Sharpie 500 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 CITGO Taurus (Qualified 38th) - "We really struggled today. We unloaded trying some stuff that helped us in qualifying at Michigan and also tried some stuff that we had tried at Darlington last week testing. Unfortunately, those things didn't work very good for us but we picked up from practice. Certainly that's not as good as we need to be, but I've struggled here in qualifying for a long time and that was a gain from what we ran in practice. I'm OK with that."

DAVE BLANEY - No. 77 Jasper Engines Taurus (Qualified 15th) - "I thought both laps were real good. We ran like a .35 in practice so we messed up our stickers a little bit. I was hoping we could just run in the twenties, but we got it down to a 17 so we're pleased. Wherever that ends up we're happy. That was the best it handled all day. Bootie's guys did a good job."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus (Qualified 34th) - "I got completely sideways down there in three and four. I thought I was gonna spin out, but I got it saved. We ended up doing a .27 or something like that, so I guess it's not bad. I feel bad, though. I overdrove the corner maybe a little bit, I don't know. It's cooled off a bunch now. If it keeps going down like this, we'll be in provisional land - if it doesn't rain." DOES THE WEATHER MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE HERE? "Oh yeah, it's gonna speed up. I don't think that will be the pole, I think you'll see somebody beat that."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Qualified 27th) - "That lap was good. We picked up about a tenth from what we practiced, but we need to pick up just a little bit more. I'm pretty happy. We picked up a lot since we got here today and I'm happy with the way the car is driving." IS THIS A TEMPERAMENTAL TRACK EVEN THOUGH IT'S CONCRETE? "It probably doesn't change quite as much, but it does have an effect. With the sun out it certainly is a slicker surface, so as it cools off you'll get more grip. There's a little bit more of an advantage like that."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus (Qualified 8th) - "That's about like it was in practice. That's just a tick quicker than we ran. We ran a .19 and that was about a .10." DID THE WAIT SEEM LONGER WITH THE RAIN? "Yeah, it was such a long time since we had practiced and we were good in practice. You try to do all these mental things remembering how you ran that quick lap earlier because it's been a couple, three, four hours since we've been in the car. I was afraid I was gonna miss my marks, but everything worked out fine. That track seemed to be about exactly the same, so it doesn't seem to be an advantage or disadvantage to have waited, other than the anticipation was a little strong waiting to go because we knew we were good. It's been a real good day. Everything worked to get started off and it just got better and better."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (Qualified 17th) - "I guess it just took a little bit for my tires to come in. The car was a little tight the first lap but freed up some the second lap. I was just feeling a little bit too tight, but I'm so proud of these guys. We probably unloaded as the slowest car here, but it looks like we'll get a top 15 or top 16 starting position, so we'll see what happens." DO YOU THINK THE RAIN HELPED? "It might have helped some, but you don't ever know. The sun was out more than what it was before the rain, so it might have been a wash but we're definitely better than the way we were in practice. We're happy about that and I know the guys are gonna give me a good race setup. We'll go from there."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Qualified 2nd) - "My car was just right for those conditions. It was real fast and it was over with before I knew it. I didn't feel it was that good and I was hoping I'd be 15th or something like that, so I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know if the rain helped or hurt. The sun is out now, so I don't really know. We had a pretty good car in practice, but, obviously, we qualified better than we practiced."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Rubbermaid Taurus (Qualified 5th) - DID THE RAIN HELP? "Yeah, we got hurt at Michigan by the rain and today it may have gone our way. Hopefully, that lap will stick and get us towards the front." HOW WAS THE LAP? "Yeah, I had just a little bit of a tight condition and that was in the center of three and four and it snapped loose off of four. A couple of more times out on the track and we would have found more speed." HOW WILL A GOOD STARTING SPOT HELP AFTER ALL THE DISTRACTIONS THIS WEEK? "It will be a great boost for the team just to know that I'm behind them and I can go out here and do my job with or without distractions."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Qualified 10th) - "It was good. I would have liked to have run a little quicker. I guess everyone else is running quicker. There's a lot of grip out there. I was probably a little bit too tight and I probably could have driven it a little bit harder, but it's alright. We'll have a good place to start." IS THIS A FUN TRACK FOR YOU? "Yeah, it's a fun track. We've had some really good cars the last three or four times we've been here, so I'm looking forward to it. This car drives really good and when you've got a car that drives good here, it's always fun to race." NICE TO BE NEAR THE TOP IN PRACTICE AND COME OFF THE TRUCK FAST? "Yeah, we've been running good. I wish we could qualify a little better, but the car has been driving good and I think it'll be good in the race."

