Price Chopper 400 presented by Kraft Foods Post-Race Transcript
An Interview With:
JEFF GORDON - 2nd finisher
GREG BIFFLE - 3rd finisher
THE MODERATOR:
We are pleased now to be joined by today's second place finisher. He moves
up to seventh in the point standings in the Chase, and that's Jeff Gordon.
He drives the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet.
JEFF GORDON:
That's it? Can't you read it different? Just tell me I'm
fifth.
THE MODERATOR:
Seventh in points, drives the 24 DuPont Chevrolet, but
certainly a strong one out there this afternoon for your race team.
JEFF GORDON:
Yeah, it was definitely a strong finish. We really struggled
at the beginning of this race. I was pretty disappointed that the car was
doing the things that it did. I'm really, really proud of this team and
Steve for not giving up. I mean, I was a bear on the radio because I was so
mad about it. And we just never gave up on it. We kept tuning on it, and
Steve made some great adjustments and we had great pit stops and found
ourselves in position there at the end with some guys and two tires to take
advantage of it. To come back and finish second is certainly a great, great
day for us.
Q:
Before the race, Montoya said it was at times frustrating because no
matter what you do, Mark Martin is always right there, first, second, third,
fifth, and you seemed to be a little surprised that you had only gone up to
seventh. Is it kind of annoying or frustrating when you do as well as you
do and you don't make up a lot of ground?
JEFF GORDON:
I mean, a little bit, but you don't expect to go from where we
were in points all the way up to first. I mean, it's just that you have a
good today like today and you're not really sure where everybody finished,
and you're kind of hoping for the best, that you made some big jumps.
I mean, I'm pretty sure we made a big jump from a numbers standpoint, it's
just maybe we didn't go up a lot in positions.
But that's what happens when you get off to the start that we did at New
Hampshire, when you finish 15th and all the guys that you're racing in the
championship finish ahead of you. Then even a day like today is not going
to necessarily turn you around and all of a sudden be in the top two or
three.
We've just got to keep doing this. That's what I'm excited about. Keep
having finishes like today and effort like today, and we've still got a lot
of races left.
Q:
Just talk about chasing Tony and just what was going through your mind
as you were round and round and round and just can't get to him?
JEFF GORDON:
When I got into third behind Greg, I knew we had a good car,
and I was trying to put down the best laps that I could and started not
really making any gains. Then I searched around a little bit and hit on a
couple things and gained on Greg, and I was able to get by him a little bit
quicker than I thought I was going to. And so at that point, I was like,
ooh, maybe I do have a shot at Tony.
As I got closer to him, my car just really started getting tighter and
tighter and tighter, and at that point I tried searching around a little
bit, but there just really wasn't anything I could do. Tony was running a
really solid line and had a good car. He had clean air. As long as he
didn't make any big mistakes, I wasn't going to catch him.
I got a little bit of hope there one time; he slipped coming off of 4 and I
gained on him, but after that I couldn't gain any more.
THE MODERATOR:
We'll also hear now from our third place finisher, driver of
the No. 16 3M Sherwin Paints Ford, and that's Greg Biffle. Talk about your
run out there today. It was a very solid run. You had a strong race car.
GREG BIFFLE:
We had a really good day. It felt good to run back up front
again. Quite a bit different, obviously a lot different setup than what
we've normally run, so I wasn't sure what I was going to have.
But you know, first time I've really been able to run the top, as well. So
maybe we found out what some of these other guys have been doing that we
haven't. It feels good, because a lot of the company wide we ran pretty
good today; Mick Murray did and we did, and I see Carl finished 10th, and I
saw Matt was running well before he had an engine problem. It was a good
day for the company today and a good day for us.
I feel bad; at the end I wanted to take four tires and the crew chief wanted
to take two, and I decided I wanted four. Probably the wrong thing to do.
Q:
Almost on that same theme, for either one of you guys, you look at the
role pit strategy in Mark's win at New Hampshire and you look at the role
pit strategy played at the end today. Are we going to see this two tire
stuff, four tire stuff in the last couple restarts every week going forward
for the rest of this, and how big a role is pit strategy going to play in
determining this for the rest of the year?
GREG BIFFLE:
I think it has all year, and I think it's going to continue,
because these cars really like to be up front. The guy behind you has a big
disadvantage in air. Even though the track is really wide, your car has got
to work in that lane. I caught Dale Jr. running three tenths, four tenths
of a lap faster and just stalled out, couldn't do anything because he was
running the line I was running, and I couldn't really run anywhere else.
I think whoever gets out front at the end of these things is going to be
hard to beat.
Q:
Jeff, with the fact that you guys finished six, seven spots ahead of the
5 and the 48, that brings you guys back up a little bit closer. How
important is that to just kind of keep chipping away like that? You may not
make great gains on them, but if you keep chipping away at them, you can be
in a position to close the gap.
JEFF GORDON:
If we can just do it in another seven weeks, man, I'll be
happy with that.
