Daytona 500 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOLLOWING BUD POLE QUALIFYING FOR THE DAYTONA 500 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2004.

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, NO. 77 KODAK EASY SHARE/ECKERD DRUGS DODGE:

HOW WAS THAT LAP? "It's about the same as we did in practice. We had a lot more wind today than it did yesterday and our Dodge has been struggling in the wind. To hit the same number, we're pretty happy. It's a lot more wind than yesterday. A lot of guys should probably slow down just a tick but with any luck we should probably catch a top-20 and have a good spot for the 125s." DOES THE CAR DANCE AROUND IN THE WIND? "The car doesn't dance around. Being a Raybestos Rookie, it's not like I have a lot of experience in the car but from the truck [series] it doesn't dance a lot. The truck moves a lot more in the wind just because of the body. This thing stayed pretty good through the air. When a gust of wind hits it, you can feel it." HOW BIG OF A FACTOR IS THE COOLER TEMPERATURES? "The cold weather is good for horsepower. The Penske-Jasper Engines are arguably one of the best engines in the entire series. Bob Dodge, our engine tuner, is always good for power. The motor was fine. Everything was great. We came here and we thought we were going to be a little better qualifying and instead we got it where we're going to race really well." ALL IN ALL A PRETTY GOOD RUN? "All in all a decent run. We'll see if we can be the top Raybestos rookie. That would be a big deal. To be the top Raybestos rookie of the day is always a bonus and we know we'll be close with that time."

SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET:

HOW DID THE LAP FEEL? "It felt fine. It felt like the wind was blowing pretty hard (smiles). That's the only bad thing. But that's about what we anticipated the Valvoline Chevrolet to be. We thought we would be somewhere around mid-pack and that's probably where we'll wind up. Now the only thing we need to concentrate on is making sure the car sucks up well in the draft and we can race our way closer to the front for the 500." IS IT HARD TO DEVELOP A "KNACK" FOR THE DRAFT? IS IT ALMOST NATURAL AT THIS POINT WITH YOUR STARTS HERE IN THE TRUCK SERIES AND BUSCH SERIES? "I don't think it's natural. I think it helped me a lot watching the Budweiser Shootout last night from the spotters tower, just watching that and seeing how everyone reacts and try to figure out everyone's tendencies. Every driver is a little different so the more I can learn about my competitors the better we'll be."

KASEY KAHNE IN THE NO. 9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN SUNDAY'S QUALIFYING SESSION AT DAYTONA.

Kasey Kahne posted the seventh (7th) best qualifying speed in Sunday's qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway. No other Raybestos Rookie posted a time in the top-15.

A LOT IS MADE ABOUT JUMPING UP TO THE NEXTEL CUP SERIES. CAN YOU TELL A BIG DIFFERENCE SINCE THE CARS ARE SO EQUAL? "At Daytona you don't tell a huge difference but we've been testing at some other tracks and these cars are a lot different than a Busch car. It will be a learning curve but we'll be able to run Busch this year, too and we'll be in Dodges all year. We've got some real good racecars and we're looking forward to having a lot of fun." YOU PICKED UP A LOT OF SPEED FROM PRACTICE. YOU'VE GOT TO BE VERY ENCOURAGED. "These guys did a great job. All the guys on this team did a great job getting the car a little bit better. To run faster with the wind, that's a pretty big pickup for us. Without the wind I think we would have run a lot faster than that so that's good compared to yesterday." WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE CONDITIONS TODAY, COOL TEMPERATURES AND THE WIND? "I think it slows down the cars. Our car actually drove a little bit better and just gained a little more speed. We went with a different gear and it worked out well for us." WHAT WAS IT LIKE GOING OUT FOR YOUR FIRST QUALIFYING RUN IN THE NEXTEL CUP SERIES? "It's cool to be part of the Daytona 500, part of the NEXTEL Cup Series driving for Ray Evernham, the Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge and everyone that a part of this deal. It's a pretty big jump for myself so it's exciting and I thank all those people for giving me this opportunity." HOW NERVOUS WERE YOU? "I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be. I'm still a little nervous right now [smiles]. It was cool. It's great to get the first qualifying in for the year and we can now look forward to getting ready for the 125s."

