Chevy Rock and Roll 400 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

KURT BUSCH, No. 97 IRWIN Industrial Tools Taurus - "Next week is really where it begins for us. We got to make sure that we do decent this week enough just to finish the race - we've got to finish 42nd or better, and that'll give us a guaranteed spot in the Chase for the Cup. We're looking to do a little better than that. If the 38 has problems, we can be sixth, and we've got to make sure we stay ahead of the eighth, ninth and 10th cars." HOW MUCH HAVE YOU CALCULATED ALL OF THIS? "I've heard anywhere between we've got to finish fifth and 43rd, or we're locked in, so it doesn't matter, really. We've got our job to do, and we've got enough of a point cushion where we don't really have to be too excited about it." DOES ANY OF THIS STRESS YOU OUT AT ALL? "No, no. We've been in bigger situations than this before."

MARK MARTIN, No. 6 Viagra Taurus - "That was not a good draw. An incredible amount of pressure on the whole Viagra team. Great race car, like we had, and that's going to be a good enough start to get the job done. So, that's one major bullet that we've dodged. I would've liked to have had a later draw, but I'll take that. That'll make the top 15. As long as we start somewhere between 18th and better we'll be in a good shape. This thing should be good on the long runs." SPEAKING OF PRESSURE, HOW WELL DO YOU THINK THIS TEAM IS GOING TO WORK UNDER PRESSURE? "We've been under pressure for a long time. We spotted the competition several hundred points, and have had to battle our way back, so you're going to have to check with me after Saturday night, and I'll talk a lot more about it."

GREG BIFFLE, No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus - "We've been really close all day. I just wish I could get through three and four; if I can get through three and four, I could've been on the pole, easy. I think the car will do a 22-flat, I just can't put it all together. I'm off a little bit getting into the corner down there, and I suffered a little."

ELLIOTT SADLER, No. 38 M&M's Taurus - "It's unbelievable. We have come a long way. I think in the last two months we have really jelled together as a team, and really just starting to hit our stride. Look at the last five or six races, I think we're second or third overall in the points we've attained, and my guys are getting better and better. My pit crew won the pit crew the contest again last week, so they're getting better. It's just great. I'm very honored to be with this team, and I can't wait for these last 10 races." YOU HAVE A BIG-TIME CHANCE AT BEING THE NEXT NASCAR CHAMPION. "We do definitely have a great shot at it, and that's something Todd Parrott has been preaching to me, that, 'Hey, guys, we can win this championship,' and he's got all our teams firing on all eight cylinders right now. We can do it. It is coming in the picture, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I think we got a shot at it." ON HIS LAP. "I'm not the best qualifier in the world here at Richmond, but my guys have brought me another great race car. I'm so glad to be here in the state of Virginia after winning last week in California and coming home and seeing all my family and friends, and I'm looking forward to a great, great race tomorrow night."

RICKY RUDD, No. 21 U.S. Air Force/Motorcraft Taurus - "We knew we were pretty good, we unloaded and we were top-six, -seven, -eight or -nine coming into this session. Man, it's such a pleasure. The car does all the work. We've had some pretty good cars the last couple of weeks in qualifying, but I've been overdriving it, trying to compensate. The car was there, we just didn't get the pole, but it was there." THIS TEAM HAS SHOWN IMPROVEMENT OVER THE PAST THREE WEEKS. "No question it's coming together. We made up three laps the hard way last week at California. We had a fifth-, eighth-place car last week, ended up 17th just because we just didn't have track position when we needed it late when we had to make all those laps up. But these are not the cars that Fatback - he's got some cars going under construction right now and they won't be ready probably three or four more races away, so I'm pretty excited about seeing those."

CARL EDWARDS, No. 99 Roush Racing Taurus - A 13TH-PLACE QUALIFYING EFFORT FOLLOWING A SIXTH-PLACE FINISH AT CALIFORNIA IN JUST YOUR THIRD CUP START. IS THIS EASY FOR YOU? "I guess I keep it in perspective. I'm a very competitive person and 13th is nothing I'd usually be very happy about. This is really, really tough. I'm really, really glad that I've got such a great team. These guys are awesome, Bob Osborne and all the guys. We were 24th in practice and to end up 13th in qualifying - that says a lot about how much they did. We never ran a lap that good in practice. But as far as is it easy or not, no, this is the hardest thing I've ever done."

