Daytona 500 - GM Qualifying Quotes

RICKY CRAVEN, NO. 32 TIDE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

(ON HIS RUN) "It was encouraging. It's always nice to run your fastest lap qualifying. The new Tide Pontiac is a very good race car. It's got me pretty excited about the season."

(HOW DID YOU FIND THE ADDITIONAL SPEED SINCE PRACTICE?) "The guys just made some good decisions. The 70 laps we ran in the Bud Shootout was great. Track time is priceless, and I believe we're just going to continue to gain speed as the week goes on and be a contender on Sunday."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(ON HIS RUN) "I'm very pleased. I just want to thank my team: Slugger (Richard Labbe), Richie [Gilmore], Steve Hmiel - just all the boys that worked so hard for that lap right there. We've been looking forward to making that lap since last November when we quit racing at Homestead. I think we did all that we could hope to do."

(WHAT IS IT ABOUT DAYTONA THAT IS SO MUCH TO YOUR LIKING?) "I just understand it and I understand one thing, for sure - I've got a great car and that makes the job a lot easier."

JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 0 NETZERO PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"At least we ran what we tested here - exact same time we ran down here in testing. Two days we were practicing and we were messed up. We had brakes dragging and we had problems we didn't know about until the practice was over and I was a little bit frustrated. But, they found some stuff and at least got me back to where I was testing over the winter. That proves we weren't cheating (in testing). We ran that time legitimately."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"It's a little disappointing. I thought the Dupont Chevrolet was going to pick up more than that. We've been gaining each time we were on the track, but we didn't pick up as much as some guys did there. We'll have to work our way through the 125, which I'm excited about because we ran so well in the Bud Shootout the other night."

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

"It was a good lap for our little Interstate Batteries Chevrolet. It was really just a good lap. All the guys did a great job. They picked it up about four tenths from what we practiced. They mixed all the stuff up right and got through everything good, so I'm real excited about that. You've just got thank them for all the hard work and everything. My part was pretty easy - just go out there and hold it as smooth as possible and make the shortest lap that you can, and that's about it."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 25 UAW-DELPHI CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"That's not what I was looking for. I thought we'd run a lot faster than that, but the RPMs were down a little bit. I don't know. That's all we had. It's just disappointing. We ran fast on Friday, but that was not what I was looking for. But, we'll take it and we'll have a good car for the 'twins.'

DERRIKE COPE, NO. 37 FRIENDLY'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(ON HAVING TO RACE IN ON THURSDAY) "I've only really come down here one time and had a car fast enough to qualify on speed. There are only two guys out there that are locked in for sure and some guys that have points from last year. We'll go race them in the 125s. Hopefully, the car will be good in the draft and that's kind of my forte, so we'll se what happens."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"I'm fairly happy with that. We were able to come down here this time and at least back up what we tested. We were pretty nervous about that. We weren't running that good in practice, but that was good. I think the Valvoline Grand Prix is going to race good. Not that you're ever happy with the time you posted, but based off a little bit of practice - at least we were able to get back to where we tested."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"All the tricks and everything that it takes to be fast in qualifying, we're making progress on figuring them all out, but just didn't have everything in time for qualifying for the 500. I'm sure we'll be a lot better for qualifying at the next restrictor plate race that we go to. But, the way the car drove in the Shootout, I don't care where we start. We've got a great race car and we're going to be in really good shape for the 500."

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 31 CINGULAR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(DID YOU EXPECT THAT LAP?) "This race team surprises me every single time. They do such a good job when it comes to qualifying here at Daytona. We qualified fourth last year and third this year, so far. I'm very pleased with Richard Childress Racing and very excited with the crew. They've done a great job. It shows they've done their homework. They've been to the GM Proving Grounds many times, just trying to find more and more with this new Monte Carlo body. You've just got to give the guys an 'A' for effort. They've really worked hard all winter long. Daytona really kind of shows how hard you've worked.

