Daytona 500 - Rookie First Practice Quotes

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOLLOWING THE FIRST PRACTICE SESSION FOR THE 2004 DAYTONA 500 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2004.

BRIAN VICKERS IN THE NO. 25 GMACE FINANACIAL SERVICES CHEVROLET WAS THE FASTEST RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE IN THE FIRST PRACTICE FOR THE DAYTONA 500. VICKERS WAS 22ND OVERALL OF THE 45 CARS THAT MADE A PRACTICE RUN. "Practice went pretty well. I had a lot of fun. It was exciting. It's pretty neat to be here. The Daytona 500 is just something different. I've raced Busch here and I've been here before but until you come here for the Daytona 500 it's not the same." WAS IT A GOOD PRACTICE FOR YOU? "I thought it went pretty good. We ended up 22nd and that's not bad. Hopefully we can pick up a little bit. We'll do our best." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD QUALIFYING RUN FOR YOU ON SUNDAY? "Our biggest goal is to make the race. A top-20 or top-10 run would be great but the biggest thing is to get in this race and get good experience and make it to the 125s [qualifying races] and go from there." DID SPEEDWEEKS GET OFF TO A GOOD START FOR YOUR TEAM? "I think so. I thought everything went really well. I'm excited to be down here and to be a part of the Raybestos Rookie class. I couldn't be with a better organization in Hendrick Motorsports and being here 22nd makes it all that much sweeter." FOR A YOUNG DRIVER, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE A GOOD FIRST PRACTICE AT DAYTONA? "I think it's very important. It's always easier to carry momentum through the practice and through the weekend and through the season than it is to go and find it."

SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET (24th): "Typical testing down here at Daytona. All the guys on the Valvoline Chevrolet are working hard. They definitely improved the car since we've been on the track a couple of weeks ago. The car drives really nice, not quite as fast as we need to be. We're right there about halfway through the field. My teammate [Joe Nemechek] is right there at the very top so obviously they have a pretty good car. That car ended up turning out a little bit better than ours all the way around. We tried to duplicate it several times and just can't quite get the same out of our car that they did theirs. Typical: just riding around for two laps." WAS THIS A GOOD PRACTICE FOR YOU? "I'm happy with where we are. It obviously could have been a lot worse. We could have been sitting there struggling in the very back of the pack. Luckily we're about halfway. We feel like we've got a couple of things that are going to help us a little bit but I'm sure that everyone else is doing the same thing. I'm sure everyone else isn't going to pull out all the stops until you get ready to put it on the line until it's for the money. The main thing that I'm looking forward to is getting this practice for qualifying over and get qualifying behind me so we can get out there and do some drafting." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD QUALIFYING LAP FOR YOU ON SUNDAY? "Considering that I'm with a new team and this team is with a new manufacturer and these are our first Chevrolets that we've built for superspeedways, I think if we can be somewhere between 15th and 20th is where I predict we'll be. If we can be somewhere in there I'll be happy." WILL THAT BE A "SAFE" SPEED TO MAKE THE DAYTONA 500? "Exactly. That will be safe enough to make the race, a good position in the middle of the pack. You can work your way around and see how the car drafts as soon as the race starts.

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, NO. 77 KODAK EASY SHARE/ECKERD DRUGS DODGE (28th): HOW WAS YOUR FIRST PRACTICE FOR THE DAYTONA 500? "It's practice. We got the Kodak Dodge all right. I think we are the third of all the rookies out there. I never liked being third, I don't like being 28th on the board. We've been working hard. We will make it better. We're fighting little things that we think could be a lot quicker so we're going to put all the quick things on it now and go out in second practice and try to pick up a few spots, try to be the top Raybestos Rookie. In the NEXTEL Cup Series, it's big to get to the media center. As a Raybestos Rookie, you end up getting that opportunity because it's your first year. If we get to be the top-qualifying rookie, we automatically get to go in that media center. We're working hard on doing that because that it definitely one of our goals but we also want to get a little further up on the overall board. We had a decent practice. I put a lot of faith into what my guys do so they have to back me up when I talk. We're working on making it a little quicker."

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE (32nd): "The guys are working hard to get it a little better. The car wasn't driving very well. We're spending some time to get the Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge a little more drivable and hopefully a little faster. I think speed-wise if we could run a 48-flat I think that would be a pretty good time for us, maybe a 47.90 somewhere in there. Somewhere around 20th, hopefully. I wouldn't say it was a very good practice, but it gave us an opportunity to change some stuff and get the car a little better for the second practice." HAVE YOU HAD A SPECIFIC PROBLEM THAT YOU ARE WORKING ON? "It's just real tight off the corners. You have to put a lot of steering wheel into it and you don't want to have to do that here because every time you have to turn the wheel it scrubs off speed." ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW MUCH HANDLING IS A FACTOR HERE AT DAYTONA? "Well, I've known that for about the last year here racing in the Busch car. Now coming back here after testing here it's definitely a handling racetrack. We've got to get our car handling a little bit better and we'll be all right."

JOHNNY SAUTER, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET (35th): "It's the same old' deal. You come down here and test and obviously there's some stuff left on the table. I feel like maybe we'll show a little bit more of what we've got later on this afternoon and let it all hang out tomorrow [during qualifying]. The field is a lot closer than what I thought it was going to be. I am encouraged. Robby [Gordon, his teammate] was behind us there and got a little bit of drafting help and picked up four tenths of a second so obviously the draft is going to be crucial. On single car runs I think the whole field was within a half-second and that's pretty tight. Once people start pulling out all the stops you're probably going to see it a lot tighter yet. Single car runs don't really bother me. It's going to be getting out there in the draft with all these Cup guys. It's going to be interesting for the first time because you don't really know what to expect. I feel a lot more positive about what we are doing going into qualifying on Sunday versus what we did here in the test. Right off the bat we were a half-second faster right off the bat than what we were. If we can pick up another half-second we'll be right there in the hunt." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD LAP TIME FOR YOU DURING QUALIFYING? "Anywhere in the top-15 I think is going to be awesome. I think we could do that. It's really in the hands of these guys working on this thing because speedway racing is a lot about the car and they are the ones that ultimately hold the cards on what we are going to run."

SCOTT WIMMER, NO. 22 CATAPILLAR DODGE (39th): "Not the greatest practice in the world. Usually the Caterpillar car is real strong down here. We struggled during testing down here a little bit and came back with some things that we thought were going to be a lot better but it turned out not to be [smiles], so we're going to switchback to what we came down here testing with and work with that. I think we'll be able to find a little more speed out of it. It's just not what we're looking for. Qualifying is one thing and racing is another. I think we'll have a real strong package for the race. We probably just won't qualify as well as we want. We'd love to be up in the first row, but realistically right now unless we find a lot of speed in the next practice we're not going to be able to accomplish that. If we don't qualify real well we'll work on our drafting. We're fortunate to have a car tonight in the Budweiser Shootout tonight with Dave Blaney and I think we'll be able to learn a lot from him and hopefully apply to our car, too." WHAT WOULD BE SATISFACTORY QUALIFYING TIME FOR YOU? "If we can get in the top-20 I think that would be a good goal for us right now. It seems like a 48.20, 48-flat somewhere right in there is what you are going to need to get there. Hopefully we can do that. It's going to be tough. We need to pick up about a half-second and that's real tough to do here at Daytona."