GM RACING NOTES & QUOTES--DAYTONA QUALIFYING

 GM RACING WINSTON CUP NOTES AND QUOTES; PEPSI 400; QUALIFYINGDAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY; JULY 3, 2003

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/GOT MILK? CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Well, that was a little slower than what we practiced. I don't know what we did there. We didn't pick up, we slowed down. We were hoping for maybe a top 10 or 15, but I think that's going to be closer to a 25th or 30th. We'll just work on our car and get it ready to race." 

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We're a little disappointed that we didn't run what we had run in practice. The car just didn't quite "zing" like it did in practice. It didn't have that sound that I know makes it go. But we qualified sixth or seventh here last year and we were able to get to the front. I just thank the NAPA team for giving me a car that is this fast. We're probably going to end up in the top 10 and we're a little bit disappointed, so that's a good feeling when you go to bed tonight." (DO YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE WITH THE RECORD THAT DEI HAS AT THE RESTRICTOR-PLATE RACES, OR ARE YOU JUST CONFIDENT?) "We're just confident. In confidence, you can't be overconfident and get out of your game. I just try to stay very focused and balanced, and don't think about the record here or anything. When I get in this car, it fits perfect and it feels great. I go out on the racetrack, and I know that I know what to do in order to get the thing towards the front. I just feel good when I'm in Daytona and I think it shows with the way the cars run." 

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: (any reason for the slower time from practice to qualifying?) "You know, when you go through the inspection line over there, you never know. I'm pretty happy with that lap. Everything looked good to me. It was a good, clean lap and the car drove great. The RPMs were there and all the gauges did what we wanted them to do. You listen to the pitch of the engine and the RPM, and just hold it to the floor. I think that's a pretty decent lap, especially after watching what some of the other guys did." (THIS HAS BEEN A BUSY WEEK FOR YOU.) "This is the second half of the season and we're kicking off NBC's coverage of Winston Cup racing. Fox did a great job the first half, we're excited about being second in points and having a shot at the championship here at this point in the season. Hopefully we can keep it going all the way to the end. But it has been a busy week. I tested in New Hampshire Monday and Tuesday, got up early and did The Today Show yesterday, and then flew down here and did an appearance for Quaker State, and now here we are driving this DuPont/Pepsi Chevrolet." (MORE GORDON) 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We're real happy with that. We've had a great weekend here. We're real excited about getting the pole today for the Busch race tomorrow. We were real concerned about getting this car solidly in the field. It's been an unbelievable trip to Daytona the last several times. We've just had such a great car down here. This is such a great area and such a great place to come watch a race, and it's fun being out on that racetrack too. Just looking forward to doing some more drafting. We finally got this qualifying out of the way and we can get into some drafting, racing in practice and what not, and just try to keep all of the sides on the Budweiser Chevrolet and find ourselves in Victory Lane if we're lucky." (YOU HAVE FOUND A PRETTY GOOD DRAFTING PARTNER IN TONY STEWART IN THE LAST FEW RESTRICTOR-PLATE RACES.) "When you're on the racetrack, you seek out who your friends are, and me and Michael (Waltrip) are good buddies, but we have a hard time trying to work our way to the front together, so what we do is try and find our way there separately. Once we do meet up front, we try and take care of each other. So that means you have to try and find other partners, and me and Tony have worked well here together. We just kind of have an understanding and we'll help each other out if we can. We've both got great race cars, so it's really no problem pushing each other to the front." 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We slowed down some. We thought we'd pick up like you naturally do in qualifying. When the 15 ran the time that he did, I thought maybe they had trouble and we were going to be able to run the same time that we did, or at least what Jeff (Gordon) did, but we slowed down as well. Something's gone on that we'll try and figure out and compare our car with the 24 just to see maybe what changes might have helped us out. If you've got a chance to get the pole, to have a Bud Pole, that what you're after, and everything else doesn't really matter here because of the draft and the way it all plays out. We're excited with this Lowe's car - we've got Sponge Bob on the hood and hopefully he'll bring us some luck come Saturday night." 

