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NASCAR WCUP: Pontiac drivers talk about qualifying at Darlington

18 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 LYCOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"It's been a little bit of a long day. We picked up what we thought we were going to try to pick up in qualifying but we just don't know where it's going to put us at the end of the day. It's looking kind of grim now. If I had posted that time in practice it would have been around 14th quick. We're working hard and doing what we can. As long as we get in the race that is all that matters. Hopefully we'll have a pretty good race car."

DICK TRICKLE, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"The lap felt terrible. I thought I was going to drive the heck out of this thing. If I can't get it, I can't get it. We just didn't have enough time to get it together. We didn't have time to come testing and all that. But the guys are really working on it. We tried some stuff. We picked up like four tenths or something like that. It's a good team. They've got good equipment. I just wish I had a lot more time to iron things out with them. It's just a hurry-up deal. But I drove the heck out of it evidently. Even though it felt bad, there must have been some speed there." (ANY PRESSURE) "What pressure? Driving for A.J.? There ain't no pressure."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"This Home Depot Pontiac drove great today. We came and tested last week and I think it definitely paid off for us. That's about all we had. We weren't going to gain but a couple hundredths if we were going to gain any there, so I think that's about all we had. We seem to race better here than we qualify anyway typically, so getting a good starting spot let's us go out there and really race hard. So we're pretty happy with that." (ON RACING HERE) "Every five laps your car is driving so differently than it was the five laps before that. It's the kind of place where you have to stay up mentally with the racetrack. You have to keep in mind how hard you are pushing your tires, make sure you save them for the long run and not lean on them too early."

WARD BURTON, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"That was a good lap. This Caterpillar team did a great job for me today. They got the car a lot better than where we started this morning. I felt like I didn't hit everything just right. I left a little bit over there in turns three and four. We'd had a little problem with the nose shoving. I didn't want to mess the whole lap up. I waited just a little bit longer than I should of. I should have hustled the car a little bit more. But that is a pretty good lap for us." (CHALLENGE OF DARLINGTON) "You go in the corner as hard as you can and try to stay in between the bottom line and the wall. That's the main thing. But it's a neat place. It's a fun place to drive. You are racing the racetrack as well as your competitors every moment. If you forget that at any moment you can get in a wreck pretty fast."

JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 43 STP/CHEERIOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"That was better than we've all day. I got in real, real hard into three and I lost a bunch of time in the middle of three and four. But I always lose a bunch of time in the middle of three and four. It would have been probably 15 hundredths better if I hadn't done that. But I was up running the 'cushion' and stock car don't like the cushion. That's not going to real good but it's a whole lot better than we practiced. I'm going to take it and be real happy with it because I lost all that time through three and four. It stuck really good everywhere else. I love coming here. You know Jeff Burton shows us all how to get around here. I just wish he'd show his buddy John."

DAVE BLANEY, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We're pretty tickled with that. We got better each run.. My second run in practice was much better than my first and that was much better than my second. This is pretty much a confidence track on new tires in qualifying on new tires. We're just building up to it." (DARLINGTON AS A DRIVER'S RACETRACK) "I like them. But that's where experience comes in and that's where we're hurting too. But I do like it. It's just more of a challenge. This place is definitely a huge, huge challenge to run all day. We ran real good here in the fall in the Busch car. We ran second. I learned a lot in that race. I got to race with Mark (Martin) most all day and I learned a lot. I hope we can take a little bit of that for this week."

JEFF FULLER, NO. 27 VIAGRA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We got through turns one and two real good. But I think I left some there in three and four. I don't know why we didn't feel all that good. It was a decent lap. I just felt like I left something down there in turn four. I either should have been back into it quicker or something. I haven't figured it out yet, but I will think about it. At least we're going to be in first day and that makes us happy."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We picked up a little bit from practice but some other guys picked up a little more. I just didn't get as good a lap as I wanted to. I didn't get the marks just right. But a little bit here is a lot. You don't want to get up in the wall. I just wanted to get a good solid lap in. We wanted to be faster than that, but that is a good lap for us."

Text provided by Al Larsen

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