Nextel All-Star Challenge - Ford Qualifying Quotes

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (qualified 9th for the Nextel Open) - IS THIS A CAR THAT CAN GET YOU INTO THE SECOND RACE TOMORROW NIGHT? "Yeah. It's a brand-new car for us, and there's not a whole lot of practice time on it, but I'm really impressed with what I've seen so far. This qualifying deal, I didn't know what to expect, we spent most of practice in race trim, and that's about what we ran in practice. It's a little bit deceiving. It feels like an exceptionally good car, but the race track is so good, too, and I don't know how much of it is a great car and how much of it is the race track, which is making tremendous amount of grip right now."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus (qualified 10th for the Nextel All-Star Challenge) - "I thought the car drove better than it did in practice, which I wasn't very good in practice. I got on pit road really good, and in the rear either the changer or the carrier fell down and I didn't get off pit road very good either, I spun the tires a lot. We try to get the car to drive good and really didn't think about getting off pit road, so we lost a lot of time there, but overall it was alright." YOUR PIT CREW GOT TO SHOWCASE ITSELF TONIGHT. "This is always cool. Whenever they do this and the pit-stop contests, in introductions tomorrow night and all that stuff, I mean, this is a team sport, and without those guys, if you came down pit road and didn't have those guys getting you out in front you wouldn't be doing very good on the track. So, these guys did an awesome job and it's nice to see them get some attention."

DALE JARRETT (qualified 19th for the Nextel All-Star Challenge) - No. 88 UPS Taurus - "It's about winning, yeah. We have a good race car, and it's about learning for us right now. We need to win this race, but more than we need to win, we need to have a night of learning each other, and what we need to come back with for the Coca-Cola 600. It would be a perfect scenario to win the race and learn what we need to, that would be perfect. If we just have to take learning a lot, I think we have a good race car and we can do that. It's a lot of fun and we'll give it everything we got."

GREG BIFFLE (qualified 11th for the Nextel All-Star Challenge) - No. 16 Charter/National Guard Taurus - "That lug nut, he hit it with a gun and the jack guy saw him, you know, hit it, but then the jack guy lets it down after he hits five - you know, he counts - and if you missed one them along the way the car's going to be gone. In the race, that wouldn't even have mattered, if we had four tight that one's not quite all the way tight. It wouldn't make a difference. But, of course, under this qualifying circumstances is going to put us in the back with a penalty, but we got a great race car, so I don't think it's going to matter."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 - IRWIN Industrial Tools Taurus (qualified 8th for the Nextel All-Star Challenge) - "It's been cool to see all the different competitions with the Tyson competition and the Nextel Pit Crew Challenge last night, and then today is the real performance of the All-Star atmosphere for the crew. To see if we can get a pole tonight as a team, and I think I may have held them back a little bit by the lap that I made. Our car has been off a little bit, but they did a good job in the pits and we're a team." IS THIS A CAR YOU CAN WIN WITH TOMORROW NIGHT? "We hope so. It's definitely a unique car, and right now it hasn't adapted to the new grinding of the track just yet. It might be me as well. With the new surface it takes a little bit of different types of adjustments than your normal Charlotte frame of mind."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (qualified 2nd for the Nextel All-Star Challenge) - "It's changed a little bit, but it's still Lowe's Motor Speedway. I've really been blessed with such a great team with Jack Roush and Pat Tryson and the Viagra team. This is probably as strong a team that I've ever had in my career, and it's really great to go out like that, and we're going to fight and scratch for everything we can get this year." YOU'VE SAID THIS IS YOUR FAVORITE RACE TRACK, SO YOU'VE GOT TO BE FEELING REALLY CONFIDENT HEADING INTO TOMORROW NIGHT'S RACE. "This is the greatest race track in the world, no question about it. After they ground it, it took it back a few notches, but it's still really awesome. I wish they wouldn't have ground it. I'm really concerned about the racing being more difficult than it was before. To me, it was the greatest race track in the world by far, but it had a little room in there. It was a lot better than anywhere else, in my opinion. So, it's still going to be good. I still love this place. I'd like to race here every week."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 Pedigree/M&M's Taurus (qualified 4th for the Nextel All-Star Challenege) - "This can bite you for penalties or anything. I'm always more nervous for this than I am for the race because you got to be so good getting on pit road, you got to be so good getting off pit road, you got to make a good lap, and stuff like that, so to get away with a top-five start is pretty refreshing. We know we're going to be somewhere near the front tomorrow and get a good pit selection, and just have fun at the race and see what happens." THIS IS A WEEKEND ABOUT WINNING. DOES THIS CAR GIVE YOU A GOOD CHANCE? "Actually, this is the first time in my career that I've actually brought a car that's been on the race track before. Most times, I've got experimental cars, or something like that, but not this year. Todd Parrott came here to win this race. We got an awesome race, it was bad to the bone today in practice. My guys have done a lot of work since Texas to make sure we got our mile-and-a-half program right, and we'll find out what we got tomorrow."

CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Scotts/Miracle-Gro Taurus (qualified 7th for the Nextel All-Star Challenge) - "That's the most nervous I've been to qualify, I think, ever in my life. Just a lot to think about there. I'm really proud of my Scotts Ford team. I'm really proud that there's five Fords in the top 10 right now, it looks like. That's pretty amazing. I'm just really proud of my guys. They did a flawless job. That's neat that they can do it when it's all on the line like that." AND THIS IS THE CAR THAT YOU WON WITH AT ATLANTA, CORRECT? "Yeah, it's the same car, and everything's the same. We haven't changed much. And we really plan on having a good run here tomorrow night. It's going to be a learning experience for me. Running a Cup car here is pretty difficult. We didn't test our Scotts Ford, but this is going to be a pretty good session, the first 40 laps tomorrow."