Target House 200 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

DAVID STREMME, NO. 30 I JUST WANT TO RACE DODGE:

Note: David Stremme was the top Raybestos Rookie qualifier at Rockingham.

"I'm more surprised than happy. We're happy, overall, with everything that went on in practice and never being here. We had a little incident. I brushed the fence. We did a few qualifying runs in practice and the car just wasn't there and we did a bunch of changes. It goes back to teamwork back throughout the 19 car and then the 1 car with Jamie (McMurray). It's something that has played a big factor and I think it will play again in happy hour. I'm fortunate that James Finch and the people at Yellow have allowed me to run the Braun car to get experience but also to try to win the Raybestos Rookie of the Year deal." WHAT HAPPENED IN PRACTICE? "I don't know if there was a substance on the racetrack or if the tires just didn't have grip. I'm new here, never raced here, and it was like my fifth lap. They say the tires wear off pretty fast. We don't know but the again, the team pulled together. We had everybody from the Braun team working on the car; we had people from the Yellow team. It was a pretty big team effort. It just shows how much effort goes into qualifying, let alone racing. To get the experience here this weekend that we are going to need for next year, it's going to be pretty valuable so that way we don't have to come and test here. The Yellow team has a great setup in the car here and we're just trying to find that in the car that I'm running here today." DID YOU HAVE A BACKUP CAR? "No, not really. The backup car is setup for Casey (Mears). I might have to go steal Jamie's backup car because I know that it fits me. It wasn't too bad. We just need to work on it and get it right and we took our time to do that. The whole situation of Braun racing allowing me to drive their cars has been a great help and I don't want to go out there and tear anybody's equipment up. I didn't do it on purpose or anything. He's not upset or anything. He's pretty happy. There's going to be a time and point where I'm going to say that I've been to all these tracks and I'm not learning anymore. I run wide open all the time. My teammates Jamie and Casey have both helped me out. They've gone through a lot of things that I'm going through. "

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