DAVID GREEN, NO. 60 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I told the people that asked that that practice speed had a little bit of help. There was like three of us out there. We must've thought we were in the (Twin) 125s back in February. Everybody was trying to make a last-ditch run right there at the end. But we ran really well even before that and we knew we were pretty decent. It was a little misleading, but I'm proud of this Haas team and hopefully well be in Saturday night's race."

MIKE BLISS, NO. 80 ADVAIR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We've been about the slowest car here in practice, but we're right real close to making the race. We improved a bunch. We didn't get enough testing to really do this deal right, but we have great engines, and it was the first time for the car on the track, which hurt us a little bit." DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT? "No, it doesn't change much. We tested here a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't change much from day to night. If anything, you might pick up a little speed from the air temperature."

MIKE WALLACE, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We didn't run as quick as we did in practice. We probably had a little help, to be honest with you, in that final practice session. We know we did. I had hoped we'd run a little better than that. I was hoping we'd run a high 48, like a 48.90 or 48.95, but it didn't, and that's the way it goes. DID THE TRACK CHANGE ANY? "I don't think you can ever tell if the track changes here. It feels the same all the time."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We unloaded here and we didn't go as fast as we like to have the Interstate Batteries Chevrolet going, but the guys worked on it real hard and never gave up. We picked up some in qualifying. We changed a few things because we really didn't have anything to lose. We were about 36th in practice. We're missing out on something, but we've got until Saturday to work on it and make it as good as possible. We'll never give up."

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We picked up a little bit, but a lot of teams have slowed down. I think we tuned the engine and just got everything ready to qualify. You expect to pick up some in qualifying, and the surprise is when you don't." IS IT HARD TO PRACTICE IN THE DAYTIME AND THEN QUALIFY AT NIGHT? "Not like this. It's not that difficult, but it becomes very difficult on Saturday night."

STACY COMPTON, NO. 4 KODAK/PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We slowed down a little bit and I'm not sure why. We're sort of scratching our heads right now. The Kodak Pontiac was good in practice and we really felt like we had a shot at the top 20. I'm not sure whether the track slowed down or what happened. I'm a little bit disappointed. I think a lot of people are in the same boat. We'll have to do some homework and figure out why." HOW HAS YOUR FIRST WEEK WITH MORGAN-McCLURE GONE? "It's gone great. There's a great bunch of guys up there. It's a good race team. Their season has gone like a lot of other people's has this year. They haven't had a lot of luck. They've run well, but they haven't been able to capitalize on it. Hopefully, we can have a good weekend here."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "If you saw the practice speeds, for an hour and 50 minutes we were on suicide watch. That was a much better qualifying effort than what we had in practice." HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL FOR SATURDAY NIGHT'S RACE? "I'll probably have about 20 more gray hairs like normal!"

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We thought we'd be a whole lot faster that that. If we could have backed up what we ran in practice, we'd have been real close to Jeff (Gordon), but for some reason we lost a little bit of speed. But it's a good qualifying run, a lot better than we ran at Talladega. The guys have worked really hard, the engine shop gave us a good engine and they just keep working on the body. It's all about getting the body out of the air and having a good motor. We're close, really close." ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT GUYS ARE STILL MAKING BIG JUMPS THIS LATE IN QUALIFYING? "No. If they were holding a little back in practice, they're going to pick up a little. You never know until you go out there and put it all on the line and then you see who has what."

STEVE PARK, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: NOTE: Park won the pole in the same car that Jeff Green won the Bud Pole with here in February: "I really want to thank the guys in the fab shop. They really put a body on this car and they spent a bunch of time to get this job done. The AOL Chevy really ran superb. I just want to thank the whole entire team. We had great horsepower. These guys sat on the pole for the 500, so it doesn't surprise me that we're fast enough to be on the pole tonight. I'm just ecstatic. We haven't had the season that we wanted to have. We had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. It feels so good. I am so happy to be at Richard Childress. I'm going to go online and check out the story on America Online!"

