Gatorade Twin 125 - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

SCOTT RIGGS, #10 VALVOLINE DODGE:

DID YOU NOTICE HIGH TIRE TEMPERATURES HERE DURING PRACTICE? "Everyone has been complaining about the right fronts and it's hard to really get the car freed up enough. We've made a lot of changes and we're going to have to go a lot more drastic for the 500. I thought we were going to be in trouble because it seemed like the car was pretty good on new tires and I knew that if it wasn't free at all at the beginning it was going to get pretty tight. So everybody fell to the high side trying to save the tires and that was the only thing that we were doing: trying to save the tires and take care of the car. We just didn't make it to the first pit stop." HOW HARD IS TIRE MANAGEMENT PLUS RACE IN THE DRAFT? "Nobody likes blowing out a tire but at the same time at least it does give some of the battle back into the driver's hands. It's not just whoever can sit out there and hold it wide open and have the best car. We had a good car. Our Bud Shootout car is not as good but it's okay. We've learned a lot, obviously, about how much we need to free the car up and make it better for the 500. Luckily, we've got some provisionals and the points to fall back on. It's definitely not the first impressions that we wanted to have with this Valvoline Chevrolet."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN IN THE #77 KODAK EASY SHARE/ECKERD DRUGS DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE FINISHER IN THE FIRST TWIN. HE PLACED EIGHTH, ONE OF TWO RAYBESTOS ROOKIES TO FINISH INSIDE THE TOP-10.

"The over-the wall guys for the Jasper team did a great job. I think we had one stop and we made adjustments and we wanted to put some tape on and off. We were running a little bit too hot. The Penske-Jasper horsepower is nice but you can't burn it to the ground." HOW INTENSE WAS THE RACING IN THE FINAL LAPS? YOU ARE RACING TO GET IN THE DAYTONA 500. "Once I saw the 0 car [Ward Burton] pull out I knew I would be able to suck to Kurt [Busch] a little bit and maybe get a run for one or two more spots. Then I made a rookie mistake. I went into turn three and got too much momentum and had to check-up and lost that draft on Kurt a little bit. At that point I wanted to finish eighth and be the top finishing Raybestos Rookie and get to the Daytona 500." WHICH DRIVER WORKED WITH YOU BEST DURING THE RACE? "Kasey Kahne and I worked together a little bit. Dodge teammates have to work together and Raybestos Rookies have to work together. We don't have many friends so we worked together for a little while so that helps."

JOHNNY SAUTER, #30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET (NOTE: SAUTER FINISHED EIGHTH).

YOU CAME FROM NEAR THE TAIL END OF THE FIELD TO FINISH 10TH AND QUALIFY FOR THE DAYTONA 500. "That's what it's all about. I'm out of breath. I don't know if I can do this for 500 miles. We started off way to tight. We started on stickers and that's the first time that we had done that, even in practice, and it's not going to work for us so we're going to have to scuff tires. We've got a car that is capable of winning. I've just got to get smart and get it in the right spots when it's time to." HOW BIG OF AN ISSUE ARE THE TIRES GOING TO BE? "That first run I think we were about a lap away from blowing a right front ourselves. We're all learning here. I'm not sure anyone has it figured out. Whoever does is going to have a head start. I feel like we have a lot of info here and I gave the guys the feedback they needed to make the improvements. We'll be fine."

TOMMY BALDWIN, CREW CHIEF, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE:

"The 23 [Dave Blaney] swung down quick and he had to go around them and he just lost track of where our pit stall was. The 24 [Jeff Gordon] got into him and spun us out and that was that." ANY DAMAGE TO THE CAR? "No, we'll fix the back of the car up. It's not big deal."

KASEY KAHNE, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE (KAHNE FINISHED 13TH):

"I was following a white car and he checked up to hit his pits so I swerved out to miss him and when I swerved out I missed my pit by just a little bit and hit the brakes. And when I hit the brakes Jeff Gordon had nowhere to go and ran into me." IT LOOOKED LIKE YOUR CAR WAS STRONG AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE. "It felt real good. I think it felt better at the end of a run. We just never made our way back up there after I did the deal in the pits. But it definitely felt good. The start of a run felt pretty good and towards the end it felt better than others." WHAT ABOUT THE TIRES? "They get more and more slippery every lap."

SCOTT WIMMER IN THE #22 CATERPILLAR DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE FINISHER IN THE SECOND GATORADE TWIN 125 AT DAYTONA. HE FINISHED 13TH AND WAS THE ONLY FIRST-YEAR DRIVER TO RACE HIS WAY INTO THE DAYTONA 500.

'I would have like to have ran a little bit better. We were just off. It was kind of a weird race. It got strung out pretty early and with no cautions when we pitted and everything we kind of lost that lead draft and we couldn't catch back up to it. Most importantly we're in the race and hopefully we can work on it the next few days and make it drive a little bit better than we were." DID YOU HAVE TROULBE GETTING DRAFTING HELP? "Yeah, nobody really pushed me anywhere [smiles]. I kind of sat there and followed people and kind of got hung out a little bit. I didn't have a ton of help and it didn't seem like Brian [Vickers] did either. I saw him get shuffled back a couple of times. We probably all need to work on our cars a little bit. I don't think we have the best cars and if you don't have real good fast cars they're not going to draft with you. We have some work to do yet. I think if we make our cars better then people will draft with us." BOTH YOU ARE VICKERS WERE NEAR THE TAIL END OF THE FIELD EARLY IN THE RACE BUT YOU WERE ABLE TO SCRAMBLE BACK TO THE FRONT. "I think I got on to pit road real good and we had a real good pit stop and were able to catch back on to Ryan Newman and that really helped us because when we caught on to him we caught two other cars and then we had our own little pack there. Brain and a couple of other guys were just kind of hung out by themselves. It's important getting on and off pit road anywhere and especially here at Daytona with drafting and everything like that. We had a great pit stop and the guys did a great job with that. We've got that part down now we just have to get our car a little better and hopefully we can do that." DID YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH TIRE WEAR? 'They didn't look real good but I don't think anybody's are looking real good. We had a few problems with the right front but then again our car isn't handling that great so I think if we get it handling good I think our tire wear will come around and then we should be right there and hopefully have a good 500 car." IS THERE A POSSIBILITY THAT SOME TEAMS COULD BLISTER TIRES HERE SUNDAY? "I haven't heard too many people blistering them. I just heard that they were wearing them out or that they are coming up hard a little bit. You never can tell. You get a certain set of tires and your car is handling a certain way and you might blister a set or just tear a tire right up. It's unfortunate that at a track like Daytona if you lose a tire here you're probably not going to finish a race or at least not going to be competitive. At some other places you lose a tire you can get it changed and still carry on. It's going to be a lot of pit stops and a lot of strategies. I think it's going to be a great race and hopefully we can be up toward the front of it."

BRIAN VICKERS, #25 GMAC FINANCIAL SERVICES CHEVROLET:

"We were going pretty good there at the beginning. Some of the guys were working with us and then everybody just left me hanging out to dry pretty bad. I guess that's part of being a rookie, I don't know. There's just nothing that you can do. There is absolutely nothing that you can do. If nobody is behind you, you're not going to go forward. All you're going to do is go backwards and that's pretty much where we stood. I'm proud of the GMAC crew. I messed up coming into the pits and that pretty much ended it right there." WHAT CAN YOU DO TO GET SOME DRAFTING HELP FOR THE 500? IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO? "I don't know if there is anything that you can do. Just don't do anything real stupid and maybe some of the guys will start to feel comfortable around you and will work with you. There's really not a whole lot you can do."