Aaron’s 499 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 - National Guard/Subway Taurus (Qualified 18th) - "That's not very good. We've been better than that, so I don't know. We just can't get any speed out of it. It's the same car that sat on the pole for the (Daytona) 500, but we just can't get her to go."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 - M&M's Taurus (Qualified 12th) - "That's where we figured we would probably run. We ran like a .60 in practice with no help, so we backed that up with a .59. We wanted to run a little bit better, but that will be OK. This is the same car we had for the 500, so we know it's gonna race good. Anywhere in the top 15 will be fine, so, hopefully, we'll be somewhere in that area." IS IT A BIG BENEFIT TO HAVE THE SAME CAR FROM DAYTONA? "Yeah, because we knew that nothing was gonna rub when we came down here. We knew the quarter panels were gonna be fine and the fenders were gonna be fine. We know it's gonna drive good and suck up good, so you're probably a little bit ahead of the game. We'll see what happens. Hopefully we'll make it through this race also and keep it on all fours and have a good points day. That's the main thing."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 - Keep It Genuine Taurus (Qualified 1st) - IT'S A NICE RETRO PAINT SCHEME FOR A LAP LIKE THAT. "If you look back quite a few years ago when the car used to look like this, it ran fast and now it's running fast again. We'll probably have to keep this thing all year long like this. I think it looks neat." DID YOU THINK ABOUT WINNING THE POLE AFTER PRACTICE? "Really, I was concerned because the fast lap of the day that we ran was not a realistic lap. There were cars on the track and even though we tried to get an empty hole in traffic, somebody jumped out in front of us and it wasn't a real lap. We knew that, but we also knew that we had a pretty good lap going until the car pulled in front of us, so we didn't know what we could run. We thought we could be pole material and we still think that. It may or may not end up that way, but any way you look at it, it's gonna be top-five material." WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE UP FRONT HERE? "Everybody comes here and it's easy to say, 'Oh, we didn't win the pole but we've got a good car and we're gonna do good in the race.' I've had to say that way too many times this last year, but now we can say, 'We've got a fast car,' and hopefully we can say it's a winning car in the race or has a chance to win. It's a fast race car and you've got to have a fast car to run at Talladega. Starting on the front row or up front somewhere doesn't really make a lot of difference, but we've had some success and we need that. These guys need a good pat on the back." WHAT ABOUT YOUR LAP? "These guys on this Motorcraft team have worked really hard. This car ran very fast at Daytona running for the pole. We were fifth-fastest there and they worked on it a little bit. We were the fastest in practice, but that wasn't a legit lap. We had help in practice. We knew we had a good car and were really upset that we didn't get that run in, so we really didn't know what we could run. Obviously, it was a pretty good lap. Whether it holds up for the pole or not I'm not really sure, but anyway you look at it it's a tremendous day for Wood Brothers Racing and Motorcraft. It's a great day."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus (Qualified 31st) - "It doesn't really matter where you start here at Talladega because of the draft and all that goes on. Whenever you don't qualify good, you always say it's gonna race better. Everybody races pretty good just because of the draft, so, hopefully we'll be able to get her tuned up tomorrow. But that's a lot better than what we've been running today. It's a new car and with the shorter practice time we had this week, we didn't have a lot of time to get it sorted out. So, I thought overall that was OK. It's not gonna be a great starting spot, but I thought it was alright."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Sharpie/IRWIN Taurus (Qualified 22nd) - "I've never had a car this consistent. It's almost spooky. We had a 51.75 when we unloaded, a 51.77 the second time out, a 51.75 the third time and a 51.75 for qualifying. It's scary consistent." HOW ABOUT SUNDAY? "It's the same old story with us in restrictor plate racing. We just come here to do our job on Sunday and make sure we do the right thing in practice tomorrow to adjust on the car."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus (Qualified 7th) - "Things were good. They worked really hard on this car. This is our Bud Shootout car. It drove really good at Daytona and then they went back and worked on it to get rid of some of the drag that this car had. That's what you need here is a slick race car and, obviously, the engine guys always work hard and they picked up a little more horsepower, so that worked for a good combination." IT'S A PLUS TO HAVE THE SAME CAR FROM DAYTONA, RIGHT? "Yeah, exactly. We came through there with two race cars - from the Shootout and then finishing 10th in the 500, and we knew that this particular car drove better than the 500 car. So if we could work on it and some things that we learned that we could do a little bit better aero-wise, then we thought we could make a better race car. It's just about continuing to work."

