Aaron’s 499 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

How the Raybestos Rookies fared in qualifying at Talladega: Scott Riggs (fifth), Brendan Gaughan (20th), Kasey Kahne (26th), Johnny Sauter (29th), Scott Wimmer (30th), Brian Vickers (39th)

BRIAN VICKERS, #25 GMAC CHEVROLET: "We're slow but this is just Talladega. I love racing here but I hate qualifying because there is nothing I can do. We went through this at Daytona and we raced real well until we got caught up in a wreck so hopefully we can count on the same thing. Maybe this car will race good but it doesn't seem to qualify good. Obviously, this isn't the same one from Daytona but the GMAC Chevy guys did a good job. We're going to do the best we can and get ready for the race." HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS RACING HERE VERSUS QUALIFYING? "You hold it wide open at both places but racing you can draft and you can make moves. The shape of the car and all this other stuff maybe doesn't come in to play quite as much as it does in qualifying. You are out there by yourself and pushing all the air alone but when you are in the draft that's not all dumping on your car."

KASEY KAHNE, #9 DODGE DEALERS/UAW DODGE: "That's an all right lap for us. It's a little bit quicker than what we practiced. You would have thought that we would have picked up more than that. I thought we would have picked up more than a couple of tenths. These guys worked hard to make it better from Daytona and I think it's a little better that what it was there. We just need to work on race now. We didn't have a very good car in race at Daytona. We get it handled and go we ought to be able to race up in there." IS IT FRUSTRATING TO STRUGGLE AT DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA AFTER RUNNING SO WELL AT ALL THE OTHER TRACKS? "Not really, you get what you get at those tracks (laughs). When it's qualifying time you can't do much to make that any better, that's just what you get but come the race, it will be a lot of fun. We will have a good car in the race." WHAT HAVE TO DONE TO GET THE PROGRAM BETTER SINCE DAYTONA? "I haven't done anything but the team's done a bunch. They've worked hard. Ray Evernham's main deal was to get his mile-and-a-half, mile, two-mile and all that stuff really good. And he's got that done. We're only going to get better there and the speedways will come next and we'll start working on that." WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD DAY FOR YOU ON SUNDAY? "If we finish a superspeedway race that would be really good for us, just to finish the race. If we finish we'll be in the mix somewhere if we finish on the lead lap."

BRENDAN GAUGHAN, #77 KODAK FILM DODGE: "We tested here in the Craftsman Truck Series. We wanted to pick up a little time but we looked like we matched our practice speed. We got a good Kodak Dodge for the race. We'll see if we can't keep it up front during the race, follow my teammates Ryan and Rusty and get to the front. We earned a lot of respect. I think we've gained a lot of respect the last couple of weeks but when you've got Ryan and Rusty to help you out, there's instant respect there because they're teammates. That always helps me out being the rookie of the team. We'll be all right. This is the same Dodge that we had at Daytona and it was a really good Dodge for the race at Daytona. We found a few things in the wind tunnel that we think helped us. The folks in the Jasper engine shop found a few more horsepower in our Dodge so. Just like at Daytona, it was a great racecar. It wasn't going to qualify all that well but it was going to race really well so we're still happy." HOW DIFFERENT IS DAYTONA VERSUS TALLADEGA FOR YOU? "It's one of those places where you're just big on the floor. It's actually wider than Daytona and you can see that it's wider, a little bumpier. We'll see what happens in race trim, how she works out. It's a big, big, wide open fast place." DO YOU LIKE DRAFTING? "I like drafting at California and Vegas and stuff like that but around here it's just hold on." YOU RAN WELL AT DAYTONA. "We were the top starting Raybestos Rookie at Daytona. We were really happy there and had a great racecar. If we don't get caught speeding on pit road we actually end up decent at Daytona. We think we will be okay. Like I said, the Kodak colors here will do just fine. It's the same Kodak Dodge from Daytona. We had a good run at Daytona, just got caught speeding. We won't make that rookie mistake twice." HOW TOUGH IS IT HERE WITH NUMEROUS PIT STOPS? "It's just like any other place. You just do what your crew says. This is a team sport and for the Kodak team that's where we have out advantage. We have a great team. Shane [Wilson, crew chief] and I work real well together. The guys just tell me when to come in and when to go out and just try to find a drafting partner. With any luck we'll have Ryan and Rusty to help us out and we'll be able to keep in the draft."

