Ford 400 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

Note: Jamie McMurray won his first career Bud Pole at Homestead for Sunday's Ford 400. A Raybestos® Rookie has now won at least one pole position each year since 1996.

"It's exciting to come to a brand new racetrack and run that well. Before we came here I thought that it seems like every time you go somewhere new it's always a couple of guys that seems to hit on something. I knew we had a good car in practice yesterday. It's my favorite car, the car that we ran at Indy, Pocono, and ran so well all year. We tried to work on our qualifying program. We've been really bad; I'm like a 25th place qualifier. They kept telling me that it's not so bad because the Winston Cup Champion wasn't a very good qualifier this year either. We've been trying to work on that. That's great and I hope it holds up. I'd be thrilled." THIS WOULD BE YOUR FIRST POLE. "Yeah, I sat on two poles in the trucks. I've been terrible in Busch and in Cup so I think it would be pretty cool. I didn't think the first lap would be as fast as it was. Donnie (Wingo, his crew chief) told me down the backstretch that it was an .81 and asked if I wanted to quit. I felt like the second lap was going to be better. I really got a hold of turn one and was just really loose the first lap but it was good enough. I'm thrilled. I'm a terrible qualifier. You get lucky ever once in a while and I'll take it. I get to run the Busch car the whole day and that's definitely an advantage coming to somewhere like this. There's a lot of Cup drivers in the Busch garage this weekend and I've got to give my Busch team some credit. These are the same shocks that I ran on my Busch car and qualified well with. They gave me the notes and I brought it over here. They really weren't a lot better than what we had but I felt more comfortable with them. It was a big team effort between my Busch team and my Winston Cup team." WHAT KIND OF RACE WILL WE SEE HERE SUNDAY? "I think we will see a good race. I'm anxious to get to my motorhome and watch this truck race because that is going to be the real test of what happens. I didn't get to run happy hour in the Busch car. I didn't have any oil pressure so I didn't get to race with anybody in Busch happy hour so I don't really know. Just judging off how the racetrack is right now you can slide up a groove and still have some grip and still come off the corner pretty hard. I think it's by far the best new racetrack that we've been to, in my opinion. I think you will see two wide racing. I don't know about three wide. They talked this morning about maybe putting some stripes around the racetrack and I think that would be a good idea. It's hard to tell when you get up high, a little bit out of the groove to know where the edge is and where the no-grip is. There's grip all the way around, but little pieces of rubber and sand I think up on the top and when you hit it, I about got into the wall during testing."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"It's frustrating getting beat every week, but that's the way it is. We'll keep working on it."

LARRY FOYT, NO. 14 HARRAH'S DODGE:

Note: Larry Foyt qualified a career best 11th at Homestead. His previous best start was 14th at the June race in Michigan. He makes his 20th career Winston Cup start in Sunday's race.

"That's a good start to the weekend. It's great. For all my guys, that was really for them. They said 'Hey, we don't need this car. Bring back a steering wheel or put it in the show' and I said you got it. They've stood behind me all year and it's great for them. I've got to thank Ray Evernham. His guys worked so hard to give us a great engine here and Sammy Johns has been over here helping us today and that helps us out so much. My crew chief Ben Holm has stepped up and he's done a great job. It feels good. We ended up 11th, almost a top-10, and I'll take it. That's great for us. It's definitely a good feeling right now. It's awesome how many people from different teams came over and other drivers came over and said 'Awesome job.' A lot of guys in this sport have been there. They've been in a struggle. For us this is definitely the start of a good weekend and hopefully we can finish it out good."

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"That's not great but it's not horrible. I think the track slowed up a bit from practice. We ran a flat in practice and we just ran a .25 or something like that for qualifying. I'm not real happy with that but the track has slickened up a little bit and got a little tight. We'll see what it gets us. We're working on some things for next year and so far things have been going pretty well. I'm just happy we're in the Target Dodge and running pretty good. I think it's going to be a good qualifying spot for us." YOU GET AS MUCH TRACK TIME THIS WEEKEND AS THE VETERAN DRIVERS DO HERE. "I don't know if that's an advantage but it's definitely equal opportunity, that's for sure. These guys have a lot of experience but to be able to come here on equal ground on a track that nobody has been to before I'm sure helps. I think we have taken to the track pretty good. It's a decent qualifying effort but I'm really looking forward to the race on Sunday."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

"It was decent. Three and four was really good, one and two was a little bit tight. The second lap I worked a little bit more on my line and got a better lap out of it so all in all I think we are going to be good. I think it's going to be okay for us. I'm pretty pumped up. This is the last race of the year but I think we can keep going on this run that we've had the last five or six weeks. I hope we can finish out strong and have a good off season." HAVE YOU BEEN GETTING BETTER EVERY TIME OUT? "I think it's just experience and you learn by doing it and taking notes. I've learned a lot this year and I'm trying to help out more every chance I can. It's exciting to be here at the end of the year and have survived and actually standing a little taller than we did at the beginning of the year."

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