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 Roundup Taurus (Qualified 25th) - "As bad as we were last year in qualifying for plate races we wound up pretty good at Daytona. We were 23rd or 24th, which isn't good but it's a lot better than we were the year before. This is the same car and we really haven't done a whole lot to it since Daytona because the thing drove so good and was so good in race trim. We didn't want to mess with that, so that's what we've got for qualifying." YOU HAVE ROUNDUP ON THE CAR. "It's good to see something on the car. It's good for morale and it's good to keep everybody pumped up. Being able to have a sponsor like Scott's on the car, which isn't just any sponsor, is pretty cool and hopefully we can turn our year around by having some green on the car." DO YOU FEEL IF YOU DO WELL DURING THIS STRETCH THEY MIGHT STAY THE WHOLE YEAR? "We need to do well because we need to do well. Whatever happens because of that happens, but we just need to get on track. It seems like everytime we get ready to get on track something happens and knocks us back off. We just need to do well because we need to do well."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 - Viagra Taurus (Qualified 6th) - "It's all car. These guys did a good job. We didn't have all of our stuff on for our qualifying run in practice, so all of that stuff is worth some speed." YOUR PLATE PROGRAM HAS COME A LONG WAY. "We've worked real hard on the cars and we've got really great engines, too. We still have some work to do on the cars. The engines are awfully good, but there's room for improvement yet in the cars and the guys are working real hard at it."

RICKY RUDD POLE-WINNING INTERVIEW - "It's just a great day for the Wood Brothers. I can't say enough about it. The Yates-Roush motor combination and all the guys on the Motorcraft team have been working really hard trying to put this together and it paid off and today was the day. We've got the old retro paint scheme, so this couldn't be a better day for the Wood Brothers." THIS IS THE FIRST POLE FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS SINCE BUDDY BAKER AT ATLANTA IN 1984. "That's a pretty amazing stat. I remember coming up in the sport and when you went to Charlotte, it was a given that the Wood Brothers and David Pearson were gonna sit on the pole. Later, Neil Bonnett tookover that and it was a given. Now to come here, it's been so long. It's hard to believe it's been that long since the Wood Brothers won a pole, but the best thing about the whole weekend is I get to watch Eddie Wood walk around in a pink hat the rest of the week. That's part of a bet he had with Judi (Moritz), one of our sponsors (Motorcraft), so I get to see that all week."

RICKY RUDD PRESS CONFERENCE - "I knew we were fast. It really starts back in winter testing. We had a car that was very fast during winter testing. We led winter testing. We went to Daytona and qualified fifth-fastest and were within a tenth of the pole speed there. We brought the same car back and the guys took it back home and worked on it and massaged on it and made it a little bit better yet. They got it driving better, which it didn't do real good at Daytona, and it's driving good here. Before we got here I felt like we had a shot at it and a top five was within reason, but you try to not get too excited about it and get caught up in it because it's a long fall if you're sitting here thinking you've got this pole. We did watch pretty hard in the transporter. After we made our run we watched everybody run. Obviously, Earnhardt, Jr. was probably our biggest concern and sort of dodged that bullet." DID YOU FEEL IT WAS A POTENTIAL POLE WINNING RUN? "I think a lot of people were sort of watching us because we were the fastest going into qualifying, but anyone I talked to I told them not to go by that because we got help when we made our attempted qualifying run. It wasn't on purpose, but it was just the way the traffic jam ended up being, so we didn't know how fast we could go. We were pretty close to duplicating. We actually ran a little bit better than we did at practice. I wouldn't say I was surprised about it, I'm very happy for it, but I figured we'd run a .10 and we ran a flat." IT'S BEEN 20 YEARS SINCE THE WOODS WON A POLE. "First of all, I'm surprised. When I started racing David Pearson, especially when we went to Charlotte, he sat on every pole there ever was there. I just remember that team being associated with a lot of poles. I was really surprised when I heard it was 20 years. Certainly somewhere along the way I thought they had one since then, but I'm just glad to be a part of it. I didn't have a whole lot to do with it, I just happened to be the lucky guy that sat behind the wheel today and held onto the steering wheel. Ben Leslie and all the guys on the Motorcraft team did an excellent job preparing this car, and I have to thank Ford Motor Company. We had some wind tunnel time thrown our way and donated our way. Bernie (Marcus) from Ford was instrumental in helping this thing run and I just happened to be sitting in the right place at the right time. But it's sort of amazing it's been that long." DOES THE POLE MEAN LESS AT THIS TRACK THAN ANY OTHER AND CAN THIS POSE A THREAT TO DEI? "I'd say if you go back a couple years when you were allowed to change motors and transmissions that you would probably say it makes no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the race. When NASCAR mandated that you run the same motor, that sort of changed things a little bit. It put a little more value in the guy that sits on the pole is maybe gonna be a factor in the race. I would say probably taking your analogy is that we can be leading this thing on one lap and we could be running