NASCAR WCUP: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Quotes, Texas Post Qualifying

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

March 31, 2001

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo (pole-sitter) "It's real warm right now. When it cools off, guys will pick up a little bit. So, I don't think that'll stay as far as the pole goes. I was pretty happy with the lap. We're happy with the guys. This morning they worked real hard. We ran good here in the race, but we weren't that great qualifying, so at least we've got it dialed in. This is probably one of my favorite tracks. I love coming to Texas. I run good here and the fans seem to appreciate. We dialed it in a little better for qualifying."

(Do you feel better about how your team is doing?) "We've just had some bad luck this year. We've had good handling cars. And we all get along real well. Everything on that side of the coin has improved over last year. But we haven't put any finishes up on the board at all and we're real disappointed about that. It's been pretty difficult - especially over the past six weeks with everything that's going on. So hopefully we come here and take a good finish home with us whether it's a win or a top five finish - anything will really help the team."

(Are you tired of the media pressure?) "We really haven't had that much media pressure. Everybody's dealt with it pretty good. Everybody has given us a lot of space and stuff like that. We haven't done anything performance-wise on the track. If we run good and have something to talk about, like today when we had a good qualifying lap, I don't mind talking to anybody. But we did turn a lot of people down."

(Could you hear the crowd?) "Oh yeah. I'm telling you, these people are real cool. You would expect to get more reaction from people closer to home, but we've done so well here that everybody seems to really appreciate the car when it comes on the racetrack."

Text provided by Nancy Wager

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