NASCAR BGN: Ford Driver Quotes, Indianapolis Raceway Park

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

August 5, 2001

JEFF GREEN-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Qualified 16th) - HOW HECTIC HAS TODAY BEEN FOR YOU? "It's just finally start to wind down. I think this car is a lot better than I just qualified, but it's hard to come back from what I just did - 40 minutes of IROC on the other track. We put in two good laps here, and hopefully that will put us in the top 10, and that would be a good starting place for us. Now, it's back to the other track for as much of Happy Hour as we can get in." ARE YOU EXPERIENCING THE SAME THING THAT KEVIN HARVICK HAS GONE THROUGH A COUPLE OF TIMES THIS YEAR? "He's young and I'm old, so that makes a little bit of a difference. I don't think he's done it quite this bad. He's got to rest in between. I haven't got to rest yet. I'm looking forward to tonight when I can go to bed."

GREG BIFFLE-60-Grainger Ford Taurus (Qualified 2nd) - IF THERE WAS ANY THOUGHT THAT THE TRACK SLOWED DOWN AFTER THE NOS. 2 and 10 CARS RAN, YOU JUST PROVED THEM WRONG. "I don't know where that came from. We made some tire pressure adjustments to try and tighten the car up, but it was just beautiful. I couldn't ask for a better car. I just drove it down in there and it turned real nice. The back end stayed under it, I got in the gas nice and easy and I just rolled off the corner beautifully." WHEN YOU HAVE A ONE-DAY SHOW, ARE THE CARS THAT ARE FAST IN QUALIFYING USUALLY THE FAST ONES FOR THE RACE? "I wish they were all this way. We were third earlier in practice and we did mostly race runs in practice. You might as well do all races run because if you change a spring or something at the last minute, you have to qualify on that. You have to be happy with your race setup first." WILL TIRE WEAR BE AN ISSUE TONIGHT BECAUSE A LOT OF CARS RAN IN EXCESS OF 80 LAPS ON A SET OF TIRES. "You might see some two-tire stops at the end tonight because track position is king here."

JASON KELLER-57-Albertsons Ford Taurus (Qualified 5th) - IT LOOKED AS THOUGH THE TRACK MIGHT BE SLOWING DOWN, BUT YOU AND GREG BIFFLE PROVED THAT IT WASN'T. "It may be that it's getting a little bit faster. We really didn't have a good practice. We went back and forth, back and forth and changed the car a little bit. Hopefully, we have it free enough for tonight. I'm really surprised that we qualified as fast as we did. If we stay in the top five, we'll be OK." DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF ADJUSTABILITY BUILT INTO THE CAR? "We've got a ton of adjustability and we have it extremely free right now, so hopefully that's enough." ARE THE CARS THAT QUALIFY UP FRONT THE ONES YOU EXPECT TO STAY UP FRONT WHEN YOU HAVE A ONE-DAY SHOW? "Well, last night showed us that you have to start as close to the front as you possibly can. You just have to hold on for qualifying. I was just talking to Greg (Biffle) about it and he said, 'Man, I was just sideways holding on.' It's going to tighten up, it's just depending on who built enough adjustability in their car for tonight."

ELTON SAWYER-98-Purdue University/Starter Ford Taurus (Qualified 4th) - "That was a good lap. We weren't real sure of what we could run because we had a problem in practice. We had a right-front tire go down early and we had put our second set of stickers on way earlier than we planned. We were extremely loose all day, and they just tightened it up a bunch to go qualify. Now we need to free it back up. The big thing here is the race track is so different right now when we qualify to what we're going to see tonight. We're trying to build in enough adjustability in the car. I was telling Ricky (Viers) earlier today that we were so loose that I didn't want to free it up any more. It was actually pretty good there, but we need to go further for the race." THE VETERANS ALWAYS SEEM TO DO WELL ON TRACKS LIKE THIS. "Ricky and the boys have always brought a good car here. It starts with a good car. I like this race track, too. Ever since I first came here in 1986, I've just always liked it. The atmosphere is great. That means a lot." WILL TIRES PLAY A ROLE IN STRATEGY TONIGHT? "It's a little harder tire, and we don't have the grip we had in the past but it's the same for everybody. Getting the car to handle will be critical. A good-handling car really looks good here, and one that doesn't looks bad." CAN YOU MAKE SOME TWO-TIRE STOPS WITH THIS TIRE? "Maybe. It could even be the race-winning factor."

Text provided by Greg Shea

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