NASCAR WCUP: Labonte, Benson, Stewart discuss qualifying at Michigan

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

August 18, 2001

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON YOUR LAP) "That's definitely a good run for us. It was positive from practice until [qualifying]. We made a few changes and everything worked kind of the way it is supposed to work, instead of guessing at the thing. I'm real happy. All the guys on the Interstate Batteries Pontiac did a great job today. It's a good run for us.

"We picked up a good four tenths [of a second] from practice, so I'm pretty positive about that. It seems like we made headway throughout the whole practice and the car felt comfortable. That's pretty good for me lately."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR RUN?) "We're pretty happy with that. We were pretty far off when we unloaded off the trailer. James Ince and the guys have been working tremendously hard and got it better. I ran my second lap because I didn't feel good [about the first lap], but they told me it was a '60-something' (38.60 seconds), so we're pretty happy with that.

(YOU'VE SCORED TWO TOP FIVES IN YOUR LAST TWO OVAL TRACK STARTS...CAN YOU KEEP THAT GOING THIS WEEKEND?) "We keep trying to learn day-in and day-out what is going on. Since some of the [rules] changes it's been difficult. But the guys have been doing a tremendous job. I can't ask them to work any harder because they are working their butts off. We're slowly getting back to where we need to be and where we were. It's just taking a little more time than we probably all anticipated. But all-in-all, I'm real happy with everybody on this Valvoline Pontiac team. They're doing a tremendous job and we're inching our way back up."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(HOW ABOUT YOUR RUN?) "I don't know what happened. Maybe I should hurt my foot more often, I guess. The guys on the Home Depot Pontiac team did a great job getting our car ready for qualifying. We kind of struggle with this tire every time we come here and it was even worse this time. We went out on our first run and ran the fastest that we did the whole time in practice. We kept adjusting for what the car did each run after that. Then we put stickers on and it was more like the first run and all those changes were way over the top. We just kind of put it back to where we were, made a small change and went out and ran a good lap."

(IS THIS A RELIEF TO HAVE A GOOD FRIDAY LIKE THIS?) "We needed a good Friday. We haven't had one for a long time, so it's nice to come out and get a good qualifying run here, which is something that we haven't had at Michigan for a while. It's definitely something I was looking forward to."

(DID YOU BUILD ON WHAT YOU LEARNED IN THE JUNE RACE TODAY?) "I think we just kind of looked at where we were at and said, 'This is what we think we need to come back here with.' All that is is hard work at the shop and that's due to Greg [Zipadelli] and the guys. They looked back at our notes from when we were here in the spring, came back here in the fall and it's a lot better race car now."

(HOW DOES YOUR INJURED LEFT FOOT FEEL IN THE CAR?) "It's not bad in the car on the brakes. This track is a track where you don't brake very heavily anyway. Where it hurts is when I'm using the clutch. There is a lot more pressure on the clutch to get it engaged all the way, so that seem to be the hard part right now."

Text provided by Al Larsen

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