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2006
DAYTONA 500
- 48th Daytona 500
- "Great American Race"
- RACE:
2 pm FEB 19, 2006
- Daytona International
Speedway
- 2005
winner: Jeff
Gordon
- 2004
winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Entry:
top 35 drivers from last season are guaranteed a spot
RACE
RESULT: DAYTONA 500 (*rookie)
- 1. Jimmie
Johnson , Chevrolet , 202 laps
- 2. Casey
Mears , Dodge
- 3. Ryan Newman
, Dodge
- 4. Elliott
Sadler , Ford
- 5. Tony Stewart
, Chevrolet
- 6. Clint
Bowyer* , Chevrolet
- 7. Brian
Vickers , Chevrolet
- 8 Dale Earnhardt
Jr. , Chevrolet
- 9 Ken Schrader
, Ford
- 10 Dale Jarrett
, Ford
- 11 Kasey Kahne
- 12 Mark Martin
- 13 Robby Gordon
- 14 Kevin Harvick
- 15 Matt Kenseth
- 16 Martin Truex
Jr.*
- 17 Terry Labonte
- 18 Michael Waltrip
- 19 Bill Elliott
- 20 Kirk Shelmerdine
POST RACE INTERVIEW:
CHRYSLER,
JIMMIE JOHNSON, WINNER:
- "It's going
to take a little while to sink in. I think as tomorrow unfolds, putting
the car in the museum, on the way to New York, I just found out I guess
I get to go to New York, be on some great shows, be a part of everything
up there. That's when it will start to sink in. Right
now I just have so much pride in my race team, what we have accomplished
today with the circumstances we've been through. This is a well prepared
team, a team that was very hungry and wanted to make a statement today.
We stepped up and got the job done today and I'm very proud of my guys."
DODGE, CASEY
MEARS, 2ND:
- "I couldn't
be happier. These races are so hard to get good finishes in. So many
people can affect the outcome. But the Texaco/Havoline Dodge was running
well and we were able to hold the bottom there in the end and fend a
few people off. It was a good day for us. The biggest thing is that
it starts us out right in the points this year. Typically we end up
having a bad first race at Daytona, and that sets us back in the points."
DODGE, RYAN
NEWMAN, 3RD:
- "We had a
good shot at winning this race. I've got to thank all the guys on the
Alltel Mobil Dodge, everybody that's been a part of Penske Racing. Unfortunately,
Casey didn't decide to follow through with that. He gave me a good shove
to get me out of the way but didn't go with us. We'll just have to see
what happens. It was a great run for us and a good way to start the
season. It's the best way we've started the season down here ever."
FORD , ELLIOT
SADLER, 4TH:
- “Man, this
is a great finish. It’s a great way to get the season started
off. You know what? We wanted to win, but to come back from all the
adversity today and finish fourth, it’s a great day for us. My
guys never gave up, awesome pit stops all day, they’re the ones
that kept me pumped up, kept me in the ballgame and Tommy made some
great calls. Good, good finish for us. This is great.” GREAT WEEK
FOR YOU… “Yeah, we got a win on Thursday and got a top-five
here this weekend. This is a good shot in the arm that we need as a
race team. We got a great leader now, we got a great bunch of guys,
I got the best pit crew on pit road and I’m going to have a lot
of fun driving this car this year.” WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN YOU
SAW THE 8 CAR IN YOUR REARVIEW MIRROR TOWARD THE END AND AGAIN FOR THAT
GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED FINISH? “Me and the 8 wanted to work together,
but his car worked better on the top and mine worked better on the bottom,
so it was hard for us to work together. But, you know, he’s always
going to have a good push going to the front, we just weren’t
able to help each other today. I do got to thank Clint Bowyer, he helped
me a tremendous amount today. And I had a lot of fun. It was a great
Daytona 500.” YOU WIN A DUEL AND FINISH FOURTH TODAY. THAT’S
A GOOD WEEK FOR ANYBODY. “I think there’s about 40 teams
out here that would want to trade this week with us. It’s been
a great week. We qualified good, we finished good, the car’s in
one piece, we’ve got a good car for Talladega. It was a great
weekend.” YOU WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK FOR MOST OF THE RACE.
WHAT HAPPENED NEAR THE END THAT COULD GET YOU NEAR THE FRONT? “We
just made the right decisions and Tommy made some great adjustments
on the car and got it where I could run on the bottom or run up high.
Everything went well. Just being in the right place at the right time.
This is a 200-mile-per-hour chess game, and for once I made all the
right decisions.” AND YOUR TEAMMATE, DALE JARRETT, JUST MISSED
A TOP 10. “Oh, did he? That’s great. I hadn’t seen
him the whole race, so it’s good that he came out and finished
11th, so that’s a great start for him, and a great start for the
whole Yates team to come here and run as good as it did, it was fun.”
FORD, MARK
MARTIN, 12TH:
- WERE YOU HAPPY
WITH YOUR DAY? “No. We had a great car. That’s a shame.
We kind of wasted it there, but you have problems and unfortunately
we just couldn’t get back through the pack that good. There was
just a lot of traffic out there. We had a killer car. I probably couldn’t
have won the race, but certainly could have contended easily for a top
five finish. We got back to 12th or 13th anyway, but certainly had a
lot better stuff than that. We ran around the top five until we had
our little problem, but you’ll have that. This is my last Daytona
500. I plan to be on the couch with a remote control watching it next
year.” WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE PIT STOP? “I don’t know.
You’ll have to ask the team. It was something about the gas wouldn’t
go in.”
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