Pepsi 400 Notes & Quotes
Written by John Davison · July 2, 2004
Collected notes and quotes from various drivers and crew after qualifying for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona.
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - “We were able to pick up. That’s really difficult to do. You know when you’re practicing, your temperatures are all hot and you have a tendency to get some drafting help and so when you go out by yourself after sitting for three or four hours, it’s a real testament to the team. Slugger and all these guys who build these NAPA Chevys, it’s a real testament to their abilities to understand the challenges that face them and then improve upon what we just did.”
(ON HIS FEEL FOR DRAFTING WITH THE OTHER DRIVERS) “You’re usually pretty comfortable drafting with Dale Earnhardt Jr. because you’re in the front. So that’s pretty easy to understand. Theirs is less traffic and you’re fast, so that’s a good feeling. Dale Jr. and I have never really had a conversation about what we do in order to be successful at a plate race. At Talladega, we were on it. We were doing what we were supposed to do with five laps to go. I just couldn’t get all the way to where I needed to get in order for us to take the lead. He had to bail out on me. Sometimes it’s self-preservation. That happens. Dale Jr. and I are wonderful teammates and we’ll work well together Saturday night to try to put these DEI cars back in Victory Lane.”
KERRY EARNHARDT, NO. 33 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “Yeah I’m very happy. We picked up quite a bit. My friends at RCR helped me pick up speed for qualifying. I don’t know how they do it. It scared me out there. It wasn’t running that fast before. It got a got a little loose in the corners. It’s a good car and we got a good lap.” “We just got caught in a late-race altercation there at Talladega. The Bass Pro Chevy is running awesome. The car is good and the guys got it put together and we brought it back to Daytona. It tested well last week. We’re looking forward to the race.”
RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER OF RCR - COMMENT ON KERRY EARNHARDT’S QUALFIYING EFFORT: “We’re really happy for Kerry. He did such a great job at Talladega that we’re really excited about having him here. We’re off with our restrictor plate program right now at RCR. Kerry went and tested and I think he helped us all a little there. We’re looking forward to getting to Talladega and having some more stuff when we get down there.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “The guys just worked hard and they take a lot of pride in this stuff. We hadn’t qualified quite as good as we had with the old package, but the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet always races good. So we’re excited for this weekend. Hopefully we can get the car into Victory Lane.”
(WHAT CHANGES DO YOU MAKE FROM PRACTICING IN THE AFTERNOON TO QUALFIYING UNDER THE LIGHTS?) “Well, you pretty much have got what you got at Talladega and Daytona when you unload off the truck. The guys do a few tricks here and there on the engine and tune it up a little bit.”
(ON THE TONY STEWART / BRIAN VICKERS INCIDENT LAST WEEKEND) “Well, I’m not the best behaved guy in the garage. It’s one of those deals where there is a lot of emotion and a lot of things going on. It’s hard to calm yourself down when you get out of the race car because there is so much Adrenalin flowing and there is so much going on that you just want to jump out and brake the other guy’s neck if you feel like you’ve been done wrong. You can go that. We have corporations that spend millions of dollars on all these cars out here and we can’t do those kinds of things. It makes it tough for people like myself and Tony who bring a lot of emotion to the table.”
BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “These guys have done an awesome job. As far as qualifying goes here at Daytona it’s all about the team and the bodies and the engines and everything. This is a lot better than we had last time but I’m sure we’ll be even better next time.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET “I’m pretty happy with it. That’s the first time that we’ve actually picked up in qualifying for about a year and a half here. Typically we always get the thing taped off too much trying to get that little extra steam. Normally we get it too hot and it costs us horsepower. We did a great job tonight. We picked up. I don’t know we’re going to end up but it should give us a somewhat solid spot. The biggest thing tonight is just getting your pit selection. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to go to the front.”
(ON THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING AT DAYTONA) “Anytime you can win at Daytona it’s big. Obviously if I could pick which month of the year I’d do it in, I’d rather do it in February than July. Trust me, to win at Daytona is special for anybody. I remember the first time Dale Jr. won here at Daytona. It was a pretty emotional weekend for him. It’d be great to do that. I’m going to run the Paul Revere race tonight for Max Crawford and Howard-Boss Motorsports and their CITGO car. The Home Depot guys will sit here and watch that a little bit tonight before they go home and go to bed. It’d be neat to win in the sports car tonight and hopefully win with the Cup car on Saturday night.”
