Bi-Lo 200 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at Darlington:
K. Busch, 2nd
C. Bowyer, 31st
P. Menard, 36th

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUALIFYING QUOTES FOR THE BI-LO 200 NASCAR BUSCH SERIES RACE AT DARLINGTON RACEWAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2004.

Qualifying for the Bi-Lo 200 at Darlington was rained out. The starting lineup will be set according the NASCAR Busch Series rulebook. Qualifying was halted after 27 of 51 cars made a run.

PAUL MENARD, No. 11 MENARDS/MOEN CHEVROLET: YOU PICKED UP A HALF SECOND IN QUALYIFYING FROM WHAT YOU RAN IN PRACTICE. "We put a little bit of wedge in and took a spring rubber out of the right rear. We were loose in practice. We were still a little bit loose, especially off of turn 4 but I held my foot in it through one and two a little bit harder and let it roll a little bit faster through three and four and pick up the gas. Luckily we could stay in the throttle. Even though it was loose I didn't have to back out of it. I just had to hang on." IT MUST BE AN ADVANTAGE HAVING A TEAMMATE LIKE MARTIN TRUEX JR. HERE TO SORT THROUGH CHASSIS SETUPS. "At a lot of these places, Martin and I don't really like the same setups. As far as setups go, if we hit on something we'll let the other try it out and if it works, it works and if it doesn't, it doesn't. How you drive the car in and out of the corners and lines, Martin has a really good feel for the cars and he helps me out a lot with that." HOW DIFFICULT HAS IT BEEN TO PRACTICE AND PREPARE TO QUALIFY WITH THE THREAT OF RAIN TODAY? "We didn't expect to qualify today. We didn't expect that. We were actually all done practicing and we had that rain delay and we thought that was the end of the session and we were switching over to qualifying trim to roll through the tech line to get ready for qualifying and the next thing we know there's cars out on the track making laps. Luckily we weren't done with switching over so we went out and made a lap and got a rough idea of what to expect." ARE YOU PRETTY HAPPY WITH THE RACE SETUP? "I'm real happy. The car's really consistent. It falls off on tires but that's a given at this place. I just hope it doesn't fall off as much as everybody else." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD DAY FOR YOU HERE TOMMOROW? "Get a good solid top-10 finish."

CLINT BOWYER, No. 33 KEVIN HARVICK INC./SNAP-ON CHEVROLET: WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF DARLINGTON RACEWAY? "It's just tough. It's a hard place to get around; it's a hard place to learn. This is a place where everybody comes to test, so not testing and just kind of getting thrown to the wolves took a little bit of time. The last lap on the track was our fastest so that tells me that we're headed in the right direction. The tires really fall off here and you get to slipping and sliding, kind of reminds me of the old dirt days. It's pretty narrow and I think that's it's going to be a hard place to race. We need to do a lot of learning, a lot of preparation for next year. I think the race here Saturday is going to give me all of that. It's easy for cars to get in trouble here. I just want to be there at the end of the race and run all the laps and just learn as much as I can in preparation for next year." HOW BIG OF AN ADVANTAGE HAS IT BEEN TO LEAN ON KEVIN HARVICK? "It's a huge advantage. He's become a really good friend and I owe a lot to him for letting me run his car in these two races, Charlotte and here. I hope to continue that relationship next year." HOW BIG OF AN ADVANTAGE WILL GETTING ONE RACE UNDER YOUR BELT AT DARLINGTON BE FOR YOU NEXT YEAR? "It's a huge advantage because we're not going to have to test here next year. Like I say, I just want to run all the laps and gain all the knowledge that I can and see all there is to see at Darlington and be there at the end. That's what our goal is." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THE CAR WITH THE SEVERE TIRE WEAR HERE? "It is hard because you go out on cold tires and whether they're wore out or not, cold tires are going to run good for a couple of laps so it kind of feels good and then all of a sudden 'Whoa-ho' it slips around and starts sliding. It is hard and that's why I'm here to learn how to get your balance right on the car. This is the toughest track that I've been on yet to get a balance."