Pennsylvania 500 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

CASEY MEARS IN THE NO. 41 TARGET DODGE WAS THE HIGHEST QUALIFYING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE AT POCONO. THIS IS THE FOURTH TIME THIS SEASON HE HAS BEEN THE TOP ROOKIE QUALIFIER.

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT LAP? "It's a second faster than we've ran since we've been here this weekend. It's pretty much the same car that we had here last time and we ran really well with it. In qualifying trim, we definitely struggled more this time than we did last time. I don't know how that time is going to hold up. I'm sure guys are going to pick up a lot but we're happy. We gained from where we were in practice. Hopefully that will put us solidly somewhere in the middle of the field and we can go back in 'Happy Hour' and try to make this thing work." ONLY TWO GUYS WERE FASTER THAN THAT IN PRACTICE. "Oh really? So we picked up pretty good. Hopefully that will put us somewhere solid but I'm sure a lot of these guys will pick up. The track is definitely better. That's one reason why we gained. The track was better so I'm sure some of these other guys are going to gain, too, but hopefully it will hold up solid." ARE YOU AND STERLING MARLIN RUNNING THE SAME SETUP? "We're a little bit different now. We were really close in practice and I just couldn't get the thing to work so we changed the front springs, bar, track bar, shocks and went and qualified and it's the best that it's been. We went in the right direction for qualifying, for sure. We're getting better all the time and I'm getting more comfortable everywhere we go. Obviously, I've still got more to learn and there's more to pick up but it's a matter of us making everything work right now. If we can get the chassis right, me on key when I need to be, if we can time all those things together we're going to have a darn good run. It's just a matter of putting it all together at the same time." THIS IS KIND OF A CRAZY TRACK. DO YOU HAVE ALLTHREE CORNERS FIGURED OUT? "We definitely aren't right. Turn one felt okay, the tunnel turn felt real good, and turn three felt horrible. It's hard to get everything put together all at the same time but I think that we came up with a fairly decent balance between the three corners." YOU PLAN TO RUN BOTH ARCA RACES PLUS THE WINSTON CUP RACE HERE THIS WEEKEND, A TOTAL OF 900 MILES. ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE PHYSICAL WEAR AND TEAR ON YOU? "Not too much. I think we'll be okay, as along as I get to sleep early Saturday night and get plenty of fluids in me, I'll be ready to go Sunday." HOW MUCH WILL THE TWO ARCA RACES HELP YOU? "I think it will help a ton because as we run those races you learn different lines. You learn how to get around the bumps and when the tires fall off you learn what you have to do different. ARCA cars are definitely different than the Cup cars but we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think it was going to help."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 42 HAVOLINE DODGE:

THIS IS A CAR THAT YOU TESTED AT INDY. "Yeah, it really wasn't that good the first day at Indy but they adjusted on it and it was actually better than what we felt like our best car had been, the car that we had run at Chicago and California and ran real well with. Our cars have come a long ways since the beginning of the year. You always hear guys thank everyone at the fab shop and the engine shop and all that but our race team has come a long way since the beginning of the year so I'm really proud of all our guys." YOU STRUGGLED HERE IN THE JUNE RACE. "We struggled the first race here but we brought a different car back and put it in the setup that Sterling raced a month or so ago and we were really good right off the truck. I can't tell you what he told me or everybody would pick up." WHAT IS SO CHALLENGING ABOUT POCONO? "I guess because it's so much different. You're depending a lot on engine and body here and if you miss it a little bit it's so fast that it's aggravated. Most racetracks, you have two turns but here you have three. You can't be good in all three of them so you kind of have to compromise but Sterling has run so well here in the past. We unloaded with his setup and brought a lot better racecar and I learned a lot. We got to run 500 miles here a month or so ago and I learned a lot. Like I said earlier, our goals were when we go back to the racetracks for the second time is to do better than we did the first time. It looks a lot better so far." DO YOU THINK THE TRACK WILL GET REAL SLICK DURING THE RACE ON SUNDAY? "I think typically it's a lot slicker. Everybody was really complaining about how dirty the racetrack was when we first went out this morning and it just kept getting faster and I think that's why it's getting faster now in qualifying. When we were here last time it was raining and cloudy and the racetrack always has grip like that and now it's pretty warm outside and it's really sunny. It's almost like Daytona from February to July."

LARRY FOYT, NO. 50 HARRAH'S DODGE:

YOU PICKED UP FROM PRACTICE. "It probably won't be enough but we did pick up. This was kind of like coming here for the first time. We didn't really learn anything so this was kind of like our first time coming here. I thought we'd run better. I like this track. I fought the car hitting the racetrack all day so I'm not happy because we've had silly problems that we have every week that you just can't compete at this level when you are having them."

TONY RAINES, NO. 74 BACE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET:

"That's our fastest lap of the day. I think it will get us in on time, safely. The car is not driving perfect, which they never do and you are always trying to work on it. The motor tuner put a little bit of qualifying jazz to it and that helped us a lot. I was a little conservative in the corners because I wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt us and mess us up. I felt like I might have slowed down a little bit in one and three, more than I needed to, but when you went to gas, it definitely came up off the corner. It was a lot better than we did here in June so we're headed in the right direction. The car is just not driving real well through the center. It's kind of loose, kind of tight, but yet we're going faster than we did in June so that may be part of it. Drivers are never happy. You want it to drive like a Cadillac and go like a spaceship. You can't get the best of both worlds but we're working on it." "

GREG BIFFLE, NO. 16 GRAINGER FORD:

"I'm not very happy with it, but it will have to do, I guess. We just can't get our car like we want it. It's just too tight in one end and too loose in the other. The track is really different all the way around, has a lot of different aspects to it. We'll keep working on it. Same thing as when we were here last time, just like we were here yesterday. I think it was a little bit too tight down there in one and had to get out of the throttle coming up off the corner and you know how that just kills your lap time. I'm just frustrated that I can't get my car to turn coming off of one and I'm a little too loose down there in three and four. I just need to keep working on the Grainger car, get a little bit better and see how we do in 'Happy Hour' tomorrow. Overall, I guess we have to be happy with that run." CAN YOU COMPARE POCONO TO ANY OTHER TRACK? "It reminds me a lot of Nazareth, certain corners do. It's not nearly the same size but it reminds me a lot of that racetrack, just a lot faster."

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