>>> Continued from previous message
"It's not what we wanted, by any means. I just got clipped in the left rear.
It wasn't anything intentional, by any means. Jeff (Green) was a little eager
probably. We weren't even really running that hard. We were just kind of
taking our time. Every time it got two-wide it gave Jeff a run. Jeff pulled
up beside me while under caution and kind of asked if everything was all
right and I told him we're cool. Jeff's a great guy. He and I have always got
along good. That was just racing. It's no big deal."

We saw you swinging the hammer. Is the shoulder okay? "Man, I was sitting
there talking with the guys. Can you imagine what the bill for J.D. Gibbs
(president, Joe Gibbs Racing) is going to be when he gets an invoice from
Greg Zipadelli (crew chief) and myself for fabrication work? I mean, our
hourly rates are not cheap. It's fine. I'll be honest. I feel really good. I
don't feel good about the day, obviously, but physically I feel great. Just
look forward to Sonoma next week."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 66 BEST BUY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS

On running into Tony Stewart:

"I apologized. I mean, I don't drive that way. I just got in a little over my
head; my car pushed and Tony held his line. I got to admit to him, I hate it.
I wouldn't do that to anybody and Tony's a good friend of mine and I know
he's racing for that championship and that top 10. Our Best Buy Chevy was
really good at that point and I just got a little eager, I guess. I just want
to apologize to those guys on that No. 20 car; they deserve better. My guys
do to, I guess I just made a mistake today."

***

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINCULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS:

"I think we had a better car than the finish showed. We weren't up in the
order as high as we could have been I think, but we got a pretty decent
finish. We knew the rain was all around, it was so hard to figure it out
because it would rain, then quit, then rain. The radar didn't match at all
what was happening. It was tough to figure out exactly what to do. Some guys
took two tires, some guys took four tires, it just wasn't worth the gamble to
us."

***

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS:

"I was very happy with the performance. Obviously we fell back there to
eighth and some guys did some different pit strategies. We stayed on four
tires all day and that did us a little bit on the short-term race and short
distances in the rain. Eighth, hey. The way things have been going for us
right now I'm happy with eighth."

What's it like racing the weather too?

"You know it's coming. The guys are great at reading the radar and telling
you what's going on. You've got to be careful playing it too much because
that's when all of a sudden the skies clear and it misses you. So we were
playing the race and just trying to do our best and have the best pit stops;
the best car we could out there. It came a little earlier than we were hoping
and we raced like finish. The weather's always a challenge in the sense that
you're racing against time instead of knowing how many laps you have left."

On Jimmie Johnson going three wide on you:

"I'll definitely talk to him about it. I didn't understand why the second he
got a chance to take me three wide when I was trying to pass somebody. We had
a good car and we were taking our time, making some passes and he got inside
me, made it three wide twice. I just didn't think it was necessary at the
time and I was just asking for him to give me a little bit of a break and
explain to me what was going on."

In the booth they were critical of the guy who allowed him to do that:

"If we'd have been racing towards the end I would have never said a word. We
were early in the race; I had a great car at the time. I had a better car
than Jimmie at the time. Later when we got strung out, and later he had a
little bit better car than I did, he got inside me and I let him go. That's
typically the way that we race and I just feel that Jimmie was being a little
bit over-aggressive at that point earlier."

It usually works pretty well between you two.

"It happens. We're competitors. We're going to race hard. There's times when
we race one another harder than we should but I like to keep it down to when
we're racing for position towards the end of the race. Jimmie and I race
great together. We never have any issues but I definitely did say something
on the radio."

On knowing how team has improved by this performance at Michigan:

"This has been a good track for us in the past, it's just the last couple
times we've been here. This is definitely a step up. I feel the things that
we've been working on. that this would be a track that we would really be
able to see if it's paying off for us. Obviously it has been paying off. We
still have some more to learn, obviously. I feel like the No. 9 was the best
car. He came back and ended up winning the race but I feel like we were a top
five car but unfortunately we weren't in the top five but we were close to
it."

What was better this time around?

"The car was working the way it should - comfortable, fast. We qualified good
and we were able to stay up front and race with guys. Communication has been
fantastic. Even when we're not running good communication's been good. It's
just really trying for the guys to figure out the geometry and mass that goes
into running these new setups and making sure they really feel what I'm
looking for as well."

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