Post race quotes - Homestead.

"We had a great racecar. You win 'em sometimes like that, although I don't know if I've ever won one like that, but I've sure lost 'em. I'm proud of the guys. We've done an awesome job this year. We finished in the top 10 in the points. We've accomplished a lot of goals but obviously it wasn't our day. I ain't go no decisions to make. I'm ready. I'm ready to go." - Bill Elliott
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - 41st/accident on lap 73:
"The right front cut down on me. Experience told me that I was fixing to get hurt, but I went up there and hit that nice cushiony wall and I didn't get hurt. We had a really strong car and I need to thank NAPA, DEI and Chevrolet. It was a really good year, but this isn't the way we wanted to end it."
BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 34th/220 laps:
"Thanks to Homestead and ISC for the soft walls. That hit was a lot easier than it could have been. I don't really know what happened. It felt like it just cut down. Goodyear did a great job with this tire for the little time they had to get it ready, since the track wasn't paved until very late in the game. I can't wait for Daytona to get here."
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 2nd:
"The GM Goodwrench Chevrolet was good all day. I hate that I was passing Ryan and those guys and got loose, but I guess that's part of it. What a way to end the year. I hate it for Bill Elliott, man. He means a lot to our sport, and I want to congratulate Matt Kenseth and his entire crew on everything they did this year. They deserve to be champions."
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 3rd:
"When we got the lead early, I knew it was too easy. Something had to come up. We had a problem with the left rear tire or something on the left side, and we had to come in and pit. We had to fight to get our lap back, but we had such a great racecar and such good work on pit road that we were able to advance and then on top of that, we had a fast racecar. We got our lap back and were able to finish third."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DuPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 5th:
"It certainly was an awesome finish for us. We had a bunch of top-5s, a couple wins in the last few races and I couldn't be happier with the effort we put out today. We didn't have the best car, we got real tight and we just couldn't get it freed up enough. It seemed like the track kept getting tighter and tighter. We were adjusting and adjusting. The guys in the pits had a great last stop.

"I just have to thank everybody on this entire team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They just put so much effort into us having competitive cars all year long and having a car to battle in the points all year long like we did. I also have to thank Winston for all their support over the years. I have had the pleasure to benefit from a lot of that support and I'm very thankful for what they do. I wish Matt Kenseth congratulations on his championship."
JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Finished 4th:
"It was a great drive. I really have to thank Valvoline, MB2 and Hendrick Motorsports for giving us the opportunity to go and run this car. I hate that they're breaking it up. It's a great race team, and Jay Guy has done a tremendous job. We had a semi-bad year. We had some changes throughout the year. James Ince has done a tremendous job with this team and he needed to take a leave. I hate it. I think we all suffered from it, them wanting to make a change. I'm not going to complain. We had 15 top-5 finishes and a win for the team, and that's great. They can't take that away from me and no one can take it away from them either, so that's cool."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Finished 24th:
"We should have run better. We wanted to run better, but the car wasn't good enough. We had a good year, had a lot of fun. I just want to go home and take some time off."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 7th:
"It was a pretty uneventful day other than the start of the race. It was pretty exciting having a bunch of racecar parts lying in the middle of the racetrack. I ran over a spring real hard and tore the front end up. The guys did a great job getting it put back together. The car was never quite as good as it was yesterday. We ran good all day, so I can't complain too much."
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Finished 1st:
"Honestly, I had just told Fatback the lap before that, 'man, he [Bill Elliott] is just playing with us. He can go wherever he wants to.' He was fast all day, and it was just bad luck on his part. I'm not sure what happened. Either he ran out of gas like Michael said, or a tire was going down or something like that. He just started wiggling and I just started screaming on the radio. It was a gift.

"It was way cool for us to win a race. We've been a long time without it, since Atlanta the first race, so we just had a good day, a good car all weekend and we had a lot of fun."
BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid) Finished 8th
"We had a great racecar. Our Dodge ran so well today. You win 'em sometimes like that, although I don't know if I've ever won one like that, but I've sure lost 'em. I'm proud of the guys. We've done an awesome job this year. We finished in the top 10 in the points. We've accomplished a lot of goals but obviously it wasn't our day. I ain't go no decisions to make. I'm ready. I'm ready to go.

"We had an awful good racecar. I guess it didn't matter if the caution came out or not. Bobby did what he had to do and won the race. I'm just proud of the guys. They've done such an awesome job this season. Since August we've run so good and they put an awful good racecar under me. There wasn't any warning. The next thing I knew it was sideways off turn two.

