Chevrolet Qualifying Quotes

Bristol, TN

TERRY LABONTE -5- Kellogg's Monte Carlo - Qualified 2nd

Note: Through six races, Labonte has the best average starting position of 4.8.

"After Mark ran that lap I didn't know if anybody could beat him or not, but we're happy with that lap. I thought we could have been a little quicker. I thought we could run in the 50's, but that's OK. My car was just a little too tight qualifying, but I knew when Mark ran that lap that it would be really tough to beat it."

"That lap was a bit of a surprise. It's not what you would call a great surpise, but it was a pleasant one. Just being on the pole for a little while was exciting. It's like any other team sport.

It's organisation, communication and pushing the right button. You might be able to drive a car it it's an automatic, but some people might not be able to drive a straight drive. You've got to know how to shift the gears. I think that's where we were. Everybody was good as long as you dropped it in drive and it took off. But when you had to shift gears or put it in reverse or climbing hills, we weren't very good. The biggest thing I see different about today than from any other day this year was the calmness and the togetherness. Here's the problem, and here's what we're going to do to fix it. Jeff (Hammond) is methodic. He looked at the notes and saw some things that were a little different than the last time we were here.

Things really haven't changed that much. I told Jeff it was just like it was the last time wew were together. He's going to call me on the radio and tell me to pick it up a little bit and I'm going to tell him I'm going as hard as I can go. I'll tell him if he can do better to come on out and drive it. This season is almost paralleling last year. We had a lot of problems with the car. I didn't like the way it drove. We fixed it and hopefully we can again.

Every time they change the tires, and I think part of it is the driver, I'm expecting the car to do something and it doesn't do it. It's not the car's fault. Stevie and I were talking coming home from Darlington. She told me I had to think different with the new tires. This is the same tire they had at Darlington. I didn't like it doen there, but I like it here. I felt like I was riding on four bowls of jelly at Darlington. I never felt like the car was under me. We changed our setup here a little bit for the tires. We didn't realize the deflection the tire had in it until we saw the in-car camera shot"

"We practiced here for three days, and we haven't been qualifying that good, so we're pumped up about that lap. We brought a different car back to race than the one we tested. We were pretty good right off the truck today, but I knew that wouldn't hold up for the pole."

"That's about the best we'd run all day. If that gets us in the top 10, that's quite an accomplishment. We tested real good here. Maybe we've got a good setup. I hope so. We were going for it pretty much on the second lap, but we didn't go hard enough. The track is a little different, but I think we're going to be in pretty good shape."

I'm really pumped about this race. We had been really good in practice. I wrecked a little coming off the corner, or I think we might have got a little better lap in.

"We're not bragging about that lap. We've had a great start to the season. We'll have a good race. The guys are pumped up, and they've got a lot to be happy about. The qualifying lap wasn't much to be happy about. We knew we weren't good, and it surprised us because we were pretty good here last year. This tire has really thrown us for a loop, and I was just glad to get through the first round. I'm a little surprised we ended up as close to the front as we did. We're riding on top of the race track right now. If we can get it settled down for a long run, it won't really matter."

That's better than we'd been in practice, but that's about all I can say about it. We're just fighting it. It was real loose.

"I'm not really sure what happened. I'm not so sure we didn't pop a bead off the rim. We tried a lot of stuff to get more grip for qualifying. We had a good first lap. We're working hard, and I was going for it. It would have been close. I don't think we hurt the car too bad. We'll be OK."

"That's not what we'd hoped for, but that's about what we ran in practice. We were just a little too loose."