Pepsi 300 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

STANTON BARRETT-60-OdoBan Ford Taurus (Qualified 5th) - "That's a pretty good time for the OdoBan Ford. I got a solid lap in on the first lap, and I went for it on the second lap. I did what I thought I could do on the second lap, but with my brakes, I just drove it in a little too deep. There's such a fine line between putting up a good lap and not. This car is capable of being on the pole, I just screwed. I want to do so good that I was just trying a little too hard on the second lap. It was a good run for the OdoBan Ford. It was respectable. Hopefully it will keep in the top five. As long as we stay in the top 10 we'll be fine. We're just trying to learn again this race and come back from our blows that we've had the last two speedway races. Track position is so vital anymore. We're happy to be up there, and we need to stay up there. That's where you've got to start race. You can start anywhere and still finish well, but for us, we're still trying to learn and it's just a benefit for us to start towards the front."

KASEY KAHNE-38-Great Clips Ford Taurus (Qualified 6th) - "This is my first time here and it would be very hard to go fast if you didn't have a good car right from the start. That's what these Great Clips guys do - they keep giving me good cars. Wes Ward is doing an awesome job crew chiefing it, so I'm excited. I messed up there, though. I think we should be on the pole. I got too high off of turn 2 and it slowed us down at least two tenths." HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO FIND THE PREFERRED LINE AROUND HERE SO FAST? "I raced 18 races last year, so I learned a lot with that. Coming here for the first time, I watched a little bit of ARCA qualifying and went on the track. You just have to teach yourself and get behind somebody who knows the place. You have to get the car to where you're comfortable and then just make some laps." WITH YOUR SPRINT CAR BACKGROUND, IS IT A HARD TRANSITION TO RACE ON CONCRETE? "I like it. Dover is one of my favorite race tracks and so is Bristol. This is my first time here, but the concrete surface is pretty cool. I enjoy racing on the concrete tracks."

SCOTT RIGGS-10-Nestle Nesquik Ford Taurus (Qualified 3rd) - "We've really made gains from the time we unloaded this morning. We had a lot of work to do and we made big gains every time we came in and made changes. I feel good about it. We're still not quite where we need to be, but I'm real proud of how hard all of the guys have worked to get us in this position. I feel good about my race car for the race." HOW HAS THE CONCRETE SURFACE AGED SINCE LAST YEAR? "I don't know if the tire compound has changed a little bit, but the track is just getting faster and faster. I don't think there are any dangerous spots on the race track, and there are definitely going to be two grooves to race in. As far as track conditions, the track is in good shape." THERE WERE A FEW CARS THAT SPUN IN QUALIFYING. IS THAT FROM A LACK OF GRIP ON THE RACING SURFACE? "I think there are a lot of people doing a lot of things to get that little bit of extra speed out of the car. This track has a lot of texture in it with the way that they gave ground the track. Some of those textured spots where they change, sometimes it upsets the car a little bit, and if you hit it just the wrong way, I think it can get way from you."

JASON KELLER-57-Albertsons Ford Taurus (Qualified 2nd) - YOU WERE ABLE TO TEST HERE A FEW WEEKS AGO. DID THAT HELP YOU TODAY? "It did, but we really never got to do qualifying runs then; we just did race runs a lot for two days. I'm really, really happy that we did as good as we did today. The only bad thing about it is when you get this close, you always think about what could have been. It was the best lap that we've had on the race track yet, so we really can't complain too much." HOW FAR WAS IT FROM A PERFECT LAP? "The biggest thing that kind of makes me mad is that I went through 1 and 2 quicker on the second lap, but just messed up down there in 3 and 4. In order to qualify on the pole, you have to have close to a perfect lap. I had a real good lap, but I just left a little out there." YOU'VE FINISHED ALL THREE RACES HERE IN THE TOP FIVE, AND YOU'VE WON AT EACH OF THE OTHER CONCRETE VENUES ON THE CIRCUIT. "Steve (Addington, crew chief) asked where I wanted to go test and this is definitely one of the places that I wanted to go test. I've been close to one of those guitars for a long time, but I've just never been able to get one. We put a lot of emphasis on this place. This is the only concrete track on the circuit that I haven't won on that we race on. Hopefully we can change that tomorrow."

BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus (Qualified 8th) - "We were a little loose on our qualifying run, but that's our race stuff; the same deal we normally do." HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS RACE THIS WEEKEND TO START BUILDING SOME POSITIVE MOMENTUM? "I can't think of a better place to turn it round. That would be good, if we can stay out of all of the trouble. That's been our problem. It hasn't been anything that we've done or the team; it's starting to upset us. It would be a good time to turn it around." HAS THERE BEEN A CHANGE OF FOCUS TOWARDS QUALIFYING TO START UP FRONT TO AVOID EARLY-RACE TROUBLE? "No, I don't think so. We're eighth without wasting our time on two fast laps. Qualifying doesn't pay. If you get the car driving good, you tape it up and you can make time. If not, you need to work on it some more anyway. We just stick to our normal stuff. We were running second at Texas and got taken out and we were running at 13th in Talladega and got in a wreck. It doesn't matter where you start."

