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NASCAR WCUP: Qualifying Notes and Quotes, Phoenix

4 November 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

MIKE BLISS, NO. 27 VIAGRA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We were shooting at the top 25. We wanted to get in the race today. Tomorrow looks a little iffy on the weather. I'm proud of these guys. They've worked real hard today. The car wasn't very good when we unloaded off the trailer, but they worked real hard. We backed our time up from practice. I was a little bit loose in (turn) one, but I'll take that."

RICK MAST, NO. 14 CONSECO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"That's the quickest lap we've run. We've been kind of mid-pack it seems like and we picked up a little bit. The biggest thing that messed it up was when I came around to take the green the '26' car was still on the racetrack up here (in turns three and four). He hadn't gotten out of the way and I had to swing up high. When I did I lost the back end coming up off of four, so I lost all my momentum coming down to take the green. That's the one thing that hurt me, but other than that it was a pretty good lap."

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

"It was a good run for us. We're real happy with the way this Aaron's Pontiac ran. I wanted to get the pole, but we just weren't tough enough today to get that.

(DID YOU EXPECT TO BE THIS GOOD AT PHOENIX) "I think so. All the cars that these guys have been putting together are great. We felt we'd be OK here. I like this place. I like most of the tracks we run, but I really like Phoenix. We had an outside shot at maybe sitting on the pole, but we didn't do that. But we're still pretty happy."

(WERE YOU NERVOUS THIS MORNING WHEN SO MANY CHANGES HAD TO BE MADE TO YOUR CAR AFTER INSPECTION?) "Yes and no. You always push the rules as far as you can. This wasn't any farther than we've been most of the year, but they really tore on us pretty good this week. And that's fine. We only missed an hour and half worth of practice and that's no big deal. We got her going and got her running good. We were pretty good when we first got on the track and that just made our day go a lot easier when the car was quick right off the bat."

DAVE BLANEY, NO. 93 AMOCO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"We stayed right in the neighborhood we'd been in all day. It felt about the same. We picked up a little bit - maybe because of the weather. But it was good. I didn't take any big chances and risk missing the lap. I just wanted to get a good one like we'd been all day and it turned out good."

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

"When I finished it (his qualifying lap) I told them that is all I had. When (Jeff Burton) ran that '86' (26.86 seconds) it was like, 'Ooh, we're in trouble.' But that is a good solid starting spot for us. I'm very happy with that."

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

"We definitely hadn't practiced that good. I better remember what I did just then because we did something right and I haven't been able to do it all day and I've been trying real hard. We just made some changes after practice. We weren't happy with everything and changed about seven or eight items. We must have gone the right way."

WARD BURTON, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"That's a little bit faster than we ran in practice. They made some good decisions on the car. We really needed to go out one more time (in practice) to get so I would have a little bit better direction as to where we needed to go with it. But last time here we took a provisional and obviously that's going to be better this time."

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

"The challenge has been trying to go fast. I don't know what to do right now. We've got a lot of work to do for Sunday. All I know is we're going to have to start way back in the back, and go from there."

Text Provided By Al Larsen

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