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: NOTE: Qualified 2nd, making it an all-Richard Childress Racing front row. "We fully expected that. I'm merely a passenger. These guys [the crew], this is their time to do what they do with the car and the engines and all their tricks. It shows. It's a lot of fun because you never know what's coming." YOUR FIRST LAP WAS PRETTY QUICK. DID YOUR CREW LET YOU KNOW THAT THE SECOND WAS GOING TO BE PRETTY GOOD? "They don't say anything to me. They keep me in suspense. You just have to wait for your number to pop up on the board. If it doesn't pop up on the board, then you know you didn't go fast enough." (MORE HARVICK)

RICHARD CHILDRESS, TEAM OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING; NOTE: RCR drivers Steve Park (1st) and Kevin Harvick (2nd) swept the front row for Saturday's Pepsi 400. "The fab shop has really done a great job, the engine shop has done a lot of extra work, and the teams, both of these teams, have really worked hard. Kevin Harvick, Steve Park, they're going to do a great job on Saturday night, and Robby Gordon is going to be up there racing them, so it's going to be an exciting night." YOUR WHOLE ORGANIZATION HAS HAD A GREAT SEASON SO FAR. WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THE TEAM OWNER TO SEE THAT? "We've struggled a lot just rebuilding everything at RCR. We've been rebuilding the last couple of years. With Kevin Harvick and everybody there that has supported us and all of our sponsors and race fans, we're getting closer and closer. We're as close as we've been yet. We're going to be back in the winning way." YOU HAVE THREE FIERY COMPETITORS IN YOUR CARS. HOW ARE THEY GETTING ALONG THESE DAYS? "They're working good. The thing about it is, you get guys like Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon, they want to win every week. That's the reason they drive for me. I don't want somebody you have to push and push. Steve Park will do a good job. These guys are just dedicated to winning and that's why I want them driving for me."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Obviously not good enough. The car handled OK. At Daytona you have to handle. It drove OK. WE just didn't have a very fast lap time. I got beat by my teammates by about four tenths. HOW DO YOU THINK YOU'LL BE IN RACE TRIM? "We'll hang on. We'll be fine." DID YOU HAVE A SHOT AT THE POLE? "Normally, we all qualify right there together. For some reason, this car qualified third for the Daytona 500 and we qualified 18th tonight. It must be the driver."