JASON KELLER PRESS CONFERENCE

"I feel the same way Scott feels about it. Look at Scott's performance at Darlington. It was a situation with the way the pit stop fell and it kept him out of victory lane. Yeah, they've won all of the races, and it's been kind of one-sided but hopefully we can fine-tune our program a little bit more so that when we get back to companion events towards the fall we can beat them then. I don't think that it's as much of an issue as it might look like. If you look at the stats and look at the finishes, it looks lopsided, but I know what my race team is capable of, and I've seen what Scott's is capable and I want to race them head-to-head. They don't scare me a bit. They've got a lot of resources and a lot of laps, but if you don't test yourself against the best, you don't know how good you are."

"There are a lot of things that maybe give them more of an advantage than we have. They do get practice time usually before the race. You look at Rockingham and Darlington, I look at those two races and we had to run after the Winston Cup race, so they got 400 miles of practice. But, Scott had the fastest car at Darlington. The fastest car doesn't always win and the situation kept Scott out of victory lane. They have a little bit of an advantage on their practice schedule; we've said that all along. I think when Scott's team or my team is on our game, I think we can go head-to-head with them, but we just haven't shown that this year. Restrictor-plate racing is another beast. Look at those two races and take them out of the equation, the other races there have been some Busch guys mixed in there."

"The first lap was really good. I was laughing with Scott after my lap. I looked up coming off of turn 2 on my second lap and saw the scoring pylon, which you're not supposed to be looking at during your qualifying lap, but I did, and saw that we were second and I overdrove turn 3. It was a little bit of a driver error, trying too hard. We put a lot of emphasis on this race. We came up here and tested. It was a pretty good first lap, but I just overdrove it on the second lap. It's a good thing I can laugh about it; my crew chief is not laughing about it too much right now. He'll see the comedy in it hopefully tomorrow afternoon."

"We did some race run stuff this afternoon. When we came here and tested for two days, we did nothing but race runs. Having said that, hopefully we can have a good Happy Hour. Just like Scott said, the concrete tracks are not as temperature sensitive as the asphalt tracks, so even practicing tonight at six o'clock, I don't think the race track is going to be that much different tomorrow. It's supposed to be a little warmer, but the thing that may change it and we can't control it is the rubber that the ARCA cars will put down tonight. After the first 10 to 15 laps, that should be gone and we should be able to go racing."

"I think you have to put any race team at ppc in that category. I've been there a long time and had a lot of confidence going into the season. I really don't feel like our race team has performed quite up to the standards that I think we can. We've had some top-fives and some good finishes, but we want to compete week-in and week-out once we get on this stretch that we're on right now. We've got to be one of the top guys if we want to contend for that championship. Still, it's early to tell. What I did in years past or what I did last year doesn't really matter. It really hasn't shaken out with who's going to be the contenders and who's not. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can. I know in my heart that if my race team gets its act together and Scott's race team gets its act together and really performs up to the level that we can that we're going to race each other and all of the other guys are going to have to race for third."

SCOTT RIGGS PRESS CONFERENCE

"It's a good job on everybody's part on the Nesquik Ford. When we unloaded here we were a long ways from where we needed to be. I'm just real happy to see my new crew chief this year, Doug Randolph, this is the first time that he's seen Nashville Superspeedway in person. To come here and unload pretty slow, we felt like we needed to gain a lot and to be able to do that, it just puts more confidence and builds more confidence in me and my team. I'm pretty happy with what we were able to do and how much we were able to gain speed-wise. It seems like the track just keeps getting faster every time we come back here. It's a great track with a lot of grip and I'm surprised with what kind of speeds we're able to see here at Nashville. I feel pretty good about it, and, of course, I'm sitting here behind my teammate Jason Keller, and it was a good day for ppc."

"I think so. I don't think the setups will change very much, of course, we're going to have Happy Hour here in a little bit and we'll all sort of tune our cars and dial on them a little bit. As far as the concrete track out here, I don't think it will change a lot and I think that's a positive for us not having to worry about the sun or the temperature affecting the race track dramatically like it would at an asphalt track. That's just one of the perks of running here at Nashville."

"We've definitely been on a roller-coaster ride this year. I'm still really positive and happy with the way the team has been working together. The chemistry has been working good and we're really communicating well. The chemistry is definitely there between myself and the rest of the team. I feel good about it because we've had a competitive car every single race. We haven't been able to show that with our finishes, but behind the driver's seat, I can assure you that all of the cars have been very well prepared. We've had a good setup everywhere and have been really consistent and competitive. Just having the circumstances take us out from finishing well a couple of these races at the beginning of the season, I think everyone is going to have their bumps and bruises and hopefully all of ours are over and we can continue forward and be consistent with my finishes and show just what this team is capable of."

"All of the Winston Cup guys coming to the Busch Series has been a real hot topic it seems like all year. I still stand with my guns and I think that a lot of those races this year that those Cup guys have won, I don't think they won because they were a lot more dominant than any of the guys from the Busch Series. I just think that they had good cars and good equipment and made the right changes and happened to be at the right place at the right time. It takes a little bit of luck in this thing we call racing. You have to have luck on your side. I think Jason feels the same way as I do. When we go to victory lane, we don't want to say that maybe won because the Cup guys weren't here. We want to win when everybody's here so that we can say that we beat them all."

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