Allstate 400 at the Brickyard - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

KYLE BUSCH IN THE No. 5 KELLOGG'S/DELPHI CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT INDY "Under the circumstances the results were okay. It probably could have been a little bit better for us. It wasn't that hot in practice this morning and going out now in pure sunlight made it a little bit different for us." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO QUALIFY HERE? "It's one of those deals where you want to go out there and get a good lap. You don't want to wreck so you try to get what you can out of it, the first couple of corners securely, and then you go after it in the next set. It was real difficult as far as that went." HOW SPECIAL IS IT TO BE HERE AT INDY? "It's pretty cool. It's definitely really neat as far as the history here and everything else that's kind of gone on over time. We'll kind of have to see how it plays out for the event tomorrow." CAN YOU WIN THE RACE? "I hope so. It would definitely be an awesome win for us. It would not only be a high for the morale of the team and everybody else but the biggest thing is that it will probably pay off my new house that I just bought [smiles]." DID THE LACK OF PRACTICE TIME HURT YOU? "Not necessarily. We came out here and test and had a really good test session. Coming out here I was looking forward to the race anyway. I wish we would have been able to practice yesterday and qualify this morning and had Happy Hour instead of this impound procedure. It's kind of different." DID THE IMPOUND PROCEDURE THROW EVERYONE A CURVE? "It did. People heard that they were going to do it from the beginning but they weren't able to and I don't know why. It's one of those deals where everybody is on the same ballpark." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO PASS HERE? "It's going to be tough to pass. This morning I was running behind Kyle Petty for a little bit and actually got stuck there. It wasn't that slower than me it's just that you get up behind the guy and you just can't get enough air to pass him. If you can get a strong effort built up through the short chute and kind of get a good run off turn 2, turn4 you might be able to do it." WILL FRESH TIRES BE A BIG ADVANTAGE IN THE RACE? "On new tires everybody is going to be able to run the same time. We're all going to be stuck bunched up together nose to tail because we won't be able to pass because everybody is so equal. I think the more you go and the older tires, 20 or 30 laps old, you'll be pretty good."

MIKE GARVEY, No. 66 EAS FORD: "We knew it was going to be tough getting into this one, but we've just had a bad day. Everything we've done just seemed to fight us. We'll just keep working on it and that's all we can do. I think the track changed from practice to qualifying. Just by looking at everybody's speed, it looked like everybody slowed down a little bit, but we've lost six tenths of a second. I don't know what to tell ya."

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: "That wasn't very good. I was loose. I was really surprised because we were tight in practice. We only got a little bit of practice time because I got into the wall and we lost a bunch of time. We were fighting a tight condition all through practice and thought the adjustments we made were going to hit it on the head. We did a few things and I think we probably got to the other side of it. We put more tape on it and we changed two or three things on the chassis to help it turn. I think the combination got us too far. Tomorrow we need to turn good. If the car keeps turning good like it was today and we take the tape off it, we should be able to make some passes because I think a lot of the other guys will start getting tight." HOW DIFFICULT WILL IT BE TO PASS HERE? HOW BIG OF A FACTOR IS THE AERO PUSH? "I think that's going to be a big issue here. Having that in mind, we worked pretty hard to keep the front end of the racecar down, keep the tail up and really work on having some mechanical grip in the car because we're not going to be able to have a whole lot of aero grip when we get in traffic. Our car was pretty loose right there; a little bit too far, I guess. We'll take the tape off it tomorrow and hopefully it will drive pretty happy for me. I think of all the places that we've gone to, here and Pocono have been the hardest places for me to get comfortable with to find the speed. It's not that I don't feel comfortable; it's finding the speed and figure out what I need to behind the steering wheel to get the speed out of the car. With that said, I'm glad that we've got 400 miles to work on it and try to get ourselves where we need to be. I wish we were starting a little better, for sure. We were a little bit faster than that in practice by a fair amount. We expected to go a little bit better but it's a little disappointing." HAS THIS BEEN THE MOST DIFFICULT QUALIFYING DAY OF THE SEASON? "They're all hard. At a place like this, like Pocono, you get one shot. You want to run as much tape as you can, to get speed in the racecar but it doesn't give you a chance to get a second lap or do anything different to compensate for what you've got. That's makes it really hard when you've got one shot at it. If you want to be able to run two laps, you have to take tape off and you're going to run slow."

Since the inaugural race in 1994, Raybestos has presented the Top Wrench Award and a $5,000 check to the crew chief of the highest qualifying Raybestos Rookie for the Brickyard 400. The names of the crew chief and driver are placed on the Golden Walrus trophy, which is on display inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 5 KELLOGG'S/DEPHI CHEVROLT: "Raybestos is gracious enough to give the highest qualifying rookie crew chief $5,000 and I have to thank them for their support. The car was pretty good I think we got it a little better from practice to now and it was hotter. It was a good lap. It's not a bad lap. We wanted a little better but for our first Brickyard attempt I don't think it was terrible. This is a tough place." IS IT OUT OF THE QUESTION TO THINK YOU HAVE A LEGIMATE SHOT TO WIN THE RACE? "No, I don't think it's out of the question at all. I do think we have a legitimate shot to win. We ran real well here today and I think we can continue to do that. I think the impound hurts us a little bit because we just haven't got a grip on that. We haven't got a grip on changing and getting our car right, probably more on qualifying than it will in race trim. That's cost us a little bit but these races, how they transpire, you have to be consistent all day and with good pit stops stay up front and I think we can do that." DID THE FACT THIS RACE TURNED INTO AN IMPOUND EVENT THROW YOU A CURVE? "It does and I don't want to while about it. It's the same for everybody, but we're just not good at them and that's the bottom line. We haven't found what we need to do to have a good racecar and make the adjustments to the race, to qualify from a good racecar. You're a Raybestos Rookie and you've got to qualify race setup and you're asking him to run down into the corner at 200 miles per hour with the race setup and that's a tough thing to do." HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT BE TO RUN WELL HERE? "Huge, huge, huge. I think we need to. These are the races, the Coca-Cola 600, the Allstate 400 here, Daytona 500, these are the races everybody brings their big guns to. You've got to be able to come and run successfully here. If you can run strength against strength good with those guys, that's saying something." CAN YOU PASS? "Probably not [smiles]. Very little I think. I think you can if somebody has definitely got a deficit. If we get a lot of green, I think we'll see some passing. If it's short runs with the stickier tires, everybody is good." DOES THAT PUT MORE PRESSURE ON THE PIT CREWS? "It does. Here the wick is definitely turned up on the pit crew. You've got to be right on here. You can't give up the mistakes. When you start getting into the top-10 all those guys are very, very good and they're not going to make mistakes. They're not going to give you the room and it's hard to get by them. I think you'll see passing but when you get up there in the front with those good guys, it's tough." HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY TIRE PROBLEMS? "No, the tires have been okay. On the green racetrack we saw some excessive wear this morning and I think that's a combination of the new asphalt and a green racetrack. Goodyear is doing a great job of keeping these cars on the racetrack going as fast as they are. I feel for Goodyear, they are in a tough spot. The small spoilers and running around here at 200 miles per hour, that's tough." WILL THIS TRACK EVEN MORE THAN USUAL IN THE RACE? "Oh yeah, definitely. I think the guy that who has run up front and can be out front at the end and the track is going his way, the way the track is at the end of the day and how your car is set up for, whoever has the track right is going to win the race." WILL WE SEE ANY TWO-TIRE STOPS? "I think you can do two. I think it's going to have to be a limited number of laps. I think you are going to have to be leery of it, too, the first couple of stops to make sure that you aren't having any tire problems."