dead last the next lap and will probably do so sometime during the day - as even the DEI cars will probably do during the day, which have been so dominant here. There is no guarantee here. I've come here the last couple of years - three years, four years, whatever that number is - the DEI cars have definitely been the cars to beat. They've been the cars to beat in qualifying and they've been the cars to beat in the race. We were fortunate that we were able to outrun a couple of them today, so we've got part A right. We've just got to do part B right and that's the big one - race day. To sit here and tell you that we're the greatest car to come here in many years and we're gonna blow those guys away, I guess if I wanted to get a little hype going and stir up some controversy I'd say that, but I think the real world is a question mark. Somewhere along the line, whether it's this weekend or three years from now or five years from now that dominance will stop and somebody else is gonna win the race that day. Are we the guys to do that? I can't answer that. But somewhere along the way it will change and, hopefully, it's this weekend."

RICKY RUDD CONTINUED - ARE WE SEEING A VETERAN REVIVAL? "You mean the old guys are getting it done this last couple of weeks (laughing). I sat there and watched Rusty in his interviews last week and that was a pretty neat deal. He won that race hands-down. He ran good. His hair isn't as white as mine, but I noticed he doesn't have quite as much hair on the top of his head that he used to have. So, anyway, for the old guys it's a pretty neat seven day period. It would be nice to pull it off on race day. Hopefully, we can do it. I don't think age has anything to do with last week or this week, but it's pretty neat to see some of the older guys doing something." HOW DO YOU LIKE RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING? "I don't. I'd prefer to have the plates gone and race without the plates. The only reason I say that is I came and ran down here for years without the plates and I've tasted it both ways. I understand the need for it, don't get me wrong, and I don't have a better solution than what we're running right now. But what I liked about the non-plate days is we ran speeds where handling became a huge issue in the race and the field did get separated and it was separated by the cars that handled good, which is pretty much what we see week in and week out at any race - they get separated by handling. The restrictor plates today, it doesn't really separate the field by handling, it's more about how fast you are in the straightaway. From that aspect, I kind of miss the old days but understand the necessity of having the restrictor plates today. But to answer the question, I like the old days better, but you can't look back." HOW DOES THIS HELP THE TEAM? "It's definitely a positive thing to happen for the team, which there haven't been a whole lot of positives all year long really. I think you go back to Daytona, I think we qualified fifth on the clock and we led our 125 race for about half the race and ended up finishing sixth or eighth or something like that. That's probably been the highlight. It's been way back at Daytona since we had anything positive happen at all. We have seen some improvements. Last week at Martinsville we were shaping up to have a good solid top 10. We were 13th with about 180 laps to go and Kasey Kahne and I got together and I had a flat tire and that just killed our day. We were able to make one of the laps up on the race track by passing the leader and the caution came out, but, anyway, I look at the results and they sort of speak for themselves. You don't really see a whole lot of positive coming out of that, other than the fact the guys that work on the car saw the car actually go up front, pass the leader and get out in front of the pack, which is the first time all year we've been fast. We've come to Talladega and we're fast down here. I don't think this has a huge bearing on the outcome of the race, but it's definitely a positive and a shot of confidence in the arm for the guys that spend so many hours back at the shop and haven't had anything good happen. So now all of a sudden we have some good things going on." WERE THERE ANY SUPERSTITIONS IN THE TRUCK? "We were sitting in the hauler watching qualifying and as it was winding down, it was overcrowded inside the transporter watching the TV. A couple of them got up and were gonna make room and Eddie said, 'Sit back down. You're not leaving here. You're not gonna jinx us now. You're gonna sit right down there until this thing is over with.' The most enjoyment I'm gonna get out of this pole all week long is watching Eddie Wood where a pink hat until Sunday evening. He's got to wear a pink hat on a bet - if we qualified in the top five he was gonna wear this pink hat, so he's sporting a nice pink hat all weekend." WILL THIS RACE BE LIKE DAYTONA? "They did get spread out at Daytona. I know the Goodyear tire got a lot of the blame for breaking up the packs and people were complaining a little bit about front ends pushing down there. But the real deal is the spoiler change on the cars shifted the aero-balance more to a tight situation. I think what you'll see here, you're not gonna see the packs break up like you did at Daytona. You're gonna see everybody hang together as a group because the arc of the corner is not as sharp here and aero-push is not something you're gonna hear about at Talladega. You're gonna have drivers not having to crack the throttle because they're gonna hit the front end on the wall coming off the corner. That won't be an issue here at Talladega, so I think it's gonna re-group the cars. It's gonna bunch 'em up kind of like typical Talladega racing."

