Sirius at the Glen - Ford Qualifying Quotes

Friday's qualifying for the Sirius at the Glen was cancelled following rains that passed through central New York, so the starting field for Sunday's race was set by points. Elliott Sadler, driver of the No. 38 M&M's Taurus, will start sixth. It will mark Sadler's 10th top-10 start of the season.

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus - STARTING IN THE TOP 10, THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT... "Hey, we've been pretty much doing that all year, starting in the top 10. The guys did a good job today. This is by far my best qualifying effort at a road course. It's going to be cool to start sixth. We can start up with the guys. We think we'll race very well. It's the same car we had a Sears Point, and I was really happy with it during the race. My teammate came and tested and said we can go off of a lot of his notes and be pretty close, so all in all a pretty good weekend so far."

OBVIOUSLY, STARTING UP FRONT IS ALWAYS GOOD, BUT HOW MUCH MORE IMPORTANT IS IT AT A ROAD COURSE? "It's so much more important at a road course because pit strategy, a lot of people are going to pit around the same time, so you can't really gain on that. Track position means so much, it gets spread out so much here at a road course, and clean air means a lot. I know people don't think so, but you run so fast here at Watkins Glen, up through the esses and through the carousel and all, that track position and clean air mean a lot to that, too. You get a good pit selection, because we all know how important pitting is nowadays. It's just great. It was the only thing I was worried about this weekend, is qualifying - I think it'll be good in the race. So, everything's fine."

IS ELEVATION MUCH OF A FACTOR HERE? "It is here, going into turn one, because you're braking so much at an elevation change that the rear tires tend to wheel hop some, and all your weight is on the front springs and not on the rear springs, so it causes a little wheel hop. It's just tough on the braking, all the elevation change. We're pretty used to it because Sears Point is like that, so whatever we learned to help us out there will help us here. But the main thing I've ever seen here is it's definitely braking and downhill situations cause some problems if you're not used to it."

HOW GOOD WAS LAST WEEK FOR ROBERT YATES RACING (WHICH FINISHED 2-3 AT INDIANAPOLIS LAST WEEK)? "It's unbelievable. It's been so many happy faces and smiling faces in the shop this week. Everybody's so fired up by the way we ran up at Indy. Of course, one of us wanted to win, but we've come just a long way with the motor program. We've come such a long way in the last 12 months compared to what happened to us there last year that it's been great. I can't ask for a better team to work with and a better teammate. It feels better to me than anything, to be able to walk back in that shop and have the meeting that we had there Tuesday. Two hundred employees there and all of them just as happy as they can be. I mean that means more to me, and I know DJ, than anything. This is the momentum that we needed - DJ really needed it for these last five races to try to get in the top 10, and we needed to stay in the top 10, so that was a reat boost we had at the Brickyard."

DO YOU HAVE A BIG CALENDER AT THE SHOP WHERE YOU MARK OFF THE RACES? YOU'RE ONLY FIVE AWAY FROM THE RACE FOR THE NEXTEL CUP... "I know, we're five away from where we wanted to be, from having a chance to this championship, and that's where we're looking at from. Anything can happen. Those last 10 races are going to be wild-card races, and everybody's going to be racing differently than they've raced all year, so anything can happen. Yeah, we're marking 'em off as we get to 'em. I love seeing those races highlighted behind us, and we're still in points where we need to be. We only have five left and I can't wait to mark this one off Sunday night."

HOW CONFIDANT IS THIS TEAM RIGHT NOW? "I just think there's no pressure on us. The only pressure being put on us is from ourselves, not the media or anything's putting any pressure on us. We're just going out and doing the job we need to do, kind of quietly. Every single week we're qualifying in the top 10, 15, pretty much every week and running that way. Confidence is a great thing. My pit crew has won, like, four of the last seven McDonald's pit crew deals, so they have a lot of confidence. I have a lot of confidence in them, and it makes it where we can make better decisions on Sunday knowing that. One department feeds off the other. The engine shop is happy with the progress they're making. The chassis shop is happy with their progress. The guys at the fab shop - we all feed off each other. We feel like we're all making our program that much better, which means when I get in the race car on Friday I'm as confident as I can be, which means I'm going to be a better race-car driver."

