Auto Club 500 - Chevrolet Quailfying Quotes

DAVE BLANEY, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – PRIOR TO QUALIFYING ATTEMPT: “We aren’t completely happy with our race set-up from yesterday, but this format it a little different so you’ve got to take a stab at it on Saturday and hope it works on Sunday. Hopefully we’ve got something we can adjust on and make it good by the end of the race on Sunday.”

(DO YOU LIKE THE NEW SCHEDULE?) “Well, it seems like we’ve got a lot of time to waste. It’s a little boring. But I’m sure we’ll get used to it. It doesn’t matter really. I don’t think it’s going to affect the race on Sunday.” -

NOTE: During his qualifying attempt, Blaney hit the wall in Turn 1 and will go to a back-up car for Sunday’s race. “It just got loose on me.”

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 7 HARRAH’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 25th: (ON HIS LAP) “I think that’ll get us in the show. We’re happy about that. That was our goal for the weekend – to post a time that would be good enough to get us in the show. We’re excited about getting the Harrah’s Chevrolet into the game here at Fontana. We missed out bigtime down there at Daytona. We had a good race car there and finished 7th in the 150’s and found ourselves sitting on the sidelines watching. But that just made my guys more hungry and more determined. They spent the weekend at the shop building these cars here. We’ve got two brand new race cars. This car has never hit the race track and missing the first session yesterday was a big thing for us. I think this car has maybe 20 laps total on it. So we’re real excited about our qualifying effort.”

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 1st: (HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP TODAY?) “It was pretty good. The Car Quest Chevrolet was definitely running there. It really went down the straightaway great with Hendrick horsepower. I have an awesome crew chief, Alan Gustafson, him and I are just trying to gel together and try to get out chemistry going. To ran that lap here, just our first time out at a downforce track in California, is pretty impressive as far as our team goes. We’re just looking forward to all the success hopefully later on this year. Man, that was a pretty fun lap to lay down. I knew when it was winding down that as soon as I got that first one, I was thinking, ‘you know what, that’s about it. If I do it again, I’ll probably wreck.”

(IT SEEMS SOME TEAMS ARE WORKING ON RACE SETUP SO MUCH IT MIGHT HAVE AN EFFECT ON THEIR QUALIFYING RUNS. NOT SO FOR YOUR TEAM?) “No, we only made one qualifying run yesterday. We were working and working and working on race trim, just trying to get a balance for our car. We really couldn’t get it to turn all that well through turns 1 and 2. You know, we tried working on that all day. And we just made one qualifying run like I said. But in order to come out here with just our second qualifying run and run that kind of time…you know, I was just hoping for a seventy or a sixty, thinking that would be great. You know, a top 10, maybe top 15 somewhere in there. To run a twenty, if that sticks, I’ll be tremendously happy with that. That’s pretty cool.”

BOBBY HAMILTON, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 26th: “We left a little bit on our qualifying run. So hopefully we’ll be in the top 15 someplace. (ON THE NEW QUALFIYING FORMAT) “It’s good but it’s weird. Yesterday we could have had at home and we could have done all this today and be done with it. But NASCAR has a reason for everything and it’s less pressure on the guys and that’s a good thing. They’re here at six in the morning every day and now they come here at six and can run two laps and go relax for the rest of the day and be ready for tomorrow. So it works out for everybody.”

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 2nd: “I think this says a lot about Hendrick Motorsports. It shows a lot. Hopefully we can stay on the front row. I thought we really had a shot at it (the pole) because I was going sideways coming off of Turn 4 coming to the green and it absolutely killed the lap. But it’s still a good starting spot for us and we’re looking forward to the race.”

(DID YOU SET UP THE CAR FOR RACE TRIM OR QUALFIYING TRIM?) “Definitely in race trim. It’s funny. This new procedure is not affecting qualifying as much as I thought. We just need a little bit of room to put some wedge in the car and do some different things to tighten up the car after we tape up. So It’s not too bad. We set up for the race. This is one lap. The race is 500 miles.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 32nd: “We changed a lot of stuff today. Hopefully we’ve made it better. It’s a lot of work; a lot of effort. It’s not because we’re not trying but we didn’t unload with what we wanted. We’ll see what we get.”

SCOTT RIGGS, NO. 10 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 12th: (YOU’VE HAD A GREAT START TO THE SEASON) “We just put the right people in the right place on this Valvoline Chevrolet. Everything has been working really well. I’ve had a great car here at California. It’s a brand new cars but the guys back at the shop did a great job. I’m just hoping to get a good start.”

(YOU’RE ONE OF THE LAST PEOPLE TO GO OUT, HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR RUN?) “Well, I still wish it was cooler. The longer the sun stays out, the harder it’s going to get and the slower we’re going to have to go. I’m just going to give it my best shot. If it was in the top 5 it would be surprising to me.”

