RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUOTES FOR THE PEPSI 400 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, JULY 2, 2004.
TRAVIS KVAPIL IN THE No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT DAYTONA.
Notes: Kvapil finished 23rd and took top rookie honors for the second consecutive race and for the sixth time this season.
“I had a really strong car there in the middle part of the race. I was able to be really aggressive and make some good moves, three and four wide. We didn’t really change much. It just kind of went away on us. I never could really get it back. We undid everything [all the changes] and it would really just get evil on me in the middle part of the run and then I would just ride it out. The guys tried really hard and we finished the race and I’m happy about that. It was pretty promising for a while and that’s why we’re disappointed that we kind of fell apart at the end of the race.” HOW MENTALLY TOUGH WAS THE RACE TONIGHT? “It was definitely really tough mentally. You’re thinking really hard. It’s a big chess game out there, especially when your car is not handling really well. You are really driving your heart out. It was a big effort by all the guys on the Kodak team. I’m glad it wasn’t during the day because it was pretty warm [smiles].” HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE FROM PRACTICE TO THE RACE? “It didn’t seem to be a whole lot. Our car was sliding around quite a bit in practice and it did in the race, too. I really thought it was pretty close.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 KELLOGG’S/CHEEZ-IT CHEVROLET (finished 31ST): WHAT HAPPENED? “Harvick and the 31 kind of came together a little bit and squeezed the 99. There was nowhere I could go. I was freewheeling through the grass like Free Willy or something. It was crazy. I’m fine. It was a tough break. It looked like the 31 and the 29 were coming together and the 99 was going to stick it in there and the hole closed up too soon before he got in there and just got everybody turned all sideways and everything. I really had nowhere to go. I tried missing the 29 and I didn’t turn it quick enough to get on pit road. I just had to go through the grass. I tried to hold it straight but it didn’t matter. It was going through there like Free Willy or something. It was kind of crazy. It was a pretty good lick on the outside fence. I was hoping that it wouldn’t slide that far, but obviously it did. It whaled the outside fence. I hate it for Scott Wimmer, too. He was about through it and I KO'd him and that stinks. It looked like the 31 and the 29 left a little room open there in the middle and the 99 was going to fill it and go right up through there and I was following him. The hole closed up right on them, the 31 and the 29 kind of came together a little bit and squeezed the 99 and he just turned him sideways and stuff like that. It was kind of a shame that happened. I wasn’t really expecting it to happen so that’s kind of why I got in the wreck, but if I would have turned the wheel a little bit harder a little bit sooner I probably could have made pit road.” YOU HAD A GOOD CAR TONIGHT. “It wasn’t that good of a car. We were kind of running along there and making do with the day. We could suck up on a few people but not everybody. Our car wasn’t that good on sucking up.” DID YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE GETTING PEOPLE TO DRAFT WITH YOU? “There wasn’t a person out there that would draft with me, and that made me so mad. Every time I had a run on anybody they would all go with the car that’s going backwards to help that car and you would think they would help out the car with the run. It was so stupid. I didn’t understand why they would do that. I guess it’s still that yellow stripe and the car number 5.”
