Chevy Notes - All-Star Qualfiying, May 21

    
CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES 

ALL STAR CHALLENGE QUALIFYING NOTES

LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY

May 21, 2004 

 

NEXTEL OPEN QUALIFYING:

JIMMY SPENCER, NO. 4 MORGAN-MCCLURE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I really lost a bunch of time over there (Turn 1) and I ran a second lap which was actually faster. But that's pretty good. I think that'll give us a top five. We can seem them now. We're going to have us a race tomorrow night."

 

(WHAT WOULD A WIN HERE TOMORROW NIGHT DO TO THE MORALE OF THIS TEAM?) "I think a good run is what we're expecting out of this. That's what we're working for. Hopefully all the hard work is starting to pay off. We're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. The motors have gotten a lot better. Our aero package is pretty good. This is a whole different car. They rebuilt a different type of car that I'm used to. All the fab guys did a great job on it. I've never in my life seen a more determined person than Larry McClure. I thought I was determined, but he's a determined man. We're going to make this team proud and the fans that support us proud too."

 

SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We're not satisfied with it by any means.  We struggled here all day today being a little free on the track, getting in the corner and through the center and off.  Since it's so free, we made some pretty big changes right there before qualifying and tried to get the car tightened up so I could really hustle it and drive it in the corner pretty hard.  It was a lot better.  It was six tenths better than we've been all day.  Definitely a lot better car.  It was a lot more stable.  We still need to be tighter getting in the corner."

 

(HOW IMPORTANT IS STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW?) "We don't have any strategy.  We're just all out, full throttle, hammer down, 30 laps, run 20 laps, have a caution, maybe we'll pit, maybe we won't.  We're just going to try to race our way in and see how good our car is and keep adjusting on it.  If we can't win it tomorrow 

night and get in the All Star race we'll take these notes home and see if we can make sure we come back here next week with the points and improve on that."

 

JOHNNY SAUTER, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"Actually I thought that I cut a pretty good lap.  Fortunately the AOL Chevy is a lot better than I thought.  We were really tight this morning in practice.   We made some adjustments and found something that we overlooked.  I'm disappointed in myself.  We probably could have had a little more out of it.  Never the less, it will be a good start for us.  We'll race our tail off tomorrow." (HOW AGGRESSIVE WILL YOU BE IN THE OPEN?)  "It's like short track racing up in the Wisconsin area.  We definitely can be doing things we normally wouldn't do.  I'm looking forward to it.  I love this kind of thing.  Hopefully we can put that AOL Chevy in the All Star Challenge and put on a good show."

 

KERRY EARNHARDT, NO. 33 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: 

"I'm very pleased.  That's the fastest we've ran since our test and all during practice this morning.  It just shows what kind of work all the folks at RCR do putting this all together and using their heads.  We picked up a bunch." (HOW COOL WOULD IT BE TO BE IN THIS RACE TOMORROW NIGHT?) "No one knows how cool it would be to do that with an organization RCR and to race with Dale Jr. again. Hopefully we'll get back up front there at the end and run up front like we did at Talladega."

 

WARD BURTON, NO. 0 NETZERO CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "We want to learn a lot about our race set-up regardless of what happens tomorrow so we can come back the following week and run good in the 600. I can't run any harder than I run every time I get in the car. There's nothing left. So I'm going to run the same way I run every weekend. 

 

ALL-STAR CHALLENGE QUALIFYING:

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (ON HIS 20-SECOND PENALTY FOR ENTERING PIT ROAD TOO FAST) "It hurts us a lot. But it's the name of the game. I tried to stretch it out probably a little bit too far. We paid the penalties. But it was an improvement over practice and how it relates to tomorrow night and next week. I'm encouraged by some of the improvements but obviously not encouraged by the penalty.  This is really cool though.  Three laps and throw a pit stop in there and don't speed on pit road."

 

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The car drove really good and the guys had a good pit stop. This deal is tough. We don't get a chance to do this but once a year. This is actually the first time all of us did it right. We had two pretty decent laps and they guys had a decent pit stop so we're pretty excited." 

 

(HOW NERVE-WRACKING IS IT TO KNOW HOW MUCH ATTENTION NASCAR IS PAYING TO SPEED LIMITS ON PIT ROAD?)  "If they just did that during race weekend (laughs), but no. They do a good job. It's a lot easier when there is just one car coming down. It's hard when there are 43 of us coming down pit lane. It's good. It makes this a really fair event. It makes it tough. The hardest part for the drivers is just getting down on pit lane without making a mistake and costing us 20 seconds. We know they're watching when we get to those cones down there. It's just a matter of getting slowed down on time.  I think this car is going to race really well. We tested here a couple of weeks ago and it was really good."

 

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Had a 20 second penalty: "It kind of messes everything up. The team has worked so hard to give me good cars here. We've got a different car (back-up). We didn't get to make any laps with it. It has a different tachometer and a different rear-end gear ratio and 

     

we're trying to calculate all this stuff. I think we got it pretty close. But I locked the brakes up a little bit getting on pit road and I had to let off or it was going to spin around. I think they (NASCAR) caught me right there on initial entry. But this whole U.S. Army team is working hard. It's going to be good for tomorrow night."

 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SNAP-ON GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET: "It was a good lap for the Goodwrench Chevrolet.  I think I lost a little bit getting in on pit road. I just kind of wheel-hopped the car a little bit.  It doesn't take much to screw it up. But you've just got to go for it and put it out on the line. We had a good pit stop and two really good laps on the race track. So I probably just lost a little bit there and spun the tires too much getting off."

 

(WERE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT SPEEDING ON PIT LANE?) "Yeah, that was the last thing they told me.  They said to watch my speed on pit road. It might have been that I was just a little bit too conservative on pit road and then just a little bit too aggressive getting off pit road. It just takes one or two mistakes and you're not going to get it."

 

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I felt like I was going a little fast on pit road but at that point you can't really slow the car down.  You got to take that chance.  You've got to get the pole and nothing really matters.   You've got to throw it all out there and we did.  I made a mistake.  My guys had a great shot.  That's real encouraging for them.  The driver make mistake.  We got a long way to go to win the Challenge.  It should be pretty exciting."

 

(ON HIS CHANCES AND ON BEING A FAN FAVORITE) "I'm glad.  It's a fun race but we'll just have to see how it goes.   I don't know how good my car is.  We don't have any practice for this race so it's tough to see how this car is."