Food City 500 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes

DODGE DRIVERS GRAB FOUR OF TOP FIVE QUALIFYING SPOTS AT BRISTOL - Ryan Newman wins pole; Ken Schrader, third; Rusty Wallace, fourth; Bill Elliott, fifth.

KEN SCHRADER (No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge Intrepid) - Third Fastest

"We needed a decent starting spot a lot more than we needed a pole. I told the team I could have got another .05, but you'd have to work on the car for me to run an .89. I couldn't do that. Scott Eggleston (crew chief) always runs good here, and he said we'd be good when we unloaded. He (Newman) just had a little more of everything. Our stuff felt good.

"He's real young and real brave. He's a real good race car driver. Everybody who went up there and qualified is pretty brave, but they've just got their whole deal together. You can't just be brave. Brave won't get it. Brave will get you into the turn faster, but it won't get you through the turn and elapsed time faster. He's doing his job, and he's doing it real good. There's a lot of other stuff that's right, too.

"Getting Scott Eggleston over there helped a lot. Beth Ann and Tony made a commitment to run the full season. They're getting all their cars alike. They built all new stuff over the winter. This is a rebuilt one from last year. This is the fourth time this year we've run it because we like it. There's some other stuff sitting there, but we liked it. I don't think I screwed 'em up too bad, but they were doing a lot of stuff right to start with.

"If you're leading and that person gets to you, whether you check up a little bit or you're fading or they were coming on stronger, but if they get to you then you've just got to expect something happening. It's not obnoxiously getting run over, but sometimes in the middle of the turns they're ready to go and you're not quite ready yet and they just wiggle you a little bit and that's all it takes, but you've got to expect it.."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid) - Pole Man

"Everything happened just right. I was so surprised with that lap. I knew we had a fast car in practice, but I didn't think we were capable of going that fast, let alone beating Jeff (Gordon). It was just a great team effort. We came back and worked on the car a little bit after practice, but to come back and be that fast is really awesome.

"That's the most amazed I've ever been after a qualifying run to go that fast and not anticipate it. We picked up over a quarter of a second from where we practiced, and that's just unheard of at Bristol. It was a great team effort for the ALLTEL Dodge, and that's really all I can say. I told the guys on the team we all did it today because we had struggled a little bit.

"We learned a little bit today for sure what we messed up on in the fall race here (last year). We had a pretty decent car, but I don't think a winning car at the time.

"I made a mistake and Tony got into the back of me coming down the front straight. It ended our chances for the win. In the fall, we got a lap down and tried to get it back and got caught up in a couple of wrecks. Both races here last year we came away with broken radiators. I'd never hit anybody in the front and I got hit from behind so obviously we weren't fast enough. Hopefully this year it will change.

"It's bumpy, so when your car is off it gets off in the bumps. That's kind of what happened in one and two there. It just started to come around. Luckily it came around the way it did and I stayed in the middle of the race track. You've got to have confidence to go back out and go after it. You can't go back out there and say I don't want to go fast because I just spun out. It's all about giving everybody on the team a fair shot.

"It's important here to start up front, but I think it's more important actually to get a good chance at a good pit stall for the race. Obviously we'll take one of the advantageous pit stops. There's a lot of disadvantageous pit stalls, and we got caught up in some of that last year, too, and not being able to make up any spots in the pits. If we can make the best out of every good situation, then we should be able to be pretty good on Sunday.

"The bottom line is you're in control as a driver until somebody else is out of control. Then you're at their mercy if you're in their territory. Whether it's an accident that happens in front of you or behind you or somebody tries to get underneath you and gets loose and slides up into you. You've got as much control here as anywhere else, but at the same time it's the kind of control that can be taken away sooner and faster. This type of racing is similar to restrictor-plate racing in that you're going to get caught up in something if you're in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

"I like the history of the sport. I think it's neat to see where the sport is today and to know where it came from. It makes it that much sweeter to know that people used to come here and all there was was a hill to sit on. That's kind of amazing. To come here now and see how things have changed and see how the financial part of the world takes care of the sport... Listening to Buddy's (Baker's) stories, you hear some of those stories, and it's like wow, you guys were that crazy back then. Everybody looks at me and asks, 'are you that crazy running around here in 14 seconds?' It's a different way of looking at two different worlds, but they're both close to the same."

KENNY WALLACE (No. 23 Stacker2 Dodge Intrepid)

"The car was pretty good in practice, but we were just bad loose everywhere when we went out there to qualify."

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

"It was a little on the free side. We thought we were in really good shape. When Gordon busted off that flat, I knew it was going to be hard to beat. The track got real sensitive for some reason. I feel good about the race. I love this race track, and that's got a lot to do with it. A lot of it is mental. I hope we're going to start in the top 10, and as long as you can do that, usually you can stay out of trouble. That's what we're hoping for."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid)

"We picked up from practice. We made some changes and made a good call right there at the end. I think we're ready to race. We've learned some things testing, and I think we're going to be able to apply it Sunday."

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)

"I got everything I could get out of it. I got more than I deserved in one and two. In three and four, I had to burp the throttle one time and that cost me the pole right there. I was really going after it. One and two was killer. We'll be ready to race after practice Saturday. I really like Bristol. I've always qualified well here. It was a pretty good lap."

KEN SCHRADER (No. 49 BAM Racing Dodge Intrepid)

"We needed a good effort more than we needed the pole. I might have left a little out there, but I didn't leave the pole out there. We've been good since we got here. I'm anxious to see what we can do Sunday."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid)

"That was a pretty good lap. I was just hanging on. I didn't expect it to be that fast, but I knew we were going pretty good. I told the guys after the lap, 'you didn't think I could beat him (Jeff Gordon) did you?' I thought it was going to be pretty hard, but to pull out a .90 is pretty amazing. The guys worked hard on this ALLTEL Dodge in practice, and they did a great job. I'm happy to be driving the car. The car stuck like you wouldn't believe, and I put the pedal to it and it took it. It was just a good team effort."

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