Daytona Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Written by John Davison · February 13, 2005
Here, thanks to various teams and manufacturers, is a collection of notes and quotes following Sunday’s qualifying for the Daytona 500. Dale Jarrett won the pole at a time of 47.793 sec/188.312 mph but had to wait until Jimmie Johnson clocked his time of 47.829 sec/188.170 mph for second place. Only the top two positions are locked in, the rest of the starting field is determined by results of the qualifying races held Thursday.
Notes & Quotes: Daytona 500 Qualifying
DERRIKE COPE, NO. 55 S.W.A.T. FITNESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 52nd: (DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT QUALIFYING TODAY?) “It’s not enough for the qualifying spots that are available on speed. Certainly our car didn’t do that. The car drafted exceptionally well down here at testing and I foresee that happening on Thursday. That’s what it will come down to. We’ll get out mindset straight for the drafting practice. We’ll be a factor come Thursday.”
(ON THE ADDED PRESSURE) “I come down here every year having this same thing happen, so we’ll do the best we can. I know what I need to do in a drafting situation. I know what my needs are in the race car and we’ll do that in the next few days. Come Thursday, we’ll be strong.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR. NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 39th - (WILL YOU CAPTURE THE POLE TODAY?) “I’ve got a lot of work to do to get there. I think we have a car that will be in the top 15, top 20. We’ll get a pretty good start for Thursday. We’ve got a car that I think will be strong in race trim. The easier it is to drive it on Thursday, the better.”
(HOW WAS YOUR RUN?) “It’s hard to do it by myself. We’re way, way down on horsepower. And that’s just the simple fact of it. The car races really well in the draft. If everything works fine, we’ll have a good race on Thursday and get up front sooner or later. But, to run by ourselves, we need more steam underneath the hood. I’ve kind of seen it coming and the test wasn’t that good.”
“We’ve been real slow since we’ve been here. We were slow in the test. So our expectations have been pretty low as far as qualifying. We picked up a little bit so that made the team happy. We picked up about a tenth. But we didn’t expect to be real high on the board.”
(IS THE CAR GOOD IN RACE TRIM?) “Yeah, the car’s good in race trim. We you don’t have as fast a car, it makes it a little tougher. But I think I can get it up front. We’re just going to have to work a little harder.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 31st - (HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT QUALIFYING TODAY?) “It’s good to be here. I’ve got to thank everyone at Bass Pro Shops and everyone at DEI. These guys worked all winter to put this car together and I’m just trying to get in the race. We’ll see what happens today but Thursday will be more important, I think.
(WHAT ABOUT THE PRESSURE?) “We just have to hope we get a good qualifying today and get a guarantee spot. I think that’s how it works. If we don’t do that we’ll just have to race our way in. If we make it, we make it and if we don’t, I guess we’ll try again next year. I’d be really disappointed if that happened so we’ll just have to try really hard.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 3rd - (ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO QUALIFYING?) “Well, I’m just so impressed with the job these guys have done on this DuPont Chevrolet. Preparing for Daytona takes a lot of time and effort and these guys have put a lot into it. So far it’s been paying off and we hope it pays off when we put these two laps on the track. This is definitely as good as it gets for us. This baby is slick, it’s fast, it’s got a lot of power and we’re having fun so far. We hope we continue to have fun after this run is over.”
(YOU’RE FAST. HOW WAS THE RUN?) “I want to thank everyone back at the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet team in the shop. The chassis, aero guys, engineers-there is so much hard work put into this season but also into Daytona. That was everything we’ve got right there. You know, we definitely slowed down. I think there is a little bit more wind here today than yesterday. I definitely feel it hurt me in the back straightaway. We’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed. It was a good lap but not exactly what we were hoping for. We’re just going to have to wait and see.”
(ON THE PAINT SCHEME) “That is an awesome paint job. If you just look at the small details of that car, it’s pretty impressive.”
(IT SEEMS YOU’VE MADE AN AERO IMPROVEMENT IN THE OFF SEASON) “I feel like we’ve always been known for good power-good, reliable power. But you know, those guys never stop working to get more. It’s the job of the entire team to make sure we have the complete package with the aerodynamics as well. I feel that this one is one of the best cars we’ve ever put out there.”
BORIS SAID, NO. 36 CENTRIX CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: (ARE YOU PROUD OF YOUR QUALIFYING TIME TODAY?) “I’m most proud of my son Boris, Jr. at home watching. HE just turned a year old. You know, this is a far cry from what I’m used to. I’m used to driving BMWs all over the world and they’ve been like a family to me. Centrix has given me a great opportunity to come out here and race in the greatest race in the world, the Daytona 500. I can’t thank Rick Hendrick enough. Those Hendrick motors are unbelievable. I’ve got a great team and a great crew chief. Joe Nemechek has helped me out a lot. It’s just a team effort. I’m just a small piece of it. We’re having a blast in Speedweeks. I’m just going to go have a hot dog and watch on pins and needles for the rest of qualifying. Hopefully I can make the race and go out there and run decent and not do anything stupid to make any of the veterans mad. Hopefully we can be there at the end with our Centrix Chevrolet.”
SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 6th - (HOW WAS YOUR LAP?) “The team did a great job. Everybody back at the shop-Big Mike and everyone in the fab shop-keep building great race cars. Our downforce stuff is even better and of course our speedway program is getting better and better. I just want to thank everyone on the No. 10 Valvoline Chevrolet. It’s good to have good teammates like Boris Said and Joe Nemechek so you can play with and have a good time with. Boris is someone who can lighten up the whole scene. And then you’ve got Joe who you can always go to. He’s got a ton of experience and can just shoot from the hip. It’s good to have a good car and be close to the front. But the good thing about this car is that it runs so well. And they’ve worked so hard to make them go fast and they drive so well. It’s exciting for me.”
ROBBY GORDON, NO. 7 JIM BEAM CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “You always try to think you’ve got a little more for qualifying. But you know, this is Daytona. I think a lot of guys will slow down a little bit from what they ran in practice, because you get a little bit of the whirlwind effect going on when you have cars out there. We’re pretty with that time. It’ll hopefully get us a good starting spot for the 150 and we’ll take our chances from there. There are only 35 cars that are guaranteed into this deal. So there are about 20 cars trying to get one of those extra eight spots. We’re trying to do the best job we can for Chevrolet and Jim Beam and all of our sponsors.”
(HOW HARD IS IT TO GET SETTLED IN TO THIS DRIVER/OWNER ROLE AS YOU BEGIN A NEW SEASON?) “It was obviously a big undertaking in the beginning. But we’ve got the right management in the right positions. Actually I get to play the driver of the race team even though it happens to have my name on the front door. But I’ve got a great general manager with John Story and Bob Temple and Patrick Donahue are doing a great job crewing the car. We’ve been able to assemble a great group of, I wouldn’t call them ‘new’ guys because they’ve been involved in motorsports for many years, but just ‘new’ at working together. I think we’ll have a very competitive year.”