TOMMY BALDWIN, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE:

THIS IS A GOOD WAY TO START OF SPEEDWEEKS. "Everyone worked really hard all winter long to showcase for today's efforts. I know it doesn't mean much after Thursday's 125s but it shows the strength of the team at Evernham Motorsports and the Dodge race team. We're real excited. We've had good tests all winter long and we're ready to get going." WHAT DO YOU FOCUS ON: QUALIFYING FOR TWO LAPS OR GETTING THE CAR TO DRAFT WELL? 'Our ultimate goal is to make it fast for two laps, but usually, 95 percent of the time, that shows up on Thursday and Sunday for the Daytona 500. If you build a car that's pretty fast on it's own, it's usually pretty good when you work on the handling from after today's qualifying effort on. Usually it shows up there also. We don't work all winter long just for these two laps, don't get me wrong but it's still a big day for us." WHAT IS THE GOAL FOR YOU IN THE GATORADE TWIN 125 QUALIFIER? "Our goal is to get Kasey some experience, for one, to run all the laps, and two is to gain the trust of the other drivers so we have some partners to run with on Sunday. That's going to be the big thing to work on. We need to let everybody know that we have a good race team and a good race car and a real good young race car driver that could be trust out there. That's what we're going to be working on all week. We're just going to try to stay clean [avoid an accident]. We pretty much clinched [a starting spot in the Daytona 500] from how we qualified today and plus driver and owner points from last year thanks to Bill and the rest of the guys from last year. I feel good about Thursday's 125s. Again, we'd just like to gain some experience: get a couple good pit stops under our belt and move on."

JOHNNY SAUTER, NO. 30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET:

"That will get us a decent spot in the 125, I guess. We'll just have to race our way in. I don't think there's a whole lot of cars here anyway so we don't have much to worry about. This car drafts really good. At least we didn't crash or blow up qualifying and we have a spot in the 125. We'll see what happens on Thursday." ARE YOU GLAD QUALIFYING IS OVER? "It's not really that nerve racking here. All you do is sit there and hold on. It is what it is, you know? We're going to have to race in on Thursday."

SCOTT WIMMER, NO. 22 CATERPILLAR DODGE:

DID QUALIFYING LATE WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE? "From what we've seen the weather seemed to be a little better than earlier. We've just been off a little bit the whole time here. The Caterpillar car normally runs real well in the draft here. Qualifying just kind of bit us. I thought we'd pick up a little bit more than that. I don't know if we got a gust of wind or something. We'll get 'er ready for drafting and hopefully have a good spot in the twins and run real well in that." ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE RUN? "Yeah, the car is driving real well. Granted, they drive real well when they're not going that fast [smiles]. I think we'll be fine. They've got a real competitive car down here. We didn't get it in qualifying but we'll get it in the race."

BRIAN VICKERS IN THE NO. 25 GMACE FINANACIAL SERVICES CHEVROLET:

"I'm pretty happy with it [qualifying lap]. The wind today is just mixing a lot of things up. I think we saw some of the biggest gusts of anybody out there today. The guys did a great job on gear selection and the package, predicting for the wind, which I think, helped a lot. Overall, I think the GMAC crew did a great job. We came down here and we wanted to make the race and we're in the 125s. Now we just have to do our best in that those races to get in the 500. It was pretty neat. It was pretty exciting to be out there for your first Daytona 500 qualifying session." IS IT A RELIEF TO GET PAST QUALIFYING? "Absolutely. It's a big relief because qualifying here is just different. It's not really qualifying. As a driver, it's riding and holding it wide open. There's not a lot you can do. It's kind of boring. The team pours their heart and guts into these cars for so long and spend so much money on it and the wind can determine how you qualify. That's kind of frustrating but I do love coming here. I can't wait to get out there drafting. I enjoy drafting so I'm looking forward to the 500."