GM RACING NASCAR NOTES & QUOTES--BASS PRO SHOPS MBNA 500 QUALIFYING

 

WARD BURTON, NO. 0 NETZERO HISPEED PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Qualified 29th: "I didn't do a very good job. We were having problems getting the nose to turn, We made a lot of progress in the daylight, but the track changed here at night. It's kind of difficult to judge on. We were about a top-15 car in the daylight, but we don't have that now." THIS IS A HOMECOMING OF SORTS FOR YOU, BACK TO PONTIAC, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? "I'm real happy and excited to be with Pontiac and this race team."

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Qualified 9th: "We didn't really know what to expect, and unfortunately, I think I could have been a little faster. We made such big changes from practice to qualifying and you try to commit at 100 percent, but somehow, you maybe didn't get all that you should. But this is a great improvement for this Lowe's Chevrolet team. Hopefully, this will be a top-10 or top-15 start for us."

 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Qualified 10th: "I lifted a little too much. The GM Goodwrench car has been really good since we unloaded it, and it drove really good. The driver just didn't get everything out of it that he should have. It was still a good lap for the GM Goodwrench Chevrolet and we just have to get our race setup together. As long as we can see him, we'll be fine."

 

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Qualified 8th: "I didn't think my lap was that good. I got a little bit loose in Turns 1 and 2 and then coming up off the corner, it started turning sideways so I had to let off and that killed my back straightaway. I did pretty good the first lap through 3 and 4 and made up some time. This whole U.S. Army Pontiac team is working really hard and I'm just proud to represent them." YOU HAVE A G.I. JOE DOLL IN THE CAR WITH YOU. DID HE ENJOY THE RIDE? "That's actually my G.I. Joe from when I was four or five years old. It's pretty cool to be representing the Army is incredible. It's one of our oldest institutions and I have definitely got the oldest sponsor in the country. Ryan Pemberton and this whole group of guys have worked so hard and they've been through a lot this year. I'm just proud to have a good run for them."

 

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Qualified 2nd: "We went as fast as we could tonight, which was really good. We're second right now, and we might end up there, we might not. All in all, it was a victory. I've started 39th and was terrible in qualifying and came back and ran really well and won the race. I qualified fourth here last time, so it's a whole lot easier to start from the front here than it is from the back." MORE LABONTE TO FOLLOW

 

KEVIN LEPAGE, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Qualified 12th: "I was very happy with all the guys on the Kodak Pontiac team tonight. This is the same Kodak Pontiac we ran at Charlotte and the guys did a little work to the engine. We thought we had a shot at a top-5 but in our predicament, we decided to go with what we could and we ended up 7th after our run. We'll still be in the top 15, and a top-15 effort for this ream.I'm just happy to be here." YOU'VE HAD A RESURGENCE LATELY, QUALIFYING VERY WELL. ARE THE RACE RESULTS FAR BEHIND? "The finishes haven't shown what we are capable of doing. We ran 15th at Darlington our first time together, we were in the top 15 at Dover and had a tire problem and lost two laps. We had to come in, lost two laps and never lost another on the track. Finished 21st at Charlotte, and we had a small brake caliper part go bad at Martinsville. It's just little things that have been biting us, but it's nobody's fault. The results after the track is what we're working on for the future. Being here is a testament to not burning bridges; I was here a couple of years ago and left happy and I'm glad to be back."

 

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: Qualified 26th: "The Tide Pontiac was just too tight tonight. We picked up from practice a little bit, which was good, but we'll put the race setup on it and get it ready for Sunday."

 

JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Qualified 11th: "The Pennzoil Chevy was really good. The guys have done a great job. I feel better about it than where we were in practice. Last week in Martinsville we had a killer car in the race. If we can get this car anywhere near what we had last week, we'll be good."

 

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 UAW DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: Qualified 4th in his Winston Cup debut: "I can't say enough for this entire UAW-Delphi team, and for Ricky, Rick, and Papa Joe for giving me this opportunity. It's been awesome. I talked with Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) right before we went out. We have a very similar setup and that helped me a lot to listen to their comments after they qualified." DID YOU REALIZE HOW FAST THIS PLACE WAS BEFORE YOU GOT IN THE CAR?  DID THEY TELL YOU AHEAD OF TIME? "No, they didn't. The main thing was to go out there, hold your line, and cross your fingers. It's an awesome track. I'm glad to be here at Atlanta."

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "That was pretty good. The car was good enough to get the pole, but the driver needs some more experience. We'll know better next time. But the car was good. Ryan's time was tough to beat. That was a fast lap. Those guys have certainly proved they can win a pole. We'll get a good start. We won't have to come from the back this time."

