Tropicana 400 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard Taurus - "Definitely could've went an .80, I think. That was a chance at the pole, that car right there, for sure." IT'S SHAPING UP TO BE A GOOD WEEKEND, TOO. "Yeah. I'm a little upset with my Busch car. I thought I was going to be faster than that over there, you know. I run that car flat-out, and that's all it had. I just breathed it a little bit down there, but flat down there, only went eighth quick. Like I told the guys, 'I got a car that handles really good over there, and it didn't seem like it went, and I got a car that goes over here and it doesn't handle real good. But, they got this thing handling good. It's awesome." MORE ON HIS LAP. "The National Guard/Subway car was really, really good, and I just can't believe that that was that good. We had so much trouble with it getting it going, and it was hitting the race track and the tires were rubbing in the fenders, and we kept making mock runs and mock runs, and just couldn't get any speed out of it. We got better at the end there, and they worked on it some more, and what a lap that was. I told the guys I just didn't trust the car, that it was going to be that good and stay underneath me or I could've probably got us a little bit more. We're just excited about all the soldiers supporting us every week. Hopefully, we got a good top-five or top-10 starting spot out of this race, and it could be a good weekend for us."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus - "That's pretty good. It's another great effort. The car was a little bit better than the driver was right there - I messed up there a little bit trying to go for it. But, all in all, it was a great, great run for us, and we just want a top-11 or -12 starting position, and if we can get that, we'll be happy." YOU'VE QUALIFIED WELL ALL YEAR, BUT YOU'VE PRACTICED WELL ON FRIDAYS, TOO. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THIS TEAM. "That's the difference, I think, a year makes in the difference in our race team between last year and this year. When we unload now, we're right on the money, I mean we're really close every single week, where last year we were chasing a little bit. But that was our first year together, you know, we had a lot to learn. This year, the guys have done a great job. I'm so happy with the way my cars are being prepared and how nice they look every time we show up. I think it's proven, it's shown. You don't feel like you're fighting an up-hill battle every weekend, being that far off. It seems like everything is going good." WHAT DOES ALL THAT PREPERATION MEAN FOR YOU WHEN YOU GET IN THE CAR. "It's just confidence, man. When you don't feel like you got to fight up-hill battles, I think you're going to be in good shape. Just me, it's confidence. I know when I sit my butt in that race car every practice every Friday, I know it's going to be close, all they got to do is fine-tune it and work hard with Todd and the guys in getting it close, and when we can do that it makes it more fun, and the guys get to relaz a little bit more and it works out good." AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE AS MANY CHANGES FOR SUNDAY. "You don't have to make as many changes for Sunday, that's exactly right. The car's going to be close. We don't have to un-bolt, re-bolt a bunch of things, which will leave things loose half the time. When everything's pretty much dead-on on the race car, the guys can do their jobs better that way."

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 Comcast High Speed Internet Taurus - "We were fast in practice in practice, and we put our qualifying tires on and we got real tight, and we actually had a tire going down - we ran over something - so it kind of messed that lap up. Then we went to free it up, and we were still too tight. So, we thought we were better than what the computer showed that we were. We talked about making some changes and watched it rain, and made some changes, and then the car drove great. It got a little tight in the second lap, but I'm real happy with the way it drove. These guys are working hard, and they're getting cars that feel good to me, and when the cars feel good to me, they'll go fast." WHAT DOES THIS LAP MEAN FOR THE TEAM? "Everybody's been watching the last two months. We've been running really well, and we've had some things happen to us that hurt our finishes. But, we've really run well the last couple of months and I think we've done an extraordinary job. We've had a lot of hurdles to overcome this year, and everybody has stayed as focused as they can be. Qualifying good is great, but we're much more concerned about how we're going to race, and I feel good about our race stuff."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus - "I couldn't have ran any faster. If we went out and did it again, I couldn't go any faster. My car was just a little bit too loose. That's about where we've been speed-wise all day. We picked up two-and-a-half-tenths in qualifying, which I thought was okay, and we've been around that 25th mark all day long. If we're tight, we run that lap, and if we're tight, we run that lap, too, so it's just about all I had today." AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY, IF YOU GET BEHIND EARLY, CAN YOU MAKE THAT GROUND UP? "Yeah, I think so. It's tough to pass and pit strategy here, everybody does their strategy on fuel because the tires don't really slow down. So, it's one of the more difficult tracks to get to the front, but if you have a good enough car, I think you can get to the front anyway."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Keep It Genuine Taurus - "We ran a little bit quicker, about a tenth of a second faster than we did in practice. Everybody picked up more than that, and that's what really hurt us. I'm a little disappointed. We were 13th-fastest and I thought we were going to get back to that. It's not going to work out that way. But, the car was a little too tight for qualifying. I don't know if it was because the sun went down or the track cooled off or what, but it was a little bit too tight." WHAT ABOUT THE RACE ON SUNDAY? "The car really stuck. The car's really stuck to the race track. Obviously, you can't race your qualifying set-up in race trim, but if it's balanced anything like this in race trim, it's going to be pretty racy."

TODD BODINE - No. 98 Lucas Oil Taurus - "We struggled in practice just to get the car driving in the corner. We got it better for qualifying. I wish I had that lap in practice, then I could've improved on it from there. But, we'll take it. Basically, it's sixth-tenths faster than practice, and that's a pretty good pick-up. It might be top 38." AT THIS TRACK, YOU'VE WON A POLE IN THE CUP SERIES AND IN THE BUSCH SERIES. HAS THIS TRACK CHANGED MUCH IN THE LAST FEW YEARS? "Yeah. For qualifying, you know, it's the same - run as fast as you can around the bottom. But in the race, it's going to be two grooves and it's going to widen out, and it's going to be a good race."