Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Office Depot Taurus (Qualified 23rd) - "We made a run on stickers and I felt like this run, I thought it was on stickers and I couldn't figure out why the car didn't have as much grip but we ran on the same tires. I think we might have been better to go on stickers, but the good thing about it is I think that almost all of these guys are on scuffs, so we'll all be in the same boat. The Office Depot Ford is still in one piece. It's still the same length and that's a big part of this weekend, I think - if we just not run into anything. Maybe this will stand up for a top 15 or top 20 starting spot and we'll be alright. I'll learn something on Sunday."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Taurus (Qualified 24th) - "It's enjoyable to do something different, but in this business it's not enjoyable to do anything when you're not competitive at it. The last two years we've been real fast qualifying at least and maybe we haven't raced as good, but this year we've just been a second off the whole time we've been here. We haven't really done much work on it. We have the same car we had last year and haven't really done anything to make ourselves better, but it seems like we got a little worse. That's frustrating, but it is fun to come out here. It's a cool part of the country. It's tough to road race twice a year, but it's fun."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 U.S. Air Force/Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus (Qualified 20th) - "We ran really well in practice. We spent all morning in race trim and were eighth-quickest in our race setup, but in our qualifying setup we didn't know what we had. We went to make a run and I guess Bobby Labonte had some trouble and they shut the track down, so we didn't really know what we had. We gave up a lot of speed in qualifying. That's quite a bit slower than I practiced and it's supposed to be the other way. You're supposed to go faster and it just didn't work out."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Qualified 3rd) - "There's no way that's a pole, but that's a fabulous run. For a little while that gives our fans something to really cheer for. The salute tour is just going fantastic. The fans have been awesome. That was a great run. It's gonna be a good starting spot, but the real fast guys have got to go at the end there, and there are a bunch of fast guys in the middle too. It was a nice run by the Viagra team. I want to thank Pat Tryson and all the guys that work on this 6 car. It's a pleasure to drive this stuff." HOW WAS THE LAP? "It was nice. I got started off the first couple of corners and it was like I had two left hands, but after that I really felt like I was holding my own or making up some ground. It was a good run. I missed a couple of corners just ever so slightly, but it's gonna be a good starting spot."

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Crown Royal Taurus (Qualified 6th) - "It was a good, top-five lap. I think we might be able to hang onto that spot. We might get bumped by one or two guys, but we didn't get a chance to do our fast run in practice. We may have been 18th on the charts, which isn't indicative of where we could run but Sunday is the big deal. We haven't finished real well at Infineon - just one top-five in the past five years or so, but this race track is special to me. I had a chance to win a Featherlite Southwest Series race a few years ago, so I want to do it again."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Post-It/National Guard/Subway Taurus (Qualified 41st) - "I wasn't that loose. I was actually a little bit tight coming over the hill into the esses and shoved the nose a little bit. Then I got off the track just a little and I think I got some stuff on my tires and then it was a long right-hand corner and I didn't have a chance to get that stuff off. Then when I turned back to the right again, I was on those tires and she took off. I'm just thankful that I've got the same car back because it was close, it was real close." JUST HANGING ON? "I was inside there going, 'whoa.' I think it would have been fifth or so without that, I don't know, but I'm not worried about it. We've got a great car. We stand a solid chance of running top-five still here."

MARK MARTIN PRESS CONFERENCE

HOW WAS YOUR LAP? "Obviously I'm real happy with the lap. I got off to a little awkward start in turn two. I slipped a little bit and when the car caught it wasn't aimed exactly where I wanted it to be, but, overall, it was a great run. We picked up from practice, which most people slowed down or stayed the same. We picked up almost half-a-second, so it's a great run. It's great for the salute tour. We gave our fans something else to cheer about and hopefully we can do the same on Sunday. I'm really, really lucky to be driving for this team." YOU RUN WELL HERE ALL THE TIME. "All these races are hard to win. I'm gonna go into this thing with everything we have. Pat Tryson and the whole Viagra team are at the top of their game right now, so we're gonna give it everything we've got and we'll see how it shakes out on Sunday." WERE YOU NERVOUS DURING QUALIFYING? "I wasn't nervous watching the other qualifying. I've been doing this stuff a long time. I knew Jeff Gordon would beat us. I thought a few others would. I knew it was gonna be a great starting spot. It was a great lap. It's a fantastic car they gave me to qualify with and I got a real nice lap, but I was not nervous after qualifying. Certainly I was nervous beforehand because if you slip off the race track as my friend Biffle did today qualifying, it makes your Sunday very, very difficult. I've done that before and had that pressure on me today to not do that. We've got our eye on the target here and that is to make the chase and this was one of the bullets we needed to dodge today and then we need to come out of here Sunday with a great run and then go onto Daytona and get through that without being caught up in one of those big wrecks. If we can do that, then we'll be on our way." DO YOU JUST SHAKE YOUR HEAD WITH JEFF GORDON'S SUCCESS HERE? "Jeff Gordon is a whale of a race car driver, but everybody in the garage knows that car is incredible. It drives the teams crazy, but it is what it is. Not taking any credit away from Jeff Gordon, but he clobbers everybody with it. That's just the way it is and I think all the teams know that. Everybody is trying to figure it out and it looks like we might be closer than we were last year." DO YOU HAVE A SIMILAR SETUP WITH YOUR TEAMMATES? "Biffle doesn't have a setup anything quite like what we've got. The 97 and the 6 are probably closer than the rest of 'em. We're probably a little closer to the 97, but, certainly, if you looked at it you would say we didn't have the same setup. We have different shocks. We have different springs. They might be similar, but they're definitely different." YOU'VE STARTED FROM THE BACK BEFORE. "That's right and also I ran off once qualifying - I ran off the track once -- so I've actually started in the back twice here. It's very difficult, but those guys are up to the task and they will have a great day on Sunday I'm sure." HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO COME FROM THE BACK? ERNIE IRVAN DID IT ONCE. "I'm sure they took passing zones since Ernie did that. It can still be done. It would probably be more likely for the 24 to be able to do it than most of the rest of us. He is an incredible race car driver, but I'll say again - that car is just fast. I mean, it just really, really works. You can take the same driver and put him in a car that doesn't work and he just can't quite get the same job done on the race track. All of these guys are great race car drivers in the garage and every team is working to try to make their car work as good or better than that 24." IT SEEMS LIKE HAVING MORE FUN IS HELPING YOU DO BETTER. IS THAT TRUE? "I'm so sorry to say that the reason I'm having fun is because my car is running so good and that's pitiful. I should be a better man than that. I should, and that's been one of my frustrations in 2003. I shouldn't let the performance of my car dictate how I feel about my self-esteem and my self-value and all of those things. Obviously, that's a challenge for me and I'm having a ball because I'm driving great race cars and I know this is the last go-round. That makes it fun for me."