Winn-Dixie 250 Presented by PepsiCo - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

JOEY CLANTON, NO. 27 TRIMSPA PONTIAC. CLANTON WILL MAKE HIS FIRST START IN A RESTRICTOR PLATE RACE FRIDAY NIGHT.

"We're happy with that. We got a good run. The guys worked hard on the car and we're trying to get this TrimSpa Pontiac out front. I've got 18 laps now on the racetrack so it's not a bad outing." HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR FIRST PLATE RACE? "We'll prepare tonight, hopefully, in Happy Hour. I came here with a little bit of anxiety about even getting out on the racetrack, not having been here and tested and all. I got over that first step here this morning and here in qualifying. I know the draft is going to be a big deal and we've just got to learn it tonight and hopefully it will prepare us for tomorrow night." HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS THIS TYPE OF RACING FROM WHAT YOU HAVE DONE IN THE PAST? "This is different, to run flat out. What you've got it what you've got and that's different. We will learn a lot tonight drafting around with other cars and what the air does on the cars. It's going to be a learning curve for us."

COY GIBBS IN THE NO. 18 MBNA PONTIAC WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT DAYTONA. GIBBS TOOK TOP QUALIFYING HONORS FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SEASON. "Once again I stuck my hand out the window and the angle of the air off my spoiler picked us up at least a half-second (smiles). The guys did a great job. We picked up a ton from practice. We were kind of struggling in practice but we also wrecked that car. It's a good run for us and we'll take it." DOES THAT RUN GIVE YOUR TEAM CONFIDENCE? "Yeah, I think that helps the guys out. They know they're putting good cars under me. The driver doesn't do anything here. He's just a dummy that sits in there. It's definitely got to make them excited. Hopefully we'll keep it up there and stay out of the big one." IS THIS THE SAME CAR YOU RAN AT TALLADEGA? "We wrecked it at Daytona, got it fixed, put a new body on it and went to Talladega. We missed the big one so we finished pretty good and we just brought it back." WHAT IS THE RACE GOING TO BE LIKE? "Overall in my career I'm two for five plate racing, including the truck races, so I'm hoping to go three-for-six. It's different. I can't say it's the most fun I've ever had driving the car. I'll get out there and mix it up and hope we stay out of trouble." HOW DO YOU AVOID DOING SOMETHING STUPID? "I don't think it matter at the start of the race, especially when you have that big yellow sticker on the back. Not many people are going to follow you so you are on your own any way. You're kidding yourself if you don't think you are. If you get hooked up with another Raybestos® Rookie it's pretty good and then you guys can do something. I haven't done that yet."

CHASE MONTGOMERY, NO. 80 TBA CHEVROLET:

"This is our first Busch start with this car and this organization. We can't complain. We made the show but we did want to go faster. We feel like we have a better car that what we're showing. We'll just have to do it on Friday night. This is actually the team that I ran ARCA with, Montgomery Motorsports. We've got a couple of cars and we're searching for some sponsorship to run about seven more races this year and we'll just see what happens. They're doing a great job. They have a lot to learn, I've got a lot to learn. We're having fun. It's Alice Cooper/Montgomery Racing. Alice Cooper is a partner in the team. It's exciting. We have a lot of fun with it." WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE RACE? "I finished tenth in February and we want to do better. Any time I come back to a racetrack, whether I'm with the same team or a different team, our goal is to do better." WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THAT WILL HELP YOU THE MOST? "I got more comfortable running two and three wide all day. We won the ARCA race here but that's single file racing all day and this is a whole different thing here. One lap you can be 35th and the next you will be 20th. It's a lot of fun, it's exciting, and we're having a good time."

DAMON LUSK, NO. 6 STA-RITE PUMPS DODGE:

"I don't know; you just hold it wide open here. The car drove the same. Going down the backstretch I looked at the RPMs and it was up. I'm like 'Oh man, we must be running good.' The guys did a great job. I'm not really sure what they did. We taped off the front and went at it. We got a good lap and we're going to have a good starting spot for tomorrow's race. The Sta-Rite Dodge will run good in the race so we'll go from there." WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED IN THE FIRST TWO PLATE RACES THAT WILL HELP YOU FRIDAY NIGHT? "The biggest thing that I learned is that nobody will work with you. We're going to have to work with guys and gain a little more respect. We've done that the last couple of weeks. This team has really started to come around. We had heartbreak last week. We were going to finish in the top-10 and ended up having a mechanical failure. We're working at it and we're going to give it our best shot. A lot of people are coming out this week from Sta-Rite. We're working hard. We're getting there, a little at a time." DOES THIS GOOD RUN GIVE YOUR GUYS A MORALE BOOST? "Absolutely. It pumps me up too. I work on the cars everyday right with every one of these guys. When you have a good run, going to work on Monday is not so bad. It's like 'Man, we were 15th and now we can be tenth.' We're working as hard as we can to get better every week. I'm getting better, the team is getting better, everybody is. We'll keep hammering at it." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD FINISH FOR YOU FRIDAY NIGHT? "A win (laughs). A top-15. We want to get a top-10. We've had some top-10 runs but just could never put it all together. We'd be real happy with a good solid top-10 run."

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