Southern 500 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Earlier this week, Doug Richert was named crew chief for the Raybestos® Rookie Contender Greg Biffle and the Grainger Ford.

DOUG RICHERT, CREW CHIEF, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

HOW DID THIS OPPORTUNITY COME ABOUT? "I started out the year with Carl Edwards. Well, actually, three rookies this year: one I never got a chance to work with was Kyle Busch. He decided to go off on another direction so Carl Edwards started over on the truck program in Mooresville and I was there to crew chief Carl. We've had a pretty good year. We've had some growing pains in the beginning but we seem to get that continuity going towards the later part. I hope the reason that I'm here right now is the reason that we ran good with the trucks, keeping a good communication with the driver. Another set of eyes is always good to operate with and hopefully I can see some things over here that maybe he wasn't seeing before. But it all comes down to if me and Greg can get a relationship and get a trust with one another then we can show the guys that we're solid and when we talk we are behind each other." FROM NOW UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON, WHAT'S THE GOAL FOR YOU AND THE TEAM? IS IT TO WIN RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE OF THE YEAR? "That's always a goal: we want to win Raybestos® Rookie of the Year but we also want to win races. If you win races and finish good then the points are going to come with it. Right now my big goal is to really learn what I've got. Number two, make sure what we've got is in the Roush box, make sure we're not outside the box, make sure we don't have something stupid giving us the wrong feel somewhere. So we're working starting from aero, chassis: we're going to find something that he likes. And once we find what he likes we're going to try and carry forward with it and build on that." YOU WERE WINNING RACES WITH RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CARL EDWARDS IN THE TRUCK SERIES. WHY WOULD YOU COME TO THE WINSTON CUP SERIES? "Because I was told to (smiles). Jack (Roush) called me up. It's an honor for him to call me up because what we were doing at the truck shop was obviously looked upon. I think he hopes that maybe we can get the same kind of chemistry going over here on the Cup side and have success." THIS TEAM HAS EXPERIENCED JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING THIS SEASON FROM WINNING A RACE TO MISSING A RACE. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE THIS TEAM BETTER? "The first thing that you have to do is you have to be consistent from week to week. He's got to be able to field the same type of car every week so that we know how to tune it and I think that's the biggest thing that we're going to try to do now is that we have to find out what Greg Biffle likes. We think we know what he's going to like and we can inch up on it. Once we determine that, then that will be our model that we try to take every week and then build upon it." IS THIS A LONG TERM ARRANGEMENT? "You might want to ask him (laughs and points to car owner Jack Roush). I grew up here. I've been here, I've left, I've come back, I've left, and now I'm back. It's just a matter of I have to get a focus on what's going on in the series now to where in my mind you can visually see some things and know what you're talking about when you do them." YOU WERE THE CREW CHIEF FOR DALE EARNHARDT IN 1980 WHEN HE WON HIS FIRST WINSTON CUP TITLE. HOW OLD WERE YOU? "I was twenty years old. He was also the best man in my wedding. He was good and Biffle is good, too. There's no difference. If anything, Biffle might even be a harder charger than he was back then." HOW DO YOU KEEP UP WITH EVERYTHING NOW? SINCE 1980 YOU HAVE BEEN A CREW CHIEF. "The way that you keep up is that you forget everything that you've done since last year and, really, you build the team accordingly. But the technology changes weekly. The rules change weekly. Roush has got a big database to choose from and that's what I'm doing right now is sorting out what Greg likes." HOW REWARDING WOULD IT BE TO HAVE SUCCESS NOW? "That's the only thing I'm expecting to do. We've got all the tools here to build on that and we have the capability of doing it. We have to get our group together to make it happen." REALISTICALLY, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON? CAN YOU WIN A RACE? "I think our goal really is to win a couple of races and we'd like to qualify in the top-five ."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

"I've struggled here qualifying, in general here, my whole career here at Darlington. I race well here. I think we learned a little bit this morning. We made some changes to the car so it's not fast enough yet but we might have got a direction. It's so hard because you only get two laps in practice. You only get two sets of tires so basically you get two tries to dial in your car and after that it's just guesswork. I just don't have a lot of experience here in a Cup car and as a team we have very little. It's going to take a trip down here to test maybe with a bunch of tires and try to figure out how to go fast for two laps, or one lap. We've got the team to do it; it's just that you can't focus all on this one race. There's 35 other races and now they are taking one away from here so we'll see."

GREG BIFFLE IN THE NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD WAS THE HIGHEST QUALIFYING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE FOR THE MOUNTAIN DEW SOUTHERN 500. HE WILL START NINTH ON SUNDAY AND WAS THE ONLY FIRST-YEAR DRIVER TO QUALIFY IN THE TOP-10.

"It's not quite as good as I think the Grainger Ford could have run. I was pretty loose down there across one and two. The guys have worked hard to get me a good car here. It's cooling off a little bit now so I think a lot of these guys will probably end of beating us. We'll probably be around 10th or 15th but still a good starting spot for Sunday. I thought that we were going to be a little bit better than that. I did a .27 in practice earlier and I thought that our car was a little bit better than that and didn't back it up. I ran a .30 and it will probably be around 10th or so and be a decent starting spot." YOUR TEAM MADE A CREW CHIEF CHANGE THIS WEEK. "I think that says a lot for our team. This team is pretty strong and we are continuing to do well every week. We are kind of getting into more of a rhythm right now and you're right, even though we made a change this week we're still pretty decent. I'm getting used to working with Doug (Richert, crew chief) and doing stuff a little bit different. I'm not saying that change is always good but a lot of times it sparks new things." AS MUCH AS THE TEAM HAS BEEN THROUGH THIS YEAR, ARE YOU WONDERING WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? "It's been up and down for us but hopefully we can level that playing field a little bit right now and start being more consistent. That's what we were missing before. We were really good or really bad and hopefully now we can try and get some consistency. That's what we're after and maybe this change will do it and do something different."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"The car was way, way too loose. We've been loose all practice. We did some things to tighten it up a little bit before qualifying but with the track being as hot as it is right now it just got even looser. I was looser than I was in practice even with and adjustment. I'm not real happy with it's a solid lap. I mean, it's not horrible."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"That lap was okay. I don't feel very good and I think that's a lot of it. The car was balanced pretty good. I just probably didn't get after it enough. I've got an upset stomach real bad, heads hurts now."

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