Nemechek Wins Kansas Pole - Oct. 8

     
CHEVROLET NOTES & QUOTES

NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

BANQUET 400 - QUALIFYING

KANSAS SPEEDWAY

October 8, 2004

 

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO - Bud Pole Winner:  POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

(TAKE US THROUGH YOUR QUALIFYING SESSION) "We've got a lot of momentum from last week. This isn't really my favorite car, but it could be. They're building so many of them that are so close to being identical. We're getting a full stable of cars that I think are awesome - aerodynamically, chassis-wise, and we're getting killer motors from Hendrick Motorsports. It just takes a whole package. We just keep learning. It seems like we do a really good job and then we'll miss it just a little bit. We'll figure out what we did wrong and then when we go back to that race track, we start running good again.  Our speedway program has been awesome. It's all about car and motor and aerodynamics. We were fortunate we got the pole. This week, we've got to have the whole combination and the driver's got to be on top. I hit my marks perfectly. The car stuck just like it needed to stick. I went really fast. I gave a little bit away in Turns 3 and 4 and didn't quite get into the corner like I wanted to. My exit speed was incredible and we got the pole."

 

(TALK ABOUT COMING TO A TOTALLY DIFFERENT TRACK AND WINNING ANOTHER POLE) "It's totally different - not having a lot of banking. What's really surprising is how fast the race track is. It's pretty incredible. For not having as much banking, we're fast. This morning, it was incredibly fast when it was cool. The sun came out. We had the odds going in our favor when we qualified. We finally got a draw toward the back. Normally we draw up in the front all the time, which is good at Indy, but not good everywhere else. Today the draw was in our favor and we went out toward the end. The track was cooling off a little bit. What's neat about coming here to Kansas is when we unloaded, we were fast right off the truck. We were at the top of the board for the majority of practice. I think we ended up 6th in practice. We were good. When your cars drive good, they're easier to get."

 

(TALK ABOUT YOUR TEAM GETTING ON A ROLL DURING THE LAST PORTION OF THE SEASON) "The team has done good. It's unfortunate we didn't make the Chase. But I feel I've got a team good enough to do that. We had so many problems with parts and pieces this year. 

 

"We didn't run good enough consistently to get in the Chase. But we're learning a lot this year that hopefully will apply next year. Here at the end of the year, things are just starting to go our way. We haven't changed a lot of the way we've done things. The guys keep working on the cars and they spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel."

 

(ARE YOU GETTING THE BENEFIT OF A MULTI-CAR TEAM? ARE YOU AND THE NO. 10 CAR SHARING?) "Yes. We have access to everything. Scott Riggs came up here. He was different than we were in qualifying. They came up here with a package that they've had some success with. We hadn't applied that same package to my car yet.  We've been more conventional and we've had success with it. Tomorrow, that's one of my objectives to try some stuff that he's tested with up here."