Samsung/Radio Shack 500 - GM Qualifying Quotes

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"We've had a good car since we've been here. That will give us something good to work with. Last week we went for (the pole) and ended up starting 27th and had a good race car. This week we just wanted to repeat what we did in practice, so we left a little bit out there. But, what do you do? You just go on with it."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"We've always run well here. We've just had our problems here in the past. But, the last two years have been good. Man, all day the car has been solid. It's really been awesome today. We've been playing catch-up ever since we first went out there this morning. The track is just tightening up on us a little bit and we weren't able to stay up with it. But, that's a good solid lap for us."

(IS THE TRACK THE SAME AS IT'S ALWAYS BEEN OR WILL YOU BE ABLE TO RACE MORE ON IT THIS TIME?) "No. It's a one-groove racetrack, ride around the bottom as fast as you can get after it. It's super-fast right now. I think the only thing that would help is if it got warm and the sun came out. I think that is about the only thing that would help."

JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"That was OK. Obviously, that wasn't the time that we wanted. We wanted to go a little bit quicker than that. I don't know if we didn't scuff tires enough or maybe too much. I don't know. When I went to make my run, I just couldn't quite get a hold of it."

(DO YOU THINK THIS WILL BE A ONE-GROOVE TRACK ON SUNDAY?) "I don't know. Everybody keeps calling it one-groove. But, I remember a year ago when we were here and were leading, we got passed on the outside, so I don't think it was one-groove then. I think it will be a good racetrack. It's always a little bit slippery at the beginning of the week, which it is right now. But hopefully, as time goes, the groove will widen out."

STEVE PARK, NO. 1 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"That was pretty good. The car actually handled perfect. To go fast, we just need to have a little more speed. We're not going to go any faster through the corners. I practically ran wide open through the corners and the car handled good. It ran a decent lap."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 30 AOL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(YOUR FIRST LAP WAS PRETTY FAIR AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?) "I guess we blew some oil out or something and got on our right rear tire up off of four going to the white flag. I smelled the smoke, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to go another lap.

"I wish I could have had it, but something - we must have gotten it too full of oil or something. We'd have been right there where Kevin [Harvick] was, I think."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"Bobby [Labonte] put up a heck of a lap up there, but that was a great lap for us. We'd been fighting a little loose in and we got that cured. I was a little tight into the center, but I'm not complaining. I carried a lot of momentum and I really thought that was about as good as I could do. Chad [Knaus] brought a great race car."

DAVID STARR, NO. 75 TEAM TEXAS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

"I'm disappointed because when we were down here testing last week we ran faster than we ended up running today. We just got off to a bad start. We kept hitting the racetrack. We hit the racetrack so bad that we ground off our flywheel. We couldn't even use the starter to crank the car up. About the time we figured out what was going on the practice session was over with. We fixed it. In qualifying, I could get into the corner and we didn't actually hit the racetrack and it stuck. The only problem was it was just so tight off the corners. If I had kept in it I would have knocked the wall down, so it wasn't worth crashing a car over. We went forward. We just didn't go forward enough."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO WORK WITH?) "Yeah, we're learning. We're learning. We just wanted to get the car qualified today. I'm real happy with the lap and the guys are pretty satisfied. We've got our work cut out for us to get the car handling great tomorrow."

(IS THIS SAME OLD TEXAS?) "Yeah, it's same, old Texas - ain't nothin' changed. I like it."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S/GOT MILK? CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO WORK WITH?) "Oh yeah. I think we'll be better with our race setup than our qualifying setup. This is a good car and it's running good. We'll work hard on it tomorrow to get our race setup, but I think it's pretty good."

JERRY NADEAU, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:

"The guys did an awesome job. We went and tested the other day and ran a few laps with it at Kentucky and had a great run there. Then, we unloaded here and were quickest in practice, so I was pretty pleased. The track changed a lot.

"It was a lot cooler this morning and got a little bit hotter there and it seemed like it was a lot slicker. Our car was just a little bit too free. But, the guys did a super job. This is a brand new car. We built this in-house and we're pretty excited."

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:

(WERE YOU ABLE TO TRANSFER ANYTHING FROM YOUR SUCCESS AT ATLANTA TO YOUR RUN HERE TODAY?) "I think one thing that we brought with us was probably confidence. Obviously, we were running good in Atlanta and having run good here in the past also helps out. It's just the confidence in our program, as far as tracks like this go. We did run good at Atlanta and we brought the same car, so I guess we did bring some stuff with us. But, it still it is a different racetrack in a lot of ways - the way you drive it and the way the car handles around the racetrack and what you've got to do with it. But, yet, the speeds are still there like Atlanta, so you go fast. It's of those where you get all you can get out of it and when you get done with your lap you can breathe."

(ON NOBODY REPEATING A POLE OR A WIN HERE) "I'd say right now I'd like to do that (on Sunday). It's a tough racetrack. We've had some good runs here before in the past. Last year, we had a little bad luck; the year before that we had some bad luck. But, we always run pretty good here, so we're really looking forward to getting out there in tomorrow's practice and get our car set up really good and see what we've got. But, we'd love to be able to continue that 'different winners' since '97."

(HOW IMPORTANT WOULD IT BE TO WIN HERE AS A NATIVE TEXAN?) "I know Terry [Labonte] made a comment after he won here - 'This is the biggest race I've ever won.' Obviously, it would be the same for me. If we can pull that off, it would be great. We'd love to be able to do that. Tomorrow we've got to get our competitive. But obviously, winning here in Texas is a big deal."

(ON THE PROBLEMS WITH THE '20' CAR EARLIER TODAY) "It was a bad situation with the '20' car. Obviously, rules are rules. I don't even know how that thing is checked. But, obviously, NASCAR decided that wasn't what they wanted to see, so they pretty well let everybody else know what they're going to do and what they're going to do if that certain measurement is wrong. But, that's the way it is. They got their backup car out and got to run and qualify today. Tomorrow will be a little better day for those guys."

(DO YOU AND TONY USE THE SAME FAB SHOP?) "I know we've got the same fab shop and the same guys. But, their car was more of a new car. It might have been our old chassis, for instance - I don't know what that is. But, I know they hadn't raced that car before. I don't know if the measurement they took was with the way they hold the tape measure there or something like that.

"I'm not really sure about that. The '20' car has their car painted orange, obviously, and mine are painted green. It's not like when they come out that it's like, 'Well, who wants this one?' Usually our chassis go in there and we know who is going to get what. 'Fatback' (Michael McSwain) orders our chassis and Greg [Zipadelli] order their chassis. We've got the same guys that work in the fab shop that do both. I don't know the answer to why this one here was like it was. But, I don't think it was the luck of the draw as much as it's just everybody is just trying to get everything you can out of what rules they give you."

(WHAT IS DIFFERENT THIS YEAR?) "It's just a lot of little things. There is no one thing. Obviously, we've got new bodies, we talked about new chassis, new crew chief, some new crew members, some of the same crew members, same driver - some things different, some things not. I can just say that it's working, so far."

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win