(ON THE INCIDENT LAST WEEKEND AND NASCAR PENALTIES) “I’m not sure it’s totally a bad thing. It’s NASCAR’s way of redefining again what our rules and regulations are. It just shows that you have to control your frustrations. I think that NASCAR has done a pretty good job. It’s a changing time with the new TV packages and stuff. I’m not sure I totally agree with the punishment on it, which other people have disagreed and said I probably should have been parked this week. I didn’t have anything to gain by going and talking to him down there. I wasn’t even mad when I went down there. I went down there to kind of tell him what exactly happened. “Brian is a great kid. I don’t have any ill feelings toward him and don’t have any ill feelings toward NASCAR. There’s a reason they’ve been as successful as they have been. There’s a reason for that. They need to be the recipient of the award this week. We’ve been pretty good in the last two years. It’s almost been two years since I did something really stupid. It just redefines the boundaries and that’s not a bad thing. That’s what NASCAR is here for. They’re our sanctioning body. It was probably something that needed to happen.”
JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “I think that was pretty good with the luck of the draw and going out early. This Chevy is very good and my hat’s off to all the boys here. They just keep working hard. Hendrick Motorsports does the engine and they keep tweaking on it a little bit more every race. It’s fun to be here. I know the car is going to drive good in the race. Hopefully we’ll be up front.”
(IS DAYTONA AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO GET GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AGAIN?) “We definitely want to use this to turn our year around. What’s so frustrating about it is that we’ve had good cars just about everywhere we’ve been. We’ve had top five runs going at the majority of these races when we either break something or have a part failure or something happens. It’s just been kind of crazy. But nobody’s giving up. We’re going to win a race before the year is over.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET “I’ll tell you what. This team is a on a roll right now. I hope we can hang on to it. The car was good at practice. That was certainly a great lap. We unloaded and the thing was really stout. Last week I might be able to take a little bit of credit on the road course. This weekend all the credit goes to the race team. These guys worked so hard on massaging these bodies for these restrictor plate races, massaging on that engine and doing every little thing to get every bit of speed out of it. The driver doesn’t do a whole lot here. We’re just enjoying this DuPont Pepsi car and want to give somebody the chance to win a billion dollars and we’d certainly like to start up front.”
WARD BURTON, NO. 0 NETZERO HI-SPEED CHEVROLET “I thought it would have picked up a little bit more than that. I think that will put the NetZero Chevrolet finally in the top ten. It will be a good start for us on Saturday night.”
(ON WHAT HE NEEDS TO PUT HIS CAR OUT FRONT) “At the Daytona race we were too loose the entire race. Right there at the end we starting messing with the adjustments and got the car better and got a lap down with a loose lug nut. Hopefully that won’t happen. I’m sure they won’t let that happen again. We’re trying to figure out another way mechanically to try to make sure the car is not so loose.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “We are real happy. This car is running really good. Everybody knows the Daytona 500 winner is in the museum over there. This car is going to be just as good for us this weekend. We’re real happy with how the car’s been running all day.”
(ON DECIDING WHO HE DRAFTS WITH) “There is a buddy system out there. It’s really hard to explain in this quick interview. The people that you’re friends with, you like to help. You like to take care of the people who take care of you. Me and Michael (Waltrip) have worked with each other over the years. Me and Tony have worked great together also in the past. There are a lot of other drivers out there that I have an enormous amount of respect for that I like to work with. If that’s them and I’m around them, we usually hook up. That could be just about anybody in the building.”
JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 1 COCA-COLA C2 CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “I know this Coca-Cola C2 Chevy is going to be great in the race. The guys have done a great job in the short time frame that we’ve worked on it.”