(ANYTIME YOU START A NEW BUSINESS, THINGS CAN GET BEHIND IN THE EARLY GOING. IS EVERYTHING ON SCHEDULE AT THIS POINT?) “For us, I think we’re a little behind. Any new race team will always be behind for a while because you race against some of the best and most established teams in the business. But we’ve got out car count. We’re working hard trying to build that up. Our fab shop is running close to 18- hour shifts trying to get us properly built race cars that we can be competitive with. We made the test here in Daytona and went to the Las Vegas test and the California test. So I think we’ve got the next three races kind of under our belt now and we’ll just have to take it one step at a time.”
JASON LEFFLER, NO. 11 FEDEX CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “I’m relieved. We came down here for testing and we lacked some speed. We went back to the shop and Jimmy Makar and Dave Rogers told me, ‘Don’t worry, we got it handled.’ And, they sure did. It’s great to be driving for such a great organization. I think we’re pretty much locked in now so I can go into Thursday’s 150s and learn as much as I can and race hard and get ready for the Daytona 500.
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 4th - It just shows how well the guys know how to work on this GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. This is the same car we raced last year. We ran in the top 5 all four races and decided to work on our downforce stuff. We thought our restrictor plate stuff was pretty good. Maybe everybody will leave us alone now and act like we know what we’re doing. It’s a great job by all the guys on our team.
(YOU’VE WORKED HARD TO DEVELOP YOUR AERO PACKAGE) “No, and we’ve taken a lot of flack in this off season for not showing up to the test and really trying to take some time for ourselves to work on our restrictor plate program and things like that. I think a lot of times, the RCR bunch are the forgotten people in the restrictor plate shuffle and these guys have been good at it for a long time. One of these times we’re going to win one of these races and not finish second and all that stuff can go away.”
(HOW WILL THE CAR REACT ON THURSDAY AND IN THE 500?) “We’ve got a good notebook on this car. We haven’t tore it up. All the body pieces and components are the same as they were last year. We’ve got a good place to start and that’s a good thing.”
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 24th (HAVE CONDITIONS CHANGED YOUR QUALIFYING STRATEGY?) “It might be a little bit different from what it was earlier. An earlier draw might have been a little better. The wind has picked up a little bit and it is a bit warmer. Some guys are still running some pretty fast times, so maybe it hasn’t changed as much as we think.
(DO YOU NEED A GOOD STARTING POSITION FOR THE 150’s?) “You might not need one but you want one. I’ll take a good starting spot. It’s harder to pass now than it was then, so it’s still important. But obviously if you start in the back, you can still get in the front, it just depends on how you get there and what you do. I’d rather want a good starting spot than need a good starting spot.
JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 5th - “I’d just like to thank everybody back at the shop. This is just about as close as you can build. I think we have eight speedway cars and they all run just about identically. That’s a pretty good feat for those guys back at the shop. I’d also like to thank Hendrick Motorsports for the engines. The motors run good and that makes our job a lot easier. But that’s about all I had. I said if we could run a low ninety, I’d be happy. I wanted to run in the eighties. Jeff Gordon ran in the eighties and I’d like to have been there. But that’s not going to be the pole. The Yates cars are going to be fast. I believe the No. 38 car might have a shot at it. Pretty quick times today.”
(ON THE RESTRICTOR PLATE PROGRAM) “We really came on strong. Our restrictor plate program was strong the whole year. This is the car I ran in the last race and it ran so good I wanted to bring it back here. But our whole program is good. Ryan Pemberton (crew chief) and I have developed good communication and chemistry there. We just hit it off. I can tell him what I feel I need and he can go in that direction and we usually get the cars pretty close. Here at Daytona, this is going to turn into a handling race. You’re going to have to have a little bit of luck - a lot of luck - and a good driving race car. If you can do that at the end of the day, hopefully we’ll be the guys up front.”
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 33rd - “I’ve got to thank Teresa (Earnhardt) and Richie (Gilmore) and everybody at DEI for giving me the opportunity. They’ve put me with a bunch of guys that have won races and won championships and wow - what an opportunity to get in a car like this and have people around you with those types of credentials. It makes me want to jump up and down. So I’m ready to race and looking forward to it.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 16th, top Raybestos Rookie-Of-The-Year candidate - PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS: (ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP) “I’m definitely pleased. We came down here for testing and we never thought we had a shot to qualify in the top 20. They were some cars that were pretty decent but they needed some work to be top 10, top 15 compatible.
“The guys went back to the shop, they cut on them a bunch and were able to come back to the 500 with a pretty decent car. The car drove really well when we were down here testing in the draft. It was only 8 or 10 cars sometimes. But getting out there with the full 42 will be fun. We’re really looking forward to it. But as far as today goes, we’re happy we are the top Rookie qualifier. Hopefully we can be here many more times but I’m sure Travis will have something to say about that.
(ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GATORADES?) “Definitely. The Gatorade Duel is going to be a big race for us. Obviously, we’re in the show being as though we’re in the top 35 in owner’s points from last year with Terry being the seat. I look forward to the Duel races. It’s going to be a lot of fun; I look forward to getting out there. Hopefully we can earn some respect from some of the veterans out there during practices on Wednesday in order to prepare ourselves for the Duel on Thursday. That will help so we can try to run up front.
“The cars have been doing well for me. I’ve been getting used to them a lot quicker. I’ve got a great crew chief in Alan Gustafson. He’s been around the Cup level for a long time. As far as everything goes this year-we’re all one team. The 5, 25 and 44 are together like the 24 and 48 have been successful with. We’re looking forward to making sure that that runs as well as the 24 and 48 did. Brian Whitsel is the key operator trying to make sure all the key people are there. Hopefully we can make the most of our opportunity with Mr. Hendrick.”
(WHY ARE THERE SO FEW ROOKIES THIS YEAR?) “I don’t know. You tell me. I guess there are limited opportunities out there that there aren’t many rides coming open this year. I think there were a lot of great rookies last year.
“Obviously they showed potential. Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers showed a few strong runs. We’re looking forward to this year with myself and Travis Kvapil.
“Boris Said should make a few runs and I believe Eric McClure should make most of the starts as well. It’s going to be a lot of fun. With just a few of us it’s going to be easier to pay attention that with a lot of guys out there.”
(WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR THE DUEL?) “Keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. We want to make sure we get through there and just kind of salvage a finish to get to the 500. IF we can finish somewhere up front, obviously, that would be great. Seeing as though the front row is the only row that’s set when you come to Daytona, if you don’t have a pole winning car you’re not overly excited for the qualifying, you’re just ready for the Duel races. So, that’s what we focused on when we were here in testing, knowing that we didn’t have a car that was going to go for the pole. We made it drive good for the race, so hopefully we can work on it more in practice to make it run better.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - QUALIFIED 2ND — PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS: “I knew that we could run an .80 again. We felt really comfortable with the time we ran yesterday and felt that was realistic time that we could back up. Then I was watching the TV broadcast and noticed the speeds started to slow down quite a bit. My first reaction was, ‘wow, we’ve got a shot at this deal’ and then the next reaction was that if the conditions change that much, I’m going to slow down as well. So, I had mixed emotions going into it. And, I always know that Chad and the crew guys are going to give me everything they’ve got. So, I went in with an open mind and was hopeful to get the pole. And to come out second was a little bit of a surprise in a sense because we’re not focusing on qualifying. We want to make sure we’ve got a good race car and one that’s going to draft well. We proved that last night, so to be second, we’re very excited about that. We look forward to that. We feel that we’ve got a better car for the 500 than we had last night.”
(HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM RUNNING WITH OTHER CARS OUT THERE?) “When you’re by yourself and you don’t have cars around you, the air is really stable and you can change things aerodynamically on the car to make it fast down the straightaways. You can pull the fenders in and do different things like that. In the draft, you have the aero push that always comes up and we deal with that at every race track. We’re going to deal with that as long as we’re racing cars. It’s like gravity in my opinion; we will always have the aero push. We even have it here. It’s not talked about as much because the corners are really forgiving and there is a lot of banking. But, in order to run in dirty air, you’ve got to have a more aggressive body that grabs the air and pushes the car onto the track. So, the changes from last night to today, I know that we can get the car that we qualified today further in that direction than what we had last night. That’s why we decided to bring it down. That’s what we realized in the test session, when we were down here for the three days. We feel that everything is looking in the right direction for us and it’s going to drive as good, if not better, than what it did last night. A lot of it just comes down to the aerodynamics of the cars. On the superspeedway tracks, the slicker the body, the less drag you have, the faster you go. But, in the race, when you don’t have air to keep the car balanced, you have your hands full.
(DO YOU HAVE MOMENTUM FROM LAST NIGHT?) “I’m definitely feeling a lot of momentum. I don’t feel that I’m very responsible for today’s effort. I feel good about my performance last night. And the guys got it done today, so I feel very good about our whole team. I’m in second, Jeff’s in third and then you’ve got the 10, 01 and 36 there as well. So, everything to do with Hendrick Motorsports is rocking. They’ve worked so hard over the winter and we’ve really felt we’ve made some good personnel changes and we have everybody pulling in the same direction. We have four teams working harder than ever together, which is an important thing. I think it’s showing up and I’m very proud of everybody. I think last night was my best plate race. I felt that every move I made was calculated. I didn’t lose a position or wasn’t left out at any point. Everything I did worked out for me. I’m very proud of that. It was a short race and I’m sure in the 500 I’ll make some moves that don’t work out. But, it’s just part of the territory. (ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NOW AND YEARS PAST) “It’s a night and day difference. Experience is everything in our sport, especially on the plate tracks. And my first year, from coming here for the 500 versus the Pepsi 400, it was a huge difference. And now to be here on the start of my fourth season, I’m so much more comfortable. I feel like I was racing ARCA back in 2002 when I won the pole.”
(HAS HENDRICK CLOSED THE GAP AT SUPERSPEEDWAYS?) “I think our team really stepped up and we were able to close that gap. Jeff won 50% of the plate races and we finished in the top 5 a few times, so I really felt that we closed the gap. Jeff was able to get it done and it’s up to me to learn a few more tricks. The DEI cars are a little off as a whole; they are all mid pack but there is so much that falls into the drivers’ hands during the race that I would expect to see the #8 and #15 back up during the race. They might not have the straight line speed that they want but those guys are too smart in the draft to at least be able to get a top 5 in the race.”
(IS RICK HENDRICK HAPPY WITH THE WAY THE WEEK HAS GONE?)”Well, he hired me to do this. I don’t know if he intended for me to do it. All four teams are working better than ever. The 24 and 48 situation has been that way and that will continue to always be that way and now we’ve got the 25 and the 5 under the same building. We took Brian Weitzel, who managed the 24 car forever. We took him out of there and placed him with the 5 and 25 to make all four teams virtually identical. So, we’re all going to pull off of one another. If we’re going to be beat we’d rather it be by one of our teammates. So, I know (Jeff Gordon’s) happy for the team and happy that we’re having the success we are but he’s a competitor and I know he’d rather be up top. I think he’s better about me beating him than the 88 beating both of us.”
(IT’S BEEN A GREAT START TO SPEEDWEEKS FOR YOU) “It’s been an awesome week. The Daytona 24-hour race was such a different routine for me. I can’t tell you how much fun I had running the cars and at the end of the race I earned the right to finish the car which is a pretty big moment in the sports car world. I put in a good two or three stints in the middle of the night and they asked me to come back and finish the car. I was a little nervous doing that because it’s when everyone puts their lead driver in the car. We had a problem with the reserve tank, and I had to run that entire last segment on a full lean mixture and I knew that the #20 car chasing me with Jan Lammers was running on a full rich. To be able to hold him off in those conditions, I was so happy with that. It was a blast. And then last night, to win my first plate race—it wasn’t a points race but there was a lot of money out there and a trophy that we all wanted. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to do and coming into today. The only scary thing with this is that there’s only one place to go from here and that’s down. So hopefully we finish up the Duels strong and carry it into the 500.”
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUALIFYING QUOTES FOR THE DAYTONA 500 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2005.
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: “That’s a pretty big disappointment. I think we ran a 49.0 and if that’s the case we slowed down almost a second. We really didn’t do nothing to the car but change oil so it’s a pretty big disappointment. I don’t know why it would slow down. All those laps we ran yesterday were clean and legit but I guess that was yesterday. I don’t know. The motor didn’t seem like it turned the RPM that it did yesterday so obviously we did something to slow the car down.”
DO YOU THINK IT MIGHT BE THE WIND? “It’s hard to say. It wasn’t real windy yesterday, either, so we thought we were going to be okay. It doesn’t really matter. We were actually running better yesterday than we anticipated so it was kind of a plus. This is kind of more the speed that we expected to run when we tested. It’s disappointing after running so good yesterday but it doesn’t matter. We’ll be good in the 150s. We don’t know why we slowed down. All those laps we ran yesterday were real clean and we never turned a screw on the racecar so we’re definitely confused. It’s no big deal. We came here to run the 500 and I think we’re going to have a good car in the race and I can’t wait to run the 150.”
WHAT HAS WEEEND NUMBER ONE BEEN LIKE IN YOUR RAYBESTOS ROOKIE SEASON? “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a big learning experience and it’s kind of neat to be out here on the qualifying grid for the 500. It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of good times. This is probably more of the speed that we expected to run. We were surprised to run as good as we were yesterday but I think we’ve got a great racecar and that’s where we’ve put most of our emphasis, on race trim. We’re excited for Thursday and then on to Sunday.”
