Chevy NexCup Qualifying Notes - Darlington, Mar. 19

       

CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES 

CAROLINA DODGE DEALERS 400 QUALIFYING NOTES

DARLINGTON RACEWAY

March 19, 2004

 

SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO -qualified 27th:

"There are definitely a lot of learning curves here besides the wall being a little bit different and taking away a little bit of the race track and the tires being a little different and the cars being a little bit different. I think all of us are trying to learn as hard as we can on the Valvoline Chevrolet. I tell you, if I could have just put lap one and two and put piece of those together, I would have had a good lap there. I just couldn't get what I needed to get on the first lap through Turns 1 and 2. We really did a good job on the second lap, but it was too little, too late."

 

HOW MUCH PRESSURE IS PUT ON ALL THE ROOKIES WHEN THEY ENTER INTO THE CUP SERIES?

"There are a lot of great rookies in the series this year and we're all fighting for that Raybestos Rookie Challenge and trying to get that award. I guess I put a lot of pressure on myself because I want to perform and besides, I'm pretty competitive. I probably put more pressure on myself than anybody else could."

 

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 12th: 

"We ran some race practice this morning and not too much qualifying-type of runs. I got through Turns 1 and 2 as good as I thought I could  -- as good as I did in my practice run. In Turns 3 and 4, I might have screwed up a little bit. That would be my fault. I might have run out of talent. Other than that, it was a good lap for us. Again, these guys did a good job. We struggled last weekend, so it was good to come back here and have a good practice and a good qualifying run so far."

 

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - qualified 36th: 

"Well, we'll just have to do like we did last year. We started 31st last year and that didn't prevent us from winning. This Tide team has been behind me for over three years. But it looks like we're going to start back there again and work our way to the front."

 

HOW OFTEN DO YOU RE-LIVE THAT WINNING DAY HERE LAST MARCH?

"I really enjoyed it. I appreciate the fans here in Darlington and what this race track represents and means to the sport. The problem is the world we live in here is about next week. Every week, it's about the next race. I haven't been able to think a lot about it lately, but I'll be telling that story for many years and we'll always win by .002 seconds and really appreciate that."

 

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVRLET MONTE CARLO - qualified 2nd: 

"I was real happy with my race car today.  Tony Jr. and the Budweiser team gave me a great handling car. That was a pretty good lap. I'm pretty happy with it. I'd like to try it again. I think I could have beat it. But the car was great. I gave up just a little bit as a driver, but the car was awesome." 

 

ON BOUNCING BACK AT ATLANTA LAST WEEK FROM A POOR PERFORMANCE IN LAS VEGAS

"It was fun to win at Atlanta. I've always really liked that race track. It's been one of those tracks like Darlington that's been a cornerstone of this sport for so many years so it felt great to get a win there. It shows just how mature we are as a team to bounce back and get such a great run. Hopefully we can keep it going again this weekend." More to follow

 

 

JOHNNY SAUTER, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLT MONTE CARLO - qualified 24th: 

"Darlington is a pretty dirty race track. It was a little dirtier than it has been in the past and I just missed pit road, plain and simple. If I was smarter, I would have just taken the second lap and just rode around the bottom and coasted around, but I didn't. I thought I could get it in. Obviously, the race track was dirty. It didn't do too much damage to the AOL Chevrolet. These guys have already pretty much got it fixed. We'll race this car on Sunday."

 

WHAT DID YOUR OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS, SAY TO YOU?

"He said it was all right. The best of the best have missed pit road here. Dale Earnhardt did it twice in one day and actually did it back to back. It's just one of those things I'll have to be conscious of on Sunday. I'm glad I got it out of the way today."

 

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - takes a provisional start:

"Well, I got into Turn 1 a little bit aggressively. I knew that's what I had to do to qualify but it just didn't stick. The back end of the car came out and I got into the wall. It didn't hit it very hard. The guys will fix it up and we'll be ready for tomorrow.

 

"A year ago here, we started in a back-up car with no practice and basically started last. We got all the way up to fifth. So, we'll be all right."

 

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - qualified 9th:

"That was a great lap. I've just been wall-happy here lately and this is not a good place to be wall-happy. But hopefully we got it out of the way early. It was a great lap. Where I brushed the wall didn't really slow me down or anything. But I was doing everything I could to stay out of it much earlier than that. For the whole lap, I was basically sideways. But you're just digging so hard, you're trying to get everything you have. But I was quite loose the whole time. We've been tight all day and we certainly fixed that. The car was pretty free. We were just doing everything we could to get that thing back here in one piece. I'm glad it was a good lap."

 

ON HIS SUCCESS AT DARLINGTON

"I've just become fond of the race track and this track has been good to me. The guys have put amazing race cars out there on the race track for us and put us in position late in the race to pull off victories. I think you really have to respect this track. You have to be patient with it. You have to know when to go and when to conserve. We've done a good job with that over the years."

 

ON THE SEASON THUS FAR:

"Points-wise, we're in good shape. But I don't even think we've even come close to our full potential yet. I think this race team is really going to shine. I don't know when, but I think it's coming. We've got to improve a little bit on our performance. We need a few breaks to go our way and we can battle for wins."

 

ON THE SAFER WALLS AND THE SET-UP FOR THE CAR ON SUNDAY

"Well, it's certainly already affecting the bodywork on the right side (laughs). That 30 inches that the soft wall picks up on the track is really quite a bit here at Darlington and you already run right up against the wall here. I'm happy to see soft walls at these race tracks, I just wish we could do it without losing 30 inches on the race track. But it will make for a very interesting Sunday for passing and side-by-side racing."