JEFF GORDON PRESS CONFERENCE: NOTE: Gordon qualified 3rd. as four Chevrolets qualified in the top five. WERE YOU SATISFIED WITH THAT LAP? "Yeah, we were pretty satisfied with that. I was pretty shocked that we held onto the top spot as long as we did. We knew that the Childress cars would be a factor and the DEI cars would be a factor. Going into the day, we thought we'd be a little bit better than we were at Talladega. We were fourth at Talladega and we came out of here third, so we're pretty happy." DID YOU PICK UP FROM WHAT YOU HAD IN THE MORNING? "I don't think we picked up from where we ended practice, but some guys that had gone faster didn't go as fast. The way I look at it, we were eighth on the chart at the end of practice. We're third on the charts when it really counts now in qualifying, so to me that's a gain." THERE WAS A LOT OF TALK AFTER TALLADEGA ABOUT THE YELLOW-LINE RULE. WHAT IS YOUR INTERPRETATION OR VERSION OF THE YELLOW-LINE RULE AS IT IS RIGHT NOW AND HOW IS IT OR SHOULD IT BE ENFORCED? "That's a very good question, because I was pretty clear on it before Talladega and now I'm pretty confused on it. It sounds like you're with me on that one. Maybe we need to go back and revisit that. The thing I look at at Talladega, the way I interpret it, one of those two cars should have been somehow penalized. Whether it was one car forcing the other car down below the yellow line or the other car went below the yellow line to gain the position. It's obvious the car went below the yellow line; it's then NASCAR's job to determine how and why that happened. There really wasn't much done there. I don't know. I'm still going to kind of approach it the same way. If I get below the yellow line and I feel like I wasn't really forced down there, I'm going to back off and try to get back in behind that car. It's a lot different when you're going for the win in the final couple laps if you're going to push the envelope a little bit more there and put NASCAR in a position to have to make a judgment call." ARE YOU GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO DEI? DO YOU FEEL LIKE THEY CAN BE BEATEN? "I don't think qualifying day has much to do with whether we've closed the gap on DEI. It has everything to do with Saturday night race and who wins it. They've been beaten on qualifying day before, but they're still winning the races and that's the one we're all after. I don't know if they're going to be the guys to beat, but they certainly have proven to be the last several races. I've felt like I've had good enough cars to win the last three or four restrictor plate races, but we haven't pulled it off. I haven't seen anything, especially the last couple of races, that they have something that can't be beat. They're just smart, they work together, they do their job and they hit it in all areas that they need to, whether it be making sure that car gets out front after a pit stop. They've won the races." ARE YOU COMFORTABLE UP FRONT, GIVEN THE TRACK? "I'm always more comfortable to be up front. I'm pretty happy to be in the first two rows. This is a track where guys can come as fast to the front as they can go from the front to the back. Some pretty big holes open up here at this track. Handling becomes an issue. The Roush cars handle very well, and I think given enough time they'll be a factor in this race before it's over. There's always the chance [of the big crash] happening, and that's why I like being up front that much better. You hope that if it does happen, by qualifying up front you take less of a chance to be in it. There are still no guarantees. It can happen any time." YOU'VE SAID THAT YOU'RE NOT ALL THAT FOND OF RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING. HAS YOUR OPINION CHANGED WITH THE NEW RULES IN PLACE? "I like it a lot better without the roof rails and all that stuff. That was just crazy, ridiculous, white-knuckle racing every single lap, every single straightaway. You could wreck on the straightaway just as easily as in the corners. I like this a lot better. Once we get into the races and we start drafting, I think there's a lot more driver involvement, of setting up a driver for a pass. Here at Daytona, it does change things because there's handling involved. There are a few more factors here than at other places. I've always liked restrictor plate drafting and those types of things, but once the cars started really packing up together and we run in these three-wide packs back seven, eight, 10 rows, that's not a lot of fun. You can never break away. I like it when we broke away just a little bit where you as a driver could pick and choose how and when you made a move on a guy. You built momentum and you built passes and it took sometimes 15 or 20 laps to make it happen. I've just kind of learned to accept it the way it is and go out there and drive as hard as I can and do the best I can and keep my fingers crossed that I get through it." HOW DO YOU LOOK AT A RESTRICTOR-PLATE TRACK? "I look at a restrictor plate track or Daytona like maybe Dale Jr. or some of the guys looked at Sonoma. We went into Sonoma with confidence, we went in knowing that it's a place we've won at and a place where I'm comfortable. We have good cars. I think the DEI guys come in here looking at it that way. I think Junior and Michael know that this is a track where they can win, they have proven that before and they come in here with a little more confidence. I come in here with a pretty even tone. I've run well here. We ran well here in February. I made a daring move and it didn't work out for me and I fell back to 12th or wherever I finished. You do have Kenseth and the Roush cars toward the back, and we are racing for a championship, but I think it's still pretty early to start really thinking that way. We are approaching each race as just getting all we can get and hope good fortune and luck goes our way and we're smart about how we race. Matt [Kenseth] has made very few mistakes, they've been very consistent and had very few failures. They work hard to get everything that they can and they deserve to be where they are right now. We hope that we can put some pressure on them and take some advantage. Unless something happens early, I think they'll come to the front."