ARE YOU RELIEVED THAT QUALIFYING IS OVER? “I think so. Of all the places that we go this year, this is going to be one of the easiest places to qualify for, knowing that we’re in the race and there’s not much in the racecar that I can do to make it go any faster. It’s pretty easy qualifying out here in Daytona but it’s nice to get it behind me and know that we’re all done with it and we can go on to look at race setup and race trim and figure out what we need to do to make the car draft good and handle good for me in the 150.”
HOW MUCH TIME AND EFFORT DID YOU SPEND THIS WINTER ON PREPARING TO QUALIFY FOR THE 500? “We definitely did some while we were testing here but we built this car with intentions of racing. We built downforce in the car and we wanted to make it a car that would drive good and handle good throughout the whole run. That was our biggest emphasis. We knew that we were in the field, we knew that for a fact, so we really didn’t put a lot of emphasis on qualifying. But hopefully the hard work that they put into it to work on race mode will show up Thursday and Sunday.”
SHANE WILSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: HAVE YOU NOTICED EXCESSIVE TIRE WEAR? “Not yet. During the test we actually looked pretty good, we were pretty happy with it. Just doing qualifying runs we won’t know until Wednesday if we’re having any issues so we’ll see how it goes. Everything looks good so far. In the test we didn’t have some problems, some other people did. We still feel like we have a good racecar. I don’t know what happened to us in qualifying. We’ll put it in race trim and go from there. The only thing that we changed was some fluids, some better fluids in to squeeze a little more speed out of it and maybe it was the wrong thing to do.”
IS IT A RELIEF TO GET QUALIFYING OUT OF THE WAY? “Yeah, I’m glad to have it out of the way then we can get going to racing and get after it.”
ERIC MCCLURE, No. 73 ARC DEHOOKER CHEVROLET: “We’re real disappointed. I don’t know what happened. The was real darty. It was good yesterday and with what we did to it we should have picked up quite a bit. This kind of makes the rest of the week a little harder but we’ll overcome it. We’ll try to race our way in; that’s all we can do. It’s go or go home so we’re going to go and go hard and we’ll have to see what happens but it’s real disappointing. We are a lot better than this.”
DID YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE WIND? “I don’t think so. The car just felt like it had a lot of drag to it. It wasn’t going. It drove okay, felt like it was a little darty. I had to work the wheel a little more than I’d like and obviously that scrubbed speed off. You’re going to look at the rundown and it’s going to show Eric McClure at the bottom but we were a lot better than this. We’ll have to put our heads together but we’re going to come hungry Thursday and they better watch out because we’re going to go. We just hope we go far enough.”
ARE YOU GLAD TO GET QUALIFYING BEHIND YOU? “Not really, knowing that we are so much better than this. I’m a competitive person and this eats at me. It just isn’t good. We’ve got a day off tomorrow and we’ll think about it and get over it and then we’ll come back ready to go on Wednesday.”
DOES THIS MAKE THE PRACTICE SESSIONS ON WEDNESDAY THAT MUCH MORE CRITICAL? “Definitely. We’ve got to get the car where it’s real racy. We’ll come work hard on Wednesday and see what we’ve got.”
KYLE BUSCH IN THE No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING. Note: Busch was 16th overall with a speed of 186.486 mph (48.261 seconds). Busch will be making his first Daytona 500 start on February 20. “I’m real happy with that. That was really good. I planned. I planned for a .30 and I bet a couple of guys in the truck that we’d get a .35 or a .25 and I went with a .35. That was pretty good and I’m happy with that.”
THE HENDRICK CARS ARE STRONG HERE SO THAT MUST BE ENCOURAGING. “Obviously Hendrick horsepower is a big deal and we’re really looking forward to getting down to the race. The body shop, fab shop, chassis shop, everybody has been doing an awesome job back there at Hendrick Motorsports. Everybody working together is how you achieve results and being able to have such a great team as what we have.”
ARE YOU GLAD TO GET QUALIFYING BEHIND YOU? “Qualifying behind us is one big step. We’re in the show not matter what, top-35, but having a good qualifying effort, that’s pretty impressive and for these guys coming back out here it’s a good way to get it started off with Kyle Busch and the number 5 Kellogg’s car.”
DOES YOUR TIRE WEAR LOOK PRETTY GOOD SO FAR THIS WEEKEND? “So far so good this weekend for us. We haven’t had any problems but of course we’ve only made short runs, too, qualifying. We’ll tell the big deal on Wednesday when we get down to practice.”
HOW IMPORTANT ARE THOSE PRACTICE SESSIONS GOING TO BE? “I think it’s going to be real important, obviously, for myself, coming into it having to gain some friends and stuff like that, just basically riding around and getting the drivability of the car so it will drive really well so we’re not juking around and all over the place looking stupid. We’ll make sure we look good.”
DID GOING OUT LATE IN THE SESSION HELP YOU? “Maybe a little bit. Jimmie was never as good as he was. Jimmie ran a good lap. He was second, I believe, and Jeff went out earlier and didn’t turn out as well as he wanted to so it might have helped a little bit. I’m really surprised that the wind isn’t as bad today as I thought it would be so that was really good.”
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “That is a good solid qualifying speed. We struggled when we tested. If we would have came back the way we tested we would have been in the high-30s so everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and the Kellogg’s car worked hard and got us a 16th place qualifying. That’s not bad. It’s solid.”
THE HENDRICK CARS WERE STRONG AT THE TEST AND THEY ARE STRONG AGAIN TODAY. DOES THAT SURPRISE YOU? “No. I’ve worked at Hendrick Motorsports for six years and the place still amazes me. We have so much talent and so many good people. It starts with Rick, he’s the best, and on down through the driver talent, crew chiefs, employees, everybody, so it doesn’t surprise me that we run as well as we do.”
WERE YOU HAPPY TO RUN LATE IN THE QUALIFYING SESSION? “At the beginning I was like it could go either way because the wind is so important, not as much as temperatures. It seemed pretty consistent through the day and it worked out for us so we’re happy.”
HAVE YOU HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH TIRE WEAR? “No, not yet. We made 100-lap race runs testing so we didn’t have any problems then and we haven’t been in race trim yet here and our teammates haven’t either. I think we’ll be okay.”
HOW IMPORTANT WILL WEDNESDAY’S PRACTICE SESSIONS BE? “Huge. Used to be you had a long time, three days, to get your car right for the Gatorade races and now you’ve got one so you’d better be ready. You’ve got to be on your game plan.”
BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE “We came down here testing and we never thought we had a shot in order to qualify in the top-20. We had some cars that were pretty decent but they need a lot more work in order to become top-10, top-15 compatible. They guys went back to the shop and they cut on them a bunch and we were able to come back down to Daytona for the 500 with a pretty decent car. I feel our car drove really well when we were down here testing in the draft. There were only eight, 10 cars sometimes but getting out there with the full 42 other competitors, it’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to it. As far as today goes, we’re glad that we’re the top Raybestos Rookie qualifier and hopefully we can be in here many more times but I’m sure Travis will have something to say about that.”
