Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Chevrolet Saturday Quotes

Robby Gordon #7 Harrah's Chevrolet

TAKE US THROUGH A LAP OF THIS CIRCUIT Turn 1, you have to back a little bit early, downshift into third. Head up into turn 2, downshift into second. With my Harrah's Chevrolet, I stretch turn 2 all the way to turn 4a. I back off a little early getting into turn 3, second gear still, up the hill in second gear all the way up to 4a and make the 4a right hand turn. There are some rumble strips and I kind of pop over on the other side of it to just carry a little more speed there. And I don't know how we go from 4a to 7, but here we go all the way to turn 7. I stay in second gear there as well, downshift to first in 7, up to second, up to third gear by turn 8, roll through turn 8 and turn 9 as fast as I possibly can. You can't really be full throttle - you're part throttle through 7 and 8, shift to fourth gear through turn 9, downshift to third gear before turn 10. And then I stretch third gear all the way to turn 11, when I get down to turn 11 I downshift all the way to first gear, roll through the center as best I can, let the car take a set and go to power and launch off the corner in first gear. Then second gear, third gear, fourth gear before I get to start finish line.

WHERE ARE THE TRICKIEST PARTS OF THIS TRACK The trickiest parts of this race track are passing zones. Turn 1 is a very trick corner, turn 11 and 7 are tricky. Those are passing opportunity places. You've got to be able to brake in a straight line hard, get a clean line underneath somebody and make a pass.

HOW IS THE SURFACE HERE? THEY PAVED IT LAST YEAR, HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM 2004? About the same. Seems pretty good all in all. They have repaved the place. I think I would have thought the track would have slowed down with a year on the pavement, but it doesn't seem to have done that. Still has a lot of good grip and it's fast. It's going to be hard to pass, though. There are a lot of cars running 1:17:0, 1:17:20s, and that's kind of where we fit into the mix. Pit stops and strategy will definitely come into play. We've got a good race car.

Ron Fellows #32 Tide Chevrolet

Note: Fellows had an accident in second practice at turn 3 and brought the car back to the garage for repairs.

WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR ACCIDENT? Yeah, we're still chasing it loose a bit. I got loose into Turn 3 and just lost it. I was hoping to catch it and stay on the race track. Fortunately there was a tire barrier there.

ARE YOU GOING TO TRY TO GET THE CAR BACK OUT? Yeah, I hope so. When I drove back it felt fine, but I couldn't see the front fender, so I thought it was pushed in. I had no idea how bad the back was. Keeping pressing on here.

Brian Simo #33 Korbel Chevrolet

Yeah, it felt pretty good. We're making some ground now. We struggled a little bit yesterday but I think we're starting to get that stuff right now.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING YOU'RE WORKING ON TODAY? Right now we're still looking for grip. We need that long term grip. Longer into the fuel run and more green time, we're looking for that longer grip.

HAVE YOU SHAKEN THE RUST AFTER FOUR YEARS OUT OF RACING? Yeah, it's starting to come back there a bit. I had to get off the couch for a while.

Mike Wallace #4 Lucas Oil Chevrolet

Note: P.J. Jones will be driving the #4 Morgan-McClure Lucas Oil Chevrolet for this weekend's race.

The team released a statement which stated: "This one race decision is no reflection whatsoever of Morgan-McClure and Lucas Oil's commitment to Mike Wallace as the driver of the #4 Lucas Oil Chevy. The team is looking forward to having Wallace back in the car next week in Daytona."

GIVE US THE UPDATE ON THE DRIVER SITUATION FOR THIS WEEKEND IN THE #4 LUCAS OIL CHEVY They made a decision this morning. P.J. is going to race the car. I don't understand any of it. It caught me pretty much off guard. We race hard to get ourselves inside the top 35 and we're in the 35th spot. I guess management feels that P.J. can do a better job than me here.

ARE THEN LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT WEEK AT DAYTONA? Well, I always look forward to racing. I'm a little caught off guard on this thing right here. A little numb to the situation. But, Daytona, yeah. I won the Busch race down there last July. My picture is all over the tickets for the Busch race. Hopefully have a chance at two victories as I'll drive one of Ray Evernham's cars down there in the Busch race and then the #4 Lucas Oil car.

