NASCAR Trucks: Ricky Hendrick top Silverado qualifier; Top rookie

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

June 1, 2001

* RICKY HENDRICK, #17 GMAC SILVERADO, qualified third today with a lap time of 24.055 at 149.657 mph. He's the top rookie and the first Silverado driver, behind the Dodge of polesitter Scott Riggs and the Ford of Rick Crawford. Hendrick was third in the first practice; first in the second practice.

HENDRICK: "It's fun. This place is neat. We were doing very well last year and the alternator went out and we didn't get to finish like we wanted to. The guys obviously came back with a strong machine for me. We should have been on the pole. We were just too conservative. They tightened us up, because Jack (Sprague, teammate) was a little loose. That's part of having teammates, you get advice from one another. It bit us a little bit. If the GMAC Silverado had been like it was in practice we would have had the pole. I don't see any problem with having a shot to win this race." ON DODGE TAKING THE POLE: "Dodge is still on top. It's still the same deal. The Dodges are just real strong. They have won everything but one pole, and we're a third through the season."

* KEN SCHRADER, #52 FEDERATED AUTO PARTS SILVERADO, was the next Silverado, in sixth: "We were third in one [practice] session, seventh in the other, and we wound up sixth. We qualified fourth here last year and we didn't know where that came from. We're fine, we're just worrying about the race."

* JACK SPRAGUE, #24 NETZERO PLATINUM SILVERADO (seventh): "It was just loose. It will be all right. I like this track, but we had only five laps in practice. It could have been a lot worse. We had a lot of mechanical problems. The Silverado drives good, though. We will find out in happy hour; that's all I care about. I think I had a shot at the pole, but it was just too loose; couldn't get the handle down. Now I just have to pass six of them. We can do it."

* BILLY BIGLEY, #75 SPEARS MANUFACTURING SILVERADO (rookie, eighth): "I am tickled to death, considering that the first time I saw this place was this morning. This track reminds me a lot of a bigger Bristol; how you drive it, how you enter the corner. Mark (Blessing, crew chief) and the guys said it was a lot like Bristol but bigger, and they're exactly right. Bristol and here are the only 'concrete' tracks I've raced on."

* RANDY TOLSMA, #61 TEAM RENSI MOTORSPORTS SILVERADO (10th): "We're improving on qualifying with the Team Rensi Silverado. We're happy, but not satisfied. The Silverado drove real well. I just overdrove it. I felt we had a better shot for a better qualifying. I drove it extremely hard into the corner and never got the grip it needed to get to have a good lap. It's not a bad starting spot; it could have been better if I had driven the race track a little bit friendlier."

… Note: Randy and wife Tiffanie announced today that after 13 years of marriage Tiffanie is pregnant with their first child, due in January.

* TRAVIS KVAPIL, #60 CAT RENTAL STORES SILVERADO (rookie, 12th): "I feel real comfortable on the race track. It's just we're having a hard time finding the right setup. We are having a hard time getting the Silverado to really hook up and drive up off the corner. It just got a little bit loose on me in practice and just scuffed the wall. No big deal. The biggest thing is we're trying to hit on the combination and we can't find it right now." ON DRIVING ON CONCRETE: "It's got a lot of grip. I haven't really noticed anything substantially different other than it's white, basically. It's real smooth; I haven't noticed anything abnormal. So far, so good. Just so we don't hit the other concrete anymore."

Text provided by Judy Stropus

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