Emerson Radio 250 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

PAUL MENARD, #11 MENARDS/ENERGIZER CHEVROLET (starts 10th): WHAT DOES THIS GOOD RUN MEAN FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE? "After last weekend we kind of needed a little pick me up. Being the fastest in practice helps, but practice doesn't really mean a whole lot. If we stick this thing on the pole or at least a top-five starting spot we'll be pretty happy." YOU WERE THE QUICKEST IN PRACTICE AND RAN FASTER ON YOUR QUALIFYING LAP. "I'm not familiar enough with this track to know if the track speeded up with the weather being cooler or not. Hopefully it holds up but if it doesn't, I understand that too [smiles]." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO QUALIFY HERE AT RICHMOND? "It's real easy to overdrive. Unfortunately, we didn't get on the rev chip. I put a rev chip in there to hopefully calm me down getting into the corners and I didn't get on it so maybe I didn't drive it in hard enough. Nonetheless we'll have a good racecar and tomorrow is a different day." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD NIGHT FOR YOU ON FRIDAY? "We definitely need a top-10 but a win is all that better. You don't race to finish second. You race to win. And with DEI and all the resources, we definitely have that shot week and week out. We just need everything to fall tighter for us." IS IT REALISTIC TO THINK YOU CAN WIN THE RACE? "I think so. I mean, why not?"

J.J. YELEY, #18 VIGORO/THE HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET (starts 25th): HOW WAS THE LAP? "It wasn't very good. Both of our mock runs we were pretty happy with but the track, I'm sure, was a lot faster. The weather helped it a bunch. I don't know if the track had so much more front grip that the car was pretty loose out there. I just didn't have the confidence to turn real hard and get on the gas. I probably could have pushed a little harder and got a little bit faster we could have stuck it in the fence. I'd rather start mid-pack and have a good racecar that we can adjust on than have to put these guys to work and try to get this thing fixed again." HAS THE TRACK BEEN CONSISTENT ALL DAY? "It's changed quite a bit with all the rain. Whatever rubber they had from previous racing or testing was completely gone and a lot of the truck guys complained that the track was pretty slippery. It definitely doesn't seem like it had the grip that we had here in the spring race. The longer the practice went on the more rubber went down the racetrack got a little bit more predictable. We just missed a little bit but that's OK."

KYLE BUSCH IN THE #5 LOWE'S/SHOP VAC CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT RICHMOND. HE WILL START SECOND IN THE EMERSON RADIO 250 FRIDAY NIGHT. "It wasn't too bad of a run for us. Kasey Kahne laid down one heck of a lap there. I knew it was going to be either a teen or a .20 that was going to be on the pole. It looks like a teen is going to be on the pole and we ran .20. It's a shame that the Lowe's Chevrolet is not on the pole for the second time this time around but we'll go get 'em in the race. That's what we're worried about most. If we can get just out of Richmond with a clean race here and obviously take the Lowe's/Shop Vac car home in one piece we can cut a little bit out of that points lead. Hopefully we can kind of do that this weekend. We look forward to the race and concentrated more on that the first practice here this morning. I'm sure everybody did, but hopefully more so us than anybody." CAN YOU TELL THE TRACK IS A LOT DIFFERENT TODAY THAN IT WAS IN MAY? "It's got the same feel overall. Maybe there's a little less grip overall because of the fact that the pavement is older but besides that, I haven't really felt any difference." HAVE YOU RUN A BAD LAP HERE THIS YEAR? "I ran a bad one here in the spring in qualifying, my second lap, and I ran a bad one here on that second lap. It's a good thing I can get the first one out of the way." IS THIS YOUR FAVORITE TRACK? "It's a good track for us to come to. I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites but I didn't run very well here in my Craftsman Truck Series race. My Busch Series career hasn't gone too badly here. Hopefully second holds up here and if not maybe a top-five and we can go on into the race."

BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE

"We didn't quite get it the way we needed to in order to have a pole winning run. That's all right. Kasey Kahne, he ran an awesome lap there. I didn't think I was going to be able to beat him anyway. I told Lance [McGrew, crew chief] before qualifying started that it was either going to be high-teen or a .20 on the pole. I think we ran a .23 or something like that and we were second. Close enough I guess but no cigar for the Lowe's team today." YOU HAVE TWO FRONT ROW STARTS AT RICHMOND THIS SEASON. ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO KEEP IT UP TOMMOROW NIGHT? "I hope so. Like I said, we worked mainly on race runs this morning and that's all we really concentrated on. I'm sure that's how everybody else was but we didn't have to make too many changes here this weekend from the way we ran here in the spring. We ran the same car and we also brought back mainly the same package and were able to be pretty successful here today so hopefully we can carry it into tomorrow." HOW DO THE LAST RACES ON THE SCHEDULE STACK UP FOR YOU TO CATCH MARTIN TRUEX JR. FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? "I think they are maybe going to favor the 5 car a little bit, hopefully. We get back to Lowe's Motor Speedway where we were able to win the spring. We got to Kansas, which is somewhat like Chicago or a Kentucky where we ran really well at both of those places. I really look forward to the rest of the year. Atlanta is one there, a sister track to Texas and Charlotte where we ran so well and also Homestead. There's some really nice racetracks coming up that I'm really looking forward to and of course we have this weekend at Richmond. We've got a few things that we need to get done here in Richmond before we can go on to Dover in two weeks. That's probably the worst track that we might struggle a little bit at just due to the fact that we didn't run so well there in the spring but we were able to finish well. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year. Hopefully we can keep it going." PYSCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF WHERE THE TWO DRIVERS RACING FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP START IN A GIVEN RACE. "It's nice to out-qualify your main competition but I just kind of go about it every week just as the same thing. We've got to do our job and we really can't worry about the 8 car because if we do we're probably just hurting ourselves instead of helping ourselves. I think if we just worry about ourselves we're going to make ourselves better because we can't hurt the 8 car worrying about them so I don't think they care either."