Beginning with next week's race at Michigan, Carl Edwards will replace Jeff Burton in the No. 99 Roush Racing Taurus. Team owner Jack Roush talked about Burton's move to the No. 30 NEXTEL Cup team (which was announced Saturday morning), and Edwards' taking over the No. 99 Taurus. Edwards is in his second full season racing the No. 99 Superchips Ford F-150 in the Craftsman Truck series. He has five career victories and two poles, and currently is third in the CTS standings.

JACK ROUSH - team owner, No. 99 Roush Racing Taurus - THERE ARE CHANGES ALL THE TIME IN THE GARAGE, BUT YOU COULDN'T HAVE EXPECTED THIS... "No, I didn't expect this. We had an agreement with Jeff that gave him the option to be exercised, I don't know, sometime in August here - I think it was the 18th, but I'm not sure of the date - for whether or not he wanted to go forward with us in the next year. That certainly wasn't on my mind, but it was part of our deal. I don't make the contracts and I don't negotiate the terms - Geoff Smith, our president does - but Jeff Burton decided based on the uncertainty of our sponsorship situation and the offer he had from Richard going forward that that was better for him, and he opted not to go forward. My feelings were initially hurt because we've done so much together and we've invested so much in this year in looking for a sponsor for him, but I got over that very quickly. Jeff is a dear friend, and we've had a lot of success together. He was there when we established the credibility for and the reason for and the pattern for our multiple-team operation, all the models that have to do with staffing and the way you share things and how all the interactions work from a human chemistry point of view, he was there when worked all that out to the shape that it is today. So, there's a lot of things that we share that I'm saddened that we won't be able to share going forward. But I wish Jeff success, and I wish he and his family well being, and look forward to looking forward to the 99 do what it can do going forward with Carl Edwards. Carl will be as good as anybody in this business has been. He's young and with a lot of time. We didn't need to put him into Cup this year, but it'll be fine, the same as it was fine with Kurt Busch and for Matt Kenseth, it will be fine for him." HAD THERE BEEN A SPONSOR FOR THE CAR, WOULD THIS STILL HAVE HAPPENED? "You'd have to ask Jeff Burton about that. Whether he would've made the decision to go forward with us if we had a sponsor or whether Richard Childress' offer would've still been more attractive to him, I can't say." ON CARL EDWARDS. "He's an intelligent, want-to-learn kind of guy. He comes from a great family. His mother is a great competitive person, and he gets great support from his father. Carl is out of the same fold as Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch, and Jeff Burton and his brother, Ward. At his age, they all looked, I'm sure, pretty much the same. Carl is so good with the media and he's so good with his team. He carries so much energy, just around with him, that he spreads on everybody that he touches. It's going to be great to watch that team rejuvenate itself around Carl." OTHER ROUSH RACING CUP DRIVERS HAVE TRUCK EXPERIENCE, SO YOU KNOW THE TEMPLATE... "Well, we think we do. Every driver is different, in terms of his motivations and his frustrations and his maturity, as he stps into the big ring. We'll see. Carl doesn't have as much time as Matt Kenseth had, has more time than Kurt Busch had. When Kurt came, he'd won half the races he ever entered, or something. He'd only been in a handful races, 40 or 50 races, but he'd won an unbelievable number of races that he entered. Carl hasn't had that, nor has anybody else that I've had a chance to work with has had that. But Carl is ready to go. Another year in Busch would've been fine, but we'll spend a lot of time testing, a lot of time talking our way through things that could go wrong. He will spend a lot of time, I'm sure, reviewing tapes and discussing scenarios with Bob Osborne, the crew chief. It's going to be a new beginning. It's the re-birth of the 99 team."