Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Chevrolet Qualifying Quotes

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I was just talking to the guys about how the inspection stickers are about three-quarters of the way blown off the car (laughs) and I thought that might be important. So, I don't know. I thought that was a decent lap. But it's early. It's hard to say. I'm sure there will be guys who will run a bunch quicker than that. But at least through eight cars, we're on top of the board."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The track had a lot of grip. I don't feel like I drove it to it's potential on that lap. But we'll did like we did at Lowe's (Motor Speedway) and just kind of work our way up there. We're just trying to take it race by race and do the best we can. We're just trying to make the best of it while I'm in the car and hopefully we can work some stuff out for next year and I'm just excited to be here."

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I think it could have been a little bit better. We were bottoming out. That was the biggest thing. The track's got a lot of grip. For bottoming out the way we were I don't think we could have been any faster. I think it'll be a good car on Sunday. We were happy with it in practice. It's going to be a lot different come race time. The times are going to fall off. To run good in race trim you've got to run so soft."

EVEN IF YOU DON'T WIN A RACE THIS SEASON, WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE TO FINISH THE SEASON ON A STRONG NOTE? "Yeah, we want to finish as best as we can. We want to get as many points as we can to go out there 11th. A win would be awesome and we're really going for that. But if we can have a really solid points lead here at the end of the year and maybe get to 11th, I would give up a win."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I was pretty happy. The car was really fast this afternoon. It was a little free on the qualifying run there. But I'm really happy about my car for Sunday."

TALK ABOUT SUNDAY AND HOW GOOD YOUR CAR WAS IN PRACTICE AND WHAT YOU THINK WE'LL SEE: "After about 10 or 15 laps, nobody could run with us. So we'll be up front and hopefully race for the win. We've got a really good car."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "It was a little bit tight. I could have changed my driving style a little bit to try and do a couple of different things. But I didn't even know what I was going to have when I got out there. I was just hoping I wasn't going to be loose at all. The guys gave me an awesome car and I'm looking forward to Sunday's race."

KYLE BUSCH PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
ON QUALIFYING 7TH: "It was a pretty good lap. It was pretty uneventful. I was really tight, so my car didn't stick a lot low on the front end. We just kind of drifted up the race track. I felt like I left a little bit out there on the first lap, so I wanted to go out and do something on the second one. I got a little bit better. But all in all, I think there was a little bit left out there but I think our car could have been a lot better."

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ON SUNDAY? "It's probably going to be a pretty exciting race like Carl (Edwards) and Elliott (Sadler) were saying. But I'm not so sure about the pit strategy that they were alluding to. I think it's all going to be about every caution you come down and get four tires -- there are going to be no two-tire stops. It's going to be curious to see how the last part of the race plays out though because coming down at the end if you have a pit stop with 50 (laps) to go and you've run 43 or 35 laps, we're all going to come right back down pit road. It's just like California when we all went down pit road with 12 laps to go. But this time I don't think you're going to see two tires because two tires are not going to allow you to win the race -- especially after putting 30 laps on the tires or something like that. So it's going to be a little bit different on trying to figure out who is going to do what throughout this race."

ON THE HIGH SPEEDS AT THIS TRACK COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS: "This place and Charlotte have become pretty close because of Charlottes grinding and levigating and all that. This place has been so fast for so many years since they repaved it. If I were Atlanta Motor Speedway, I'd probably never repave this place again even though we would want to see it repaved so it would be a lot easier to drive, but we'd never want to see it repaved because we'd hit 210 mph or something like that. It would just be unreal. This place is exciting enough to have the loss of grip that it has in order to run five distinct grooves. You can run low or high or anywhere you want to go here. The speed sensation is just unreal."