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE GATORADE DUEL RACES? “The Gatorade Duels are going to be a big race for us. We’re in the show, being in the top-35 in owner’s points from last year with Terry being in the seat. I’m looking forward to the Duel races. It’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to getting out there and hopefully we can earn some respect from some of the veterans out there during practices on Wednesday in order to prepare ourselves better for the Duels on Thursday, just trying to get some help so we can run up front.”
HOW MUCH BETTER IS THE TEAM COMPARED TO YOUR OTHER CUP OPPORTUNITY LAST YEAR? “It’s difficult to say. The cars have been doing a lot better for me this year. I’ve been getting used to them a lot quicker. I’ve got a great crew chief in Alan Gustafson. He’s been around the Cup series level for a long time, I think even when Gary DeHart was the crew chief of the 5 car he was there with him by his side being the engineer for the team so he’s been along for a while. As far as everything goes this year, the whole team has now moved in. We’re all one team: the 5, 25, and 44 are all together like the 24 and 48 have been successful with. We’re looking forward to trying to make sure that the 24 and 48 did. Brian Whitesel is the key operator there. He’s going to be the main guy trying to make sure that all the people are together and of course Alan Gustafson and myself, Lance McGrew and Brian Vickers hopefully we can make the most of our opportunity with Mr. Hendrick.”
WHY SO FEW RAYBESTOS ROOKIES? “You tell me, I don’t know [laughs]. I guess it’s the limited opportunities out there that there’s not many rides that became open this past year. There were a lot of great rookies last year. I think there were six last year and they were really good and obviously showed potential: Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers had a few strong runs. We’re looking forward to this year, myself and Travis Kvapil, and Boris Said is going to make a few starts, and I believe Eric McClure is making most of the starts as well too. With the few of us it’s a lot easier to pay attention to just a couple guys instead of maybe eight guys.”
KNOWING THAT YOU ARE IN THE 500, WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY DO YOU HAVE FOR THE 150? “Keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble, obviously. We want to make sure that we get through there and just salvage a finish in order to get to the 500. If we can finish somewhere up front that would be great. That’s a better starting position for us but seeing as though the front row is the only row that’s set when you come down to Daytona, if you don’t have a pole winning car, you’re not overly excited for qualifying. You’re just ready for the dual races so that’s what we concentrated more so on in testing when we were here knowing that we didn’t have a car that was able to go for the pole. We made it drive good for the race so hopefully we can work on it a little bit more in practice to get it to run better.”
DODGE CHARGER AT DAYTONA - The Dodge Charger last attempted to qualify at Daytona in 1977. Bobby Isaac (1971 and 1972), Buddy Baker (1973) and Neil Bonnett (1977) won poles in a Dodge Charger for the Daytona 500. KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Georgia-Pacific/Brawny Dodge Charger) - 12th fastest. Fastest Dodge in qualifying.
“That was good. I thought yesterday when the 43 ran a .23, I thought we could run a .20 or .30. That’s where we had been. We had been about a tenth slower than them all during all our practice stuff. People were trying to tell me I didn’t get any help on that fast lap. I’d been a tenth of a second slower than the 43 every time I ran and all of a sudden I’m six tenths faster. How’s that work? We didn’t make a spring change or anything, It’s kind of bittersweet. It’s good because that’s where we’re at, but the 43 could have been in front of me. That means we would have had the two fastest Dodge Chargers here maybe, and that would have been good for Petty Enterprises and good for Evernham because those guys really worked hard to make it happen for us. The engines have been good since we’ve been down here testing. We’ve had no problem. The first thing that happened with the 43 broke, Ray and all the Dodge guys were there on top of the 43. It’s good to know you’re part of something a little bit bigger than you’ve been part of in the past. Most of the time we’d break and people didn’t even know we’d broke. We’re in here for the long haul. We’ll get it fixed and go from there. I didn’t learn much from watching the Budweiser Shootout last night. I learned that Ryan Newman is as good a racecar driver as everybody says he is. Ryan Newman drove the wheels off that thing last night. Other than that, it was night time, the track was tight and everything works good. I don’t have any strategy for Thursday. My strategy was being in the top 35 in points so I would be in the Daytona 500, and I did that last year.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Dodge Charger) - 47th fastest “We slowed down almost a second from yesterday. That’s pretty disappointing. We didn’t really do anything to the car except change oil, so that’s pretty disappointing. We don’t know why we slowed down. All those laps yesterday were clean and legit. I guess that was yesterday, but the motor didn’t seem like it turned the rpm it did yesterday. We did something to slow the car down. It wasn’t real windy yesterday, either, so we felt like we were going to be OK. It doesn’t really matter. We were actually running better yesterday than we anticipated, so it was kind of a plus. This was more the speed that we had anticipated. It’s disappointing after running so well yesterday, but it doesn’t matter.
“It wasn’t good at all. We don’t know why we slowed down. Those laps we ran yesterday were clean. We didn’t turn a screw on the racecar, so we’re definitely confused. It’s no big deal. We came here to run the 500 and I think we’re going to have a good car in the race. I can’t wait to run the 150.
“The first week here as a rookie has been a lot of fun. It’s been a big learning experience, and it’s kind of neat to be out here on the qualifying grid. I think we’ve got a great racecar, and that’s where we’ve put most of our emphasis.
“I went on the backstretch last night (during Budweiser Shootout) and scanned Ryan and Rusty. I watched from the scorers’ stand. I knew some of the good things they were doing, and I saw some bad things. I listened to how they communicated with the spotters and crew chiefs and things like that. It was good to have an ear out there and hear how all the drivers communicate with their teams.
“It’s all going to depend on the circumstances of where you’re at, if you feel like you need track position or if you need to work on your handling. I guess that’s the crew chief’s call, but I’ll have some input and that’s all part of the game. You have to gamble sometimes. Sometimes they pay off, but you’ve got to be smart. I think between myself and (crew chief) Shane Wilson communicating well together, I think we can be smart about it.”
STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Charger) - 34th fastest
“We picked up about three tenths from yesterday. These cars just won’t qualify. Once you get in the draft, they drive good. The plate is too small. I talked to Joe Nemechek and he said it’s hard to pass. They need some extra power to make it so you could pass. Biffle led a ton of the Shootout and nobody could pass him. Once the 48 got in front, they couldn’t pass him. Those are two good cars, but still, I liked it when we had some power. I think Goodyear has a really good tire. Last year everybody’s stuff would fall off and you couldn’t drive it wide open. Now it seems like the tires are so good that everybody is right there in the pack.”