 

POST QUALFIYING PRESS CONFERENCE:

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Qualified 3rd: "We weren't real great in practice and I knew the late draw would be a benefit to us. The track has a lot of grip. If I'd have really known what to expect, I might have been able to run a tenth or so quicker. But I drove down in there and bottomed out a little bit and pushed up in (turn) one. I cut the car back to the bottom and lost a little bit of time on the exit of (turn) two. Turns 3 and 4 were good."

 

HOW MUCH DO THE TIRES GET USED UP HERE? "The track doesn't really eat tires up that bad. It's not quite as bad as most places. The handling of the car changes throughout the day quite a bit. There are so many opportunities and differences in the corners and the way you can enter and exit the corner. That's what I love about this place is the fact that you can move around when your car's not quite working as well. In one place, you've got all kinds of other places to run on the race track to try to change how your car is working. Normally though, you've got one guy who is blistering the field and you can get lapped really easily here. 

 

"But it's a beautiful race track. The one thing about going to fast in qualifying is that you know you don't have to do that all the time tomorrow. The times will fall off quite a bit. You'll lose a good second-and-a-half in the tire run tomorrow. In the race, you'll probably lose a good two-and-a-half seconds in the tire run in the race Sunday.  That's cool. At the end of the tire run, you don't feel like you're really going quite that fast and you've got all kinds of things you want to do to the car to try to make it go quicker.  I look forward to trying to run up front.  In the spring, we took a provisional. So we've made some big improvements in our qualifying and I'm looking forward to the race on Sunday. We need to get a win."

 

BOBBY LABONTE POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE: 

 

WAS THAT PRETTY MUCH ALL YOU HAD? "That was about it. We had what I thought was a good car in practice. It felt really good and on our lap there we just had an awesome lap. That was as fast as we could go. That's a good starting spot for us and I'm really excited about that. The car handled really good and hopefully that's a good key for us for tomorrow."

 

IS THE TRACK GETTING TIGHTER? "Probably the answer to that would be, I don't think so. I think we had great grip toward the end of the draw. Being later in the draw was probably better because the track was cooler and had a lot of grip. I'm sure it had a lot of grip at 7:05 p.m., but it had more later. It wasn't that the track got tighter. Both ends of the track just had more grip, and that's the biggest thing that happened."

 

COULD YOU HAVE SQUEEZED ANY MORE OUT OF IT? "I squeezed the lap just a little bit, but I don't know that I could have gone any faster. If I had to do it over again, I'd try something, but I can't guarantee it's going to go any faster. I didn't bottom out, I thought my line was pretty clean, I didn't slip up any. If I was out of the gas any it was just for a skosh, so I don't know that with what I have right now that I could go any faster. If I tried, I might go slower."

 

HOIW FRUSTRATING IS IT TO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE WIN THE POLE EVERY TIME? "I don't think it's that frustrating. We're getting close and we've won our share of poles this year too. I don't think it's frustrating for the same guy to do it. I think it's OK in a lot of ways because that means their team really has their act together on qualifying, they're really good on racing and that gives you an incentive to go toward and hopefully that's what you want to do. If there were as many pole winners as races, it would be sort of a crapshoot. That's OK. I don't mind that. You're always looking for that guy, in Ryan's case, you're always looking at him as the guy to beat and you focus on that and try to make sure that you are able to do that. If it was different people every weekend, you wouldn't have that. You might be hit or miss maybe."

 

WHAT ABOUT THIS TRACK MAKES YOU SO TOUGH TO BEAT HERE? "I have no idea. It's just been a good track for me. I go way back to 1982 when I ran here for the first time in a Daytona Dash car. I finished third in the first Dash race I ever ran, I beat Larry Pearson and Michael Waltrip and the throttle hung wide open. Maybe that's what got me over the hump, I don't know. That's all I can say. I have no idea."

 

HOW MUCH SPEED CAN THIS TRACK HANDLE? "I think this track can handle that, because the fact that after 10 laps tomorrow we're going to be a lot slower. In the morning practice we'll be a lot slower and it's going to get slower yet because the grip on the tire gives up, our fenders are going to be out and we're going to have a lot more drag on it, the grille's going to be open and then it's going to get slower and slower. Plus, we've seen it in the past, you can run high or low or in the middle or all three at the same time in the same corner. The speeds are always fast here. At the end of the day, you're like, 'man, that was a fast race.' You're always going fast, but you can still race well here to where the speeds aren't as bad because you have multiple grooves."

 

PEOPLE TALK ABOUT SCARY LAPS. IS IT REALLY THAT FAST HERE? "If you go by the laps that Junior and I ran, I don't think you can get scared at that time. It's when you screw up and run a slow lap, that's when you get the 'oh, that took my breath away' feeling. To go that fast, our cars couldn't be too bad. They were pretty much right on. I remember the night race here a few years ago because it rained all day. We fell out before the night came and I had never got to run here at night. It was kind of cool. It feels fast. This track is really good for sensation of speed and at night it was just a lot more. I hope everybody liked it."