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| | Saturday, September 11 | |||||
| Here's what the leaders and others had to say Saturday night after the Exide Select Batteries 400 at Richmond International Raceway
"Oh man, I wish I knew what to say. You plan all your life for something like this, and this is the first time I've been speechless. And every knows I know how to talk enough.
"This is for Davey Allison. This was the mark I had to shoot for all year. Donnie Allison and his family have been great to me this year. I'm out of breath. That's a lot of stuff to talk about after winning a race.
"But, Greg Greg Zipadelli (and the team) has just been unbelievable all year. Bobby Labonte, Joe Makar, Joe Gibbs Racing, all the Interstate Batteries guys, I mean this is a team victory and this is something Joe Gibbs has been dreaming about -- a 1-2 finish. I'm just glad I'm on top tonight.
"I kept getting intervals and I knew we were running about the same times as Bobby, but traffic was going to hurt us at the end because the tires were getting really old and it was hard to turn down underneath people and run the low line. But that's what we worked on really hard today in the first practice -- being able to stay low. Greg and all the guys worked real hard to make sure this car drove good all day."
-- Tony Stewart Winner of Exide Select Batteries 400 "I'm just so happy tonight, I don't know what to say. I want to say to everyone at Home Depot, 'Thanks for going with Tony Stewart and going with us.' Just a great night. "I think Bobby (Labonte) and Jimmy (Makar) deserve a lot of credit here. They helped, suggest, put this together. They were the ones who orchestrated this -- picked Tony Stewart. I also want to say a big thanks to everyone back in the shop. It was just a total team effort -- everybody works together on both cars. "Tonight, I don't know what to say about Tony Stewart. This whole team is new, as you know -- nobody was taken off the No. 18 car. Everybody came in, gelled together and the way they worked tonight, running up front, having to make pit stops against the No. 24 car and the No. 18. I just want to say it was a terrific night for us."
-- Joe Gibbs "I just want to say 'thanks' to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. The motor department, the fab shop, the prep shop -- everybody did a great job. It's an awesome day. Tony did a great job. "You have to have the track position, good pit stops and an awesome day. I can't believe it. It's a dream come true." -- Greg Zipadelli Tony Stewart's crew chief "It was a good night for us, we qualified really well and the Interstate Pontiac ran great. We didn't quite have as much forward bite it seemed as Tony had up off the corner and he just had us a little beat. "The cars are real close, they aren't that different. The chassis are close to the same, the shocks are close to the same. There are little differences, but he likes his car a little different than I do. "But it's great to have Tony as a teammate, his win is great for Joe Gibbs Racing. I'd rather have him on my side, than have to race him on a different team. So, I think it's pretty good. "The past two weeks in a row, we've had tough ends to races. No so much in Darlington, but in Bristol we ran fifth with 12 to go and finish 29th. It was just one of those deals, it was a good night for us. We had a good race, stayed out of trouble, and finished on a good note on a short track. This is my best finish. Last (race here) I was third, this (time) second. Can't complain about it." -- Bobby Labonte Finish: 2nd Place "It didn't look like a (third-place finish) for a while, but the guys kept working on the car and making the adjustments. The track tightened up a lot more as we went along than we anticipated, so we had to start making major adjustments. And the guys made an incredible pit stop the last time and that was the difference. It got us up there where we could race the guys in front for a while, (but) they were still too strong. "Congratulations to Tony Stewart, he did an awesome job. Bobby Labonte ran well. We didn't have anything for those two guys, but we followed all night and got a third place and that's big for us. "We just got to keep doing these type of things. Go to Louden next week and have another good race. And get back on track. "It was nice to get this car back up front. There's a lot of pressure, no doubt about that. You start thinking about how tough each one of these tracks are to pass on and things that can happen. But I think we are ready to handle (the next nine races)." -- Dale Jarrett Finish: 3rd Place "I don't think (it was related to the crash with Ward Burton). I'm not sure what broke in it, but just a part. Sometimes parts break. "I was pretty encouraged with the team and the car for a long time, but toward the end we were starting to have a little trouble with that (track) sealer wearing off. But, the team did a great job and we were pretty darn strong for two-thirds of the race." -- Mark Martin Finish: 35th Place | ALSO SEE Stewart drives like a veteran in first Winston Cup victory
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