Siemens 200 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at NH:
K. Busch, 10th
P. Menard, 11th
S. Boyd, 41st

KYLE BUSCH, #5 LOWE'S/SHOP VAC CHEVROLET: "I'm very unhappy with that. That stunk. I don't know what else we needed to do but we were just a little bit too loose and we thought that we were going to be tight off. We've been chasing the racetrack all day with the Busch and the Cup so we'll see what we can do to try to work on it a little bit in happy hour." DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING? BUSCH SERIES PRACTICE WAS HELD EARLY THIS MORNING. "It did, because the sun is now somewhat trying to come out. It's bright and it's hot. It definitely got a lot slicker and I guess some of these other guys are guessing a lot better than us because we're going to go straight to the back. I hope we don't go back too far." YOU ARE ALSO RUNNING THE CUP RACE HERE THIS WEEKEND. DOES THE EXTRA TRACK TIME IN THE CUP CAR HELP THE BUSCH EFFORT? "It could be helping, it could be hurting. You have to drive the cars so different it's just the track time that you get to see how it changes but how you drive each car is a lot different."

PAUL MENARD, #11 MENARDS/PITTSBURGH PAINTS CHEVROLET. Notes: Menard will be making his first start this season for car owner Teresa Earnhardt in Saturday's Siemens 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway. The New Hampshire event will be Menard's 21st career Busch Series start. In 14 starts this season, Menard's best qualifying effort is eighth (Talladega, race number 8) while his best finish is 13th (Nazareth, race number 12). Menard's best career Busch Series finish is a ninth place effort in August 2003 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. "It's going to be a good spot to start at, probably a top-15 somewhere. Tony Gibson [crew chief] has put together a great crew. We came out here and tested and learned a lot of things in race trim. I'm definitely looking forward to happy hour and the race tomorrow." HOW MUCH DID THE TEST PUT YOU AHEAD? "This track is pretty straightforward, so to actually drive the place wasn't that big but being a new team is mostly just chemistry and making sure that everybody worked well together, which we all do. We burned through a couple of sheets of the changes that we wanted to get through and learned a lot so it definitely helped us." YOU WILL HAVE A GOOD STARTING SPOT FOR THE RACE. HOW WILL THAT HELP YOU? "I really haven't got a chance to pass many people in practice, but it looks like it's going to be pretty tough to pass. We'll find out more in happy hour. Our pit stops should be pretty good. The guys have been training real hard to have really good pit stops so if I can't do it on the track they'll do it in the pits." HOW DID THIS OPPORTUNITY COME ABOUT? "Both parties were interested in going forward. All the starts just kind of aligned and here we are today." IS THERE A LOT OF PRESSURE? "Not a lot of pressure from DEI. They've got a lot of tradition and heritage in the Busch Series so I put a lot of pressure on myself. Tenth place is good, but I'd rather be first. We'll go forward and keep learning each week." HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE A TEAMMATE LIKE MARTIN TRUEX JR.? "I've had a chance to test with Martin twice now at two different tracks. He's got a real good feel for the car. What I feel in the car and what he feels in the car tends to be pretty similar so it's definitely going to help us in the long run." IS IT REALISTIC THAT YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THE RACE? "Anything is possible [laughs], just make it for 200 laps and be there at the end."

STAN BOYD, #51 QUALITYMETRIC.COM DODGE: "We were real happy after practice. We went through the tech line just to make sure that we were going to pass and the car was like way, way off. We had to reset everything and we kind of went out there to qualify blindfolded. We didn't know what the car was going to do. The car was tight in qualifying. We did the best we could, that's all I can say. If we get in the race we can make it better."

BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE

"Our Lowe's Chevrolet was pretty good. We were a little bit tight in practice and I told the guys that maybe we should free it up a little bit and we went out so early that we didn't have a shot to ask some of the guys how the track changed from what it was in practice. We were just a little bit too loose so we were just kind of skating out there. It wasn't as good of a lap as we wanted. It was 10th quickest but hopefully we'll be able to race up to the front and meet up with Hornaday and Leffler and the rest of the guys at the front of the field." YOU TESTED HERE IN THE CUP CAR A FEW WEEK AGO. "We definitely did. Lance my crew chief for the Busch car came up here with Gary DeHart and we were able to learn some good things that were able to help us out as far as a baseline setup of what we needed to run. The guys threw some different shocks at it that day and some spring and all kinds of stuff just to find a baseline for what we needed to work on when we came back here. It feels as thought we were pretty good in the test and when we unloaded here we were a little bit snugger than what we thought we would be, especially coming up off the corners. We had to make minor changes to both cars, basically the same changes to both cars to make 'em better. We qualified 10th I believe with our Busch car and I believe we were like fifth or sixth in practice. We are 11th right now in our Cup car so hopefully we can find a set of scuffs that are going to be good for us and go out there and try to make a lap."