Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid)

"That's all we've got. We had a good day. That wasn't the best, but it certainly isn't going to be the slowest. We picked up from practice, and that's all you can hope for. We had a bad draw. We went out third, but that's the way it goes. It was free. I like Atlanta. It's always been good to me. We'll see where we end up, and we'll get ready to race tomorrow."

JEFF GREEN (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid)

"That was just a blink better than we practiced, and of course we were hoping to pick it up. We'll take what we've got, see where we end up and get ready to race."

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)

"We moved some lead around in the car. We changed air pressure and we changed the rear gear. We made three big changes and it really woke it up and made it feel better. I was a little loose coming off turn two, but going into one had been my big problem and we fixed that. It's bottoming out real hard, and it ended up being the side skirts. We cut the side skirts up about half an inch on the left side and about a quarter inch on the right. It made it a lot better. I just wish I had known that at first. I think I could have fixed that little looseness off two and picked up some more speed. I think the later it gets the faster it'll get tonight. We raced this car at Charlotte and ran really good. We went from 14th to fourth in nothing flat and ran anywhere from second to seventh all night long and had a pit stop problem and fell back to 11th. It's the 43 car. We don't have a name for it yet.

"I pinch myself all the time (wondering what I have to do to get a break). My butt is red right now from pinching it so much. I've just got to get all the moons to line up. You've got to have the right pit stops, the right calls because it's all strategy racing right now until we get the new rules next year.

"It's absolutely more dramatic qualifying at night. I understand that. I'd rather race at night, too. My guys are only going to get about six hours sleep tonight, and they've got to be back at work early tomorrow morning to get the cars ready for practice. I don't like that, but I do like the night qualifying. It's dramatic for the fans. It's cooler. I like it when it's cool out there, and my car doesn't slide around."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light/St. Judes Children's Hospital Dodge)

"This is a new type car for us. It bottomed out on our banzai run in practice, so we had to make some changes. We didn't pick it up very much at all, and we're probably not going to end up with a very good starting spot. We'll get it ready to race and see if we can give 'em a run for their money on Sunday."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid)

NOTE: Newman's ninth pole of the season clinches his second straight season-long Bud Pole Award. Newman won seven poles last season as a rookie en route to the Bud Pole Award. He now has 16 career poles in 77 attempts.

"That was a strong lap. I really like this racetrack. It's been good for me. We've got a good qualifying history here, and our race history isn't bad. We'll do what we can to get the ALLTEL/Mobil 1 Dodge better in race trim, but it sure felt good in qualifying trim. My first lap out on the racetrack, I hit everything right and the balance was right. My second lap, the 6 blew up in front of me, so we couldn't back anything up. The car was really good right off the truck, and that makes it easier for me. It'd be cool to win the Bud Pole Award again, but we're just out there doing the best we can each and every time whether it's in qualifying or in race trim. The guys did an awesome job, and I'm just proud to be able to qualify like that."

WHAT DID YOU TELL BRIAN VICKERS RIGHT AFTER HIS RUN? "I just wanted to see if his hands were shaking after his lap because mine were. To me it's not as much scary fast. You've just got to hit your marks right. If you miss one a little bit, six or 10 inches on entry, it could be two or three feet on exit. It always wants to go toward the wall. It never wants to go to the infield. Your hands shake a little bit, but it's not too bad.

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid)

"I'm just glad it's over. I didn't lift. It's so much different from qualifying to racing here. It's a different world. Qualifying at night didn't bother me, night, day, whatever it takes. I'm glad we're not racing here at night."

COMMENT ON FUTURE PLANS "If I had something to say, then I'd tell you, but there's really no reason to. It wouldn't be fair for me to do that to everyone involved right now. Like I've said before, I don't have all the answers. When we do, then we'll be able to say something."

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Havoline Dodge Intrepid)

"We unloaded good and went backwards. I would have been happy with a top 10 qualifying run, but we didn't quite make it. I gave it all I had, but the good thing is this car is just as fast when we untape it. We've run it at Indy, Pocono and Charlotte, and it's really been a good car."

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Georgia Pacific Dodge Intrepid)

"That was a pretty good lap. Everyone did a good job. The guys worked hard on the car all day, and it paid off. Now we'll get it ready to race. I hope we can do that Sunday."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid)

NOTE: Newman's lap of 194.295 mph was the fastest qualifying lap of the season.

"I figured the track was going to be faster than it was in the day, which is typically true. It didn't turn out to be as fast as a typical Charlotte day to night qualifying run, but it definitely was faster. Our car unloaded good right off the truck as far as speed wise. It felt good, it drove good. It's the same car we had in Charlotte and the same car we had three years ago in the ARCA Series. It was the car we had for my first Winston Cup pole at Charlotte in the spring of 2001. Overall, it's been a good car.

"I don't think pressure is maybe the right word. I try to put myself in position to have a shot for the pole as far as how hard I work in making an effort to do well. Matt and the team does the exact same thing. It's a team sport, and I go out there and drive the car for what it's worth. When we get the pole, it feels good.