"I'm really pleased for Jeff Green, my teammate, and Mike Beam, the crew chief over there. Everybody at RCR has just really done a good job."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"It was a good lap all-in-all for the GM Goodwrench Chevy, but there is not a whole lot of reason that it should be four tenths of a second slower (than Jeff Green). But, that will get us a good spot. It just wasn't quite what we were expecting, but all in all I think it was a good lap for the GM Goodwrench team and that'll get us into the 500. But, it was just a little bit off for some reason."

(ON THE PERFORMANCE OF RCR - THE TEAM MUST HAVE REALLY WORKED HARD OVER THE WINTER?) "Yeah, they really did. The body shop and the motor shop - it's really a credit to the whole organization. We're always good when we come to the speedways. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come for this weekend." (HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE 125?) "We're going to go and try and win the race. I think that's what we have to do. I think that's the only way to approach it, otherwise I think you're going to get yourself in trouble and lose a lot of spots from where we qualified."

MIKE SKINNER, NO. 4 KODAK PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"Somewhere between the test and going back to the shop and coming back, we lost somewhere around a half a second. We got half of it back Friday, but then lost it again today. Everybody has worked really hard on this car and everybody is trying really hard. I don't think there is a guy on this team that's not scratching his head wondering where it went. Everybody is trying real hard and that is all we can do.

"Our next goal is, based on what happened today, is we're going to have to really get that car drafting good. We need to just forget about the last couple of days and forget about today and totally focus on race mode now and get that car where it will draft good, so we can get ourselves a spot in the Daytona 500."

TONY STEWART, NO. HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(WHAT HAPPENED ON YOUR WARM-UP LAP?) "I'm not real sure - something in the motor. When we came around and crossed the start/finish line it made a pop and then it took off again. But, at the same time, after it did that it started laying down. Coming off the backstretch there it was about 700 revs lower than it should have been, so I knew we had a problem. There wasn't any point in blowing the motor up and messing up the racetrack and making these fans wait. They've waited long enough to see all of us qualify. I wasn't going to mess up the racetrack for everybody else.

"I don't know what happened to us. If that's the worst thing that happens to us, we'll be all right this year. It's not the way we wanted to start off Speedweeks. Last year we started off Speedweeks great and finished up bad, so maybe we're starting off bad and we're going to finish up good."

(IT'S GOING TO MAKE FOR A BIG DAY OF RACING ON THURSDAY...) "I like racing. I hate this qualifying stuff. I like the racing a lot better. This will be fun - coming from the back."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(ARE YOU SURPRISED TO WIN THE POLE?) "I really expected it. A lot of people, I think, looked at me like I had four eyes when I said that. But, we didn't practice a lot Saturday. We knew we had a great race car. For the work that's been done at RCR the last two and a half months - even last year - getting to this point, I'm pretty proud of guys - the fab guys, the engine guys, Richard (Childress), what he's given to us, Mike Beam is a blessing for all of us - not just my team, but for the '29' and the '31' both. He knows what he wants in a race car and he's able to give it to me. That's what we've got to have to be able to win and to sit on poles like this. I'm just very proud of him."

RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:

"I think it's just been a great effort, like Jeff said, from everybody at RCR. The engine guys, they never gave up. They were tearing brand new engines down. I gave them a number to go to and they'd be one or two away and kept tearing them down, so I'm proud of everybody there. The fab shop, they just kept working on the cars and the body shop...it's just been a huge team effort. Having Mike Beam up there right now, he's going to be a plus for the whole organization.

"We were on the outside pole here last year in February and on the pole in July. This year, to come back and be on the pole again, it says something about all the people at RCR for all the hard work and effort they put in. With Jeff's experience in these restrictor plate races, I think we'll have a good run this weekend."

(DID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE HATS TODAY AFTER JEFF GRABBED THE POLE?) "No, I had an RCR hat. Whichever one of (the teams) does best, I put their hat on."

GREEN: (DOES THE UNDERDOG ROLE FIRE YOU UP A LITTLE BIT?) "I enjoy people not talking about me a lot. When you slip up and win one of these things and slip up and win poles like we did today, it tends to make a better story. Things like that make me go and hopefully it will keep going that way."

