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2001 Schedule and Results
MBNA America 500 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes
STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“That should get us close to somewhere in the top 10. I think the best
we’ve ever qualified with this car is ninth or 10th. It’s a racer, not a
qualifier. That was a lot better than we practiced. We were off all morning.
We put our heads together again and came up with a little deal. I held my
breath and made it. I don’t usually qualify good here, but I race good. This
is chassis 115, so maybe the Coors Light Dodge will come through for us
again. This car hasn’t finished out of the top five in six starts, so we’re
going to try to keep that streak alive.”
BUCKSHOT JONES (No. 44 Georgia Pacific Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“I honestly thought we were going to go a little faster than that. As
long as we back up what we do in practice, we’ll be all right. Hopefully
we’ll end up in the top 10. The car got a little bit too tight. We cut the
skirts a little bit, but maybe it wasn’t the skirts. It was still pretty good
for us. We’ve had a lot of problems qualifying, but it seems like we’ve got
that turned around pretty good. These motors are great, and Petty Enterprises
is starting to click. We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re making a
lot of improvements. It feels good running good on your home turf, but it
feels good running good no matter where you’re at. To come back here and run
good means a lot.”
JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T)
“We didn’t run as good as we tested here, but I think the track has
changed a little bit. I’m real happy. This Dodge Dealers Dodge is running
good, and we qualified faster than we practiced. We just keep making progress
and making it better. I’m real proud of these guys. They’re working hard to
get the feel I’m looking for, and we’re getting closer every week. We’re just
not as fast as we were in testing. We’ll find it. I’m still pumped up after
last week, but that was last week. Here we go again.”
JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“I’m happy with the car. I’m not happy with that time. I’ve been real
happy with the car. It’s the first time since Daytona I’ve been excited about
the car. We weren’t that good at Rockingham and I hated what we did at Las
Vegas. We should have got some rest last week because we certainly didn’t
show up there. I feel like I’ve got a good race car. At Vegas, I had to hold
my breath to qualify in the back of the field. Here, I ran a race lap
basically, and I feel pretty good about that. I feel bad that I didn’t try to
get more. I thought that if I tried for more I might push it up or something.
We’ll be happy with what we’ve got. I think it’ll end up being a pretty
decent starting position.”
BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T)
“It ain’t about me. It’s about the crew. It was a good run. I’m proud for
the guys. They work so hard week in and week out on this deal. To come here
to Atlanta and run good, that’s one part of it. We look at this deal as kind
of a building block for what we need to do. It threw some stuff at it that
was pretty much a gamble. We ended up practicing at a .40, and we knew that
wasn’t going to be good enough regardless. We decided to gamble and try a few
things. They threw it at it and I drove it out there and it was pretty good.
It was good. The car was good. This team is making me look better and better.
I do it (hold my breath) every week. The new configuration of this track has
kind of eluded me. If we can just get a decent start, we’ll be in pretty good
shape. This race track has been bad and good to be through the years, but if
we can just keep whittling away at this deal we’ll be in pretty good shape.
“I haven’t qualified that well here the last several years for whatever
reason. Mike Ford and all the guys have worked really hard. We didn’t test
down here. We changed some things after practice, and that was fine with me.
It paid off.
“I still feel like I can contribute to this race team. Ray has been very
supportive of me. He’s done a great job. He’s worked hard. I feel for him
week in and week out. It’ll probably hit me later how big this really is.
It’s been a long time (11 years) since I’ve been on the pole here in Atlanta.
To come back here and run this well, that’s part of what it’s all about. It’s
not about me. It’s about the guys on this team. They’ve worked their guts
out. We had a good run last week at Vegas and I think that’s carried over to
this week. If we can just keep that up, we’ll be in good shape.
“This is great. The fans here have been fantastic to me throughout the
years. When they reconfigured the race track I’ve had a hard time getting
hooked up to it. Today the guys found the setup. I drove it off in three and
it felt pretty good. They did what they needed to do. I did what I needed to
do and here we are.
“I look back on my career, and it’s been a great career. All these guys
have worked hard. Up until I came on with Ray, I didn’t know if I should keep
doing this or not. Days like today make it all worthwhile.”
KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“We never got good in practice. We were always a little bit off. We had a
team meeting and we threw some stuff Buckshot had done and some stuff John
had done at it. We made a couple of changes and it helped us pick up about
three tenths. Buckshot had a good lap and John had a good lap. Buckshot has
been good since he got here. This is his hometown, so he has to be good.”
