Samsung/Radio Shack 500 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus (Qualified 16th) - "We were like 33rd or something like that in practice and I think that will probably put us somewhere in the top 20. I wish we had a couple of more practice laps. We kept freeing it up and it got faster and faster, so we were a couple of changes away. Without testing and stuff you're always a step behind, but a lot of guys didn't test out here either." YOU HAD A PROBLEM IN PRACTICE? "We had some kind of an oil leak or something. I'm not sure what it was, but we lost a good bit of practice and took away our chance to try a couple of things on the car. It ended up it wasn't a terminal thing, it was something pretty minor like a hose, so it didn't really affect us too much other than shorten the practice time."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus (Qualified 20th) - "That's not very good. We're gonna be back there a ways, especially with the temperatures cooling off. The sun was out when we went and now it looks like it'll be behind the clouds for the rest of the day. We're just off a little bit trying to get our car down in the corner, but you've gotta be happy with that. We're in on time, so we won't have to take a provisional, but it won't be that good of a starting spot."

BRETT BODINE - No. 11 Hooters Taurus (Qualified 25th) - "It was unfortunate with the engine going in practice, and then the 30 car blew up ahead of us and everybody slowed down so much. Man, I was scared to death. We're looking at going home if we don't get a lap down, but we just sucked it up and got it in. Thankfully, the motor Yates gave us was good and those guys did a great job getting it changed. Our guys did a great job getting this car prepared and we were so fast in practice beforehand that I really felt like we had an honest top-10 car here. But, we're gonna start last on Sunday because of the motor change. Hopefully, we'll be able to race up through there."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (Qualified 2nd) - "I tell you what, I'm so proud of this race team. It's a bunch of young guys getting it done. They brought me another great race car. We almost got our second pole, but we were a little bit off. I think that will keep us in the top five, but I'm just really proud of my guys. They brought me a great engine as always and I'm just looking forward to a good weekend. We didn't have the weekend we wanted last week. I really love this race track, so maybe we'll get it done this weekend." WHAT ABOUT BEING THE FIRST CAR OUT THERE AFTER WONDERING IF THE 01 DROPPED ANY OIL? "They were freaking me out. If you were listening to me on the radio I was pretty freaked out trying to get them (the pace car) off the track. I knew there was no oil out there because Jerry Nadeau ran such a fast lap. I just wanted to get them off the track while there was no dust on it. I was panicking a lot, but I tried to keep my head in the game. They gave me a great car as usual. We got close but no cigar."

TODD BODINE - No. 54 National Guard Taurus (Qualified 19th) - "For only having two qualifying runs in practice we'll take it. The car wasn't perfect, it was OK. We were a little tight in the middle. We wanted to carry that push off (the corner), but be loose off so we missed it a little bit. Really, that was only our third qualifying attempt here so we'll be alright." WERE YOU PLAYING A GUESSING GAME WITH THE SUN? "Yeah, you hope for a cloud, but I think it came out about halfway through our run on the first lap."

ELLIOTT SADLER PRESS CONFERENCE - "I was pretty happy with my lap. I think I actually hit all my marks for once and had a lot of momentum through both corners. I just came up a little bit short. I knew I had to do it the first lap. For some reason our car was better on the first lap than the second, but the guys gave me a great race car. This is the same car we qualified third with at Atlanta, so to come back here and back it up with a second makes me pretty happy. That's the second year in a row we've qualified on the outside pole here. Maybe one day we might get a pole here at Texas. I really like this race track, so it feels good to qualify that good here." DID YOU TALK TO ANY BUSCH DRIVERS ABOUT SETUPS? "The 88 car tested here last week and I think everybody that tested here was a little slower than what they thought they were gonna be when we came back. I think with all the rubber that was put down on the track today with happy hour this morning that the speeds came in." DO YOU STILL SEE THIS TRACK BEING THE SAME ROCKET RIDE ON SUNDAY THAT IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN? "I think, if you look at the track this year, the surface is a lot grayer-looking. It was so black-looking last year. It's even like a half-groove more than what we had last year in qualifying. The Busch cars opened it up a little bit this morning and I think you're gonna see more of that tomorrow during the race. I think we'll definitely have more grooves to work with Sunday than what we had here last year, just because the surface is wearing down some and we might have to move around a little bit." ALL FOUR MAKES ARE IN THE TOP FIVE. DOES THIS SHOW THE COMMON TEMPLATES ARE WORKING? "Here we go with these common templates again. If you look at the front of a Chevrolet and look at a Ford and think they're common...there's one Ford in the top 15, so that tells you what kind of disadvantage I think we're at. But I'm not up here to politic about that. We are all represented in the top four, so that makes it even, but there's only one Ford in the top 15. It was the same deal at Atlanta. They kind of whooped up on us pretty bad at Atlanta. We tried to fix our cars as best we can to give us some front downforce here and we qualified well with it, so we'll just have to wait and see what Sunday brings us."

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