(YOU CELEBRATED VICTORY AT THIS RACE IN 1997. DO YOU REFLECT BACK ON THAT VERY MUCH?) “A little bit. But I also sat here in ‘89 (co-drove to Rolex 24 victory at Daytona) so maybe I’m due again. Maybe there has been a big enough gap that maybe we’re due to sit in Victory Lane here again. At least I know where it is. Daytona has been great to me and obviously it’s been great to DEI. Maybe we can put the two together and have a great weekend. Obviously Junior and Michael are going to be tough, but as long as they’re my teammates I know we’re going to be running good.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: “We really thought we would be on par with our teammates, so we’re a little disappointed with that. But the thing that counts is Saturday night. We’re a little bit puzzled as to why we don’t have the speed in the car. I know these guys will work their tails off to figure out what it is and we’ll be good in the race and put this Chevy Monte Carlo back up front. It’s definitely about drafting and having a good handling race car. When you have something bound up that’s holding the car back, it’s going to work against you. “But when you get in the draft, it’s a totally different animal. Sometimes you’ve got to be pretty creative to make it past these officials and if we haven’t been working some areas over like others, that may be where it is. We’ll just take what we can get here. It’s not going to be that great of a starting spot, but it’ll be a fun drive up through there.”
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET - Qualified 2nd - Q&A’s with Media: “Everybody made a big deal out of Dale Jr. in lay person’s eyes hanging me out at Talladega. I didn’t see it that way. I pushed him to the lead. We ran out of steam. He is very smart and very in tune to what’s going on. We were out of steam. Instead of both of us falling back, he did what I would have done. He got over and got in line. Unfortunately that messed me up. At that point it’s five to go. It’s not time to worry about Mike. It was time to cover Dale Jr.’s butt. He did that. I would have been back up there again if Brian Vickers hadn’t had that wreck with four to go and they had the caution. We’re good. We understand what it takes to be successful. We’ll work hard at doing that Saturday night.”
(ON HIS RECENT GOOD RUNS) “We ended 2003 and we were as good as anybody on pit road. We were fifth at Phoenix. We had the race at Loudon won. We ran top five at Homestead and broke, blew a tire and hit the wall. We started 2004 thinking we’d be championship contenders. A couple of wrecks messed that up. Mainly what messed it up was performance. We weren’t able to run right. Instead of pointing fingers at one another, we decided we had to do something with the cars. We had to change them. We test them every day at the wind tunnel for aerodynamics sleekness and downforce. What we had was huge. It was great but it wasn’t working for me. Slugger, being the genius he is. He’s a car guy. He’s a genius when it comes to cars. He knows every corner and twist to a race car. He knew how to change them from the way they were to the way they are now. Richmond was the first race for a new body, a new aerodynamically balanced body. It was the first race for a new engine combination that Richie Gilman and those guys put together. We run it ever since them. With the exception with the wreck at Pocono, we haven’t been out of the top ten. We had a great car at Pocono too until that happened. “It’s real rewarding to see a team doing about face and not just ask the question, how’d that happen and people say ‘I don’t know.’ We know what we did and why it happened.”
(DESCRIBE WHAT IT TAKES TO RUN WITH DALE JR. AT TALLADEGA) “We don’t ever talk about it. We just know how to do it and we have fast cars. Don’t ever underestimate the importance of the fast car part. I would venture to say that because of our equipment it makes us look a lot smarter than we are. We understand how to draft. I’ve been a good drafter since I began. I’ve always done good at these races. I will tell you that I think I can draft better than anybody out there. I think that I know how to put my car in places and set my car up that let’s me take advantage of such a great race car. We just always wind up at the same places. That’s because we’re both good at what we do. We get our cars up there where we belong.”
(HOW DO GAINS IN LAST SEASON FACTOR INTO GAINS THIS SEASON) “What it means is after six races of 2004 we were 38th in points and in dire straights. Over the last six races, we’ve been a top five car in the points. You average those together with the ones in the middle and we’re 18th in points. We have our work cut out for us. It might be a bit of a stretch to think we’ll make the top ten. With runs like we’ve had at Charlotte and Sears Points, we’re certainly geared to that and believing it can become a reality. If we make the top ten, we’d have to be considered a team to be reckoned with in those final ten races. I think that sometimes that you have to be smart to play stupid and I play stupid a lot. I told you all this points deal would be good and it is. It’s everything we needed in this sport. Think about the NFL without the Super Bowl. Think about Major League Baseball without the World Series. It doesn’t make no sense. My point is, you got to have a playoff. I know NASCAR doesn’t like to call it that. It is what it is. You got to have that. It’s just adding so much to the sport. It’s giving y’all so much to take to the fans. I noticed they mad a couple of bad calls at Wimbledon, I thought NASCAR was the only ones that screwed things up. With all the things that are bad, there’s a whole lot of good stuff about it.”
