NOTES AND QUOTES; BUSCH SERIES QUALIFYING; MARCH 2, 2000
3 March 2000
MIKE BORKOWSKI, NO. 20 AT&T PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We're real pleased with that run. We struggled in the first (practice) session. But the guys worked their tails off, Birdie (crew chief Steve Bird) gave them some real good direction, made a few changes and we ended up 10th in that second session. I felt absolutely the best in qualifying. I trusted them to make a couple of final changes right before we went out to qualify, and that is the best we've felt. That's a good run for us. I'm still a rookie and learning every single lap out there, so I'm pretty pleased. My whole background is open-wheel and road racing so big stock cars and the ovals are all new. Anytime you can be in the top 10 with the caliber of guys that are out there right now it's an honor and it's a good place to learn from." RICK BICKLE, NO. 91 AQUA VELVA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "We just can't find speed right now. The car drove really well there, but for some reason we just can't pick up any speed. We'll work on it and get it ready for tomorrow." JASON JARRETT, NO. 11 RAYOVAC PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "This time I think the driver did pretty good. I wish we would have had a little more oil temp. I think that hurt us a little bit. But from the strides we made from coming here and testing to what we ran today is pretty amazing. It shows how hard the guys on this Rayovac Pontiac team work. It just shows how hard work pays off. After last week we were a little bit disappointed. We were a lot disappointed. We didn't want to miss any races. My whole deal for this year was to get off to a good start and I think we can kind of rekindle that here this weekend. I think coming here and testing made all the difference in the world. If you get here and unload where we were when we unloaded during the test, you just don't have enough practice laps to pick up that much. On top of that we cut the fenders and the quarter panels off of it. The guys just worked tremendously hard to get this car in as good of shape as it is. My hat is off to them. They are the ones working the long hours." JEFF PURVIS, NO. 4 PORTER CABLE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "I had a better race car than what I qualified right there to be hones with you. I was really wanting a good lap and I over-drove it a little bit through three and four, and I just got loose. That was about the limit right there. That's about as far as you can go. But that's what you've got to do. Nobody wants to be seventh or eighth on that board. Nobody wants to be 50th on that board, either. But that's a respectable lap. But we've really got a good race car here. We just need to finish. That's the main thing. We're having a little trouble finishing." JASON LEFFLER, NO. 18 MBNA PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "That was real good. That was the fastest we went all day long. This MBNA Pontiac is running really good. I'm just glad to be a part of this great team. I'm the weak link in this whole deal, and I'm just trying to do the best job that I can. The team is doing a good job being patient with me. I'm pretty happy about this. For a rookie to be a part of Joe Gibbs Racing is a really big deal.". HUT STRICKLIN, NO. 61 IWX PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "I can't say enough about all these guys. They never gave up on me all day. We really worked hard. We weren't that good when we got here. I think the car was probably a little better than I was. I'd only run here once back in '98, and I was struggling a little bit telling them what needed to be done. I just more or less told them what the car was doing and left it up to them to fix it. Everybody on this IWX team did a great job today. We came to Rockingham on a real big high after sitting on the pole at Daytona, and I think we all thought it was going to be real easy. But last week definitely put us in our place. We went back and definitely went to work. It opened our eyes and we realized this was not going to be that easy. We found it takes 110 percent every week. We put forth a great effort today. We came up a little short. But all-in-all I'm tickled." BUCKSHOT JONES, NO. 00 CHEEZ-IT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX: "I just messed up down in turns one and two. It's aggravating. But as long we end up in the top 25 so we don't have to worry about tomorrow, and can just work on our race set up. It should have been a whole lot better lap, but the driver just made a mistake."