BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"The car was just a tick more free - just a little bit. But, it wasn't too
bad. The guys gave me a great ride today. This is the same car we had here
last fall and qualified 39th here then, so I'm really tickled. That's a good
run for us. The guys did a great job again. We're looking forward to
tomorrow's practice and Sunday's race."
(WHAT IS THE SECRET TO GETTING AROUND HERE?) "I have no idea. If I had a
secret, I wouldn't tell you. But, to be honest with you, I don't know what
it is. We're really just happy that this Interstate Batteries Pontiac runs
as good as it does. Today, we qualified a lot better than we did last fall
with the same race car. We just did a few little things different and it
made a world of difference today. This will be a lot better than starting
39th."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
"I'm pretty happy with that. I told Greg (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) that
was all I could do there. That's the longest I could hold my breath."
(HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THAT YOUR QUALIFYING LAP?) "It's a wild lap, I can
tell you that. It was a little bit free. When Bobby [Labonte] went out and
made his run he said he was a little bit free with no changes. We didn't
make any changes either, so I was pretty sure that I was probably going to
be a little free to and I was. Not bad, by any means, but just enough that
it made it a real interesting ride for a whole lap around here."
JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(HOW BAD DID THE LACK OF CLOUD COVER HURT YOUR RUN?) "I don't know if it
hurt us a lot. I don't think the sun was out long enough to get any [heat in
the track], but you will always take all the clouds you can get. But, that
was pretty good. That was a good time for us. It was quite a bit faster than
practice, so we're happy with what the Valvoline Pontiac turned. If we get
it to race like that, we'll be in good shape."
(WHY DID YOU ONLY TAKE ONE LAP?) "I got scared. What do you think? I had
told them, 'You let me know as soon as possible if I need to run another one
or not.' I thought about it, but as I went down into one - I still got in
there pretty good. I was real happy about that. Then, as I started to leave
off of two I was getting a little more squirrelly than what I wanted to be,
knowing I had two more corners to go, so I aborted."
