Top 10 Quotes of 2001

December 25, 2001
9:58 AM EST (1558 GMT)

1. "We've lost Dale Earnhardt." -- Mike Helton, Feb. 18, 2001

2. "Jimmy Spencer never forgets."-- Jimmy Spencer, after a late-race tangle with Mike Mclaughlin cost him the Busch Series Subway 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.

3. "In the last five or six laps there when we got the lead, I just looked up in the sky and said, `We need your help, old buddy.' He was there." -- Richard Childress, describing how he felt during the waning laps of Kevin Harvick's first career win at Atlanta, just three weeks after the death of Dale Earnhardt.

4. "Everybody thought you couldn't make me mad. You can. That 31 certainly did today. …I just wish I would have taken his tire down or something so at least he wouldn't have won a race. I just didn't do a very good job of it." -- Jeff Gordon at New Hampshire, after Robby Gordon got into him and cost him a chance to win.

5. "I had been behind him for a long time. If he would have just let me go by, then Tony never would have gotten by. But he swerved up and ran into the side of me. I don't feel sorry for him a bit." -- Kevin Harvick, after harassing and eventually passing potential race-winner Robby Gordon at Sonoma. Gordon ended up second to Tony Stewart.

6. "He sort of rooted and gouged a little harder than I liked it and finally moved me out of the way. He basically about turned me around, so I raced like hell to catch him so I could return the favor. What I gave him was a clean love tap. What he gave me was a cheap shot trying to wreck me, so there is a difference." -- Ricky Rudd, after moving Kevin Harvick out of the way to win the Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400

7. "It's none of my guys and none of his guys -- it's just a nut behind the wheel." -- Stacy Compton, referring to Dale Earnhardt Jr., after he felt Junior had wrecked him at Darlington

8. "I've got the hell knocked out of me a bunch of times this year and it gets frustrating. I'm just upset with people running over me. People have got to look in front of 'em. He (Jerry Nadeau) did it and I'm tired of it, so I vented my frustration on him." -- Ward Burton, after an altercation with Jerry Nadeau at Kansas City

9. "I'm upset because it only takes one bonehead move to cause a wreck and that's exactly what happened. Kevin's a good kid -- I don't know what we got to do to calm him down." -- Todd Bodine, after accusing Kevin Harvick of causing a backstretch accident in the EA Sports 500

10. "He's trying to fill Earnhardt's shoes, and thinks he is Dale Earnhardt, but he wouldn't even make a scab on Dale Earnhardt's butt right now." -- Bobby Hamilton, after a late-race incident with Kevin Harvick at Martinsville