Pepsi 400 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified at Daytona:
T. Kvapil, 25th
M. Garvey, 31st
K. Busch, 34th

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUALIFYING QUOTES FOR THE PEPSI 400 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, JULY 1, 2004.

TRAVIS KVAPIL IN THE No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER FOR THE PEPSI 400. “We didn’t do any qualifying runs in practice today. We had a pretty decent driving racecar in race trim and that’s all we worked on was tomorrow night’s race. That will probably be mid-pack somewhere. The Kodak Dodge did a good job all week and it’s a good car, the same one we ran in February. I’m looking forward to Saturday night’s race.” WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO AS WE GO TO THESE TRACKS FOR A SECOND TIME? “I think that’s going to be the key thing for the Kodak Dodge, getting to these tracks for a second time and being able to improve on our runs. Our first half of the year has not been what we need to be doing. We’ve shown that we can run up front at times but we’ve been too inconsistent. Hopefully we can start getting some top-10s and top-15s and just some better finishes.” YOU FINISHED 19TH IN THE DAYTONA 500 BUT RAN BETTER THAN THAT IN THE RACE. DOES THAT GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE COMING BACK HERE TO DAYTONA? “It does. We had a car that was going to finish closer to the top-10 and we got tore up a little bit at the end. Shane [Wilson, crew chief] and everybody on the Kodak team did a good job in February making the car drive nice for me, making it handle and that was key. We built that into the car coming back this time. We put more downforce in the car and that’s going to hurt us today qualifying but we’ll take it tomorrow night.” HOW DIFFEFRENT IS THE TRACK HERE IN JULY VERSUS FEBRUARY? IS IT A LOT SLICKER? “It seems like it. This is my first time here in July with a Cup car but it definitely seems like we were sliding around a lot more today. In February I think the track is just cool from all winter and it’s got a lot of grip in it and obviously in July it’s hot and got a lot of track temperature. The tires just don’t stick as good when it’s hot. All the teams adapt to it and the teams that build downforce into their cars are going to be the ones that are going to be able to keep the gas wide open tomorrow night and that’s what we’re hoping.” HAS THIS TEAM JUST HAD BAD RACING LUCK THIS SEASON? “At a few places I’d definitely say that but also at a few places I feel like we put ourselves in positions to get wrecked. We were running 25th or 30th when we wrecked and you’re more likely to do that than running in the top-10. We’ve had some bad luck, some things not go our way, but we just need to run better and a lot of that will take care of itself.” WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD FINISH FOR YOU HERE? “Somewhere definitely on the lead lap. We need to have a good finish. We feel like we’re scratching and clawing our way back up in the points a little bit and we want to get in that top-20 by season’s end. We need to finish races. We need to capitalize on the best points that we can get but realistically a top-20, top-15.”

MIKE GARVEY, No. 66 JANI-KING FORD: WILL THAT BE GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE THE RACE? “I don’t know it’s probably going to be borderline. That’s three-tenths slower than we mocked today. We went out by ourself and I don’t know where the three-tenths that we lost. I thought we’d pick up a tenth or two and I thought we’d be in pretty solid. I’m concerned where the three-tenths went. I hope that gets it in. The car drafted good today. We did some drafting practice then went out and went completely by ourself and made a mock run and ran three-tenths faster than that. Hopefully that gets us in. I just don’t know where the speed went. There are seven or eight cars that have to out qualify each other to get in and we were considerably faster than those guys. I just don’t where it went.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 KELLOGG’S/CHEEZ-IT CHEVROLET: DOES IT REALLY MATTER WHERE YOU START HERE? “It does if there’s a big wreck on the fifth lap. It doesn’t really matter. We’re just going to start where we start and go after it in the race.” AS A DRIVER, DO YOU SOMETIMES FEEL HELPLESS HERE IN QUALIFYING? “There’s nothing that you can do whatsoever so it’s no big deal if you don’t qualify good. It’s all about how you race and how you get your race setup and everything else. At Daytona handling is better than anything else.” YOU HAVE BEEN IN A RACECAR SINCE 8 A.M. THIS MORNING. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO PHYSICALLY TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF TODAY? “I’ve just been trying to keep cool, keep as much moisture in me as I can. You sweat off so much that you want to make sure that you don’t lose too much. I’m getting as many fluids as I can: Gatorade, water, everything else. I’m drinking a few of those power drinks, too.” WILL THE LAPS IN THE BUSCH CAR TONIGHT HELP YOU IN THE CUP RACE? “I think it will. It’s not going to be a tremendous gain but it’s going to help you due to the fact that it will give you a better sense of what the track is going to do and what the cars will do over the long run on the tires and all that.” WITH THE “WICKER SPOILERS” ON THE BUSCH CAR, CAN GOING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE CUP AND BUSCH CAR THROW OFF YOUR TIMING? “Not if you know how to do it right [smiles]. You’ll be all right.” HAS THE TRACK SLOWED DOWN THAT MUCH FOR QUALIFYING? “I’m not sure that it’s slowed down, but we’re not that good here for qualifying trim. We’re more ready for race trim. Everybody has to go through the same deal on the impound procedure but we’ve concentrated more on the race runs and get the car to suck up in the draft and make sure that it does some other good things for the race in order to handle well and drive through the field. If we end up somewhere in the late 20s or whatnot, we’ll be all right. We’ll try to stay out of everybody’s trouble and everything else that goes on during the race and get back up there.” THIS IS YOUR SECOND CUP RACE AT DAYTONA. WILL YOU HAVE MORE DRIVERS WILLING TO WORK WITH YOU IN THE DRAFT SATURDAY NIGHT? “I certainly hope so. I hope I can get a lot of help, but I’m not necessarily sure that they still believe that yellow sticker on the bumper isn’t still for a Raybestos Rookie still. In the Busch race tonight I’ll draft with Biffle and Carl Edwards and a few of the other ones and show them that I’m not a squirrel all the time and be able to run up front with all those guys and have a good run hopefully.”