SCOTT RIGGS IN THE #10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT TALLADEGA. Notes: This is Riggs' best career start (fifth) and the first time in 2004 that he has been the top Raybestos Rookie qualifier. "This is a nice job for all the guys on the Valvoline Chevrolet, especially for all the guys back at the fab shop giving us a great car. It's definitely a product of the team and not the driver. They gave me a great piece. That's a good qualifying effort on our part and we've hope that we can go out there and have a good race. I hope I can take care of it and be there and have a good finish. It's great to have a good qualifying effort and have a good car. It makes me feel good to have such a good car here at a place like this where the car is so important. As good as it runs by itself I think it's going to be really good on the draft. All the guys on the team and all the guys back in the fab shop doing a great job. I'm anxious to get out there in race trim and see how we stack up and we want to have a good finish out of it all." YOU'VE HAD SOME STRONG RUNS BUT HAVEN'T HAD THE FINISHES. HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT? "It's been very frustrating for me, especially when you're used to being competitive and running up front to getting into a situation where everybody is growing and learning and it's a lot of new people and new products and changing the car over this year from Pontiac to Chevrolet. There were a lot of curve balls thrown at us this year. It's been frustrating and hard but what's good about it is when all the guys have all the support behind me and I have all the support and faith in them. That's what makes you feel good, no matter how disappointed that you are in your finishes when everybody still believes in each other, that's how you grow to be better." YOU'VE SAID THAT THIS TEAM IS IMPROVING EVERY WEEK. IS THIS AN EXAMPLE OF THAT IMPROVEMENT? "I think the guys in the shop is what really turned this on. They've been working awful hard. I haven't been with a lot of NEXTEL Cup teams but I can't imagine any team having any stronger fab shop and guys in the shop during the wee working their tails off to give us great cars than we do. I don't think anybody has anything compared to us. We might not be the biggest name out there but we've got the hardest workers, in my opinion." DOES THIS GOOD RUN GIVE THE TEAM A BIG BOOST? "Absolutely. To have a good qualifying effort that means you are going to have a good car and I think the car is going to be really good in race mode also using the same thing here. If you're good by yourself it sucks up pretty well in the draft and you're pretty good. I just wanted to take care of the car and have a good finish and hopefully give these guys what they deserve after all their hard work putting a good car together."

JOHNNY SAUTER, #30 AMERICA ONLINE CHEVROLET: "It's an improvement, obviously. That's the name of the game: try to improve every week and get better. It's a lot better than we were in practice, I'll promise you that. Hopefully it will be good in the draft." WHAT DOES THE CAR HAVE TO DO IN THE DRAFT? "It's the same every week. It's got to be good. It's got to suck up good, it's got to be stable." DOES THE YELLOW STRIPE AFFECT YOU MORE HERE THAN AT OTHER TRACKS? "I think the yellow stripe is a detriment everywhere, especially at a superspeedway. Unlike Daytona, we need to go out there and survive and stay in the draft and not ruffle anybody's feathers and finish the race and have a good solid day for the AOL Chevrolet."

SCOTT WIMMER, #22 CATERPILLAR DODGE: "It's the same car that we ran at Daytona. The guys worked real hard and tried to make it a little better. I think they did that. I think our qualifying speed was a lot better than we would have been if we would have just came with the Daytona car. It's not where we want but it doesn't really matter. If you're not on the front row here you could start dead last and be in the front in a lap or two. We're going to work on that and we'll get a lot of drafting practice tomorrow and get ready for the race. This is the same car that we had for the 500 but they work on it to make it a little bit better, take it to the wind tunnel and things like that. I think everybody says they bring the same car but when you get back to the shop and they strip them it's not the same car anymore. I'm excited about it. The car drove real good down at Dayton and I think we'll put it back pretty close to the same way and hopefully it will do the same." IS HANDLING GOING TO BE A FACTOR AT ALL HERE SUNDAY? "I sure hope so. Talladega isn't known for that. The corners are so much bigger than Daytona and wider. It's pretty easy to run three, four wide around here where at Daytona is gets pretty tight. I sure hope it does. It's fun to come to these places when you have to lift off the throttle and use a little brake and all the things like that. I think it makes for better racing and hopefully that's something that we've got here." DO YOU THINK THE FIELD WILL BE STRUNG OUT HERE? "It's hard to say. It's all on pit stops. If you have one bad pit stop it puts you back where you're out of that lead draft or something like that. I think it will. I think that we're not going to have a lot of cautions and I think it's going to get strung out and it's going to come down to pit strategy, a lot like Daytona did."