Sharpie 500 - Raybestos Rookie Friday Quotes

Raybestos Rookie Travis Kvapil scored his best career NEXTEL Cup finish earlier this season at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kvapil finished fifth in the April 3 Food City 500, his best finish in 26 career starts. He trails Kyle Busch by 51 points in the Raybestos Rookie standings (265-214) entering Saturday night’s Sharpie 500.

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: YOU ARE ONE OF THE FEW DRIVERS LOOKING FORWARD TO COMING BACK TO BRISTOL. “This has been our best run so far all year. Earlier in the spring was the fifth or sixth race of the year and things were going good then. We had a couple of good runs in there and really didn’t expect that to be our best run. I remember leaving here thinking that was pretty good, but thought we could do better and build off that. We had a rough summer and had a lot of things happen but I’m excited to get back to Bristol. We tested here last week and the test went really well. It’s showing in practice, we’re a top-15, top-20 car. We were running pretty competitive over the long runs and we really worked on long runs today again. The car’s driving good I look for the same or a little better results than what we had in the spring.”

HOW BIG WOULD IT BE FOR YOU TO RUN WELL SATURDAY NIGHT? “A lot of the goals and expectations that we had going into to the year, we’re probably going to fall short of. We just need to do the best we can for these last dozen races and try to climb our way back up in points a little bit, knock out some top-10s and just build some momentum for next year. Last week at Michigan we had a great car and we were going to have a good run there and we had some problems. The weeks prior to that we had some mechanical problems that got us out of some decent finishes, too. I think our team is really coming together really well. We definitely know what kind of cars I like. Shane [Wilson, crew chief] and I have a good idea when we come to a racetrack with setup and things like that what we need. I think we can finish the year off strong and I’m looking forward to next year.”

IS THERE A LOT OF PRESSURE? “There’s always pressure, but like I said, we’re definitely not where we need to be. I know we have meetings every week and nobody is pointing fingers yet, but everybody is starting to wonder what’s going on and why we aren’t performing. There’s definitely pressure and everybody is wondering what’s going on. We just kind of need to nip that in the bud and have some good finishes and I know we can do it. It’s just a little luck and everything will turn out good.”

HOW WELL DO YOU HAVE TO QUALIFY TO GET A GOOD PIT STALL HERE? “I think top-five to get a really good pit stall. It’s going to be tough. The competition on the track is so close here; any little advantage you get will really help you during the race so pit selection is going to be key. Hopefully we can get ourselves in the top-10 or top-12 and get a decent selection. There’s not one or two things. We’ll still have to have a good racecar and good pit stops and really execute and not make any mistakes. Hopefully we can qualify in the top-15 and we’ll be happy with that.”

COMMENT ON THE UNUSUAL PIT ROAD HERE AT BRISTOL. “It’s just something else that you have to be conscious of and be aware of. During the race, I’ll make sure that my spotter and crew chief are communicating with me to make sure that if we have to pit under green there’s different circumstances for that, too. I just make sure that I’m aware of what side of the racetrack that I’m on, where I’m on the frontstretch or backstretch. Sometimes you get kind of disorientated trying to run around this place so many times and you forget whether you’re on the front or the back and it’s all very symmetrical. We’ll be communication well and make sure that we don’t make mistakes.”

DOES THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT HERE? DOES IT GET SLICKER AND SLICKER? “My experience here is that it basically stays the same. The more rubber that gets laid down it seems like it might get a little bit tighter. You pick up rear grip, basically, and slide the front end a little bit. We tested here a week ago and we’ve made some adjustments from a week ago. I’m sure after the Busch race tonight we’ll have to maybe be a little bit freer even for tomorrow night. Concrete, though, doesn’t change a whole lot like a lot of the asphalt places do. Temperature is not that critical. It changes a little bit but nothing major.”

IS TRACK POSITION CRITICAL HERE? “If you look at the practice times, everybody is running within three or four tenths of a second and if you’re three or four tenths of a second faster than somebody you can’t pass them. This is a one-groove racetrack and it’s hard to make moves like that. It’s a matter of getting yourself positioned in the top-10 and keeping it up there with good pit stops and everything. Hopefully we can start up front and keep it up there all day. If not, we’ll have to take two-tires or something like that or stay out, do something to get us up there.”

CAN YOU RACE CLEAN AT BRISTOL? “I think so. It’s hard, but the people that you’re racing need to be aware of what can happen, too. There’s give and take but if you’re faster than somebody and you’re all over their bumper and you ran them down from a good ways back. A lot of times you’ll give them three or four laps really running them hard and then if they don’t give you the room you’ve got to give them a little bump and let them know that we need to make a decision here and it goes on from there, I guess [smiles]. I know from my situation when I was here in the spring my car wasn’t that great in the beginning of the race and I couldn’t keep up with the cars in front of me and they were stacked up behind me. Instead of trying to hold them back and eventually maybe getting turned around, I let a bunch of them go. We worked on the car throughout the day and got it back up there.”