Ford 400 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes

JAMIE McMURRAY (No. 42 Havoline Dodge Intrepid) - Wins Pole

"I'm real excited because I qualified so bad this year. If you look at it, I think I'm about an 18th-place qualifier on average. I've very excited to have the fastest time, especially at a racetrack that no one has ever been to. I really thought my second lap was going to be better. Donnie (crew chief Wingo) told me on my second lap on the backstretch that my first lap was a .81 if I wanted to quit. I told him before I got to turn three that this (second lap) was going to be better. I got to thinking about what he said, and I got so excited that I messed up three and four. You've got to realize it's hard to beat Ryan Newman. Every single week that kid is fast. I was thrilled to run the lap I did.

"It's very deceiving. In the Busch car on Tuesday, David Green had the best car by far. Then he qualified 12th, which was very surprising. I don't know that they were all that good in Happy Hour today. Dale Jr., I felt like, had one of the best cars in Cup on Wednesday and he didn't qualify very well. I don't know that qualifying is going to show the best car for racing. A lot of times guys can be good at qualifying and not be good at racing. Usually when they're fast in race trim they can qualify decent. We're really not changing that much for race trim, just some shocks and maybe two springs. Some places you change a lot, but here we're not changing very much at all.

"This place has so much grip that we didn't have to do a lot for qualifying. You don't have to try to work that into your car with it being a new surface. It's just like Kansas when we first went there. It's the same thing with Loudon right now.

"My dad is big into stuff like that. He told me that when it was over with. He said, 'man, you're going to be the last guy to win a Winston Cup pole.' I think that's neat, but I didn't care if it came in the first race or last one. I'm just happy to have one - not just because it's a pole, but it does put you in another race at Daytona. I feel like I need some more time at the superspeedways. I'm not real good at drafting. It's going to be really nice when you have the offseason. Typically the guys in the Bud Shootout are the guys who race well every week, so it's going to be nice to get to race with those guys before the 125s.

"With it being a brand new surface, I don't think it will (grip go away after truck and Busch races). I think if it gets hotter and if the sun heats it up it'll lose grip. It seems like it rains every night here, so it's washing all the rubber off the track. I didn't notice you could draft a lot here. Some guys in the Busch Happy Hour said they picked up an aero push. I didn't notice that. When we had our Busch and Cup test, that was one of the comments I made. The track has so much grip I didn't get tight behind guys, but I never made a long enough run to let the front tires give up."

"It's exciting coming to a brand new racetrack and running that well. Before we came here I thought about it and it seems like every time you go somewhere new a couple of guys hit on something whether it's the line or the crew chief and guys hit on something. I knew we had a good car when we were testing here yesterday. It's my favorite car. It's the car we ran at Indy and Pocono. We ran well with it all year.

"We've tried to work on our qualifying program. If you look, I'm like a 20th place qualifier. They kept telling me it wasn't so bad because this year's Winston Cup champion isn't a good qualifier, either. We've been trying to work on that. I've been terrible in Busch and Cup, so winning the pole is pretty cool.

"I didn't think the first lap would be as fast as it was. Donnie (crew chief Wingo) told me it was an .81 and said I ought to quit. I thought the second lap was going to be better. I really got hold of turn one. I was loose on the first lap. I'm thrilled. I'm a terrible qualifier. You get lucky every once in awhile and I'll take it.

"I got to run the Busch car here, and that's a big advantage. I know a lot of Cup guys are in the Busch garage this weekend, but I've got to give my Busch team some credit. We ran the same shocks I ran on my Busch car and qualified well with those. It was a big team effort between my Busch team and my Cup."

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)

"It was real slick getting into turn one. I got into turn one and really lost the rear end in the corner. The rear end just came out from underneath me, and I broadslided through turn one pretty good. It was pretty loose on entry."

CASEY MEARS (No. 41 Target Dodge Intrepid)

"It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. I think the track slowed up a bit from practice. We ran a flat in practice, and just ran a .26 for qualifying. I'm not real happy with that, but the track slickened up a little bit and got tight. I'm just happy we're running pretty good. I don't know if we'll have an advantage Sunday, but it's definitely an equal opportunity that's for sure. To be able to come here on equal ground sure helps. It's a decent qualifying effort, but I'm really looking forward to the race."

RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge Intrepid)

"That lap was OK. It's been pretty good since we unloaded. It wasn't the balance we were looking for in qualifying, but the guys are doing a great job. We'll just keep our chin up and get her in race trim and see how things go. The track's in great shape. I think they've done a good job, and I think we'll be able to say they did a great job after Sunday's race. I think it's got a lot of potential. We're here to win everything we can, and second is better than third. I think the track is going to be racier. It's nice to see the safety barrier up there, and it makes you wonder why it's not at every other race track. I'm a little sad we missed it today, but it was a good qualifying effort. The balance was just a little off."j

JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid)

"I'm real happy with that. The guys did a great job with our Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge today. We were pretty good right off the truck and we kind of dialed ourselves out or went wrong somewhere down the line. They changed a lot of stuff right before qualifying, and that was the best the car has felt. I think the track slowed down a little bit, but all-in-all it was pretty good. Hopefully we'll end up in the top 10. We know what we need now, and we're not going to have those struggles like we had at the beginning of the year. The only trouble here is where do you lift. If you go in too deep you slide up. You really need to finesse the car getting in the corners. You can be a little over aggressive if you're not careful."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid

"That's not exactly what we were looking for, but we'll take it and get ready for the race."

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