Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Rookie Saturday Quotes

Scott Pruett

SCOTT PRUETT IS THE MOST RECENT RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE TO LEAD A LAP AT INFINEON RACEWAY. HE LED TWICE FOR 10 LAPS IN THE 2000 DODGE/SAVE MART 350. PRUETT WILL START 18TH IN SUNDAY'S RACE BEHIND THE WHEEL OF A DODGE FOR CAR OWNER CHIP GANASSI. GANASSI ALSO OWNS THE CARS DRIVEN BY 2003 RAYBESTOS® ROOKIES JAMIE MCMURRAY AND CASEY MEARS.

SCOTT PRUETT, NO. 09 TARGET DODGE:

HOW DID THIS OPPORTUNITY COME ABOUT? "I've drove for Chip the last couple of years up at The Glen. It kind of came together at the last minute, about 10 days ago. Actually, Andy Graves gave me a call and said 'Hey, you want to come do Sears Point?' and I said absolutely. It worked good, hand in hand, because I am here with my Jaguar in the Trans Am series and so the opportunity to come back here and run, I'm always going to jump at that."

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GO BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE TWO CARS? "It's not too bad. Fortunately, because those cars are 2600 pounds and a Cup car is more like 3500 pounds, so it's not as bad and we're only a couple of seconds quicker a lap than the Cup car so it's not a huge difference. The transition between the two isn't bad."

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO HELP MEARS AND MCMURRAY? "Well, unfortunately, we rolled off the trailer and we weren't exactly where we wanted to be so we're struggling a little bit trying to come to grips with the setup on the car. Unfortunately we haven't done as much as I would have liked to have done to help those guys out. It's a lot easier when you are coming out of the box and you are running pretty good. Just a few little bits and pieces but not a lot."

WHEN YOU WERE A RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE HERE IN 2000, WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE? "I think the biggest thing is one, realizing what you need to do to get a good qualifying run and two, focusing on the race. When you start thinking about running those tires 40 laps, I mean that thing gets pretty damn slippery by the end of that stint. And trying to plan ahead: How can I make my car the best over a long run instead of being good for 10 laps? And we did. We had a great car. Unfortunately we got dumped up in turn three, I think while leading the race actually, so it didn't turn out like we wanted it to. But we ran good."

WHERE CAN YOU PASS? "You can (pass) into seven and into 11 are fairly easy places. I shouldn't say easy, but there are areas to pass here, which make it nice."

WHAT KIND OF ADVICE ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE MEARS AND MCMURRAY? "It's a long race and there are a lot of things that happen in this race. We've come here long enough to know that you look and you see and you watch and if you are just patient and smart you are going to end up with a good return."

IS THERE A POSSIBLITY THAT YOU WILL BE BACK IN A WINSTON CUP CAR? "The Glen, probably. But other than that, I'd like to, but we'll wait and see."

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