Food City 500 - GM Qualifying Quotes

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/GOT MILK? CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"That's a pretty decent lap. We picked up a little bit from practice, which we had hoped we were going to. That gets us a pretty good starting spot."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"The first lap wasn't exactly what I wanted. I hit the apron a little bit going into one, so I knew I had to try hard on that second lap. I had a great car. It should have been a little quicker, but we're real happy. That is the fastest we've ever really run here before."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"It wasn't bad. The car was pretty good. It's just that qualifying is so tight here. But, we made some changes before qualifying because the qualifying run we made (in practice) wasn't as good as we would have liked to have had."

TONY STEWART, NO. HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"It was a good lap, but it could have been much better provided I didn't do the big 'slide for life' off of four with my foot on the floor and my arms crossed to the right. For the most part, being able to pull out a 15.16 off of that was good. I thought my second lap was going to be the lap that was going to be better. To be able to run what we ran on the first lap, considering how bad a run I got to the line - I didn't have any momentum when I got down on the front stretch, so we gave up a bunch of time. Looking at the times, I think we could have been second or third quick if I hadn't have done that."

(THAT KEEPS YOU FROM GETTING BORED IN QUALIFYING, THOUGH...) "It got my attention. I thought I was going to be rolling out a backup car for a split second."

JERRY NADEAU, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"It was a smooth lap. The guys did a good job. The car has been comfortable ever since we unloaded. I'm anxious to see it in the race.

"We've been decent in every qualifying session. It's just a matter now of having a little luck on our side during the race. We've gotten bit a little bit the last two or three weeks, but I'm looking to have a good run this weekend."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(THAT'S QUITE AN EFFORT WITH A BACKUP CAR...) "I put these guys in a hole - any time you pull out a backup car. You try to bring your best stuff, but I really feel like this car is better than the other one, so maybe it is an omen for us.

"I just wish we'd had more time with it. We could run a lot faster than that, but we were just too tight in qualifying. The field is just so close. If you could pick up a tenth, that would have been 15 spots for us. But, we'll take that."

(THAT STILL GIVES YOU LIFE FOR SUNDAY, WITH A FRONT-STRETCH PIT STALL...) "It does. You can win these races from anywhere, but it gets tougher at the shorter places like this. But I'll guarantee you, starting 21st, we still have a shot to win. We've just got to do all the right things in race mode. I always run good here in race mode, so we've just got to make sure we get good track position and hopefully we can keep that."

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"I started cussing on the radio - I probably shouldn't have. I'm really proud of our guys. Our Pontiac did a good job for us. It stuck like glue through both ends of the racetrack. We got in the gas and the motor started skipping. It just went flat until it got almost to the start-finish line and then it took off. It did it both laps. I don't know what's wrong.

"But, this Pontiac was on time through the corners. She was bad-ass."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(YOU ALMOST GOT ANOTHER POLE HERE...) "Well, almost because I was second - not almost if you look at the times. My God - that's an unbelievable lap that Ryan put out there. Those guys have got to be real proud of that. But, I was extremely happy all day. The car was great in qualifying. I don't know how we could have gone much faster. I certainly don't know how I could have gone fast enough to beat Ryan. But, the car felt great. It was balanced, fast and it's another good starting position at Bristol, so we're real happy with that."

(YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR CHANCES SUNDAY?) ": Absolutely. Once you get in the race things change quite a bit. We'll come in here tomorrow and know we've got great pit location, great starting position and get ready to go racing and get the car balanced on the long run."

(HOW WAS THE CAR FOR QUALIFYING?) "It's as good as any car I've ever had here - as good as I could have expected. When I finished with the lap I couldn't have been more pleased. The car did everything I wanted it to do. That's the fastest I had gone all day. I'll be honest, when I ran the lap and they told me my time, I thought the way it felt it felt like a 14.99 or 15-flat. They said, '15.06,' and I was like, 'Good lap, but I think that somebody is going to beat it.' I didn't expect somebody to beat it by two tenths almost."

(DOES THE CAR FEEL AS FAST HERE AS IT LOOKS?) "It feels a lot faster from where I'm sitting than it looks, I can tell you that. It's so funny. I was thinking this earlier when I made some of the first laps.

"We go to Atlanta and Charlotte or Daytona or wherever and the cars look pretty darn fast on the racetrack, but inside they don't feel as fast. Here, it's the exact opposite. They don't look as fast when you're watching them as they actually feel when you're in the seat driving them."

(WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET TWO MORE TENTHS OUT OF A CAR?) "I don't know. It's Bristol and it can't be horsepower, handling - it's just flat-out getting after it and just go racing. This is one of those places where you run extremely hard and aggressive. Like I said, my car was balanced. It came off the corner great. It drove in the corner great. I got back in the gas hard. It did everything I wanted it to do and I was pleased."

(ON BEING SECOND ON THE LAST LAP OF THIS RACE) "I'm not sure I've been second too many times on the last lap. I'm either first or I'm like not in the ballpark. It just depends on how close you are. I've said it several times. I think if you're at Bristol or Martinsville, if you're leading the race and you let that guy get to you, you'd better expect it coming and vice-versa. I say that knowing that I might be in that position, leading and there might be somebody behind me. It might be Rusty. It might be somebody else. Knowing my history here, I don't think it necessarily has to be Rusty. I think it could be anybody else. They'd say, 'Well heck, if he was behind me I know what he would do to me.'

"Just don't wreck me. Knock me out of the way, but at least let me come back to the finish line."

(WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE FINISHES LIKE LAST WEEK?) "I think wins are much harder to come by these days. You look at Ricky Craven in that position - and Kurt. They both are just really hungry, wanting to win. You don't know when those things are going to come around. That is what you're going to see. If you see two guys that are close and have a shot at that win, you're going to see both of them get everything they possibly can - even if it means tearing the cars up. That was a wheel to wheel deal where they just stood on the gas and drove into one another and just said, 'Who is going to slide across the line first?' I don't think there are too many guys in the Winston Cup garage that aren't hungry enough to do that to try to get a win."

(WHY IS QUALIFYING UP FRONT SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT HERE?) "We're seeing qualifying become so important everywhere because track position and the aero-thing is the deal everywhere else. Here it's a one-groove racetrack, so it's extremely hard to pass. You'll work on a guy for 10, 20 laps hoping he make a mistake to even get your nose up underneath him if you're faster. Then, if he doesn't do that then you kind of force him to make a mistake. It doesn't guarantee you anything, but it certainly helps to kind of get yourself into a pace, not to mention a great place to pit your car on pit road."

(ON KNOCKING SOMEONE OUT OF THE WAY HERE) "I think it's a little ridiculous to do that early in the race. You've got a long way ahead of you. You don't need to make enemies early in the race. You'll be a lot more patient before you move a guy out of your way early in the race than you would at the end of the race. At the end of the race, you're coming down the finish - especially if you're going for the win. Basically, at the end of the race you'll let that guy block you once. At the beginning of the race you'll let him block you four or five times before you go ahead and use a bumper or do something to move him out of the way."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"This is not at all where we hoped to qualify. The Pennzoil Chevrolet was really tight and we just couldn't pick up the speed that we needed. So, we'll start somewhere in the back and work our way up to the front again.

"As a team, we have to start qualifying better. We knew that going into this weekend, and that was our goal: to qualify up front and stay up front. Unfortunately, it didn't work out how we had planned."

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