MARK MARTIN PRESS CONFERENCE - HOW WAS YOUR LAP? "I don't remember. It went by so fast, I don't know. I'm just real happy with that. We haven't been able to do anything right, including draw 39th. We thought that was gonna be a good draw and it got cool and overcast and everybody ran fast, then the rain came and I thought, 'Well, now the sun is gonna be out and we're gonna be on the tail end of the bad draw deal again,' but it turned out to not be an issue. Ben Leslie and the guys had a really good setup on the car and made it possible to crank out a lap like that." WILL THIS PUMP YOU UP FOR THE RACE, BEING ON THE FRONT ROW? "It's OK. It's a starting spot and is sure beats starting in the back and the pit selection is horrendous. Once you get in the back of this thing it's just unbelievable. We had a pretty good car here in the spring. We qualified bad, got halfway through the field and had to turn around and go back to the back of the field again based on a problem in the pits, I think, or something. It's a nightmare when you do that. Just because we start up front doesn't mean we're gonna be dealt a nightmare. We have to stay fast in the pits, get a good selection, stay fast in the pits and stay fast on the race track and stay out of trouble. We need to do all those things - have the car setup right and everything else just in order to have a chance to run in the top 10. So there's a lot more to it than most people think." WHAT WOULD IT DO FOR YOUR TEAM TO WIN HERE? "My race team deserves it. They have done a winning job of keeping their morale up and keeping their nose to the grindstone. Just because we haven't had good luck on the race track this year and we've had some sub-par performances doesn't mean that they don't deserve the same kind of success that we've enjoyed in the past. So I would be real happy for them. It would be good for me, but these guys are the ones that deserve it. I've been blessed with a terrific career, with much more success than I probably even deserve, so I'm not feeling cheated right now but I do feel like they've sort of been cheated a little bit." CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF BRISTOL? "The concrete is tougher to race on than the asphalt was and 43 cars is much more difficult than 36 was. The rate of difficulty here in today's racing is probably the most intense and the most difficult of anything we do - certainly one of - and as Michael (Waltrip) said, you have to come into this thing with the mindset of 'we're putting on a show,' because you can't control so many things that happen to you here. You can't control everything anywhere, but, here, you can't hardly control anything that happens to you. It is a difficult race, but it is definitely a fan favorite." KURT MADE SOME COMMENTS ABOUT RACING TACTICS AND KNOCKING FENDERS IN AND THAT BEING ACCEPTABLE TO DAMAGE ANOTHER DRIVER'S AERODYNAMICS. COULD YOU COMMENT ON THAT? "What do you want me to say?" WOULD YOU KNOCK SOMEONE'S FENDER IN? "Look, you've seen me race forever. If I tried to knock someone's fender in, the only thing that would happen would knock mine in (laughing). There ain't no dang way. Not only would I knock mine in, but the hood would fly off (laughing). You know me. That wouldn't work for me. I don't know. I wasn't here for Kurt's press conference. I'm a big supporter of Kurt Busch. Kurt Busch has given me the respect on the race track - more than I deserve. I can't say what kind of respect he's given to certain other competitors, but I know he drives a really fast car and he's a really good driver and he's fairly aggressive like a number of other young race car drivers out there that drive really fast cars. I might be biased on Kurt Busch's behalf, but I don't see him causing anymore trouble than any of those other young guys that drive really fast race cars out there, but, yet, I haven't been driving the 7 car so I can't answer for that. I know that you're gonna have problems on the race track from time to time with anybody. I've had my problems on the race track with drivers, but the thing that has helped me along the way is I've had a history of when something went bad on the race track of saying, 'Look, now you know that I made a mistake. You know I made a mistake and I can't change that.' And we've been able to put things behind us that have happened between some other drivers very easily because when I've made the ugliest of mistakes, I've been forgiven because of my history. That's what every driver has to do is build a history out there and as he builds that history over a long period of time, people will judge how much tolerance they have for things that go on out there. That's the way it's done. Everybody is building that. I'm still building mine and some of these rookies are building theirs as we speak, so I don't know where to go with all that. I haven't been involved in those skirmishes, so I really don't know. Honestly, I don't know what the problem is. I don't know why those guys are having trouble. I don't understand that because neither one of them really should. I don't know what's up and why they've had trouble."

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