Camping World 300 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at California:
Ragan 10th
Ambrose 16th
Keselowski 24th
Krisiloff 33rd

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 88 U.S. NAVY CHEVROLET: “I think that’ll get us in the top-20 and that’s a good place to start the race. That’s really all we’re worried about is racing well. We’re just trying to get better every week. Anything in the top-10 I think I’d be real happy with and just keep pushing and try to get better every week.” HOW DIFFERENT WAS THE TRACK WITH THE CLOUD COVER? “Drastically different, had a lot more grip.” YOU RAN WELL AT MICHIGAN, A TRACK SIMILAR TO CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY. DO THEY DRIVE DIFFERENTLY? “They definitely drive a little differently. I’m kind of looking forward to this race, the track being a little hot and slick at the start of the race and moving around on the racetrack. They’re both a lot of fun.” HOW BIG OF A FACTOR IS THE HEAT GOING TO BE IN THE RACE? “It’s going to be everything. The transition between day and night is going to determine who is the best car. We’re going to try to figure out what we want to adjust for that transition is hard for us and we’ve been working on that.”

MARCOS AMBROSE IN THE No. 59 KINGSFORD FORD: “We’re playing with the big boys here and we can run close to ‘em week in and week out with the improvements we’re getting week in and week out. It’s just fantastic. I’m happy with that lap. I gained a second from practice. You can’t get much more than that without risking bending the car so I’ll take it. I crashed here getting up to speed in qualifying in the spring. I didn’t even get to third gear and I spun it out so I’ve already made improvement because we finished qualifying in one piece. We keep gaining on this deal, getting better and better every week. I’m excited. I think we’ve got a chance to keep improving, keep getting better. We’re playing with the big boys now. There’s no easy solution from here on end.” COMMENT ON THE HOT WEATHER. “This is like an Eskimo hanging out on the Sahara desert. I’ve got absolutely no idea what I’m doing here it’s so hot. I’m just lucky I’m here.”

DAVID RAGAN IN THE No. 6 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER. RAGAN WILL START 10TH IN SATURDAY NIGHT’S RACE. “Considering we were like 40th in practice, that’s not too bad. This is a car that we wrecked earlier in the year and just made some improvements we thought. We’ve only raced this car once, I think, and it’s the time of the season we’re trying to weed out what we’re going to have for next year and what we’re not so we decided to bring this car. We really didn’t know what it was going to be like. We just really struggled in practice and we kind of went back to an old school setup that we knew was comfortable and we didn’t get a chance to make a qualifying run. With the Busch team, I feel like we can qualify in the top-10, top-15 every single week. Our biggest thing, we’ve been able to qualify good, but we’ve just got to learn to stay up there in the race. We always seem to fall back then fight our way back to the front. Maybe we’ll keep some good track position. It’s always a learning experience every weekend.”

KYLE KRISILOFF, No. 14 LILLY/WALGREENS FORD: “To be honest the car was pretty good compared to what it was in practice. I probably left quite a bit out there. It got a little loose off of two but I didn’t drive it in that hard. I didn’t get everything out of it like I’d like to. That’s probably one of the first times this year where I honestly feel pretty bad after qualifying. I usually feel I can get pretty much everything out of the car. I left a little bit out there. The car wasn’t that bad. I think it’ll race decent, better than we’ve been. My guys did a great job today. Hopefully we can get a good run for Lilly and Walgreens tomorrow and a good run for Ford, too.”