(DO YOU HAVE A SHOT TO COME BACK?) “I think we have a shot. I’ve crunched all the numbers and quite frankly it’s a stretch but not impossible. If one of those races that went so wrong early in the year didn’t, but unfortunately it did. That’s what inspires people that are competitors to dig down. When you can make it work with the numbers, you don’t give up.”
(DO YOU SEE HENDRICK AS THE CLOSEST COMPETITOR TO DEI?) “He (Jeff Gordon) won Talladega and he’s on the pole here, so yes. Each week somebody is going to be good. We could come here and Gnassi could have a hit on it. With the whole Roush Yates deal you never know where it’s going to come from. It’s a battle. You have to find out who is good that weekend.”
(IF YOU DON’T MAKE THE CHASE WOULD IT BE A LOST SEASON?) “That would become a big deal. We need to win a couple of races and finish 11th, that will give us a tremendous amount of momentum for 2005. What drives me nuts is someone that is 17th in points complaining they’re not in the running for the championship. They did have a shot in getting in the top ten if you run it out for the rest of the year. It’s offering folks within grasp of the top ten with the chance to win a championship. That’s never happened before. This year you’re still in and as a competitor that’s exciting to me that you can dig yourself into a hole and still get out.”
(ON A ONE-RACE PLAY OFF) “I think that is ridiculous. Is the Super Bowl one game? The only people that have it made are guys like Junior and Jimmie Johnson. They can plan right now over the next 10 races, they can test and prepare for the Chase for the Championship basically without worrying about being in it. They’re in it. They’ve done the job to be in it. Everybody else’s position is unsure and many positions are precarious. I think that’s interesting that Junior and Jimmie can say ‘we can fall back and forth from first to second, but you can write our names in ink that we’re in for the Chase for the Championship.’ One thing I would have done different is that I would have invited 12 teams in to race for the top ten in points and made the top ten a big deal. If you finished 11th or 12th you had a chance but you couldn’t pull it off and you’re just like in the history of the world. “You didn’t finish in the top ten and you’re not going to be on the stage in New York. I think that would have been a cool twist. Make 12 people eligible for the championship, but only award 10 of them with the top ten points. For what you said, you have to be consistent over a quarter of the season in order to become champion in the Chase for the Championship. You have to be consistent over the entire season to even have a chance at the championship. That’s a lot difference than giving everyone one chance at Homestead. I think that’s a fair way to answer that question.”
(IS THIS A PATTERN MORE LIKE AN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP?) “Isn’t that fair? The people that did the job from the beginning - your Kentucky’s and Duke’s and your Austin P’s and Carolina Wilmingtons are fighting to trying to grasp a chance that they can get in. That’s why I think my comment about inviting 12 in to the Chase for the Championship and only awarding 10 works. If you’re part of the top 10 at the end of the year, then you’re not worried about finishing 11th. You’re focused on winning a championship. There’s really no consequences if you have problems since you’re locked into 10. That was my only suggestion that they do different. That didn’t go over too well. They didn’t respond to that.”
(ON SEVEN CHEVROLETS BEING IN THE TOP TEN) “A Ford is third. Chevrolet has won nine races this year and no one else has won more than four. When the rules were made to when everything was the same, it’s just my opinion that Chevy has the best teams and that Chevy gives the best technical support and helps up the best. I’m partial. I grew up with a family that drove Chevys and always wanted to race Chevys. You can’t argue with that. Chevrolet has won the most races. It seems like week in and week out Chevrolets are the cars to beat.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - pole winner - 50th career pole & third straight pole — Q&A’s with Media: “On tracks like this, you wish you could bring the guys in who really made it happen because the driver gets the accolades or the publicity, but he certainly doesn’t do a whole lot to make that happen. They guys really surprised me. I’m just so proud of them. We’ve been qualifying great, obviously, lately but I didn’t expect to come in here and qualify like this. “We had a lot of trouble getting through inspection this morning so we didn’t as much practice and yet we were at the top of the board as soon as we went out. Our practice speeds from last weekend to this weekend are certainly flawless and we’re riding a great wave. It was certainly a great effort by those guys and they deserve a lot of credit. Pepsi has been such a big sponsor of ours for so many years and they really enjoy getting involved with this promotion and program where they get a paint out car. With all the Cola wars going on this weekend, this is one chalked up for them. They have been putting a lot of pressure on us. It’s one against nine out there. We’re going to do what we can but certainly tonight we did the job.”
(WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT YOUR TEAM FOR WINNING THREE POLES IN A ROW AT THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RACE TRACKS?) “I think it says a lot. That’s what has impressed me the most. If you look at our other poles this year, they’re on short tracks. So we’ve really gotten our act together. We have tremendous power. Our cars are handling well. Right now, these guys are just really on top of their game. At Hendrick Motorsports we’re doing a tremendous job of blending people and resources and talent and communication and we’re really making the most of every bit of resources we have there and putting it on the race track. That’s makes it exciting and makes for a lot of fun for me on race weekends. I’m having a blast right now. The confidence level is sky-high for us. You take away a couple of mishaps (like) the blown motor and the blown right front (tire) and who knows where we could be right now or what statistics we could have added. But we can’t go back and do those over. We’ve just got to look at the future move forward. Right now the future is looking real good.”
(WILL SATURDAY BE A JEFF GORDON / DALE JR. SHOWDOWN AT DAYTONA?) “You’re just forgetting 41 other guys other there. At these plate races, anybody can get it done. In February, we were embarrassed. I’ll be honest. I think not only Hendrick Motorsports (was embarrassed) but every other race team out there except for the No. 8 and the No. 15. They were in a league of their own. They could pull out and pass any time they wanted to. They played with us all day long and won the Daytona 500. We don’t take those things very kindly. We worked hard. I think we’ve caught up. I don’t think we’re there all the day. Talladega is a much different race track than Daytona. The good thing about here - especially in July - is that it is much more of a handling race track than Talladega. So you’ve got to be able to run wide open, not just have the power or the speed. Until we get out there and practice tomorrow and until we get out there and race, who really knows? But I would love to have a showdown with Junior and the DEI cars. I think that would be a lot of fun. If we can keep up with them, I feel like we can beat them. But we’ve got to be able to keep up with them first. All those races they’ve won, I don’t remember them being on the pole. They might have been on the front row, but not on the pole. Obviously it doesn’t have anything to do with qualifying. They’ve got something else when it comes time to go racing.”
(WITH YOUR RECENT SUCCESS, ARE YOU MOUNTING A HUGE CHARGE GOING INTO RICHMOND?) “You always want to get momentum on your side. I really can’t put my finger on why these things have happened. Maybe it’s what happened to us at Charlotte. Again, we were embarrassed by our performance and got our act together. We don’t want those things to happen - certainly if we’re going to be battling for this championship. We can’t allow races like that to happen. All I know is we went to Michigan for qualifying and the car just felt great and I was able to drive the wheels off it. We sat on the pole. We go to Sonoma and it was the same thing. I drove it for everything we had. Here, I can’t say we drove it hard or anything because you can’t as a driver. But the team did a great job today. Are we mounting a charge? Sure. We always want to mount a charge and we hope we can keep it going.”
(DOES EVERYBODY FOLLOW JUNIOR?) “Well, I can tell you they’re not going to follow me. Let’s make that clear. We all know that. Junior has gotten to that point where he reminds me a lot of his dad. Half the guys out there don’t want to help him because they don’t want to see him win because they know he’s the guy to beat. But half of them think he’s the guy who can take them to the front and get a top five out of it. For me, I want to win and I’ll do everything I can to keep the competition behind me. We can all be pretty confident that the No. 15 and the No. 8 will be the guys to beat. I know I’m going to do everything I can to keep them behind me to shuffle them out of the draft or split them up or whatever.”
JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) “We haven’t really qualified well with our plate stuff in a long time. We made some changes before qualifying and it paid off for us. We didn’t run good here in February in the 500. We’d get tight and couldn’t get a real good feel in the front. We went back to more basics trying to get a baseline, and we’re going to work from there. We’ve got a new body on it. It drives good, and our Dodge is running pretty good right now. I’m excited because the whole team has worked so hard on this car. I think we’re headed in the right direction. I think we’ve still got a shot (to make the top 10). We’ve got some good tracks coming up. I feel like we’re more geared up than ever.”
RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) “We didn’t have any surprises in qualifying. We ran a 48.40 in practice and this is the car I ran in the Bud Shootout, and I asked to bring it back. It’s got a more conventional body on it. It’s got more downforce on the front end. I really hope it’s going to race good, and I think it will. I knew it was going to be off in qualifying a little bit, but I think it’s going to be what we need for the race. It was so frustrating last week to run that long in the top five. It’s been frustrating the past couple of weeks. We blew up at Michigan running fifth. Last weekend we ran out of gas running fourth. We lost a lot of points the last two races that we shouldn’t have lost. I’m a positive guy. I think we can still do it (make the top 10), but I never thought we’d be this far behind. It’d be real important (to win at Daytona), but I’ve come close several times. In fact, in my mind I’ve left here feeling like I won the race and didn’t get the trophy. Daytona has been good to me.”
KASEY KAHNE (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) “I thought we could run a .20 or .30. This is about where we thought we’d be. We’d like to go a little faster, but that’s about where we thought we’d qualify our Dodge. I’m looking forward to practice tomorrow and getting better for the race. We bottomed out a little bit there, and it kinda pushed the car around. I had to put more wheel into it, and as a driver you try to hold the wheel as straight as you can to get around the track.”
CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge) “I’m happy with that after the way we practiced. That was a huge pickup (half a second) for us. The guys took a lot of time switching over. We even quit practice early to get things switched over, and the guys did a great job. This is pretty much a new car for us. We’ve got a whole new front clip on this car, and the whole body is pretty new from the last time we raced here. We’ve got some things to work on. It might take us some time to get right, but I think we’re going to have a pretty good car for the race.”
JEFF GREEN (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge) “That was about all we had today. This is a little different car than we had here in the Daytona 500, so hopefully we can get it driving better. It’s all about handling. We’ll get it as good as we can in practice tomorrow and hope we’ll be around at the end Saturday night.”
STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge) “We ran fourth tenths better than we did in practice. It really doesn’t matter where you start here. You get the car handling good and try to hold it wide open for 400 miles. Lee and the guys worked on the car after practice, and we held back a little bit. We’ll get the car driving good, and the Coors Light Dodge should be right in there. I’ve always enjoyed racing here. My dad ran good here and I’ve had a lot of top fives before we finally won one. My first career pole was here, so Daytona has been really good to me.”
RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge) “That’s pretty much where we practiced. We don’t have many secrets, so it is what it is and this is what we’ve got. This is by far the best we’ve ever qualified here. It’s going to be hot and sticky and humid and all that other good stuff for the race. I like night races for sure. The location is not ideal.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 77 Kodak/Jasper Engine & Transmission Dodge) “We gained two tenths from practice, and the guys did the right stuff. I’m pretty excited. The guys are getting better and better at these restrictor plate tracks. Rusty and I and Ryan are trying to work together as a team and help each other. Having Buddy Baker to help us doesn’t hurt, either. I have Rusty and Ryan that automatically help in the draft. I have some other friends like Jimmie Johnson. It is difficult for a rookie to find a drafting partner, but halfway through the year, we’re no longer Raybestos rookies. We’re one of the guys that run every week. Guys know if they can trust us or not. It’ll be a little bit easier this time around at Daytona for the rookies to find a drafting partner.”
MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus (Qualified 37th) - “I was really pleased with our Smirnoff Ice car when we unloaded it today. It had pretty decent speed and we built it more to race than we built it to qualify, so I think Robbie and all the guys did a good job of building a car that’s gonna be really competitive here Saturday night. We knew it would probably struggle a little bit qualifying, but I think it will be great when they drop the green on Saturday.”
HOW BIG IS HANDLING HERE? “It’s usually hard to get your car to turn here and usually it’s real slick this time of year when it’s this hot out - even at night. So we tried to really focus on building something a little more balanced where we keep the front end turning the whole time. Hopefully, that will pan out for us.”
JEFF BURTON - No. 99 Roush Racing Taurus (Qualified 27th) - “I’m real pleased with our effort. The guys on this Coca-Cola C2 car have really worked hard. I’m proud to be part of the Coca-Cola team down here with this new C2 car. That will get us a decent starting spot. We worked really hard the last few weeks on working on this car to make it drive well. Don’t worry so much about how fast it is in qualifying, make it so it drives well. This race is about handling and we’ve done everything we know to do to come here and make the car handle well and, hopefully, we’ve done the right thing.”