RICKY RUDD CONTINUED -- WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BREAK THE DEI DOMINANCE LIKE BIFFLE DID AT DAYTONA? "Yeah, I think Greg won the race and we finished third or fourth. Not taking anything away from Greg, but he wasn't the dominant car at Daytona. The DEI cars have shown that dominance for a while and you're gonna have to have good equipment, good cars and good preparation. I feel real happy about what we've got. I think it's gonna race well. We'll see when we get in race trim. I don't know for a fact, but I hear people tell about the hours and development they spend on their speedway program - kind of like the Larry McClure team and the 4 car was a dominant car for so many years. They probably blew 85 percent of their budget getting ready for these speedway races and the DEI cars have got a lot of effort into that. As time goes along, information sort of filters out on what projects they've been working on over the years and that educates a lot of teams. They go to work and then they take that and they carry it a step farther, but one day they're gonna be beat. If you ask them, they'll probably tell you the same thing. What's it gonna take? You're gonna have to have your act together for sure, or you back into one, or you catch a break with a caution falling or something like that. But if you're gonna go out and beat 'em, I like to beat 'em on the race track. If they do get beat, have somebody do it outright and just outmuscle them. The day will come. I have no idea when it's gonna be, but there will be a new leader in that group." IS THAT A YATES-ROUSH ENGINE? "Yeah, technically I think it's the Roush-Yates combination, which makes good power. I'm sure, I don't know if they chassis dyno these things, but we're looking good in that area. We're real happy with that." IS THAT A STEP FORWARD IN THAT PROGRAM? "The motor combination has been really strong this year. The motor is not really an issue when we go to the race track. Last year we had some great motors and we had some motors that were a little weak at times. What happens is you go to the race track and you're off the pace and you say, 'Well, gosh, maybe we're getting beat on horsepower a little bit.' With this new combination, you go to the race track and if you're not fast on the watch, you can pretty much rule out that it's not an engine issue. You better go to work on the race car and get it handling better because it normally comes down to handling now. I guess it's one more element in the equation that you don't have to worry about when you come down here." DO YOU THINK THIS MIGHT BE MORE DEMANDING THAN DAYTONA? "I think anytime you race three-wide or four-wide all day long, it is a more mentally demanding race track. It's not that physical, but you're having to really pay attention and you're having to really stay on top of the steering wheel all day long. So in that aspect, I'd have to say it's gonna be more mentally fatiguing for sure because you're gonna be in the packs and you're gonna be running three-wide and four-wide. It's pretty typical Talladega. I don't think you're gonna see anything different than you have the last time we were here. This race track, they sort of play with the rules quite a bit - roof spoilers and I can't think of how many things they've tried to maybe break the packs up a little bit, but they haven't ever seemed to find a combination at Talladega to do that. This race is not gonna be any different. It depends on what your interpretation of great racing is, but you're definitely gonna see one large pack running together." CAN YOU TALK MORE ABOUT THIS BET? "I think the bet was with Judi Moritz, who is the Motorcraft representative. It just kind of started on a whim and as a joke, really, but I will say that Eddie proudly put on his pink hat when the last car ran in qualifying. I'm kind of wondering about the boy. He kind of likes that pink hat an awful lot (laughing)." HOW OFTEN TO THE ORIGINAL WOOD BROTHERS COME AROUND? "Leonard Wood is still actively involved on a daily basis in the race shop. He's still a brilliant man. He's kind of a little Einstein. They lock him up in a corner in the back and he whittles on things. I haven't quite figured out what Leonard does all the time, but he makes a lot of parts, I know that. He kind of just whittles on stuff, but he makes a major contribution to this race team, especially this weekend. Glen obviously comes around, but since the team moved to Charlotte I don't see as much of him. He's probably there a lot, but I only get by the shop maybe once a week. I'm not good