Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 STAFF AMERICA CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 36TH.

"We've been struggling here for some reason. I can't get the car to drive like I want it to and that's the best lap that we've run. We worked on it and it's better but I don't know if it's good enough or not. Going early is usually never good and we have the benefit of going sixth so we'll see. We'll keep our fingers crossed. The times are playing out like they were we'll be in the race and we will race them instead of qualifying them."

COULD YOU TELL THE TRACK WARMED UP FROM PRACTICE?

"I think it's about the same, really. The air is still a little cool. I felt it was a little bit more humid earlier. I don't think it's a whole lot different but it's probably going to cool off. I think the guys that go right at the very end will have a little bit of luck on their side. We'll see what happens."

GREG BIFFLE IN THE NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD WAS THE HIGHEST QUALIFYING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE AT ATLANTA. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN THE 2003 SEASON THAT BIFFLE HAS TAKEN HOME TOP QUALIFYING ROOKIE HONORS. HE WILL START 20TH IN SUNDAY'S RACE.

"We were nervous about the weather. The weather has changed a lot; it's heated up a lot. We got off base a little bit. We weren't good at the end (of practice), panicked, and tightened it up a lot. I thought that second lap was going to be maybe a .20 or something. The car was running really good and I don't know why it was so slow, it was a .37. We got a conservative first lap. I got through three and four just awesome. I mean I barely lifted down there and it's not as fast as I thought it should have been. I'm pretty happy with it so far. I think we are in the race. That's what we need to do, just get some laps."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO RUN WELL AFTER LAST WEEK?

"We just got behind last week. Our car wasn't done in time. It was one of the first cars we did and the body wasn't as good as it needed to be. There's a lot of little things, not any one thing got us out of the race. A bunch of little stuff: wrong style chassis, maybe the body off just a little bit, maybe I over-drove it a little bit. A lot of things complied together to make us miss that race and it's going to make us a better team because of that."

RANDY GOSS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"We tested last year here and we were decent but after last week you are a nervous wreck. It just takes one little thing wrong and the car doesn't handle and you are out of it. We're all pretty nervous, beating each other up all week. We're happy to be in the show. We always thought we were a humble team coming through the ranks but after last week I can assure you we are a humble team now. We had a big weather change (in qualifying) and you know the sun is shining, and you're not sure 'Man, did I get it tight enough?' because you changing so fast you can't keep up with it. I think one of the biggest things is that the rest of our Roush Racing teammates didn't laugh at us. They put their arms around us and said whatever you guys need for help and all that information, no matter how small, helps us and proved it today."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE, QUALIFIED 33RD.

"We were just loose. We had a good car out of the box this morning. We were a little too tight and went and freed it up a little bit and got a little loose this morning and came back on it and had a really good run later on in the morning. The track is totally different. If I would have been here one time before I would have never went with the car in qualifying but I didn't know. I had never been here before so I didn't know how much it was going to free up and it was like way, way too loose. It just sucks because we had a really good car and if we could have got the balance a little bit right I felt like we had a top-10 car. We were just way too loose for qualifying. All we had was a baseline off this morning and it was 30 degrees cooler. It made a big difference in the track and I guess these guys that have been here before and done it, they knew what to look for. I didn't."

JAMIE MCMURRAY IN THE NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE, QUALIFIED 31ST.

"I was worried that we were going to go home. We tested here and I thought we'd come back and have a shot at the pole. We had a great car testing and Sterling and Casey brought back the same setup and they were like 10th and 11th in practice. We struggled really bad, just very un-drivable. I don't know how to explain it. We sucked, that's the only way I know how to put it. We changed not a lot but just a little bit of stuff and we ended better than the other two. I'm glad to get this race out of the way. We'll get to have some points to go on for the next few races. Man, I'm just glad it's over with. I was telling them on the way up there that we were going to go home unless we pick up. We picked like four tenths from my last qualifying run. We're pretty happy with what we have."

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