HOW DO YOU MENTALLY GET READY FOR THIS RACE? “You don’t watch past races (laughing). These restrictor plate races are pretty wild to be part of, although the race here is much more like a normal race. Handling is so important. We don’t see as much three-wide racing because the race track doesn’t allow you when it gets hot and slick. So you really approach this race more like you would any other race that we go to throughout the year because handling is so important everywhere else and it also is here, too. When we go to Talladega it’s a totally different ballgame, but as you saw in February the cars that handled well ran in the front and that will be magnified even more on Saturday night.”
DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Qualified 4th) - “I’m really happy with that and the credit goes to these guys - Mike Ford and his guys here. They did a really good job of tuning everything up and getting the most out of this car. I’m really happy with that and I think we’ve got a good race car for Saturday night and that’s the main thing. Hopefully, it’s a car I can drive and be aggressive with in the draft.”
WHAT ABOUT GETTING READY MENTALLY FOR THIS RACE? “I don’t know that you ever get ready for it. I think you just set your mind that it’s gonna be a dogfight all night and you just climb in and go after it and make the most of it that you can. We’ve been very fortunate over the years to have a lot of success at these restrictor plate races. The racing has changed, but you still have to go at it the same way and you’ve got to position yourself right for the last 50 miles and that’s what we’ll try to do Saturday night.”
BIFFLE RODE FUEL MILEAGE TO THE WIN LAST YEAR. HAVE YOU DISCUSSED THAT WITH MIKE? “Not really. We’re trying to get through this part to get a good qualifying spot and see what we can do tomorrow in practice, but Mike is really good at running the pits and running the race on race day. He does a good job in making those calls, so I’m very confident in what he’ll do there. With the Fords, I don’t know if fuel mileage is our best weapon but if it comes down to that, hopefully, we can use that. The main thing is we want to be able to run fast and keep up. They’re still the guys to beat - Michael and Dale, Jr. They’re the guys that you shoot for and, obviously, Jeff Gordon has won his share of these things, too. So those three guys will be guys that we’ll look at, but, hopefully, we can take this UPS Ford in there and be a part of it.”
MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Qualified 22nd) - A DRIVER DOESN’T DO A WHOLE LOT HERE FOR QUALIFYING DOES HE? “He can hope and sometimes wish. I’m real impressed by this race team. It’s such an honor to work with these guys and I just love ‘em. We’re gonna have us a good race car on Saturday night. That’s what we’re here to do - to go racing.”
HAVE YOU GUYS WORKED MORE ON RACE SETUP? “We don’t have the slipperiest race car here. We have huge horsepower and when you get 42 other race cars out there, there’s not a super premium on having a slippery race car. We do a good job of setting these cars up to handle. This team will do a good job on pit road and I’ll try to do a good job on the race track with it and if we do, we’ll be a top five car like we were at Talladega.”
RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Keep It Genuine/Motorcraft Taurus (Qualified 3rd) - “We’re actually a little bit quicker than practice, so we’re really happy. They had it cranked up here tonight. At Talladega we sat on the pole there, so I knew we could be a factor. We were seventh or eighth in practice and we ran good. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get the pole, but heck, with the way our season has gone so far this is the next best thing.”
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE WITH THE RESTRICTOR PLATE PROGRAM? “It’s just that all these guys work really hard. We got some of the guys who came over from DEI and that probably didn’t hurt none. Ben Leslie is really smart on these restrictor plate engines and that new Roush-Yates motor combination, you can’t go too wrong when you have that motor under the hood.”
A GOOD LAP? “Yeah, it was pretty uneventful. I mean, the thing went. When you put the gas pedal down it took off and ran. We were real fast off the truck and this is the same car we sat on the poll with at Talladega, so we knew it was gonna be a factor to come here to Daytona and run really well.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT PRACTICING AT THE SAME TIME OF DAY YOU’RE GOING TO RACE? “That would be the smart thing to do - to test and practice under the conditions you’re gonna be racing under. We’re gonna come out here tomorrow and a lot of it is gonna be under the daylight. This track gets very slippery in the daylight and gains a lot of grip at night. It always has. It’s kind of like you do at Charlotte. You’ve got to work through the daylight. If the car is slipping and sliding a little bit, don’t hit the panic button because it’s probably gonna be OK at night. You just have to be real careful and think ahead.”