KEVIN HARVICK PRESS CONFERENCE: NOTE: Harvick won the pole for last year's Pepsi 400 and and qualified 2nd here Thursday. YOU'VE HAD QUALIFYING SUCCESS HERE BEFORE. TALK ABOUT THE LAP AND THE EFFORT THE RCR TEAM PUT FORTH TODAY. "Our speedway effort has been great for a lot of years. Every year I've been here and every year I've watched it on TV, they throw a lot of effort into it. I'm pretty much just a passenger at that point. The guys in the shop and on the race teams shined today. This is the same car we ran at Talladega and Daytona, and it's got every fender and every piece on it is the same. They've pitched in and fine-tuned and you can make your cars better when you don't get them torn up. We're really happy with it. The Goodwrench car is notorious for running well at superspeedways, and we've got a really good piece. We're real excited about Saturday." WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF THE YELLOW-LINE RULE? "I didn't hear Jeff's answer, but I really don't understand the rule, to tell you the truth. The best thing to do is just not go down there. If you get shoved down there, you just have to hope it goes in your favor and let off and be smart about it. If it comes down to the last few laps, you have to do what you have to do and hopefully the cards fall your way. The best answer I have is just don't go down there." DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE THAT CLOSE TO DEI? "That's our intention. But they have all the trophies. We felt that we've been close to them and had the opportunities to win races, but we haven't won, and that's the bottom line, what it all comes down to. It's who takes home the trophy and the check. Our check has been a little smaller and we don't have any trophies. Not that we haven't run good or haven't been in contention to win the races, but they've got it done and that's the way you have to look at it. We feel we can contend with them. We just have to figure out how to wind up in front at the end of the race." STEVE PARK LEFT DEI AND THEN WINS THE POLE FOR RCR. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL? "Jeff Green might not feel too good about it. I'm glad for Steve. It's great for the whole organization to come down here. Jeff Green sat on the pole for the 500, Robby qualified third and I qualified sixth. What can you say? We're first and second, and you can't really ask for anything more than that. Like I said earlier, Richard works really hard and the guys in the motor shop and the fab shop worked really hard on the restrictor plate stuff and it's paid off for us. I'm just really proud of all of them." DID STEVE PARK GIVE YOU ANY INSIGHT ON HOW DEI IS SO SUCCESSFUL AT RESTRICTOR PLATE TRACKS? "They just have a package together, the whole package. A lot of it has to do with little things. Our package was pretty strong when he came over and we haven't changed anything. We're both just pretty fortunate to be sitting in what we are sitting in. They're really strong race cars. I don't care who sits in the seat, they're going to go that fast at these places." RICHARD SAID THAT IT'S BEEN A LONG REBUILDING PROCESS. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT AND WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE BEING THE LEAD DRIVER? "It's been tough at times. This year we've been in contention to win races and things have happened. We started the year off great at Daytona, had a chance to win the 500 and went to Rockingham and the next three weeks we were totally junk. We came home and the guys cut all the bodies off and started rebuilding race cars and we have made a 180-degree turn from what we had. Richard is as committed as I've ever seen him. He's enthused about everything that's going on. I'm committed to everything that he wants to do and always has done and I'll stand behind him 100 percent. That's what he's done for me and that's what I'll do for him. Like I say, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be sitting in Winston Cup racing or Busch racing or anywhere else. Whether we're winning or rebuilding, I'm going to stay by his side and trust what he says. The man has done a lot for this sport and he'll fix anything that goes wrong."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We'll take that. The Valvoline Pontiac's been running pretty good since we unloaded it. That's just all we got. I've really got to thank Valvoline, and of course Hendrick Motorsports. It really doesn't matter where you start this race as long as you have a good-handling race car. And as the night gets going, hopefully it gets better and better. We'll just have to wait and see what Happy Hour is going to bring us and hopefully be good for the '400.'" "This is the car that Jerry (Nadeau) ran here in the '500' this year, and he ran decent but we didn't have the finish with it they would've liked to have seen, but by the same token it ran good. We felt the car that we had was probably going to be pretty good too, but we didn't have any history on it. This car has a little bit of history, and James (Ince) said we can run this car, it will be pretty good for us. And we actually built it too. It was one of those deals where we built it, they had it, and then we got it back. It's going to be good for us."

STEVE PARK, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO, POLE WINNER'S PRESS CONFERENCE: Note: This is Park's second Bud Pole win in 2003 and the fourth of his Winston Cup career. This is also the second straight Bud Pole at Daytona for the AOL Chevrolet and the third straight for Richard Childress Racing. Jeff Green won the Bud Pole for the 2003 Daytona 500 and Harvick captured the Bud Pole for this race in 2002. 

