NASCAR WCUP: Driver quotes, Talladega qualifying
15 April 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
WARD BURTON, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN) "Pretty uneventful. It was pretty easy. It's all car. This has nothing to do with the driver here. The team did a good job for me. They've been doing a good job for me all year. Hopefully that will get us in the top 10 and get a good starting spot." (QUALIFYING LAP SIMILAR TO PRACTICE?) "That was pretty close. It was a little bit slower than what we ran in practice, but it was pretty close." (ADDED PRESSURE IN A SHORTENED PRACTICE?) "Everybody is in the same boat. As long as everybody is in the same boat, then it's not big deal."
DAVE BLANEY, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"That's about where we practiced. This morning it put us in about the middle of the pack and I would say it will put us in the middle of the pack for qualifying. That's about what it had. We had some stuff on there that made it ride about as harsh as we could stand. I just hope it gets us in the field. It doesn't seem to much matter where you start (here), just so you get that thing driving good."
JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 LYCOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"We ran a little quicker in practice. But we'll see where that ends up. Hopefully that will make the top 20. If we make the top 20 we'll be pretty happy. All-in-all, we're real excited about how the Lycos Pontiac is going to run. Hopefully it will end up OK." (ADDED PRESSURE IN A RAIN-SHORTENED PRACTICE?) "You really only get four runs here anyway and we got half that. We really hoped to have gotten a little bit more. But the way the weather has been, and getting through tech has been a little bit tough today. So we got our two runs and like I say, if that makes first day we'll be real happy with it." (TECH INSPECTION BEING TOUGH TODAY) "With it raining they always find a lot of extra stuff for us guys to do. That's just how it's been working. All of a sudden, it cleared up and it put everybody in a little bit of a panic."
MIKE BLISS, NO. 27 VIAGRA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"We guessed on the gear. We didn't have a chance to try a gear this morning. We really didn't have a chance to do anything, just like everyone else. We put a little more gear in this motor and it helped us. It definitely helped us. But we still don't know what we should have done. But I think that will be good for the race. This '27' bunch of guys have really built a hell of a car here." (HIS GOAL FOR THIS WEEKEND) "To see that checkered flag. At Daytona I finished. It's just tough. You need to learn to respect this racetrack and respect the other guys out there, and just see that checkered flag." (RACING AS A ROOKIE HERE) "It will still scare people. It would me, too. It's just a case where I'm just going to have to stay up on the high side probably all day and run around the racetrack. But now I know what to expect from Daytona, so I think it will help just knowing that I'm going to left out on the bottom by myself or up high by myself. At least this time I can think ahead."
RICK MAST, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"We were way out when we got here and unloaded. The guys worked all night and found some horsepower in the engine and we changed it this morning. That helped some. But in practice we were very slow. The guys changed a lot of stuff on the car. That's probably three or four tenths quicker than we practiced, but we're still seven or eight tenths off where we need to be. But we've got tonight and tomorrow yet to work on it."
JOHN ANDRETTI, NO. 43 STP/CHEERIOS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON PRACTICE BEING SHORTER DUE TO RAIN) "It hurt us because we can't afford to test at a place like this. There is no driver input at a place like this so it's a waste of a test for us because we're not in a position to burn up tests here. It's frustrating because you get two runs in practice and if you don't run good, you don't run good. There is zero driver input for qualifying on a restrictor plate track. All you do is put your foot in the throttle and it either goes or it doesn't go."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"They said it sounded like it lost a cylinder. But with the ear plugs we wear and the restrictor plates, they sound terrible even when they run good. But evidently this sounded a little worse than what they normally do. We were pretty decent in practice. I thought if we could at least back it up and maybe get a little quicker than what we were that we might have a top 10. But I don't know what happened to it. It's uncharacteristic for this team to have engine problems, but we've had two or three this year. I think it's just a string of bad luck we're having. We haven't qualified very good for the last four races in a row now. The good thing is we're racing pretty good. We'll just get it ready for Sunday. I don't think it really matters where you start here. (Dale) Earnhardt could start two laps down and still win the race, so I don't think it matters where we start."
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"It's a shame. I thought we had a good car to qualify in the top 10 maybe. But it just didn't work out for the 'night-time qualifying' here. It's just one of those deals. Fortunately it's just a starting spot and not a finishing spot for us right now. It just seemed like we lost some power there going into turn three on the first lap. For whatever reason it did it on both cars (18 and 20). We'll just have to go back and look at it. I think we've got a good race car, but who knows and who cares until we get out there. Right now, our team will work real hard to get another motor in it and we'll see what we've got tomorrow."
KYLE PETTY, NO. 44 HOT WHEELS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"That really, really good. We struggled a little bit at Daytona. But these guys went back and worked really, really hard on this car. The guys in the motor room have worked incredibly hard over the past three or four weeks to get a bunch of stuff ready. To come here and run what we ran - this is about what we tested over the winter with the other (bigger restrictor) plate with our other stuff. So I think they have picked up the car program and they've picked up the engine program. These guys made it easy. All we had to do was drive."
Text provided by Al Larsen
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