Food City 250 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

SCOTT RIGGS-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Qualified 7th) - "It was good for us. We've been struggling with the car being a little too tight since we've been here. The track has just changed a lot since the spring race. We unloaded with the same car we had here in spring, but it was nowhere near where it needed to be. We just kept making changes and trying to figure out what kinds of changes we needed to make to the car to really make it cut better through the center. I think everybody is having that trouble. We just need to get ours where it's better than everybody else's. I feel good about it. I think we'll be OK on long runs. I'm happy we were able to pick it up there in qualifying and it will be a decent starting spot for us, and we'll try to have a solid finish for the race." NOW THAT YOU AND YOUR FIRST-YEAR CREW CHIEF DOUG RANDOLPH ARE COMING BACK TO TRACKS FOR THE SECOND TIME, IS THAT WHY WE'RE ABLE TO SEE YOU MAKE THE ADJUSTMENTS FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING? "To be honest with you, I feel that our communication for our whole entire team is becoming stronger and stronger every week with the races, but at the same time, we keep unloading off of the truck with great notes, but we unload and we're way off from where we need to be. That's the frustrating part, and when you run somewhere good in the spring and you come back with the exact same car and the exact same setup and you're so far off base, it just makes you frustrated. You're just scratching your head and you just have to listen what the car is telling you needs to be done to it to make it better and I think we made good changes on it." WHAT'S THE GAME PLAN FOR TOMORROW? "Qualifying is more critical here a Bristol than almost any other place we go. Getting a good qualifying spot is definitely important, but having a good car in the race is what we need, too. You could see trucks in the truck race last night make their way from the back all the way to the front if you had a good truck. There are a couple of extra cars in the field this week to make the competition a little harder, and it's Bristol so anything can happen."

JASON KELLER-57-Albertsons Ford Taurus (Qualified 1st) - "I really feel confident that I got everything out of my race car. Somebody can beat that, but I felt good about what I got out of my race car. We ran one mock qualifying run in practice, and Steve (Addington) said, 'Let's try again and make some changes.' But, I didn't know what I wanted to change. The car was neutral, it was good. It did everything it was supposed to do and we hoped that it would be that way in qualifying." HOW IMPORTANT IS QUALIFYING HERE AT BRISTOL? "Track position is tight anywhere, but at Bristol it's key. Even if that doesn't sit on the pole, that will be in the top three and that's a good place to be." DID YOU FEEL THAT YOU NEEDED TO HAVE A GOOD RUN THIS WEEK TO REBOUND FROM MICHIGAN? "We got some bad news this week with Albertsons leaving after the year. We need to make some noise and make it the right way. Qualifying up front today is going to be a big step."

KASEY KAHNE-38-Great Clips Ford Taurus (Qualified 27th) - "We qualified so good here in the spring that we thought we were going to be better than that. The car was just terribly loose. I think it's tough to get the feeling that you're looking for at a place like Bristol. As good as we were here the first race in qualifying and we're not very good in qualifying trim right now; I don't know why that is. I think we have a good car and I thought we would qualify a lot better than that. I thought we were better than that. Happy Hour is going to be real important for us this week. I don't think we're very good right now, so we need to make as many laps as we can this afternoon and hope the weather holds up."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus (Qualified 6th) - "That's the best that I've ever qualified here, so I can't complain. Actually, I wish I would have been beat by one more spot to be on the inside. Losing one spot, you gain about four on the start. What can you say? You're in the top 10 at Bristol, and as usual we've had the best cars in the last handful of months that we've ever had. The good thing about it is that we get a good pit selection. Another new car this weekend that's never been tested. Harold jus threw it together and all of the guys worked hard in the shop on it." WITH THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALIFYING HERE, HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU FOCUS ON QUALIFYING TRIM? "We really didn't put a whole lot of effort into it. We made a couple of runs, and that's the cool part. We didn't try a whole lot. We did that two times and he left it at that. He (Harold Holly) has a lot of notes. He's been on the pole here. We didn't have a lot of time but we had plenty of notes to go off of."

JASON KELLER RIGGS PRESS CONFERENCE

"What a day. We unloaded and we weren't too good. The car wasn't reacting like I hoped it would, and Steve and the guys made some really big changes. Usually at a place like this that we've had success, you don't have to make a lot of changes, you just make some fine-tuning. Man, had some real wholesale changes and it worked. Steve knows this place as good as I do if not better. My crew chief really stepped up to the plate and knew what the car need. I just held in qualifying. I didn't know if I could beat the 21 car after he laid down that real fast lap. If I had any more time to think about it I probably would have messed up. Fortunately, I didn't mess up and qualified on the pole."

"There is no more exciting race than at night here. I'd love to put the Albertsons Ford in victory lane. I do know that it's a long race, although qualifying on the pole gives us a lot of advantage as far as pit selection and things like that. It's still a long race tomorrow night. We need to buckle down and have a good happy hour tonight and really work hard. I think we're going to be OK. With us being slow in the first practice to start with, we didn't get a whole lot of race runs, so we still have our work cut out for us."

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