"Sitting on the pole at Daytona is like a dream come true. Being a small boy and growing up in a racing family, you always wanted to win the Daytona 500 and sit on the pole at Daytona. We accomplished one of those goals. I'm just real thankful for Richard Childress and all of the RCR bunch. They gave me the opportunity. We all know the story where I lost one job and then acquired another job. I'm just real thankful for the opportunity I'm in right now. I haven't been this happy in about a year and a half. We're in this 20-week stretch that we go through now where you better enjoy what you're doing because you spend quite amount of time on the road, and quite amount of time away from family, so you better enjoy what you're doing. And I'm thoroughly enjoying what I'm doing right now. We need to take the performance up of the America Online team to where it needs to be. What's great to see is the whole team is really eager. All of the people were all brand new from all walks of life and different racing. The one common thread that we see is that everybody on the team is energetic, and they want to do good and they want to race good. That's a great quality to have in people. Again, we're just reaching the tip of the iceberg right now. We know we can go fast for two laps, now we've got to go fast for 400 miles." (THIS IS KIND OF HOW THE 30 CAR CAME OUT OF NOWHERE AND WON THE POLE IN FEBRUARY. WERE YOU HOLDING SOMETHING BACK IN PRACTICE?) "We weren't really. We were in race trim. The main thing was the car drives good, and once we get in qualifying trim we can get the speed up to where it needs to be. I think we ended up 16th- or 18th-fastest in practice in race trim, so we knew that we could pick up four or five tenths. We exceeded our expectations and ran as fast as we could, but it doesn't surprise me because this is the same car that sat on the pole. The America Online team had the confidence that in qualifying trim this car could qualify good. We focused on making sure that we have a race setup that's going to lap and handle good. Daytona is different from Talladega where you don't need raw speed, but you need a good-handling race car here at all times. We worked on getting that today, and we knew in qualifying trim we'd be pretty good." (THE DRIVER IS ALMOST TAKEN OUT OF THE EQUATION IN QUALIFYING AT A RESTRICTOR-PLATE RACE, ISN'T HE?) "Michael Waltrip is a good friend of mine, even though we aren't teammates anymore, and I think he said, and correct me if I'm wrong, but he said a drunk or orangutan could qualify on a speedway. I don't think he's that far off. Maybe a drunk orangutan wouldn't get the job done, but a sober one might. When I used to work for Dale (Earnhardt), I asked him what was the key to going fast at Daytona. He said, 'Are you holding it wide open?' I said, 'Yes sir.' He said, 'Are you holding it on the bottom in the corners?' I said, 'Yes sir.' He said, 'And you're holding it straight on the straightaways, right?' I said, 'Yes sir.' He said, 'Well, that's the key to going fast at Daytona.' I said, 'Thanks, I appreciate the tip.' From the Master of Daytona, the key to going fast is have a good race car. Again, I just want to thank Richard Childress and America Online and all of the guys that put this car together. This car actually had a body put on it, and it's the same car that they qualified on the pole with in the '500.' We're sweating in Daytona because it's so hot, but they sweated for the last month putting the body back on the race car again. So those are the unsung heroes. Those are the guys that you don't see on TV. They put the cars together, and put the engines together in the engine shop, and the mechanics that put the whole thing together. It's just a handful of us that get on the racetrack and go fast, and get on TV, and get a chance to go to the media center. So I just want to thank those guys back home. You might get sick of hearing it, but it's true. We just hold it wide open and try to go fast, and without a good car and a good engine, you can't do that." (WERE YOU ABLE TO BRING ANY OF THE SUCCESS FROM DEI TO RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING?) "I think they're called trade secrets and I don't think you're supposed to share them. But I'm not really that smart to share trade secrets from one team to another. We didn't run fast in the 1 car, so obviously we weren't getting the trade secrets. The 8 and the 15 always ran good and we didn't. I wouldn't share anything that I learned from there with RCR because we never ran worth beans in the 1 car. The 8 and the 15 had it figured out and we didn't. I just took my seat over to the guys at RCR and they're the ones responsible for having a good race car and us going fast here on a speedway." (HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE TEAMMATE THAT LEADS THE CHARGE?) "I don't know if I'm leading the charge or not. Kevin Harvick's a guy that I think we all look up to at RCR. He's just a great teammate. I went from one great teammate in Dale