JAMIE McMURRAY (No. Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger) - 17th fastest
“We gained on it a little bit. It looked like a good race last night. The guy out front was hard to pass. I talked to Casey a little bit. He said he could run into people pretty easy, so that’s always fun. That’s a highlight for us. You can bump draft and run into each other. We’re going to go for it Thursday if we’ve got a shot to win. The car in the trailer is just as good as this one. The Charger is the best superspeedway car I’ve ever had. It’s only my 10th superspeedway race, but for the most part, the car is really good.”
RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Charger) - 29th fastest
“It was within a hundredth of what we ran yesterday, and I think everybody else was pretty close. We wish we could have been faster, but we stayed consistent and didn’t lose any speed. We’re doing the best we can, so we’ll just keep going. This car should be better than our Shootout Charger. If we go by the numbers it should be. It was a good run. It obviously wasn’t what we were looking for, but we look forward to coming back in race trim and see what the cars are like. It’s a totally different race when you get the cars back in a different aero package. We had a pretty good car last night. We’ll see what we’ve got with this one. Four tires are still better than two. There’s no doubt about that. Jimmie Johnson drove a great race. We just had to put ourselves in a position to win. We did that and hopefully we can improve on that one spot in the next couple of races.”
CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger) - 35th Fastest “That’s about what we expected. We’re just not very fast. Hopefully this car will be a little bit better than my Shootout car, but it’s hard to tell until you get in the draft. Last night that car wasn’t very fast by itself, either, but in the draft you can work your way to the front. The draft is so huge here you can take a car that’s not very good and still get up in the mix. It’s just harder to stand alone beside guys. Last night I went to the grass and told ‘em I’d found a shortcut and would try to use that for qualifying. I didn’t use that. I had a blast last night. It’s unfortunate where we finished. We were up front a lot of the time. Right there at the end I got really tight and Jeff got underneath me. We backed up what we did in practice today, but we wanted to be a little quicker especially after seeing what the 42 picked up. We’ve got qualifying out of the way now and we’ll focus now on race setup. I’m looking forward to this season. I’m happy with the new Dodge Charger. Now we’ve just got to see what we can do with it.”
RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) - 21st Fastest “We ran a little bit quicker than yesterday and honestly I thought I’d run two tenths faster than we ran yesterday. I feel confident we’ll have a good run. I think I had a pretty good run. You can pretty well expect to slow down from where you tested because of the winds and stuff like that. I really expected more speed the way it was looking on the tach. That’ll give us a good starting spot in the 150s. The guys in the engine shop did a great job. This is the best car out of the bunch we’ve had at Daytona. I believe it’s better than the Bud Shootout car and the car we tested here with. We’ve just got to make sure that baby handles good in the 150s because I can’t have it pushing like it did last night. We’re going to spend a lot of time on that handling package. If I’d had it handling better I could have driven right through the center and gained some positions. We’ll have it right by the time we get to the Daytona 500.”
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) - 15th Fastest “It felt pretty good. It drives nice. It’s just a matter of getting more speed out of it. They draft fine. We’ve got to work on our handling a little more. We were a little too tight up off the corners. We couldn’t exit as well as some of the other cars. We can work on that and get it straight and we’ll be in good shape. If you have to choose between qualifying and drafting here, you obviously want to choose drafting. Qualifying isn’t a big deal at all compared to the Daytona 500.”
JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) - 22nd Fastest “That’s pretty good going out cold like that, so I’m pretty happy with it. It’s driving a lot better than the Shootout car, and I think we’re going to be pretty good Thursday. I learned a lot last night. I learned not to speed on pit road, if I was. It amazes me how things happen sometimes. We took two tires, so we were going to beat those guys out anyway. The two-tire deal left me all alone on pit road and made me look like I was speeding.
“I’m real happy with qualifying. All the guys worked hard on the car. We struggled in both practice sessions, and to come back and have a lap like that is pretty cool. We changed quite a bit of things and worked hard to get ready for today.
“The car handled great last night after taking on those two tires. Track position will be everything, so we might take on two tires again before we leave Daytona. Usually everybody plays it safe on Thursday. This is our good car and we don’t want to take any chances with it. If we can win, we’re going to win the thing, but we’re not going to do anything crazy.”
JEFF GREEN (No. Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Charger) — DNF “Something happened and the motor started tightening up. I thought we hit a big gust of wind, but something must have broke. I thought we had a shot at the pole or at least a top five. We’ve got enough points for a provisional, so we don’t have to work about Thursday anyway. I know this car will draft good. We’ve got two good cars, and I’m not going to sit here being sour about something that happened. I hate it happened and we’ve got to figure out why it happened, but we’ve got a good racecar. That’s for sure.
“Something just went bad in the motor. We had just got the green. We only ran it twice yesterday, and everything went well yesterday. I didn’t see any problems. They’ll have to decide what happened. I couldn’t tell but something started tightening up. I don’t know if it was the wrong time to do it. It could happen next Sunday. Maybe that’s a fortune for us instead of a misfortune. Now we’ll have to start in the back Thursday, so we can just kinda of hang out and see what it’s like in the 150s and hopefully make it as good as we can for the 500.”
GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus (Qualified 14th) - “I’m not real happy with that, but those were the cards we were dealt. That’s racin’, I guess.”
YOU STILL HAVE TO RACE ON THURSDAY, SO UNLESS YOU’RE ON THE FRONT ROW DOES IT REALLY MATTER? “It does matter to us. It’s kind of unfortunate. I don’t know what all went on. It just seems like our season isn’t starting out like we need it to.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE GOING OUT AFTER THE CAR CAUGHT FIRE? “I knew that there was gonna be some of the fire extinguisher chemical inside the car and it was the worst taste ever in your mouth - that dry chemical going though the car when I took off and for about the first lap. That was the most thing I was worried about making my qualifying laps was that it smelled so bad inside the car with all that chemical in there - under the seat and everywhere where they couldn’t get it all out. That was probably the worst time I’ve ever been in a race car. Other than that, it was kind of a disappointing lap for us. It felt like we were gonna run a 47.90 or maybe a 48-flat at the worst and we ended up 48-twentysomething, so that’s not the lap we were looking for. We felt like we’d be able to get in the top 10, but, obviously, that fire and those problems on pit road may have affected how fast of a lap the car did. It may not have, but we certainly have to figure out what happened and what went wrong. Maybe somebody obviously made some kind of mistake for something like that to happen or maybe it was some kind of failure that we don’t know about.”
HOW MUCH WILL LAST NIGHT HELP FOR THURSDAY? “It will help some. Getting some laps under our belt last night taught us a little bit about our race cars. This car is a little bit different than the Bud Shootout car. I feel just as good about this car as I did the Bud Shootout car, so I’m looking forward to Thursday and getting this qualifying day put behind us.”