with names, but Delano and there are quite a few other ones that I've sort of lost track of over the years. I don't know if Eddie is here to answer those questions, but I see Leonard quite frequently. He's here at every race track. Every race he's here and then Glen and Eddie and Len. There are a whole bunch of them still around." DID YOU SENSE ANY MAGIC WHEN DRIVING AROUND TODAY? "Really, it was a pretty uneventful lap. I didn't see anything going on really crazy. These poles are won and lost back at the shop. We've got a great group of guys together, led by Ben Leslie that work on this thing, but I didn't see any funny things going on. They didn't tell me about hitting any special buttons or anything when I was in the car, so I didn't have to worry about any of that." PEARSON SAID HE FELT IT WAS A RADIO-CONTROLLED CAR. "It was amazing. I was around during that time and just getting started, but everytime you went to Charlotte people thought they had 'em covered - kind of like the DEI cars have done here for so many years - they'd go there and, sure enough, qualifying would be over and there's Pearson on the pole again." DOES THIS POLE MEAN MORE TO THE GUYS AT THE SHOP? "That's a good point and that's exactly right. These guys need a tremendous shot in the arm right now. If we'd have won a pole at Richmond or Martinsville or somewhere like that, a driver has a lot to do with it there and it would probably take away from some of the effort those guys have done. If we go to a road course and I sat on the pole, it probably wouldn't be a huge surprise. You come here and it's all about team effort. Right now, these guys need a big confidence booster and what better way to do it than at a crew member's race track. You ask any driver in the garage area, it's the effort that goes into the wind tunnel results and how hard these guys work it and how much midnight oil they burn speaks for itself and our guys came out on top today. So, yeah, it's a tremendous boost for those guys and they need to enjoy it because we've had a tough year." WHAT'S THE CLOSEST YOU'VE COME TO WINNING HERE? "We finished third here maybe four times or so and each one of those third-place finishes it all got down to maybe making the wrong decision on who to draft with and who not to on the closing laps. Probably a couple of years ago when Bobby Hamilton won the race, I think we finished third that day, and I had a decision to make. The outside lane had not been the lane to be in all day long. I tried it the whole race. Everytime I got in the outside lane I'd get close to the front. I don't think we ever led it that day, but I'd get greedy and I'd move to the outside to take the lead and I'd go all the way back to like 20th. I did that all day, so finally at the end of the race with five laps to go here comes Hamilton making a run on the outside. He was coming and I could have moved up in front of him. I was sitting here and said to myself, 'Don't get trapped into that sucker hole again.' I did it all day long and would go to the back. So, here he comes and he made it work. The outside ended up winning the race for him. I had to make a big decision - do I jump in front of him? Now that effort on the outside is gonna push me to the lead and it would have pushed me into the win, but I guess I had gotten shuffled back so much during that day I said, 'Whatever I do, don't get in that outside lane,' and that probably cost me a chance to win the race that day." IS THERE A GARAGE MENTALITY OF ANYBODY BUT DEI AT THESE TRACKS? "It's hard for me to speak for the other drivers about that, but I think anytime you have something that happens a little bit out of the normal, you come to these race tracks for the last, I don't know 100 years, they'd win the pole and win the race. That kind of gets boring really. We just want to see something different, so I would have to say - no disrespect to the effort that they've put in - but, yeah, it would be nice to see somebody else win a pole or win a race for a change that actually goes out there and wins it and takes it away from them. I'd like to see it, whether it's me or somebody else. That's not meant as a negative towards that team because they've worked for what they've got, but it would be nice to see somebody wrestle it away from them." DO YOU SENSE ANY URGENCY TO WIN? "I'll tell you how urgent it is getting. There's no secret about it, Rusty and I haven't been the best of on-track competitors over the years and I caught myself at the end of Martinsville rooting for him (laughing). So that's how bad it's gotten (laughing)."