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Qualified 4th: “It’s tough to qualify – especially in conditions today. The first 20 cars went out and it was overcast and cool. And then we went out 36th and the track has heated up and the sun is out. To run that type of lap right now and only be a tenth off the pole is pretty good. It says a lot for our crew. This is a brand new car. We came out here and tested and had two different cars testing. They went back and built something new and they built it better. They said we’ve got to take the best car back. It took us a little while to figure it out but we’re feeling good now. But we’re going to have to see what happens when we get 20 cars packed together. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens.”

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – TAKES HIS FIRST CAREER CUP POLE: “This is exciting. All the guys have done an awesome job. Congratulations to Brian Vickers, my teammate, for sitting on the pole up there with me. We’re both in the same shop. It’s just a great opportunity for us to help both our teams excel. We’ve got a pole now…all we need is a win. We’re looking forward to all the successes we can hopefully accept this year.”

(CAN YOU WIN THIS RACE?) “We think so. We’ve got a pretty good race car. We’re just looking forward to the race. We’ve just got to make sure we’ve got it turning good down there in Turns 1 and 2. That seems to be the problem end at this race track. But overall we’re just excited to be on the front row this week. If we can keep this chemistry and momentum going this year, in our rookie year, that would just be awesome.” More to follow

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – Post Race Press Conference Highlights: “The GMAC race team did a great job. Congratulations to Kyle (Busch). We’re all excited about both being on the front row because this year we went through a lot of changes and the No.25 and the No. 5 came to the shop together. Brian Whitesel came on board as the architect of the No. 24 and the No. 48 to head that shop and I think it’s all made a difference. Lance (McGrew) is the crew chief on the No.25 now and Alan (Gustafson) on the No. 5 car and obviously they’ve both done a great job this weekend along with all the guys on both teams. The Hendrick engines are great. They’ve done an awesome job over the winter.”

(HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT BE TOMORROW TO ADJUST TO RACE CONDITIONS WITH THE CARS BEING IMPOUNDED TONIGHT?) “We did all the race stuff yesterday, so our car should be pretty much like it was. I felt real good about it. I know the conditions will always change after the Busch race, but we got it as good as we could possibly get it. You can always work on it during the race and go from there, but I don’t think there will be any drastic changes between now and tomorrow.”

(ON HAVING LANCE MCCREW BACK AS HIS CREW CHIEF) “I’ve said this and I’ll say it again. Peter (Sospenzo) is a great crew chief and I’ve worked with some really great ones, but having Lance back on board is amazing. He and I have a communication I’ve never had with anybody else. I think it’s shown in the past and so far it’s showing if we continue this momentum. Everybody is excited. I think all this is a step in the right direction – not only for this year, but for years to come.”

(ON HIS ROOKIE SEASON COMPARED TO THIS NEW SEASON) “We went through some struggles last year. We had some great times. We’ve won a couple of poles. But it’s given me some confidence. Just having a year under your belt helps too. There’s a lot to be said for experience. Even though I didn’t learn always what to learn last year, I learned a lot about what not to do – that’s on the race track and off the race track. The Cup series is very demanding. Everything is ten-fold compared to the Busch Series.”

(ON THE TIRES) “During the test, the tires we falling off quite a bit. That was by design. Goodyear has done a great job with the tires. They have built a perfect tire in the past. We saw it a couple of years ago. But a perfect tire doesn’t make for perfect racing and that was the problem. They’ve taken a couple of steps back and built a tire that does fall off. A couple of years ago, we had a tire that you run as hard as you wanted to the whole time and have amazing grip. But it didn’t make for good racing. This is a step in the right direction as long as they don’t wear out so much that we have tire issues. What we’ve seen so far doesn’t seem to be a problem. So I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to make the racing in the NEXTEL Cup Series more exciting.”

(HOW ARE THE CARS PERFORMING WITH THE NEW SPOILER HEIGHT?) “I will have to admit that I probably over-estimated what the change would be. Looking at the last year and since I’ve been in the series – I ran four races in 2003 – and since then I’ve lost two inches of spoiler and I haven’t liked any of it. I wish I could have all of it back. But at the same time, with the engineers we have these days on these cars, we’ve gained a lot of the downforce back anyway. I thought it was going to be a lot worse. It is different. Now that said, we haven’t had a chance to race yet. Tomorrow will be the tell-all. This is a perfect track to see it as fast as we’re going here. I think in the race, when you’re side-by-side you’re going to be real loose.”

(ON THE YOUNG AGE OF THE DRIVERS ON THE FRONT ROW) “There’s something to be said there. It’s not that big of a deal. When I came along, people made such a big deal about my being so young, and that Kyle is so young. It is a big deal, but then it’s not. More than anything, it says a lot about Hendrick Motorsports and the leadership from Rick Hendrick and all the people there. But then again, there’s a lot to be said about experience too. We’ll see how it is on Sunday.”

KYLE BUSCH and ALAN GUSTAFSON, NO. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO – POLE SITTER – POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS: “It’s definitely an awesome opportunity for the two of us. Obviously, to sit on the pole at the first downforce track of the year here at California, and our second race together, hopefully it means there are many more successes to come. It’s a tremendous opportunity that Mr. H has given us and we look forward to all that’s come about. Kellogg’s and Car Quest and everyone that’s on board. It’s just going to be fun in order to bring it out for those guys. The lap was pretty good. It was a little bit free, but overall you always have to be able to get to the gas here in wide speedways like California and Michigan, so, we’re able to do that today. It meant a lot and what also worked out well for us was going out early in the morning and being able to sit on our first pole.”