"The momentum was built throughout the season to be able to unload that fast and for me to have the confidence in the car as well as the nuts and bolts and everything else the guys put on it to know that it holds together tight and holds together right. That confidence has been continuously building the last three years. To be able to unload that fast, obviously you've got to have your stuff together. Matt and the guys do an awesome job with that. I'm the nut behind the wheel that gets an opportunity to do that.

"I'd do that (look back at the beginning of the season), but my time machine is broke, so it doesn't make any difference. It would be nice to be able to say that, but you're really just wasting time spinning your wheels when you try to think back to what might have been. You can think back and learn from the past and apply it to the future, but what might have been doesn't make us any faster right now.

"The only reason I hesitate to say yeah is because to me it doesn't matter (if I think we have the best team in racing).We just go out and do the best job we can. I think we've got a great team. To say it's the best team, I don't know how you'd say that, but I'm comfortable. I think the guys do an awesome job. We all make mistakes now and again, and it's how you overcome those mistakes that make the best team.

"I don't really sit and think about it. Before we go out to qualify, it's not like my goal today is to go out and beat Geoff Bodine's qualifying record whatever year it was when he ran 197 I don't think about those things when I'm here. I just focus on what I need to focus on from a team standpoint and my job standpoint. There are times I think about it, whether I'm fishing or working on an old car. It's like I can't believe so and so. I can't believe this or that or whatever. It's a great feeling, but I kind of live it more with my dad and family. They're more mature in that respect. They've seen me be here and looking for a ride and they've seen me be here in this position on the pole. I see more through their reactions and actions than my own."

"Some people clean their house and some people don't. It's how you want to be and how you want to live. To me, everything that we're capable of winning is what we go after as a team. Everybody is different. Everybody has got different attitudes. Ours is to go after everything.

"I knew the potential was definitely there (for someone to go faster). I said in my post-qualifying interview I felt the car balance was just a bit off and we could have a tick more speed. I thought it was a good lap. I knew Vickers had a good car and was running good. You never count out Bobby Labonte or Bill Elliott at this racetrack. It was just a ticking timebomb to see if it went off.

"Nobody knows when Ricky (Rudd) started in '77. I was born in '77. That's 25 or 26 years he's been driving in Winston Cup. I don't see myself driving that long. Nobody knows what it's going to be like 20 years from now, world wise, race wise or anything else. There's a lot of things that's changed from the time he was a rookie to where he is now. There's going to be a lot of things than change from when I was a rookie until then. It all depends on how things go. I don't really know. I don't think I would race quite that long.

"I ran my lap and came in, got out of the car, did a couple of interviews. Brian Vickers was still in the car. I walked over to him and stuck my hand out and he thought I wanted to shake his hand. I said, 'no put your hand out. I want to see if it's still shaking.' He either had less time to think about shaking or he wasn't shaking as bad as I was. It definitely gets to your nerves, just trying to hit your marks and do your job. If you're concentrated and focused you'll put that pressure on yourself and do those things.

"It's only scary when you lose that bit of control. You can be off a foot in entry and you can be off three feet in the exit. That can make the difference in hitting the wall and not hitting the wall. That's the scary part, you have to know in three and four if you're going to be close to the wall coming off four. You've got a second and half to figure that out, and that happens quick when you're running 195 mph. That's the scary part being able to predict the path your car is going to take if you're a little bit loose or a little bit tight."

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid) - Fastest rookie qualifier. Starts 14th

"It was a better qualifying effort than we've had all year. We picked up a lot from practice, and the guys did a good job getting the car right. Hopefully that directly relates to the race tomorrow. We had a good Busch car in Happy Hour, and we're correlating a lot of stuff from that to the Cup car. Hopefully we'll be good tomorrow in race trim, but it was definitely a good lap for us.

"No doubt, and I'm not really hiding anything when I say we've had a tough year. I stepped into Winston Cup Racing I feel a little bit too soon. It was a great opportunity. It's a good team, and they've supported me all the way through. I've learned a ton. I can't believe how much I've learned from the beginning of the year until now. I'm feeling more and more comfortable, just like running that lap around here tonight. I qualified here once before, and we came back and did better. Last week in Martinsville. I think we were like four or five laps down the first race at Martinsville this year, and we came back and finished on the lead lap 17th. Some of our results haven't shown it and some of them have. I'm really looking forward to getting the rest of this season under my belt, and I'm looking forward to next year."

JIMMY SPENCER (No. 7 Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge Intrepid)

"We've been battling a tight race car since we unloaded. We weren't real good in practice, but we picked up a little in qualifying. It's still not where we'd like to be. This is a track we qualified really well here in the spring (fifth). We brought back the same car, but it isn't working through three and four like it did here in the spring. Hopefully we'll get it figured out before Sunday. We finished seventh here last time, and the Sirius boys could really use another top 10 this weekend."

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