MBNA Armed Forces Family 400 - GM Qualifying Quotes

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 9th: "The balance of the car was about the same. It was just a little bit free getting in and a little bit tight off. I just could not really get back to the throttle, and I couldn't drive up on the corner the way I had been. We thought we'd be a little bit better. I don't know, I thought there as less grip out there and that hurt us, and some other guys have been able to go pretty fast, even when the temperature's going up."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 5th: "I'm pretty satisfied with that. The first lap I overdrove the center, and the second lap when I slowed down a little bit I was loose off. This track is just so hard to get it right for qualifying. I love this track in race trim, and can find the right thing, but qualifying has been a little bit of a challenge for me. But right now we're sitting in the top five and hopefully we can stay there." (AFTER THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, YOU'RE CERTAINLY THE DRIVER IN THE SPOTLIGHT. ARE YOU FEELING ANY HEAT?) No, it's a nice place to be. It's hard in our sport to stay on top for any length of time, so I hope we can hang on to it for a few more weeks. Really, I'd like to hang on to it all year, but the competition is so tough that you'll see a team that has it working for four, five, six races, and then somebody else steps up. We're just working really hard and it's nice to have that rewarded."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/"FINDING NEMO" CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 8th: "We qualified about as good as we practiced, so I guess that's pretty good for us. (YOU'VE BEEN COMING TO THIS TRACK FOR A LOT OF YEARS - WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT DOVER AND HOW HAS IT CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?) "There's a lot more people that come to the races now than they used to. But I think we've got a good car, this is one of the best car's I've had. We unloaded off the car and were pretty good. This is the same car we had at Bristol, and it ran pretty good there. So we're looking forward to Sunday with our new paint job."

MIKE WALLACE, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY PONTIAC GRAND PRIX qualified 18th: "I didn't run nearly as well as what I practiced. That's a little frustrating. It was a little freer than what I was. Hopefully, we can get it all tuned up for the race, and hopefully it winds up some place decent."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 12th: "I thought we'd run a little faster, actually, or at least as quick as we practiced. The car drove good and was real comfortable, so I don't know where the time went. The car felt about like it did in practice, so I'm a little confused. We'll just have to work on that and try to be better for the race."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 THE HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 11th: "It wasn't bad. From what the guys are telling me, not very many guys are backing up what they ran in practice. We ran an .05 in practice and I think we qualified at an .07. Even though Dover is a concrete track, anytime you bring the temperature up, you should lose grip. If that's true, that everyone is not running what they ran in practice, then I'm pretty happy with the fact that we maintained what we had in practice."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX qualified 30th: "We were OK in practice and we slowly started losing grip. We lost a little grip there in qualifying. I was way too loose. I aborted my second lap because I thought it was going to spin down there in three and four. We'll work on it. It's going to be a good race car. We thought coming here it might be a little iffy for qualifying, in terms of the car being loose, but we're looking forward to Sunday."

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX qualified 35th: "Our car was really tight. We were a little tight in practice. Characteristically, this track loosens up, and it didn't today. It stayed really tight. We made a little adjustment, but nowhere near enough. We should have been a lot more aggressive, like at Charlotte last week, but we weren't and our little Pontiac is going to start in the back this week."

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX qualified 20th: "We didn't get what we wanted out of the Tide Pontiac, but we were hedging our bets a little during that practice. Based on the weather forecast, we focused on race runs as much as we did qualifying. We don't think we'll get a lot of track time here tomorrow, so hopefully the work we did today will pay off on Sunday."

STEVE PARK, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 10th: "We were hanging it out there. The track got real hot and most the guys slowed down a little bit. Mike Beam and the guys made a good choice to free the car up a little bit, but not too much. A lot of guys freed their cars up a lot from practice when they were tight to qualifying, and then they were real loose in qualifying. We were tight in practice and then we made a slight adjustment just to help it off on the gas, and the AOL Chevrolet was really good. I got off-line and I got a little loose getting into (Turn) one which got me off my line that I wanted to run, and I gave up a little time on the exit of (Turn) two, and I was real good in three and four. I know for a fact we left a little bit on the table, and I think we'll be about 10th or something. That's what we need to do, we need to qualify in the top 10. When we're not perfect, qualify in the top 10, and when we are, sit on the pole like we did two weeks ago. I'm just so happy and I'm glad I landed at RCR. We've got a great race team with this AOL team and Chevrolet, and I just love working with Mike Beam and the guys."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO qualified 13th: "The car was too loose for qualifying. It was the heat."

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