GUSTAFSON: “Obviously it was a good lap. Things worked out well. I was worried about the early draw at first, that could have gone either way. I saw a forecast for rain so we thought there might be cloud cover today but it worked out well with the draw. We kind of had to balance the impound procedures; we didn’t want to bias too much towards qualifying or impound procedures. We mostly worked on race setup this morning, so we were real pleased that we could make the adjustments back to work well in qualifying. We got the pole and that’s obviously what we came here to do. We want to win the pole and the race, so to get the pole is huge. We didn’t think we could do it.”

BUSCH “Just pick a good pit”

GUSTAFSON “One!”

BUSCH “That’s the one we want!”

(IS THIS FRONT GRID A MARK FOR THE YOUNG GUYS?)

BUSCH “I definitely hope so. It’s great for Brian Vickers and myself to be on the front row this week. You know, we’ve moving into the same shop together and we’re trying to get all that organized. With Brian Whitesel coming over from the #24/48 team, he’s just done an awesome job. You know, it goes out to all of Hendrick Motorsports. The chassis shop, the body shop, the engine shop. You’ve got to bring some awesome horsepower around this place and everybody’s done well with that. It’s fun to be able to go out and win your first pole and obviously, I’m elated, don’t get me wrong. Still, you’ve got to thank everyone that makes it all possible for you. It’s a whole team effort, it’s not just one or two people.

(HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE TOO YOUNG TO SAMPLE THE POLE SPONSOR’S PRODUCT?)

BUSCH “I can sample their product: I can go to Busch Gardens! But, no, the drink—you’re right. It’s cool but all in all we take it in stride and just got about how it is we can. It’s neat to be able to sit on our first pole. You’re excited if you sit on any pole. Last year I think I had six of them and hopefully this year we can get six of them again in the NEXTEL Cup Series. This is the upper echelon of NASCAR racing and we’re here doing it so hopefully we can continue our successes.

(DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOING TO COME THIS QUICKLY?)

BUSCH “No, I didn’t think it was going to come this quickly. We figured that most of our success was going to happen more towards the middle to second half of the season. If we can get ourselves in place for the Chase, it would be an awesome goal for this year. If not, we’re shooting for a top 15 or so finish in the point standings. All that’s happening, if we can just keep it rolling and keep it consistent, we’ll be better off, obviously. It’s just all about how you can keep the chemistry going.”

(DID YOU FOCUS ON RACE OR QUALIFYING SETUP?)

GUSTAFSON “Yeah, I thought I leaned towards race. So, that could be good. We were tight yesterday in race trim and we made a lot of adjustments for race trim, so I was little worried about qualifying but the guys, body wise, car wise, we put a lot of adjustment in our chassis. We were able to put it off. We were working on race trim. We were struggling with race trim. I think we made some gains on race trim and obviously did on qualifying trim. We’re biased towards race, so to have this result is good.”

(DOES THIS HELP MAKE UP FOR QUALIFYING HERE IN 2001?)

BUSCH “Nobody knows but that’s my father asking that question. It’s pretty cool. I just put the spotlight back on you, bud. It’s great. Obviously, you remember we were back here in 2001 and we had to leave the Truck Series that day. It was just a tremendous devastation. We were fastest in practice that day. We weren’t fastest in practice yesterday, but if we’re fastest here today, it doesn’t matter. We’re on the pole. It’s our award, we’ve taken it home and going to the house with it. I’m looking forward to running up front tomorrow.”

(DOES THIS NEW FORMAT GIVE A BETTER CLUE AS TO WHO WILL DO WELL IN THE RACE?)

GUSTAFSON “I think that’s yet to be seen. It may actually lend itself to the opposite. If you’re a car that has to make it in on time, you can just bias your setup to qualifying. So that could give you an advantage there. It’s tough—we don’t know. We’re guessing right now. We usually practice a lot closer to race time after the Busch cars have run a lot more. The conditions are going to change a lot from where we made race practice. It’s hard to say.”

(DID KURT GIVE YOU ANY ADVICE?)

BUSCH “Yeah, he got me on the pole. No, I’m just kidding. He’s helped me out tremendously. He’s just been great as far as on the track and off the track advice. On the track, being as though, helping me out with certain things that they’ve tried. He just kind of gives me a heads up on that. Last night we were talking about his practice versus mine. He was saying how his car was loose and I was saying, ‘Did you try this? Did you try that?’ and he said, ‘We tried that, but we didn’t try that’ so it’s a give and take. We pass a little information back and forth a little bit. It’s not the numbers we pass back and forth, it’s just different ways you kind of have to look at things. He may be looking at one thing to change the car to make it better, and yet I’m thinking of another. So, both of them together might work or one of them might work. It just goes down to how you go about working on your race cars.”