SHAWNA ROBINSON (No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“We made a lot of changes before qualifying. I struggled in practice on
feeling the car. I communicated with the guys and we went over our notes. We
made a lot of changes on it and we got in a good lap. I’ve got plenty of
horsepower, and I’m a different type of driver. I’m a gear driver. The gear
changes the whole way I feel about the car. My choice of the gear is a little
different than most people in the garage. We’re learning. We’re a new team,
and after Vegas I came here with my head hanging a little bit. I don’t need
to do that. I’m a good race driver or I wouldn’t be out here. Now we race.
We’re going to race in Atlanta. We’re not going to get out of the way all day
long. We had a reason why we were getting out of the way in Vegas. The car
wasn’t right, but we’ll be good here.”
WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“The team has been able to give me some good cars here, and I’ve been
able to stay out of trouble. We don’t usually qualify that great here. I feel
confident going into Sunday. We’ll work hard on race setup Saturday. We
learned a ton from the spring race to the fall race last year. We won’t be
back there in the back too long after they drop the green flag.”
CASEY ATWOOD (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“The car drives real, real good. We just can’t get any speed. We picked
up a little from practice, but everybody picked up. I think we’ve got a good
handling car, and it should be good in the race.”
JIMMY SPENCER (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“We’ve got a good race team. I couldn’t ask for anything better. The
motors are fantastic. Give a driver a good motor and a good car and his
confidence will go up every race. I’m sure mine will. I’m looking forward to
the rest of this year. I hold my breath as soon as I start turning the
steering wheel. I feel like if you hold your breath it makes a nice line
through the corner. It’s just something I’ve done my whole life. I knew my
car was good, and I messed up in the first turn. I never got myself situated
right in the corner. My car rolled up off three and four real free. We had a
really good car down here testing. I think we’ll have a top 10 car on Sunday.
“I think Atlanta is probably one of the best race tracks we go to right
now. It almost reminds me of the old Atlanta. There’s two distinctive
grooves. You can run high or low. You’ve got throttle response and you can
back off if a guy is pressing the issue on you. You can get in a rhythm here
and run well. We qualified fourth last week and fifth this week, so I feel
like we’re gaining on it. We got a top 10 last week, so maybe we can work our
way up to a top five on Sunday.”
BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
“I don’t know that it’s even here, I think it’s anywhere. Last week we
had a good run. We just need to keep picking away at it. The more we stay
together and the stronger Ray’s group gets, the better this race team will
be. Jeremy had a great run last week. They did some things right toward the
end of the race. If you keep that momentum going, that’s what you’ve got to
do in this business. It doesn’t change from year to year. I think I look back
on my career and the biggest thing I couldn’t keep was consistency from year
to year. That’s what I’ve been able to do. I got a good group of people in
2000 when I still have my own deal and some of those guys carried over to
last year and now we’ve been able to strengthen that deal even more this year.
“You just do what you’ve got to do. Somebody asked me how fast we went in
the corner here, and I have no idea. It’s irrelevant. You’re just trying to
get everything you can out of the race car. The main thing is the race track
has changed enough and if you can move around enough on the race track, it
should make a good race for the fans come Sunday afternoon. That’s really
what it’s all about.
“Ray really believes in what he feels like I can do. He puts a lot of
support behind me and so do Mike and these guys. We come into this deal and
win, lose or draw, we go back and work that much harder. I give credit to
these guys. They support me through thick and thin. I’m just a small part of
this big puzzle. Ray and all these guys are the big picture. To be able to
put this kind of equipment under me makes you go out and drive that much
harder. Everyone has to work together or it’s not going to work.”
BOB WILDBERGER (Senior Manager NASCAR Operations -- Dodge Motorsports)
“This is still a young program. We have one full year under our belts
with seven poles and four wins. Obviously the Dodge contingent is doing an
outstanding job this year. This is our first pole this year, and we’re very
proud, especially for Bill Elliott to pull off a pole at Atlanta, his
hometown track. We’ve got two wins and now a pole this year, and Dodge is
really blessed with having some outstanding teams. The teams working together
make the difference for us. Our program continues to grow. As a manufacturer,
you can’t do it all with one party. You need to have a good set of teams
working together. No one is going to have a good day at every race. You’re
going to have some ups and downs, but if you have enough depth, it just can’t
get any better than that. We expected to have to grow the depth, but we’ve
got quite a number of teams capable of running up front now. That’s huge.”
2001 Schedule and Results
In-Car Radios | Silly Season | Forum | Photo Gallery | Newsletter | In the Pits
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