MARK MARTIN Press Conference

MARK MARTIN, No. 6 Viagra Taurus - HOW IMPORTANT WILL TRACK POSITION BE FOR YOU TOMORROW NIGHT? "Having a good pit selection is great. We dodged one bullet already this weekend. We had an early draw and we got a fast lap, so that's one thing that could've got us that we had slip by us, so that's good. Track position's important, but there's all different ways to lose it, and just because you have it at the start doesn't mean you can keep it. So, we have to go out here and run this race, and that's what you do every race, and some races you lose it and get it back, and other races you don't lose it, and other races you lose it and you don't get it back. So, we gotta go race tomorrow night and find out what happens." ON CARRYING A HOT STREAK INTO TOMORROW NIGHT'S IMPORTANT RACE. HOW OPTIMISTIC ARE YOU? "If you know me, you would judge optimism differently than if you didn't know me. I know for positive that we're going to run good. I know that. So, I would say that would be optimistic, or realistic. But I'm also very realistic. I know that no matter how good we're running, I can't stop the air from coming out of a tire if it gets a hole in it. To me, I've just kind of scoffed at people who said they were going to win every single race - because they don't. Even if they win a lot, they don't win every one, so I say stop talking about it and get to work on it. That's always been my policy. I'm not one to talk about what we might do, you know, or what we're gonna do. I'd rather just work on trying to ensure that it happens well. Our team is on a high note right now. Our cars are running great. Our pit stops are great. We're a top-five, championship-caliber race team right now. It would be a real shame if we don't make the cut and get a chance to go run for it. But, one of those little things that we can't control could stop us from doing that tomorrow night. So, that's realistic. That's realism, right there. And, you can talk until you turn purple in the face, but we're not going to know until we watch this race tomorrow night, you know, what really happens." WHEN YOU RUN THE BUSCH RACE TONIGHT, WILL YOUR TEAM MONITOR THE CAR'S PERFORMANCE MORE THAN A NORMAL WEEKEND? "Maybe yes. We haven't raced in four years, except for one time, and at Michigan we weren't really trying to compare notes between the two cars. The two cars are slightly different. They're needing slightly different setups. But yes they will be watching closely, and I will be close attention to the things that I can sense and can feel and walk away with that might help us tomorrow night. But anything that we might learn would be very, very minute, even though it's all of those little minute things that add up to something big enough to make a difference. So, yeah, we're going to use the race tonight as an opportunity to possibly get to know something that we might not have seen." IS YOUR FAMILY STILL WITH YOU AFTER BEING IN CALIFORNIA LAST WEEK? "Matt and Arlene went to California with me because a hurricane was coming, actually. And because it was such a mess down there, we didn't go back this week. We went to Arkansas and then we went on to Charlotte because we were supposed to do a Goodyear tire test at Charlotte and that rained out. They came on up here because Arlene's sister has moved here so Matt's getting to hang out with his cousin. They used to live in Florida so they're all real close. And they'll be out here at the race track tomorrow, and it's been a real treat for me. With his school and his racing and everybody having their own life, it makes it kind of tough to be on the road with me all the time and on the move, and we've really been on the move this year with the additional work that has had to go on behind the scenes to try to get the performance where it is right now with the 6 car. I feel like we have put more into 2004 than I can ever remember." WITH ANOTHER STORM ON THE WAY, WILL THEY STAY WITH YOU? "It's been a really hard week for me. They're with me now. We are going home Sunday, but we may have to go to New Hampshire on Monday. I don't know. That's what we did a long time ago we went to New Hampshire on Tuesday when a hurricane was coming and we stayed up there the whole time. It's been kind of a difficult week because of the two hurricanes and all the things like that, but we had been together. I've also been without a pilot this week, so I've been doing all the flying on top of everything else. That's fun when you're flying for fun, but I was flying for business and that's different. When you fly for business you have to go no matter what the weather is like. On top of everything else and not going home, I'm tired. I'm tired of all this. I want to get down to the race. I have a great race team, a great race car and I think we can go out here and run really good tomorrow night and that's what I want to do, and just get all this stuff behind us. It's been a long month, you know?" CAN YOU TALK ABOUT JEFF BURTON AS A FRIEND AND MENTOR AND HOW DIFFICULT IT MUST'VE BEEN FOR HIM NOT TO BE RUNNING WELL, AND HOW WELL HE'S BEEN RECENTLY. "Jeff did a better job of keeping his chin up than I did going through the same times in 2003. I did a little bit more complaining - to him, at least - and a little bit of whining and complaining. It really, really got to me, and I know it got to Jeff, but he did a great job of not letting his team and his friends know how tough the last 12 months have been on him. I was really happy to see him qualify good today. It's good to see him running good. He's a friend of mine for life and I feel the same toward him now as I did when he drove the 99. I don't feel any differently, and I'm sure he feels the same toward me, so I think that speaks of a special bond right there." MORE PRESSURE TOMORROW NIGHT THAN A USUAL POINTS RACE? "For me, obviously, you guys know I'm 45 years old, I-don't-how-many-teen times I've run for a championship or a top-10 in points, but obviously there are fewer in front of me than behind me. There's a lot of reasons why this one seems to be higher pressure. There are other factors as well that I really can't speak of, but there are a lot of factors involved. But the biggest thing that has an impact on it is the disappointment of 2003. It's incredibly important to everyone who has put so much into the 6 car's effort to get the result that we deserve. Now, if we were running bad it wouldn't bother me that we didn't make the top 10. It wouldn't bother me. But this team runs good enough and deserves, I think, to be in there. So it's been incredibly tough. It's high pressure for us."

MATT KENSETH, No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus - "It was pretty good, it was a nice conservative lap. The speed wasn't too bad. I'm pretty happy with that."