Sylvania 300 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

CASEY MEARS, NO. 41 TARGET DODGE:

"It's easy for a lot of things to build up on you a little bit during the season. We haven't had the rookie season that some of these guys have had in the past and for good reason. I just don't have that much experience in these cars. After a series of bad runs, it kind of gets down on you and you don't really know it. But kind of clear conscious this weekend: just go ahead and do the best job that I can and the team is going to do the best job that they can. We had a good race here in the spring. I think we ended up 16th. If we can better that and get a top-10 out of this weekend we'll be real happy." FOR A FIRST-YEAR DRIVER, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS OF QUALIFYING? "It's difficult. I feel like it's one of my stronger suits. Bristol is the only place that I haven't qualified for a race this year and that's been really tough for me. Everywhere else I feel good about qualifying. It's just a matter of putting a good clean race together. There's so many things that can happen. You can have a perfect race and something go bad. You can have things go bad and have a great race. It's a matter of circumstances a lot. You've got to run good but at the same time you've got to have luck on your side and you have to have the experience not to put yourself in bad situations. I've learned a lot and I keep learning and hopefully we can have a good clean race this weekend." HOW WAS THE TRACK? "It was real slick. It looks like it's getting cooler with the sun going down the track is getting cooler so there's probably going to be a little more grip in the track. We're back to fourth now. I'm hoping that we are inside the top-20 by the end of the day. There's some really fast guys to go yet so we'll see where we're at."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"It was a good day for the Havoline Dodge. The car was a little bit loose still and I think in order to be really fast you needed to be good on our first lap. I really needed another lap to get going. I just didn't have any grip the first lap. I don't know if we missed it on air pressure, scuffing the tires or what, but I think I average about 20th qualifying so if we can come out of here with a top-five, that would be great." WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO DOWN THE STRETCH TO MAKE IT A GOOD YEAR? "Just keep doing what we're doing right now. We've picked out two or three cars that I really like and that we run really well with so we're going to try to race those cars for the rest of the year. The whole team is working better than ever. Everybody is getting along great and having fun and when you run well it makes it a lot more enjoyable to be here. Just keep doing what we're doing. It would be wonderful if we could win a race before the year is over." DID YOU SURPRISE YOURSELF WITH THAT RUN? "We were fourth in practice and I think going out later helped us. I don't know that it helped us. It didn't hurt us. I think that some of those guys that went out early on, it probably hurt them a little bit. The track seems like it always gets greasy after practice to qualifying. Going out late, no, I'm not surprised. I thought we might go a little faster than that. I really wanted to back up what I ran in practice but most guys slowed down a tenth, tenth-and-a-half. I'm pretty happy." THIS IS THE SAME CAR YOU RAN AT BRISTOL. "It (the car) was a backup car. We took it to like four tests and I always liked it, just not as much as the other car that we had taken. They changed some stuff on it and we took it to Bristol and ran third with it. I don't think we qualified very well there but ran third with it and then we brought it here and it's been good since we unloaded. It's a pretty good car." YOU WILL START AT THE FRONT OF THE FIELD HERE SUNDAY. "I think here that if you qualify in the top-10 that's great and if you don't, not that it's better to be back in the 30's but then you can use some pit strategy to your advantage and pit out of sequence and try to make it work. That's what we did here a month ago or whatever but definitely being up front is always a big advantage." CAN YOU PASS HERE? "You can but they are trying to figure out how to make it where you can pass everywhere. It's harder at places where the tires don't wear off but it seemed like in the spring here yeah, you could pass, but it was just really hard." IS PIT SELECTION AS CRITICIAL HERE AS IT IS ANYWHERE? "It will definitely help to get to pick the pit stall that you want and I can't tell you where we are going to pit but I think we already know (laughs)."

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"That's where we need to start is up in the top-five. I'm pretty happy with that lap. There's probably just a hair left on the table but what the heck. It's all we had for today. We backed up our original practice run so we're pretty excited about it." QUALIFYING UP FRONT MAKES A DIFFERENCE ON A TRACK THAT'S HARD TO PASS ON. "It does, it really does. It's going to make a difference here on Sunday. We just need to finish in the top-five. That's what we need to do is finish up there. We've got cars that have been close to that but I think we can do it with this car." CAN YOU TELL YOUR TEAM HAS GAINED A LOT OF MOMENTUM? "We've qualified well about everywhere and run well everywhere. We didn't run quite like we wanted to at Richmond. We were seeing ourselves pickup before the change came and the guys are continuing to excel and that's and we are excited about that. We just need to run solid in the top-five like we're qualifying now. We've got one part of it done, we just need to get the other part done." HAS THE RACING HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE CHANGED? "It's always been about the same for me. It's a fun racetrack to race at; it's a real racy-type racetrack. I just enjoy coming here." DO YOU HAVE TO USE A LOT OF PATIENCE? "You do. It's hard to pass and that's a part of hard racing."

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

"That's the best that we've qualified all year, I guess. We did a little testing after we left here last time. We tested at Milwaukee and learned some things. This car is a pretty good car. We haven't run it but twice." DOES THIS GIVE YOUR TEAM A LIFT GOING INTO THE RACE? "Most definitely here, because then you don't have to play the catch-up game all day and try to do something opposite of what the other guys do just to try to get to the front. We can kind of stay on pace with the leaders now and sure, that will be a lot easier during the day. We've been better everywhere we've went the second go-around. That's the biggest thing, just as long as we keep improving. They're working harder and harder and harder. These guys work their tails off so it's a big boost for everybody." COULD THIS QUALIFYING RUN BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING THE RACE? "I think so, especially at a place like this because track position here is so important. Starting up front here is going to be a big boost for us, I think." IS PIT SELECTION CRITICAL HERE? "I don't know if it's as much the pit selection as being up front and staying with the leaders all day where you don't have to do something opposite of what they do to get caught up so I think it will be a lot better this time."

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