WHAT DO YOU LEARN FROM PRACTICE IN THE DAY? “You can work on some of your setups. You need the car to pull up good. It needs to be able to pull up in the draft and pull up to the cars in front of you. You know that’s a given. That doesn’t make any difference whether it’s daylight or in the dark. Sometimes when you do the things it takes to pull up in the draft it doesn’t drive so well, so you’re probably just gonna have to get it to run fast and pull up and the heck with the way it drives. It’ll be OK at night.”
IS THIS A BOOST? “It definitely helps. We got the pole at Talladega and we’ve come here and that will be somewhere in the top five. We’ve got the new Coca-Cola C2 colors and it’s kind of exciting. We’re looking forward to an exciting night on Saturday.”
ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M’s Taurus (Qualified 9th) - “We’ll be fine. We kind of knew the car wouldn’t run fast by itself. What we’ve done is built a lot of downforce into it. It’ll be good for Saturday and that’s all that matters to us. We want to be good Saturday night, so we think we’re gonna have a great race car. It’s the same chassis I had here for the Daytona 500, we just did a little work on the nose and tail of it. Todd knows what’s going on with these speedways, so we’ll be fine come Saturday night.”
BALANCE IS THE KEY? “Yeah, we’ve got such a great package. We’re gonna start with everything just like we had here in February and adjust to the track conditions here in July. Hopefully, we’ll hit it right. We’ll see what happens. We’ve got our fingers crossed.”
GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus (Qualified 10th) - “We thought we had a chance at the pole. I’m not sure why we didn’t pick up. We pretty much went the same speed as we did in practice and I’m not sure what the deal is with why that happened. We think it’s possibly warmed up since Jeff Gordon went or it’s gotten more humid and the air isn’t quite as good. Still, it’s not two-tenths worth so we’re off a little bit. We’ll get it going and get it driving good in the race.”
RICKY RUDD PRESS CONFERENCE - “I’m really pleased with this new Coca-Cola C2 Taurus. The guys did a really good job. This is the car that qualified on the pole at Talladega. We got a fender knocked off of it and were a little bit concerned that it maybe wouldn’t come back and be as good as it was before, but went out two different times in practice - not very much - and the guys just worked on it to get it ready to go for a lap. I was real happy with it. We made a few mistakes on it at Talladega. We had a fast car, but it didn’t drive particularly well in the race and they worked on that a little bit while they were at the wind tunnel the other week, so I think we’ll have something that’s gonna race pretty good.”
IS THIS THE SAME CAR FROM DAYTONA? “I’m not really sure. This might be a different car. We ran this one at Talladega for sure and sat on the pole there.”
BUT THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN STRONG ALL YEAR. “Our speedway program has been, especially in qualifying, has been pretty strong. Our other program is something we’ve definitely been searching around a lot this year. We’re not very pleased. Nobody has really been happy with some of the results that we’ve been able to get. It’s sort of a constant battle every week. Every week we have a different race car, something different and sooner or later we’re blindly gonna stumble onto something that works here before the year is out I feel confident.”
WHO HAS THE NEW ENGINE THIS WEEK? “I was watching television, but I think they said Jeff Burton has the motor this week. I’m not really sure. I usually find out when we get ready to get in the race car and start the race somebody tips me off on who has got what. Usually you guys know before I do. I can’t honestly tell you, but just by listening to the commentators they say Burton has one this week. I think he’s the only car that has one. That’s what they’re saying. I’ve heard by Chicago that all the Fords will have them, so we’re kind of optimistic and looking forward to that if that’s the case. I think it’s kind of supply and demand. As the pieces come in and they get motors built, they spit ‘em out the door. There’s definitely a pecking order or a priority over there and it’s usually points related on who gets what. Obviously, we’re probably the worst car in the points and we’re not even a Roush car so we don’t usually get first choice. We did run one in Charlotte. We were one of the guys that raced one in the 600 and I think it was more of a durability run than anything, but from what I’ve seen the motor should be pretty good. We’re looking forward to getting a chance to run it week in and week out.”
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