've brought all my IRL luck over here now. Any time I tear up anything, it seems like I tear up a motor."
-- Tony Stewart on an engine blow up.
"Those are the longest 10 or 12 laps that I've ever run around Daytona."
-- Gordon on holding off Earnhardt.
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