 

 

POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE WITH DALE EARNHARDT JR:

"We got here today and thanks to NASCAR, we had four sets of tires instead of three. We were able to do some race runs and get acclimated to the race track. We ran a lot of laps. When we went into qualifying trim, I'd already had quite a few laps on the car and I felt comfortable. The car was real quick right away. Tony Jr. had put a great set-up under the car and I was able to drive the car around the track with relative comfort. That was good. It was nowhere near as fast as Kasey (Kahne) here. I was happy with how we continued to improve here at Darlington."

 

HAS YOUR ATTITUDE AND TEAM CONFIDENCE TURNED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

"I feel pretty confident. We went to Texas and had a pretty decent test there. I look forward to those races more so than I did. A lot of the concern that I had leaving Vegas has left. We still need to test at tracks similar to Vegas - high entry-cornered tracks and I'm looking forward to that. This is just a qualifying effort and not really a reflection of how good or bad this team is. We've still got to keep working one day at a time and keep focusing on how the car handles and drives and not really be thinking about anything other than that."

 

ON THE FIRST FEW LAPS WITH THE CAR RIGHT OFF THE TRUCK

"That's really the true moment when you find out what kind of car you have for the weekend are those first few laps on the race track, even in qualifying trim. Rarely, if you've been way off in qualifying trim, have you put the car up front in the race. We've been able to do that just a few times. It sets the tone for the weekend. If your car is good and comfortable, you start off with that foundation to build on, it's relatively easy the rest of the weekend to continue to be that good and to work with the car and try to tweak on it and improve it. But if, after those first few laps, you've got a long way to go, you realize how far you are and it makes for a long weekend and a difficult week. We try to minimize those as much as we can by testing as often as possible."

 

ON THE SAFER BARRIERS

"I was as concerned as anybody else. I feel like there was a lot of concern as to how different the track was going to be. We came out here last night and rode around the track in the golf cart a little bit and it looks like they took a lot of race track away. But when you get out there in a car, it doesn't feel any different. 

 

      

"I can't really tell one difference in driving the track if I'm not doing anything differently than I would be before except that I'm doing it 60 inches smaller than I was before. It doesn't drive any different. I'm not having to turn sharper or do anything strange that's uncomfortable or not normal to me. I'm pretty happy about that, actually. The track is in decent shape. There are a lot of patches that are rough and that make for a rough ride, but overall the car seems to stick to the track real good."

 

HOW IS THE RACE GOING TO BE ON SUNDAY WITH THE SAFER BARRIERS AND WHEN THE TIRES START TO WEAR?

"I think everybody here knows what my opinion of this place has been over the years. I feel like the racing tomorrow and Sunday won't be any different than it's been here in the past.  We don't run side-by-side here any more than we have to. We weren't running through those corners side-by-side before. I don't think you'll see more or less of it. You go into Turn 3 with two choices: the top or the bottom. Turn 1 is still basically one choice. The track is not a whole lot different. That 30 inches of race track is noticeable, but it doesn't change anything."

 

ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT TIRE RUBBER UP NEAR THE TOP?

"Well, yeah. When you mention that, this is what comes to mind for me. It might not be what some of the other drivers are talking about. Where we run right up against the wall in Turns 1 and 2, we'll keep that clean (by) just running there. It shouldn't be a problem. Where it's going to be a problem is off of Turn 2 as we start to come back off the wall down across the bottom of the race track and then back up to the top. In that pocket there, if you well, that's where the particles will start to gather. 

 

"With this new tire and this type of rubber, it seems to be more of a powder. When it wears off and flies up onto the hood it's more of a powder than actual marbles. When you run through that, it's really slick. So when a guy steps out of the groove, he's going to have to let up quite a bit and check up quite a bit. If he doesn't get run over and doesn't get into the wall, he'll be real lucky. But I think we'll keep it just as clean and race-able as we have in the past except for the dust/ash instead of the marbles we used to have."

 

      

IS THIS THE SAME TYPE OF POWDER YOU SAW IN LAS VEGAS?

"Yes. It's really funny. If you ever mess with radio-controlled cars and they have foam tires, if you balled it up it's more like foam than a hard marble. It's pretty interesting. That tells you there is a huge difference, maybe not in the compound or the hardness of the compound, but the type of rubber being used today on these new tires."

 

ON DERRICK COPE QUALIFYING WELL TODAY?

"I was surprised, just like everybody else. But I saw him run last week and he was competitive with a lot of people. When that team was being put together last year and during the off-season, people looked at that team as though they were a field filler. Last week was my initial noticing of him running competitively. They're really coming to the race track with a legitimate effort to run competitively. It's pretty cool. They are like an out-of-the-box team that's pretty competitive. It's a concrete team. Good job for those guys and good job for Derrick Cope in coming back into the sport and being competitive with all the things that have changed over the past few years."

 

ARE YOU SURPRISED WITH THE WAY KASEY KAHNE IS STARTING THE SEASON?

"No, not really. Kasey is a great race car driver. He compares to Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. But that's kind of his background. Those drivers seem to come into this sport and do well right off the bat. Obviously, he's gotten into a great race car and a great race team and a great race team owner in Ray Evernham. He has a pretty good clean path cut for him as far as competitive equipment goes. That counts for a lot. If you put a guy in those cars who can get the job done, they're going to run up front. That's what they've done. Kasey is a good enough driver and they've got a great combination."