CHILDRESS: (HOW MUCH CREDIT DOES DALE EARNHARDT, SR., GET FOR THE SUCCESS OF YOU PLATE PROGRAM?) "Dale, he was the man here for many, many years. We just gave him a car. I'll always give Dale Earnhardt all the credit. He's the man when it comes to Daytona and Talladega."

GREEN: (WITH THE BODIES SO EQUAL, WAS THIS AN ENGINE BUILDER'S DAY?) "I think it takes all of it. You've got to have a good slick race car. You've got to have a great motor. The guys working on the car have got to do the right things to make it go through the air. There is no one thing that makes it happen. Everything has got to happen. I don't know how many pieces are on a race car, but every one of them has to work to get where we are today."

(DID YOU HAVE A POKER FACE ON THE LAST COUPLE DAYS, KNOWING HOW GOOD YOUR CAR WAS?) "Yesterday in that rain was the longest day of my life because I knew how good a car we had. I kept telling Michelle, my wife, how good a car we had. She was just shaking her head, you know, but we made a believer out of her today. It's just that when you have Mike and those guys working as hard as they work, I want to go out and do the best job for them each and every week and this is just the first weekend of this season. I think at the end of the year we're going to be noticed."

(HOW TOUGH IS IT GOING TO BE TO BEAT THE DEI CARS THIS WEEK?) "It's going to be tough, but there are 40 other guys out there that you've got to beat, too - not just the DEI cars. My philosophy is 'get in front of the 8 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) and let him push you all the way to the end. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to block my butt off to keep him behind me. He's got a great race car. He's got a lot of experience here. He reminds me of Dale, Sr. I think he reminds everybody a lot of Dale, Sr., on these racetracks. They've got a great combination, but I think RCR is right there with them now. Hopefully, we can just hold our own, get to the end of the race and, again, if I can somehow keep myself in front it's going to be a wide car come the end of the race."

(IS THE TEAM COMING TOGETHER?) "I think last year we had a lot things that pulled our attention away from the races. We moved into a new 80,000 square foot shop mid-season, Richard added my Winston Cup team to his roster, so there were a lot of things. We were just getting to the racetrack basically, what I seen - not gelling together like we should have. I was basically a rookie in the Winston Cup Series - I'd had some laps under my belt, but not in a competitive race car like I've had. Todd Berrier was a first-year Winston Cup crew chief and I think we all learned together. But, Mike Beam has just brought so much experience to our race team. He knows what he wants when he leaves the shop. We don't have to get to the racetrack to figure it out. I think at the end of the day that is going to pay a lot of dividends and get us a lot of wins and a lot of poles. And, not just the '30' car, but he'll help the '29,' the '31,' and both Busch teams. I think he will make all of RCR better. The fab shop has been working so, so hard this winter to get those 2003 Monte Carlos where they need to be and the tests that we've done have proved it. We've been very fast every place we've went to. I'm just like a little kid in a candy store. I want to go to every racetrack right now and get it over with. But, I think Thursday and Sunday will tell dividends for us - how really good we are."

GREEN: (COMPARED TO YOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS, WHERE DOES WINNING THE POLE TODAY STACK0-UP?) "I think it tops them all. The championship in the Busch Series is definitely a great accomplishment for me as a race driver for me in my career. But, to come to the hub of racing at Daytona the first race of the year and we're the class of the field - that's saying a lot in this sport."

CHILDRESS: (ON TEAMS BEING ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD HERE THIS YEAR) "I think last year the Chevrolets were good here. I think you're going to see Chevrolets run really, really good. I think the teams, now, will show what all of us are made out of that we're on more of an even playing field this year. I think you're going to see Monte Carlos be a really strong factor this year. I know the tests we've been to so far, we're so far ahead of where we were with our 2002 Monte Carlo, there is no comparison. Now we know why we were getting beat so bad."

(IS YOUR TEAM LINEUP SETTLING DOWN A LITTLE BIT?) "We've got some long-range plans at RCR. Last year we had some short-term sacrifices for long-term success. We're putting a lot of stuff in - spending a lot of money at RCR. We're putting a lot of equipment in - state of the art - to be competitive 10 years from now."