"It was just one of them days. We had a right rear go down and it was just an unfortunate thing. Our Dodge ran so well today, and the team did such a good job. I'm proud of every one of them."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid) - 37th/Retired after 122 laps with accident damage
"The 29 just got loose and ran out of room underneath us and got up into me and the 97. It's pretty much what everybody saw on TV. We should have been about third in the points after today, but oh well. There's always next year. We'll be back and try to win everything we can just like this season. We learned a lot this year, and we'll try to keep learning and working hard over the winter and come back strong in 2004."

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid) - Finished 6th
"We just cut a tire down, and Bill did, too. We came all the way from the back, and all in all it was a good day. We were a little tight on the chassis, but overall it was a real good race. We've been really good the last 10 races. We ended up with 12 top 10s and the 19 finished 19th in the standings. Hopefully we can pick up next year where we left off the last third of this season. Bill ran great today. I was up there with him for awhile. I hated to see it for him, but I'm proud of this team and I can't wait until next season."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid) - Finished 10th
"It took us about 15 laps to get going and then we were good on the long runs. From 30 laps on we had the fastest car. This is a new chassis and a new motor combination, and I'm really proud of all the guys. We didn't qualify good and had to come from the rear. I wish we could have finished better, but we'll take a top 10 and go to the house."

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Havoline Dodge Intrepid) - Finished 9th
"I think our season has been OK. We definitely wanted to win a race before the season was over. We came close at the Brickyard and Southern 500, two of the biggest races of the year, but it just didn't work out with the caution flags. That's just part of it. We put ourselves in position to win, and that's all you can do. When it's your day, it's your day. When it's not, there's not anything you can do about it. You've just got to take what you can get.

"Overall at the beginning of the year our goal was to get better at the end of the year. Pretty much into the season it was to be better each time we went back to the track. The first time Donnie (crew chief) Wingo and I went to those tracks together it was with cars that I'd never driven and he'd never worked on with a group of people we'd never been around. Our second time around to the tracks we ran extremely well and a lot better than we did the first time. That was very important.

"We were terrible today. We hit the wall on lap 1, lap 4, lap 7, lap 10. I couldn't quit hitting it. I tried, but we made huge adjustments on our car and I'm just thrilled to finish where I did. We had about a 30th place car when the race started. We kept adjusting on it and ended up getting it pretty good.

"I never complain about tires, but in practice we obviously scuffed everything we had. You'd get such a vibration. I told them to get rid of those. Even sets that didn't vibrate when we scuffed them in, we had very inconsistent today. I'm not one to complain about that, but I think there's definitely a problem there and it's very scary at a place like this where you're running that fast. You're really leaning on the right front and you keep cranking the wheel and you're running wide open hoping it's not going to blow out at the same time it's sitting there vibrating."

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid) - Finished 23rd
"That's about par for course the way this year has been. We had a car that could have won here today. We went with two tires on that one stop and fell back. We had to pit it early because it was vibrating so bad. We blistered a right rear then the caution came out the very next lap. That's happened so many times this year. That put us two laps down. Stewart didn't get on the gas on the next restart, and I was by him at the green. They gave us a pass through penalty and that put us down three laps. We had a really fast hot rod and got around the 9 to get one of them back. It was too little too late like it was all year. I'm really glad the whole season is behind us now."

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid) - Finished 27th
"The car wasn't great to start with, but we kept working on it and thought we were getting it better. There was a piece of debris that went through the grill and into the radiator. The guys did an unbelievable job changing the radiator in three laps. We had some bad luck this year, but rookie years can be like that, and I'm looking forward to 2004."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Rubbermaid Taurus (Finished 36th/147 laps)
"I was running three wide and the cars came up into me. There's a lot of things you do at a brand-new track at the beginning of a race just to try to get going. I needed to finish in the top 10 in points and we didn't get that this year. It's a real bummer. I really commend the group that works with me all year with this Rubbermaid team, but we just never had any luck. Never."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 43rd/engine on lap 29)
"Real disappointing for the DeWalt team. This is the same way it ended last year. We blew an engine in the last race last year, too. It didn't really give us any indication, something just broke. It's real disappointing. We had a pretty good car, you probably couldn't really see it, but I think in a long run we were going to be real good, and hopefully be a factor at the end."

THE CHAMPIONSHIP IS ALREADY SECURED. AS FAR AS THE TEAM IS ONCERNED, WHEN DOES NEXT YEAR START?
"About two months ago. We started building cars and started getting ready already. So, we've got three or four 2004 cars done, and been to the wind tunnel and have been working on them. So, we're already working on it. But, this is a disappointing way to end the day."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus (Finished 35th/accident on lap 198)
"It looks like people are having troubles with right-front tires. I'm not sure what the problem is. It's definitely not air pressure because we talked to Goodyear and when the first one blew out we came back up on air pressure. I don't believe there's other cars out there more aggressive with right-front camber than we are. So, it looks like it could be a problem, could be a serious problem, blowing right-front tires, especially some of the faster places we're gonna go next year. If this is the new tire, I'm a little concerned about it."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Finished 33rd/Accident on lap 243)
"We got too racy there with Ward. Ward and I were racing real hard and we got together and went around. We had a pretty fast car, and I was pretty happy with it. It was certainly a top 10 car for sure. I was really great on long runs. I wish I would have had some race cars like that this year because that thing was awesome."