Jr. to another with Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon. The key to running good in Winston Cup today is having a multi-car team that works together as one team. We have that at RCR. The something that maybe we lacked at DEI was just working together as one unit, and then making all three cars capable of winning the race. I just had questions in my mind. We'd come to the speedway and the 8 and the 15 would run so good, and I couldn't understand why the 1 car didn't. And I guess they couldn't understand, so they made a driver change. I'm really happy that they did. I'm real happy to land where I landed. It's been a miserable year and a half, and now there's light at the end of the tunnel and I'm extremely happy where I am. Richard understands racing, and race cars, and sponsors, and everything else, and it's just great to have his leadership at the helm of a great ship that he's got in Winston Cup with great teammates like Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon. I'm just proud to be a part of it. We've all seen that RCR has run good on speedways and plate races before, and we all know Dale's record and what he was able to do in the past, so it doesn't surprise me that we ran so good. Our main focus is getting the America Online team to run in the top 10 where it needs to be. This team's brand new, and I never thought after five years that I would be back with a team as new as the America Online team, but we have a tremendous amount of potential to make this team a team that can run in the top 10 week in and week out." "Qualifying started at 8:00, so it definitely cooled off when it got to be nighttime. Guys that ran later like myself and Kevin, got the luck of the draw. It got cooler, and when it gets cooler you tend to run faster. At the speedways it's a double-edged sword. The air could get denser, it could mess with your tune on the engine, it could mess with the aerodynamics, so it's kind of a crapshoot. We rolled the dice on a gear that we thought would be good at 9:00 at night, and Kevin went with something that he thought would be good at night, and they were different. We turned the exact RPM that Richard wanted to see. I'm not really sure what Kevin turned, but that might have been the different between first and second. Just having an RCR front row is something we projected to do. We didn't want to run the same gear because if I was third, maybe the other gear would be first. We rolled the dice and got first and second, and I'm just real thankful for that. It goes back to being a team effort and the communication that goes through all three teams to make RCR a success." (CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE UNIQUE BLEND OF PERSONALITIES THAT IS NOW AT RCR?) "What's unique about the blend is now we all are about the same age, or pretty close. Richard's really good at spotting talent, and he does a great job of leadership to take a guy like Robby Gordon who's a great race-car driver and maybe needs to have a little bit of the edge taken off, and Richard's capable of doing that. And yet, you take Kevin Harvick, who sat out a race last year and maybe needed a little calming down, and Richard's the guy that can do that. You take a guy like myself who's been tossed around and tossed out, and then has been picked up by RCR, he's the guy that can give me the confidence back to win races. I mean, we've won races in the past, and we plan on winning in the future, and Richard's the guy that can do that. He just has a unique talent of spotting people that can drive race cars that might not have the whole package, and he can fine-tune them into the race-car driver that can win races. If you don't believe that, just look at what he did with Dale Earnhardt. Dale was one of those guys that was up on the wheel, and just wanted to win as soon as they dropped the green flag. They won numerous championships together and numerous races together, with a relationship that was so solid where Dale doesn't win races and Richard was he guy that could tell when Dale was getting excited and could calm him down and say, 'Hey listen, you've got a car that can win this race, let's just get it to the end of the race.' And that what they did and they won a lot of races. It's pretty unique to see when you have the leadership within that team, and a great team."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 1 PENNZOIL SYNTHETIC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We did run a good lap in practice, but we really haven't been where the 8 and the 15 are, as far as being out of the draft. We didn't run as good as we thought we would have. Saturday night will be the equalizer. The car drives really well, and if we can get it to drive half as good as it drives by itself in the race, I think we will be fine. We'll have to come from a long way back, but the draft makes a lot of things happen. A driver can start last and be leading within five laps here. I think this Pennzoil Synthetic Chevrolet will be fine on Saturday."