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NASCAR WCUP: Driver Notes and Quotes, Bristol Qualifying, goracing.com 500

26 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

KYLE PETTY, NO. 44 HOT WHEELS PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We got a better lap than what we've run the whole time. I think these guys have worked really hard, and like I said yesterday, I feel like I've let them down in a lot of ways. But Chris (Hussey) came over and helped us this morning. Fred (Graves) is at the truck race and doing some stuff, so we're kind of on our own this weekend. But hopefully we'll have a decent weekend.

"But we got a good lap. I don't think I can go any faster than that. I don't care what anybody else does.

(WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO LINE UP AND RUN TOMORROW NIGHT?) "For us to run our last race and to make the last race, it would be big because we haven't made a race in the last three or four. We've got to get going again."

KEN SCHRADER, NO. 36 M&M'S PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"That's not going to be too bad. As you know, we've struggled all year in qualifying. But that got us on the front side and we'll have to take that as a good solid run. The M&M's car was solid from the time we unloaded."

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

"We went faster, but I wasn't real happy with how much we picked up. I would have liked to have picked up another tenth on top of that. But the guys did a great job. The weather was kind of playing games with us there when it rained. You don't know how much the track has cooled off and how it's going to affect the car. But I feel like the guys did a good job. I just feel like I left a little bit out there."

(IS RUNNING RIGHT ON THE BOTTOM THE KEY BOTH TODAY AND TOMORROW?) "It normally is. If you're running up the racetrack, normally your car is too tight. Our car stayed down there in qualifying and I'm sure it will stay down there in the race, too."

(WAS IT AN EVENTFUL LAP?) "It was uneventful. An eventful lap usually leads to you rolling your back-up car off the truck. We would like to have seen the speed be a little bit quicker. We thought I'd gain a little more time than what we did. But it gets us up toward the front and that is all we really cared about today."

WARD BURTON, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"This is a little bit different type of the car than we brought here last time. We made a lot of progress with the first set of tires. We ran about our fastest lap on the 18th lap, so we felt like when we bolted on new tires we'd pick up two or three tenths. But when we bolted on new tires we got real loose. We made a change or two, and just made another one, but the car was still extremely loose. I feel blessed that we are sitting here near the top 15."

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

"That was real loose. We hadn't been loose all day until we made a qualifying run and got real loose then. By then we had already set our car up pretty much for the whole day. We tried to get it straightened back out, but we couldn't really do it and unfortunately we didn't get going fast enough for qualifying. We'll just have to bite our tongue on it and go with the rest of it tomorrow."

(ON STARTING FROM THE BACK STRETCH) "It's always fun here to do that. I've done it here before, so it's not big deal. It's just one of those things. Qualifying here is so tight with the way everything is. But we'll start from the back and see what happens."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 AARON'S PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We just didn't got as fast as we thought we were going to. We thought we were going to go a little bit quicker and we didn't."

(ON STARTING FROM THE BACK STRETCH AGAIN AFTER ALMOST WINNING FROM THERE IN THE SPRING) "Well, it's the same car, so we're hoping that the same result can happen. We were kind of hoping to be able to do this from the front stretch tomorrow. But, I don't know. I just never qualify good here. We were good on the (practice) sheet and thought maybe we could get on the front stretch, but just weren't able to do it today."

Text provided by Al Larsen

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