TODD BODINE - No. 54 National Guard Taurus (Finished 11th)
"We had a great car. Gary made some changes before the race that clearly worked, that thing was awesome right off the bat. But, it kept getting tighter as the race went, and we really didn't find anything that freed it up. I think the track just lost grip and we need a little help on the front end with the Ford, so I think that's what it was because we couldn't find anything. But it was a great day for National Guard, last race for them with us as a team. We were just glad to do a good job for 'em."

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 CITGO Taurus (Finished 14th)
"Really looking forward to next year, that's the best I can tell you. We just got behind on the body stuff and the engine stuff, and next year we hope to be better. We got a lot of stuff in play for 2004 already. We made something out nothing today. We managed the race really well and I'm proud of that. We weren't fast enough to get a top-five, but we managed the race and I finished 14th. Made something out of not much."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 31st/engine on lap 253)
"I was hoping to end on a high note. We changed a lot, cars, crew chief, everything, and we didn't test. There really wasn't time for it. We sort of gambled and figured we didn't have a lot to lose. The points deal was sort of over for us a long time ago, so it was probably a good call that we went and used these last two races as a test. We were pretty decent at Rockingham, and obviously we missed the handle on it pretty good today."

JOE NEMECHEK - No.01 U.S. ARMY PONTIAC - Finished 17th
"We wanted a better finish today, but that spin hurt us from making a late-race charge. But looking at the big picture, I am leaving this racetrack with nothing but positive vibes about being a part of the Army team.

"In four short weeks, we've come a long way in getting ready for 2004. We've established a good line of communications and that is so important in the development of a good race team. I've said it many times and I will say it again - there's a lot of potential on this team and I am excited to be a part of it."

WARD BURTON - No.0 NETZEO PONTIAC - Finished 32nd/Accident on lap 243
"It was unbelievable how much the track changed between Happy Hour and the race. We chased the NetZero HiSpeed Pontiac all day on the restarts but had it to where it was pretty good the longer we ran. We were racing pretty hard with Mark there at the end and I guess he got loose and just got into me. It was a shame; I think we could have pulled out a Top-10 finish to end the season. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to next year with this team. We have a lot of potential, next year we'll need a little bit of luck too."

LARRY FOYT - No.14 HARRAH'S DODGE - Finished 16th
"Today was so much fun. We've been struggling all year, but we never gave up. This was a great way to end the season.

"The last three weeks have been great. We've finally been able to be competitive and race guys on the track. I really need to thank Ray Evernham and Sammy Johns. They've helped us out so much this weekend and it's been a major boost.

"The car really needed to be out in clean air, but we could never seem to get any in the first half of the race.

"That last 50 laps was a blast. We were really racing hard back there and I think the right side of my car proves that. The guys in front of me knew my car could run well on the high side of the track and they did everything they could to block me.

"Going into this race we knew if we could stay on the lead lap then we would come away with a good finish. The guys did a great job with the pit stops and I just took it from there. I'd really like to thank Harrah's for all their support this year. They've stuck with us and helped us try to turn this program around. I'm truly grateful for all their hard work."

RICKY CRAVEN - No.32 TIDE PONTIAC - Finished 29th
"The bad luck just continued to follow us this weekend. The crew busted their behinds, and really gave their all to get this car in shape today. We had finally gotten it to where I could turn some strong lap times, and then we had a tire that was going down. It's unfortunate to see the guys hard work go unrewarded. I think we were on our way to at least a top-15 finish, but that's just the way the second half of our season has gone.

"We got a win this year, which is an improvement over last season, so that's a definite positive. This team had a lot of new variables in place this year, with a new manufacturer and a new engine program, so I give the guys a lot of credit for the success we've had. I'm very excited about 2004, and the opportunities that the Chevy Monte Carlo will bring for myself and the entire PPI Motorsports organization. We've got a great group of people, and I think we'll surprise a lot of people next year. I'm looking forward to it."

JEFF GREEN - No.43 CHEX/CHEERIOS DODGE - Finished 40th/engine on lap 82
"The car was running pretty good. We were a little bit tight, but then we lost the motor. I hate to end the day in the garage, especially a day looking pretty promising. This #43 Chex By Petty Dodge was running pretty strong."