Right now we've got to focus on our team and our program and our finishes,
and we can't control what those guys do, or Greg or Tony or any of them. We
got a little bit behind in New Hampshire. We've got to make sure that's the
worst finish that we have in the Chase. That's the only chance that we
have, and that's asking a lot, but that's now our goal. It's the position
we put ourselves in.
Racetracks like today are good tracks for us, but I'll tell you, when they
dropped the green, I thought we were going to get lapped. We were really
far off.
I'm as optimistic and excited right now about the fact that we made
adjustments and got ourselves to a second place finish as I am just that we
had a good day. I mean, we've got a lot of work still left to do.
Q:
Over a 25 lap run like we had at a track like this, can you sort of
describe the difference in the feel of the car with the two tires versus
four? How does that work out?
JEFF GORDON:
It kind of goes in cycles. We took two earlier, and it
actually worked pretty good for us until the end of the run. So I think
that four tires are a little bit better right from the getgo for a couple
laps, and then I think they seem to level off once they get up to
temperature. And then once you get to the end of the run when the fuel load
goes away, then it really starts to go.
I mean, we were better than Tony there at the end, but not enough. We made
some adjustments to make our car good on the restart and tried to jump up
through there, and it worked. It did what we needed it to do. But we
needed to get out front sooner in order to maintain, and we didn't. So
that's why we finished where we did.
But going back to the two tire thing, it's risk versus reward, and look at
how it worked out for Tony but look how it worked out for the other guys.
You've got to be willing to take that risk, if you're not the first guy out
there when they drop the green, what's going to happen, because for a bunch
of guys it didn't work out. You've got to kind of weigh that out, and for
us four tires was the way to go. But two tires earlier worked decent.
If we had known we were going to get out front, then maybe it would have
worked. But you don't know that, and I'm not sure, you'll have to ask Steve
why he made the decision he did, but I'm glad he made the four tires call.
Q:
Jeff, you were talking about how finicky this car is. What is the cure
for that? Do you try to figure this stuff out in practice?
JEFF GORDON:
I'm telling you, that first run I didn't think any
communication skills in the world was going to fix that thing. I didn't
think any adjustments I thought we were going to have to come down and
change four spring shocks and sway bars. I don't know how that car came to
us, I really don't.
I definitely give Steve a lot of credit for not panicking. He made
adjustments, but they weren't just crazy adjustments. It does tell you how
finicky this car is. We made some adjustments where the car came around a
little bit, still wasn't great, and it never really was spectacular all day.
Even there at the end, I was good in 1 and 2 but not in 3 and 4. We've got
to go back and analyze what we did throughout the weekend, where we started
the race, what adjustments we made.
I was so mad I didn't pay attention to adjustments to be honest with you. I
just told them what it did and drove the heck out of it, and somehow we
finished second. I'm looking forward to going back and talking to them.
Q:
Greg, just so I'm clear, on that last stop, it sounded as though on the
radio you guys didn't make up your minds until you were practically in the
pit box. You wanted to take four and Greg wanted to take two and you
overruled him?
GREG BIFFLE:
Yeah. Not much else to say about that.
I stuck my fingers out the window like that, and he said, "four, four,
four," so I came around to the other side
Q:
Are you sure it was four fingers?
GREG BIFFLE:
Yes. I should have said one. (Laughter.)
Q:
When you look at how this race finished and down the stretch, 10 of the
12, 9 of the 10, were all in the Chase, the cream of the crop kind of rising
to the top there. Does racing get any better than this? You two are having
fun because obviously you're up there at the podium and moving up in points,
but does it get any better than this? Talk about the emotion of racing with
the cream of the crop and the way this finishes; at some point it's anybody
who can catch anybody.
GREG BIFFLE:
Yeah, it's quite a bit of emotion for us today because we
really, truly have not been running up to standard this year. So at one
point late in the race there, it looked like we were going to have this
thing won fairly easily, depending on how the cautions fell. We were able
to beat them on the restarts.
So that was real exciting for our team to run like that. And then a little
letdown at the end when I put four on and probably just half a round a wedge
or one round a wedge, I would have been right there.
I know what I did wrong. I know I made a mistake. But we're sure excited
to be running good again and especially going to some tracks we like, like
California and some other places. I'm having the time of my life, I know
that.
JEFF GORDON:
I think that's why they made the Chase. Right now Tony would
be pretty much on cruise control with the championship. So they made the
Chase to have a playoff type system, and all year long it's been anybody
that can win races and comes on strong, and now that's what we've got.
I think that it's even though the Hendrick cars started off the first two
races strong and we were strong today, that doesn't mean that this thing is
over. There's a lot of racing left to go. There's a lot of great
competition, and the competition is as even as I've ever seen it. Even
though we've had some dominating performances, to have so many different
guys in the Chase running up front at different racetracks is impressive.
THE MODERATOR:
Thanks for putting on a great show. Good luck at
California.
-credit: nascar
