Gatorade Duel at Daytona - Rookie Post-Race Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies finished in the 1st Gatorade 150:
Kyle Busch, 9th
Travis Kvapil, 14th

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE FIRST GATORADE DUEL 150 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2005.

KYLE BUSCH IN THE No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN THE FIRST GATORADE 150. HE FINISHED NINTH AFTER LEADING THE RACE ONCE FOR ONE LAP. “It was decent. We had a good time out there. We were able to hook up with a few cars and we found that we could run with them. I think the 97 was the best car out there that would push us and we got up to the front. Jeff was helping as well, too, he just a little sideways through the trioval and fell back. Overall it was a decent run. We’re happy with that finish. I think we had a shot to finish third or fourth.” WAS THE TRACK SLICK? “It was real slick. You could go out there after that pit stop, I think it was about 12 or 15 laps in, and you’d start sliding everywhere. It’s pretty bad but everybody has got the same situation. I think ours was one of the top handling racecars because everybody would start sliding up to the top of the racetrack and running up there where I could still stay on the bottom and hug the bottom and pass some cars through the corners. Sometimes I wouldn’t be able to fall back in line coming up off. They kind of had the line plugged but overall the car handled decent.” IT SEEMED LIKE THE INTENSITY LEVEL PICKED UP OVER THE LAST 20 LAPS. “That’s always how it is in the 125s or the 150s. Even back when they were the 125s you just ride around in the beginning of it and kind of put yourself in position to where when 20 laps come down it’s game on, dude. It’s all over from there.” WERE YOU SURPRISED HOW PHYSICAL THE RACE WAS TODAY? “Not really. It was a really good race. The Busch races are a lot worse because you have the wickers and you’re beating and banging and the draft and the slingshot comes in real bad. We had a good time. Bumping around and hanging out with these guys was pretty fun. Hopefully I taught a few of them that I’m able to go out there and ride and we’re able to show those guys that we are a car to work with on Sunday.” DID YOU HAVE TROUBLE GETTING PEOPLE TO DRAFT WITH YOU? “I did. I knew I would. I had an issue not knowing how many laps to go there coming down to the finish. Kurt was stuck up on the outside by himself and then Jeff had a head of steam coming and I think that was with two to go and Jeff pulled out from behind me to go on the outside with Kurt. If I would have known there was two to go I would have done the same thing because it’s go time. You can’t ride anymore but I didn’t know.” DID TWO TIRES MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE, HANDLING-WISE? “A little bit. If you put on four tires and go out there it takes about 15 laps for them to start falling off. With two tires it starts in about 10 laps. I think we went about 10 laps on those stickers and then we came in got our right sides so we had only 10-lap old lefts. If we had 30 lap old lefts, it would be a different story.” WHAT’S THE MAIN THING THAT YOU LEARNED TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU ON SUNDAY IN THE 500? “Basically I have all the knowledge that I’ve known from the Busch Series stuff. I didn’t really learn anything exceptional today. You’re just trying to learn about how everybody’s car works. The race that we had today with all the guys that we had I learned their cars and what their cars do and stuff like that. You’re familiar with that when you get back going on Sunday. I couldn’t tell you whose car did what exactly, but you get familiar back with the rhythm when you get going again.”

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “I did learn a lot. We knew we had a good car. We just wanted to get up there and see how good of a car we had. It seemed like we could work on the bottom real well and some other guys may have been struggling with handling and were running on the top and we really couldn’t get help. I wanted to get up there with the good cars that could run the bottom and run with us and see what we had. We got up there with Jeff and he gave us a big push to the front and then Kurt gave us a big push to the front. I think if Jeff wouldn’t have got loose maybe the outcome would have been a little different. You can’t say enough about the Jeff Gordons of the world. He’s a super racecar driver and a super person and just running up there with those guys is good.” WILL WE SEE A LOT OF TWO TIRE STOPS HERE SUNDAY? “I don’t think you will; maybe coming down to the end just for that track position. It didn’t work out bad for us. It wasn’t a bad situation. We washed about the same, we probably would have finished the same either way, with four or two, but it gave us that shot to win. I think when you come down to the end you may see some of that. Somebody may take that shot to win the race.” WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE TIRE WEAR AND TEMPERATURES? “The tires were good. We had that one problem yesterday in practice with a tire rub that cut our tire down. Some people thought we had tire wear issues but it was just a tire rub. Goodyear tires have been great for us. We’ve had no issues at all. It was good.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE (FINISHED 14TH): THE RACING WAS INTENSE. “That’s a very good adjective for the 150. I know most of these guys out there had a mindset just to save their 500 car, most of these guys were in the race, but it’s hard to do. The cars are a handful. They are all over the place, not a lot of grip out there. It’s definitely going to be a handling race in the 500. I learned a lot. I’m really proud of the Kodak team. They did a good job since we got here and since drafting practice on Wednesday. They’ve made the car a lot better for me to drive. We made some big improvements on it today. I’m a lot more confident now that I was coming into today.” YOU HAD PROBLEMS IN QUALIFYING. WAS IT REWARDING TO RUN WELL TODAY? “We knew that we had a fast racecar from the moment we got here. We had some problems in qualifying that got us behind and it’s just hard to make up. A longer race will give us chances to do two tires or do some pit strategy to get some track position. We’ve got a good racecar. We need to make it just a little bit better but we made big improvements on it today.” WAS THE TRACK SLICK TODAY? “Watching it on TV the last few years, I don’t know how these guys do it if it’s anything like today because it’s really slick out there. The cars are bouncing around sideways and it’s really a handful out there. Handling is definitely going to be a premium Sunday. I’ll bet you all these guys are going to start putting downforce back in there cars, getting those fenders pulled back out and making sure that we’ve got a good handling racecar for a whole fuel run.” WERE YOU SURPRISED HOW PHYSICAL THE RACE WAS? “It’s very physical. A lot of times you don’t have a choice. When Kasey Kahne wrecked down there, we were all in a row and we just started jamming into each other and he got kind of bumped out. It’s tough out there. You can’t lift or give and inch because the pack will go by you so you have to stay in the gas. You’ve got to be smart about it too, though. When it gets down to the end, it really gets exciting.” HOW WAS YOUR TIRE WEAR? “They’re fine, other than we’re just sliding around quite a bit. I don’t know if there’s anything the tire can do to fix that. If we’re already having tire problems, a softer tire is the only thing we can do to fix it so we can’t do that. As far as I know we haven’t had any problems since we’ve been here, all through the tests or nothing, so that makes me feel really good. It comes back to a good handling racecar. Goodyear said they had a couple batches that they thought were the issue and they got them out of the way.” WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY THAT WILL HELP YOU SUNDAY? “You’ve definitely got to have a good handling racecar. In the truck races here in the past, handling was never really that much of a premium. You could just draft up and go on by but I really learned how much the cars slide around, how much grip you’ve got to have to stay in the gas. I learned a little lesson on pit road. I slid through the pit box on my last stop so you’ve really got to make sure that you execute and do everything right.”

