Food City 250 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

JOEY CLANTON IN THE NO. 27 TRIMSPA PONTIAC WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT BRISTOL. CLANTON TOOK THE TOP QUALIFYING ROOKIE HONORS FOR THE FOURTH TIME THIS SEASON.

"We just didn't get to do everything that we wanted to because we had to work on the car so much in practice. We broke a steering box in practice so we didn't get to change the car over like we wanted to, to make it go faster. All in all for what we had I think we got a pretty good lap out of it. I wish we could have done a little more but we've got to make sure we've got a good racecar for the race and I think we do now. We didn't get to get everything out of it for qualifying but we did all right. The guys worked their tail off today to get it back out and going." HOW INTIMIDATING IS IT TO RACE HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME? "It's not really, not to me. I like these racetracks. I like the high banks, the fast ones. A little short half-mile, man, it's right down my alley. To me it's not intimidating. You've just got to go out and run it, race the racetrack."

COY GIBBS, NO. 18 MBNA CHEVROLET:

YOU PICKED UP FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING. "We didn't pick up enough, though. We're still off so we'll deal with it and see what we got. I sat on the pole here in a late model car and we're struggling to get in the field. It's a whole different deal."

JASON WHITE, NO. 70 EAGLE JET INTERNATIONAL CHEVROLET:

"We're pretty slow. I think we are down on motor a little bit. We just didn't have it right this week."

SANDY JONES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 27 TRIMSPA PONTIAC:

"For everything that we had to go through to get to that lap, yeah, we're pretty pleased with that. We were wanting to do some more things but with the early draw and quick turnaround time that we had we had to go with what we had. For Joey's first time here, we're real pleased with that. He learned a lot. We learned a lot. We had a steering box problem that started off the day and that killed us in the first hour (of practice). We're pretty happy with that." WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH HERE FRIDAY NIGHT? "A good outing for us would be a top-20 finish with all the fenders on it." AND NOBODY MAD? "And nobody pissed." WHAT DO YOU TELL A DRIVER THAT HAS NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE? "There's really not a whole lot that you can tell them that they haven't already heard from everybody else. The biggest thing is just to race the racetrack and be patient. I think Terry Labonte said it best: it's like a jet fighter in a gymnasium or whatever the hell it is. If we can run 250 laps tomorrow night when we come back in the spring we'll be even better." AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON, ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE? "I think so. Joey has learned a lot. We're still learning this Pontiac. It's a whole new car and we don't really have a lot of Cup guys to fall back on for wind tunnel stuff. Joey has learned a great deal, we're learning more about the cars everyday, Bill Davis Racing is learning more about motors. They are giving us more and more power. It's a learning process for everybody, really."

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