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

(ON IF HE IS SATISFIED WITH HIS POSITION) "I am satisfied. We have never really qualified better than 15th here on qualifying day, so for me, it was a fantastic lap. I didn't expect to beat Michael, much less by that margin. It was kind of bittersweet to lose the pole, but in a way, we have so much to be proud of because we've improved so much. We've got a locked in position for the start of the race and our teammate Michael is in the 125s. So at this point, for me, I think he's my toughest competition. It's going to be fun to race in the 125 with him."

(ON THE CHEVROLET'S DOMINANCE IN QUALIFYING) "I've never really understood, nor felt like I knew enough, to comment on the manufacturer's battles or disagreements. I think the way you bridge the gap is hard work and who puts in the most effort. The guys that are complaining should be over there working on their race cars. I guarantee you if we build a Ford, a Pontiac, we can make it run just as fast as we make our Chevrolets run. It makes me angry that sometimes we get a disadvantage because we work harder. Our confidence is based on our effort. When we go out there and do something good or build a good race car that comes down here and tests fast or whatever, we get mandated for it. It's hard to understand and hard to swallow."

(WERE THE SPEEDS WHAT YOU EXPECTED TODAY?) "I didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you. Sometimes when you wash the track off with rain, you get a little quicker lap time. I know that as qualifying goes on, that can change or vary from start to finish. Also the wind, the weather pattern, the storm and everything and the cloud cover had been gone, so how was the wind going to change as that was happening.

"Would there be a headwind at the beginning of practice down the back straightaway or a tailwind and would that swap and be the opposite for the end of qualifying? You never know what you are going to be dealt with. I think that when me and Jeff (Green) went out, that was probably the most optimum conditions because we were so much faster than everyone else. We got some mixture of tailwind down the back straightaway, but it's hard to say because it's something you can't measure. Those are just fast laps. We weren't as good as Michael and didn't expect to beat Michael and we did, so I have to give my guys some credit because that's three-tenths that you are talking about."

(COMMENT ON THE RCR SUCCESS) "My father had a big impact on their success with restrictor plate programs to date. I think that his efforts and his success is still felt around there and around the shop and I they probably put a prominent effort towards the restrictor plate program. They take a lot of pride in their cars. Bobby Hutchins and the guys over at RCR are very up front and forward about how proud and content they are with their success and ability to run well at restrictor plate tracks. It doesn't surprise me. Richard's cars qualified well here last year and the year before that. I was not really surprised to see him do that well because they normally do."

(ON CARRYING ON DALE EARNHARDT'S LEGACY AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY...HAS RCR BEEN FORGOTTEN?) "He won't just out of respect. Similar to my situation, being drivers we're not as big as part of the equation as we are at other racetracks. A lot of the credit goes to who puts the race cars together, who builds the motors and how the combination of them run. Similarities between RCR and DEI is that we take a lot of pride in our restrictor-plate programs, and Richard always has and they've always ran well at them and always had a lot of success there and they continue to today. It's no different than us. They don't have the same track record, but still again, they're always up front in qualifying and they're always up front in the race."

(DOES IT MAKE IT EASIER TO GET KNOCKED OFF THE POLE BY YOUR FATHER'S FORMER TEAMMATE AND A FORMER BUSCH SERIES RIVAL?) "I never really battled with Jeff that much, but he drove for my father for a year or so and I know him kind of well. It's definitely easier. It's never fun getting outrun. I didn't expect to do as well as we did. It was a surprise. It was kind of a situation where you didn't get too carried away because you could've gotten beat like we did right after that. I'm very proud for Jeff and how far he's come. He's put a lot of effort into all these years to get to where he is today and he's really worked hard for everything he has."

DOUG DUCHARDT, NASCAR GROUP MANAGER, GM RACING:

"I am very proud of all our GM Racing engineers and our teams who have worked so hard on these new race cars. To have RCR put three drivers in the top six, coupled with another strong showing from DEI on a superspeedway, is very encouraging. It's been a fantastic team effort in utilizing many of the GM resources -- including tools, facilities and processes -- during the past couple of months to get to this point. However, this is just one small hurdle in the Speedweeks schedule. We'll get a much better indication on Thursday of what the race might look like."

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