WE WISH YOU WERE RACING HERE Yeah, I appreciate that. I don't understand it really. We've raced hard to get ourselves inside the top 35 and we're here, and then we get replaced for this race.

Bobby Labonte #18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet

HOW WAS PRACTICE? It was pretty good. We had two good practices.

YOU'RE IN A BACKUP CAR. HOW HAS THE IT BEEN? Yeah, it's pretty balanced. We made it better throughout the day. I was pretty happy with it.

Terry Labonte #11 FedEx Chevrolet

HOW WAS PRACTICE? It was okay. We need to be a little bit better, but we're going to make a few changes on it for tomorrow. We're working on grip. Mostly grip. It was a little bit loose in the back. We need to be a little bit better there. I think we have a pretty good car and we'll have a good run if we stay out of trouble. Try to get these guys some points.

Kyle Busch press conference

TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE ON THE ROAD COURSE THIS WEEKEND It's just overall been a good experience for us. Hadn't been quite a great one. Went testing here a few weeks ago-thought we made some ground and made some progress. We tried to go a little bit faster and tried to get a little bit better and ended writing one off. It wasn't too good there, but the guys put in some good hours in the shop and we were able to come back with a really good race car. I'm just trying to learn the whole road course experience. I've never been on a road course in a V-8 stock car. I have ran legends cars around this place and that was three years ago, I think. So, it's been a while since I've been here. It's cool to be able to get the experience of turning left and right and getting the most out of it. Coming out here yesterday, it was probably the best I've been on a road course and probably the smoothest I've been on a road course. I really want to help Mark on the Soutwest side-he really gave me an opportunity to run their race this weekend in order to get some extra time and experience. I think it's really paying off for me and the #5 Kellogg's Chevrolet this weekend.

WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT ASPECT OF ROAD COURSE RACING FOR YOU RIGHT NOW? There are just so many chances to mess up. You've got 11 corners here, probably 12 coming to the start finish line. You have all these opportunities to miss your mark, go too wide, not be able to step on the gas hard enough, step on it too hard and spin the tires, etc. There's just so many different aspects of everything that you have to work on. You just have to be able to get into a ryhtym. Watching qualifying yesterday, I saw Mark Martin was really smooth as he always is, Jimmie was really smooth, Jeff and them. It's all about being able to build a consistency around this place to run good laps times and still have good tires on your car for a long run, not just burning them off trying to make a few quick laps. You know, coming out of here in qualifying, it was a decent day for us. I figured before we came here we were looking at 30, so it's good to be up in there in the upper teens. I look forward to the race on Sunday.

CAN YOU GET IN THE CHASE? GOING FORWARD THERE SEEMS TO BE AN OPPORTUNITY WITH SOME TRACKS AND THEN OTHER TRACKS SOME AREAS WHERE PEOPLE MIGHT DROP A BIT That's exactly the point that everyone's been look at on the Kellogg's team. This weekend, if we can survive here with a top 15, we might be able to gain some points on some guys. We go to Daytona and we might be able to lose a little bit - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Michael Waltrip, Jeff Gordon. I think, as far as the overall scheme of things, if we can get through this weekend, get through next weekend, hopefully top 15, top 20 finishes and go onto Chicago. I feel we can be really good at Chicago. Loudon, Pocono, Michigan coming up again. There are some really good race tracks I'm looking forward to. Watkins Glen is another one we might have to look at to get a top 15 at. Overall, we have some good race tracks up where we can be strong at and some others we just have to survive at, in order to be there for the Chase. It's not out of the question just yet-I think we're a hundred and fifty something points out of tenth right now. It's definitely a feasible goal and we're looking forward to it.

ARE YOU GETTING ANXIOUS FOR YOUR FIRST WIN? No, I'm not getting anxious or whatever to win a race. It will come when it gets here. I'm patient enough to know that in order to finish in the top 10, you have to finish in the top 15. To finish in the top 5, you need top 10s and to win a race you need top 5s. It's just all about trying to build that consistency and run up front. You can finish, like Kasey Kahne last year, you can finish second six times. It's that last little bit that's going to get you that win. As soon as you can find how to do that, you'll be able to knock them out one after another. I feel that the team is really strong and Alan Gustafson and myself are working really well together and getting everything where we need it to be. It's just a matter of time til we get to that last hurdle and knock down the door to get to that win. But, as soon as we do that, we'll be pretty strong.