Darlington Busch Qualifying Quotes & Notes
Darlington, SC
JEFF GREEN (No. 3 GM Goodwrench Service Chevrolet)
David (older brother David Green) drove this car earlier today.
"I guess he got me tuned up for this race track when he ran the car
faster than I had. It made me work harder. It's been a long time
since I've been here. You've got to go after this track and think it's going to
come to you. In qualifying, I went after it. The first lap was
strong and I stayed with it for the next lap. The car was perfect.
I don't think it could have been any better. If I could have done
anything to make the car better, I don't know what it would be.
We're looking forward to Saturday.
Things are finally starting to come around for us. We hope to
turn the season around here. We haven't done much so far this year
so, hopefully, we start doing things tomorrow. It's been tough
because, at times, you want to get down on yourself. You can't let
that happen because it can happen real quick. The pole will make
the team feel a lot better. I feel a lot better myself.
DAVID GREEN (On helping his brother)
"Jeff's car was good when I
drove it this morning. In fact, it ran so good it made me go back
and work on my car to make it better. I'm probably more excited for
Jeff and him winning the pole than I would be if I won the pole.
He's the youngest (of three brothers) and I've always said he's the
best driver in the family. I'm proud that both he and I are
starting in the top four. I'm really looking forward to Saturday.
MARC RENO (Crew chief No. 4 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet)
"He's got a couple broken ribs from Nashville
(regular driver Jeff Purvis) so
Sterling (Marlin) was good enough to qualify and race for us. We're
hoping to get Jeff in good enough shape to at least run to the
first caution. It'll be tough because he had a hard time this
morning. He only made one lap and that was all he could do -- he
thought he was all right but it only took him one lap to realize he
couldn't drive. He was so out of breath he couldn't even tell us
why he pulled in. He's hurting pretty bad. Then we went into 'Plan
B' and asked Sterling and he said he'd do it. We need Jeff to start
for the points situation, but if he has to pull in on the first lap
he will. We're hoping he can make it to the first caution.
RANDY LAJOIE (No. 20 Fina Chevrolet)
"I can't wait for the
race. I've always run well here at Darlington. This car has
finished second here a couple of times. I'm really glad to be
hooked up with Bace Motorsports and have Fina as a sponsor. I've
always liked this race track. We're going to start turning our
season around right here. This track is really neat. I'm glad I'm
one of the guys who has gotten a handle on it (LaJoie is a former
Busch Pole winner here). Qualifying will be major-league
important. We're good in qualifying but some guys are better.
What we really worry about is our race setup -- not our
qualifying setup. Maybe I can cut a good lap.
CURTIS MARKHAM (No. 63 Lysol Pontiac)
"A good finish at
Darlington is always critical, especially when you're running for
points. This is a tough race track. You really have to pay
attention, be patient and avoid everything that's happening if
you can help it. Hopefully we'll come out of here with a top-10
finish and keep ourselves up in the points. Qualifying is really
30%finish and keep ourselves up in the points. Qualifying is really
tough here -- especially when you mix in the Winston Cup drivers
with the Busch drivers. Since this is only my second year (as a
full-time BGN driver), qualifying is real important. If you can
start up front you can usually avoid all of the trouble. We're
concentrating on a good qualifying effort. This year has been
better so far than we had hoped for. We set ourselves some high
goals for last year and we really didn't meet them. This year we
really haven't set any goals except that when we leave the shop
we feel like we're prepared to qualify well and run up front.
PHIL PARSONS (No. 10 ChannelLock Tools Chevrolet)
"Qualifying
is always important at Darlington because you want to start up
front as far as possible so you can dodge some of the trouble.
Race-wise, when you start 42 or 43 cars, if you have trouble and
are knocked out of the race you can lose 100 points easy. Right
now we're not thinking points too much. Sure, we're chasing them
but it's too early to be thinking about anything in the title
chase. We'll run every lap we can and make every effort to get
back out if we do have trouble. What's really nice to know is
that we'll have the possibility of a provisional start to fall
back on. Darlington has been good to me. I've never won here but
I've finished second and have a number of top-five finishes. We
hope to keep that string going this weekend.
PATTY MOISE (No. 14 Dial-Purex Ford)
I feel like that little
girl in the movie 'Poltergeist.' I'm baaaaaaaack! (Moise missed the
last two Busch Series races at Nashville and Atlanta and started
and drove part of the race at Richmond after breaking the bone
immediately below her left knee in a crash at Rockingham, N.C., on
Feb. 24.) So far my knee is feeling pretty good -- better than it
was last week. It really feels good to be driving again. (Moise was
replaced by her husband, team co-owner Elton Sawyer.)
JASON KELLER (No. 57 Slim Jim Chevrolet)
"Keller, 26, shaved his
mustache -- which he's worn since he was 16-years-old -- earlier
this week in an attempt to change the abysmal luck he's experienced
this season. Keller has crashed in races at Daytona and Nashville
and wrecked another car in practice at North Carolina Motor
Speedway in Rockingham. After five races Keller is in 19th in the
NASCAR Busch Series point standings, 320 points out of first.
BOBBY LABONTE (No. 44 Shell Oil Chevrolet)
"We're having a bit of
fun here. I think that's about as fast as I could go in the car.
WARD BURTON (No. 22 MBNA America Pontiac)
"We ran an OK lap, but
not a good one. We may not have gotten the engine oil hot enough
before I went out. The first lap was good, but the second wasn't
that much better.
MIKE McLAUGHLIN (No. 34 Royal Oak Charcoal Chevrolet)
"I'd say
that wasn't too shabby. We didn't have such a good second lap,
though. I anticipated getting loose in (turns) one and two but we
didn't. My anticipation cost me some time. We're ready for the
race, but you never really know at Darlington how your day will go.
We need to go home with a good finish.
DAVID GREEN (No. 95 Caterpillar Chevrolet)
The way I see it when
Mark Martin cut his .608 that was the mark to shoot for. If myself
and Mike McLaughlin and the other Busch regulars don't take aim at
what the Winston Cup stars do then we won't get better. I feel we
ran real good.
RICKY CRAVEN (No. 2 DuPont Teflon/Krytox Chevrolet)
"We fought
motor problems all morning. Finally, in the last session we changed
the carburetor and the problem cleared up. The car ran good in
qualifying, but we'll be better in the race tomorrow. I feel we'll
run good in the race.
DALE JARRETT (No. 32 BandAid Ford)
"We lost some engine rpm for
some reason and didn't really get the potential from the car we
thought we had.
DICK TRICKLE (No. 64 DuraLube Chevrolet)
"We ran about what we
ran in practice. I had hoped to pick up a tenth or two. We might
have been hurt by the wind some, but I'm not sure. We'll race OK.
HERMIE SADLER (No. 1 DeWalt Tools Chevrolet)
"Considering the
problems we had at the start of the day, I'd say we did good. We
picked up a full second through practice from where we started. Now
we've got to work hard to get a good stable race car for Saturday.
CHAD LITTLE (No. 23 John Deere Pontiac)
"I think our car is
capable of a lot better speed than what our time showed. The car
feels really good in the corners and that's where you have to be
good at Darlington. I'm comfortable with the way the car is set up
so we'll concentrate on finding some more power from the engine
now. We'll have to be careful making our way through the pack
tomorrow but we should be in good shape.