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE SECOND GATORADE DUEL 150 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2005.

ERIC MCCLURE, No. 73 ARC DEHOOKER CHEVROLET: “It’s kind of bittersweet. We’re real disappointed. We tested really well down here in the ARC Dehooker Chevrolet. I’m not really sure what happened. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot qualifying and got put in the back of one of the Twins. The car was not very good in the draft. It was really tight when it was around traffic. Jeremy Mayfield pushed me a little bit and we had a good run at it there for about five or six laps coming from like 23rd all the way up to 11th. I thought we had a chance but we have the yellow strips on the back and they got away from me as quick as they could. It was exciting. We performed as well as we could under the circumstances. I just really hate it for Raabe Racing, being based in Daytona. But hey, we’ve got a long season left and we’ll go to California and try to get them there.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RULES BEING SO TOUGH FOR A NEW TEAM TO QUALIFY FOR THE RACE? “Well, it’s tough, but like any sport, there are rules and you have to succeed within the rules. We knew coming in what we had to do and who we were racing. We thought we had a really good chance to accomplish what we needed to but we didn’t. As long as NASCAR keeps changing the rules we’ll keep coming back. This sure beats sitting at home. We’re disappointed but thankful that we were competitive for a little while today.” IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERNTLY? “We’ll have to go home and watch everything, rewatch qualifying and the race and kind of see. I probably would have been a little more aggressive on some changes. We were really cautious down here the whole time. I didn’t really change the car very much but turns out we probably should have changed it a lot. But hey, it was a great experience. I’m a young guy and if the Lord’s willing, we’ll come back another time.” WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR THIS CAR TO MAKE IT BETTER FOR THE NEXT PLATE RACE AT TALLADEGA? “If it’s my choice, I’d try to run it straight into the wall, give it to NASCAR for a crash test [smiles]. The aero on this car was not good, even when we qualified. We’re not real sure what happened. We thought we had found some things to make it better when we came down but we just weren’t able to do it. I’m not really sure what happened. It’s very disappointing in the fact that we’re better than this. We had a good race today. The last 20 laps we learned a lot. We were aggressive and had a lot of fun. Hopefully we earned a little bit of respect. They were still leery of drafting with us but we just need to go back and work on it. I would just start with the whole thing [laughs] and go over it inch by inch and see what we can do to make it better because right now it won’t suck up. And if it won’t suck up you need all the help you can get behind you and being a Raybestos Rookie that’s not going to happen for me. I learned a little bit today and had a lot of fun and was real aggressive. We’ll use what we learned today the rest of the season. These guys put their pants on one leg at a time just like I do. If we get another chance, we’ll come back and we’ll be ready next time.” THIS TEAM TESTED IN JANUARY AT CALIFORNIA AND LAS VEGAS. HOW PREPARED IS THIS TEAM FOR THE NEXT TWO RACES? “About as prepared as a three-week old team can be. I’ve got to thank Morgan McClure. If it wasn’t for them and Larry we would never have got to be here. They helped us out with people and sold the cars to us and gave us a fantastic engine. I would put Morgan McClure’s engines up against anybody. When we had a little bit of help and somebody could work with us we were really bringing the mail. It’s going to be a building year. We’re going to have a lot of work to do to get things ready and I’m going to have a lot of work to do to get better. It’s going to be a tough row, but if the Lord’s willing we’ll give it a shot.”