DOUG RICHERT, Crew Chief - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus - WHAT HAPPENED TO MAKE THE CAR SMOKE ON PIT ROAD? “We’ve got several oil tank heating probes in there and one of them shorted out and caught on fire. The flames were under there rolling around and then they came in and shot it with the fire extinguisher chemical and the rest we went back to the garage was we wanted to make sure we didn’t burn the oil lines or anything stupid. We took the time to go back to the garage and double-check and make sure we don’t do something stupid. We tried to take a bad thing and make sure we don’t do something any worse than it already was. Hey, it happens.”
RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (Qualified 9th) - “That’s what we ran in practice yesterday. We figured we’d pick a tenth or two - the wind is blowing harder today. I think the biggest thing is we had too much water temperature. I’m not sure - maybe we missed our tape just a little bit and got hotter today. The thing was running like 265 degrees on water temp and that’s where the speed went on the second lap. I’m a little disappointed we missed the tape, but we backed up what we ran yesterday. That will probably put us 10th to 15th.”
YOU KNEW THIS WASN’T A POLE CONTENDER. “When we made the decision to bring this car we knew we waved off on a chance for the pole. The car we sat on the front row with at Talladega, we brought it here for the test and it was quite a bit quicker than this car, but it didn’t race and drive as good. So with the new format, we said we want to race good and we knew we were locked in on a starting position so let’s get a car that really races good and that’s what the decision was on this car.”
WHAT DO YOU FEEL BEST ABOUT THIS CAR? “The wind is blowing a little bit and the car really bogged down on the backstretch more than it had been and the wind is somewhat responsible. We misjudged our tape on it and got the motor a little bit too hot and that hurt us some. If everything would have gone perfect we would have run a 47.85 and we ran a 48-flat, so we left about 15 hundredths on the table and a lot of that was the weather change.”
JOHN ANDRETTI - No. 14 VB/APlus at Sunoco Taurus (Qualified 18th) - “I think the wind is really picking up and the track is slowing down, so I just have to hope that it slows down for those other guys that have us in their bullseye.”
WHERE DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO BREATHE EASIER TONIGHT? “Just be in the top four of the guys that aren’t in the race. That’s all you’ve got to do. It sounds easy, but some reason those other guys just won’t go away. We’re gonna know by the time the guy that goes out 20th goes because those are all the bullets that we had to face. Right now it looks like we’ll be fifth-fastest of them if everybody we thinks can beat us beats us. Hopefully, the track gets really evil for them and slows them down.”
THURSDAY YOU’LL GO HARD NO MATTER WHAT? “I’m only gonna drive hard because I want to start good in the Daytona 500. That’s the reason why I want to have to drive hard. I don’t want to have to drive like a maniac just to make this race.”
DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Qualified 1st) - “This is a really good race car. These guys have been working on this race car since last October. It’s been in the wind tunnel a lot and we had a good test back here in January. The engine room has been working night and day in making these engines even better than what we’ve had before. It’s just a great testament to the work that the guys do because the driver’s job is to get it in high gear on this day, and I think we’ve got a really good race car.”
IT’S BEEN 12 YEARS SINCE YOU FIRST RAN AT DAYTONA. DOES IT SEEM THAT LONG AND WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN ANOTHER ONE? “It’s hard to believe. A lot of good things have happened in those 12 years and one of the good things is being associated with Robert and Doug Yates and their entire organization. Having sponsors like UPS and Coca-Cola and Citi Financial means a lot to us. But it would mean a lot to me - probably as much or more if I could get another Daytona 500 at this time in my career and at this time in our sport. Those have all been great wins and I wouldn’t trade anything for them, but if I could get another one next Sunday that would be fantastic.”
HOW HAS THIS EVENT CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? “It’s changed a lot and the racing has changed a lot in that point and time. It’s become so competitive - trying to get yourself positioned in the right place toward the end of that race has become so critical. If you don’t get yourself in that top 10, then you’re not gonna give yourself a chance. Look around here at what we have here in the infield now. It’s just unbelievable what’s changed and at the number of fans. The fan support is just incredible, so a lot has changed but all for the better.”
HOW ARE YOU FEELING NOW? “That certainly helps things, but I’m still a little bit under the weather. The biggest thing is my voice and the coughing. I’m trying to get rest at night, but I’m doing alright and things like this certainly make that healing process a lot better.”
MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Taurus (Qualified 46th) - “I don’t know. I think we hurt a piston or something like that. We were running a little bit better than we were in practice and the DeWalt guys did their job. It just slowed down and it felt like maybe we hurt a piston.”
KURT BUSCH - No. 97 IRWIN/Sharpie Taurus (Qualified 8th) - “It’s a good lap. It was a different feeling being able to have a shot at the pole. Normally we come here and we’re a 10th-place car, but that was a great lap. That puts us fifth overall and that’ll give us a great spot for our 150. The car has been showing strength ever since we unloaded it here in January testing and it continues to do so.”
HOW BIG IS IT TO START UP FRONT FOR THE 500? “It definitely helps with the 150s, just being in front of the trouble but now there are two pit stop sequences during the 150. But to have a car that puts down a number like that - to be in the 47-second bracket - that’s a good car.”
THOUGHTS ON THE LAP. “It was a good lap. I expected to challenge a bit more closely, but with the way that the winds and temperatures have picked up today, we may have been slightly off in our calculations, but, overall, it was a great lap and we’re excited.”
MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Qualified 23rd) - YOU HAVE TO RACE ON THURSDAY ANYWAY, RIGHT? “We didn’t come down here to qualify. There are qualifying cars and race cars. Pat and I brought what we thought we could win the 500 with and that’s the best piece we’ve got to win the 500 with. We start where we finish on Thursday.”
ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M’s Taurus (Qualified 10th) - DISAPPOINTING? “Yeah, it is because I really thought we had a great shot at the pole or even somewhere near the front row, but we’ll have to come back and get them on Thursday. I’m not sure if the wind is what got us on the back straightaway or not, but we lost around 100 rpm or so, but the car is driving good. We just have to go get them Thursday.”
YOU WOULD LOVE TO SEE DJ KEEP THE POLE. “I’d love for him to be on the pole. I think that would be great. That would be a great boost for that team to get started on the right foot this season and that’s gonna be a tough time to beat. I think with the wind like it is, a .79 is gonna be pretty good.”
HERMIE SADLER - No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus (Qualified 44th) - “We knew we had some problems yesterday. We’ve been fighting some valve train problems since we’ve been here and thought we had them corrected, but apparently we didn’t. Now we’ve got to focus on the job at hand and that is to try to get our car to drive good and race good and get it in on Thursday. It’s not over yet. We’ll keep our heads up and keep working and, hopefully, something good will happen.”
CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Scotts Taurus (Qualified 25th) - “We brought this race car because we think it’s gonna be a really good race car. To be honest with you, we didn’t really plan on going that fast so we’re pretty happy. That’s the fastest we’ve run with this car all winter. It’s great to have Scotts on board for the 150s and I think Office Depot will be really happy with how this thing races. It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
EVERYTHING GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN SO FAR? “Absolutely. I’m really excited to get into the drafting part of this and see what kind of spot we can earn in the Gatorade 150. Then we’ll go onto the race. Hopefully, it’ll be a really hot, greasy day and everybody will be sliding all over and this car will run better than most of the other ones. That’s what we’re working on.”
John Andretti, driver of the No. 14 VB/APlus at Sunoco Taurus, qualified for the Daytona 500 as a result of being the fourth-fastest qualifier among those drivers that were outside the top 35 in the point standings. Andretti spoke about making the race shortly after the final car completed it’s qualifying run.
JOHN ANDRETTI - No. 14 VB/APlus at Sunoco Taurus - “My first Daytona 500 was way back when and I was in the 14 car and I don’t think anybody thought that we’d make the race. I didn’t understand the rules, so I qualified everyday I could qualify trying to go faster. I found out I had to start at the back of the 125 and then we raced in. We finished seventh that day and I feel that same weight off my shoulders now. The team did a great job. The fact the 23 went out there and jumped in front of us was nerve-wracking.”
SO YOU FEEL LIKE 1000 POUNDS IS OFF OF YOU? “Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got so many things going on. We’ve got a show we’re doing with Sunoco over in Orlando and VB is gonna be there. You’ve got all kinds of stuff going on. To us this is like winning the Daytona 500 because we’re in and it was such a small window to get into. It’s so competitive. No matter what happens to us in the race, I mean we still want to have a good race, but it’s gonna take a lot more to get us down. I saw Jeff Gordon and it looked like he was pretty dejected because he was after the pole. So I feel like the other side of it. We’re pleased. We’re 18th, but we’re over the moon.”
JARRETT PUTS FORD ON THE DAYTONA 500 POLE · Dale Jarrett registered his third Daytona 500 pole (1995, 2000 and 2005) with today’s run. · Ford is on the Daytona 500 pole for the second straight year (Greg Biffle, 2004) · It marks the 11th time that a Ford has been the fastest qualifier for the Daytona 500.
DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus - DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER? “Yeah, that helps matters. This was a great effort by Mike Ford and his team of people. They started working on this car quite a while ago and a lot of time in the wind tunnel, testing here in January and then back home and back to the wind tunnel and some changes there. It’s been an effort that has taken a lot of time and certainly Doug Yates and his 100 people at our engine shop made a great effort, too. It’s basically been day and night working there, so it’s just a tremendous effort on their part. This is a very good race car. We brought it for the 500 not only because it was fast when we were here testing, but when we got into drafting practice the car drove extremely well in the draft. So that right now tends to be the main focus on Sunday. The effort that has been made here and the turnaround of this team are really because of these two guys sitting beside me, Mike (Ford) and Eddie D’Hondt. With the effort that they’ve put forth over the last 18 months has been incredible and helped make this fun again for me.”
MIKE FORD, Crew Chief - No. 88 UPS Taurus - YOU HAD A POLE WITH BILL ELLIOTT. WHAT ABOUT THIS ONE? “The effort was very similar. With a two car team last year was kind somewhat of a rebuilding year for us and I feel like this is the first time we got a full team effort. We shared information with the 38 during the test here. They helped us and we helped them and collaborated with the engine department and they gave us some good engines for this event. To compare back to 2001, there are a lot of similarities. We had a very good test and you could work at a little bit different pace. Rather than try to catch up, you could work on detail and to sit on the pole here you have to have an extremely detailed race car.”
EDDIE D’HONDT, General Manager, Robert Yates Racing - ARE YOU SURPRISED BY THIS? “No, I’m not surprised. I actually worked with Mike in 2001 and I know the intensity he brings to the table each week. That’s one of the reasons I made him the first guy I hired to try and bring this team back to what it once was. I know Dale’s intensity to end his career as he moves on in the next few years on a high note, so none of this surprised me. Not at all.”
DALE JARRETT CONTINUED - IS THIS A LITTLE REMINDER THAT YOU’RE NOT DONE YET? “Yes. I mean I haven’t thought of it like that, but, yeah. You sit and watch and read and listen to everything that’s talked about for the Daytona 500. Probably, and for good reason, you haven’t really seen the 88 car or my face or my name mentioned that much about it and I think, even though we haven’t contended the last couple of years for wins, we still know what it takes to win at this. So it’s kind of nice to say that we’re not finished with this yet. We may be getting on up there in age, but that doesn’t really make any difference. When you get out here you have to have the car to do it and, obviously, I think we’ve shown in the past that we had the talent that’s needed to win at these places. So it’s kind of a nice reminder that we’re not finished with this year.”
DALE JARRETT CONTINUED — IS THIS A SIGN THAT YOU’RE BACK? “I think we can be considered a car and a team to beat on Sunday. You know, one thing that always helps is that if you have a fast race car, people tend to want to go with that car. I know that in the past when we haven’t been the quickest here, I look and figure out who had the faster cars and those are the people that I tend to want to get hooked up with. I think that will be beneficial to us. I think this car, by what I saw in the test session, drives much better in the draft than the car that we had last night. We fought a tight situation all night and it seemed that everytime I tried to go and make a move and get to a position where it was faster, I just lost the front end. It wasn’t worth taking the chance of tearing up our car and somebody else’s at that point, but, yeah, I think we’ll show on Thursday that we have a good race car and it’s one that will draft well and then, come Sunday, I believe that we will be a team that will be right there to win this race.”
IS THIS RACE WIDE OPEN WITH DEI SEEMING TO HAVE FALLEN OFF A BIT? “You can’t take away the fact of what DEI has done here over the last few years. I’m sure when we get into drafting situations you have Junior and Michael are both very good in those situations, but I’m not sure the dominance that they’ve showed is going to be there. I think you have to look more at the Hendrick stable that seems to be on top of their game in all aspects, but certainly for here. Jeff Gordon is a past champion of this race and Jimmie Johnson has shown that he can win anywhere and everywhere, and I think they’ll be the team that we’re gonna have to contend with if we’re gonna have a chance at winning this.”
IS THIS TRACK MORE SUITED FOR EXPERIENCE? “I hope so, and I think that experience does play a big part in this - knowing when and where to make your moves and such. We saw a lot of things last night in that race with just 20 cars out there, but bump drafting at certain places on the race track was a bit eye-opening to me and some others. I’m not sure that’s gonna work really well. I’m not afraid to bump-draft anybody or get it in the right places, but when you’re knocking the hell out of people in the center of the corners, come next Sunday that’s not gonna be a very good idea. That’s a recipe for disaster, so I think that experience in those type situations will be more beneficial than having all of that energy that some of these guys bring. You look around and most of the time at the end of these Daytona 500s it’s people that really have been here a few times and understand the importance and learn how to understand that yo
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