MIKE WALLACE, NO. 4 LUCAS OIL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "That was better than I expected, actually. That's about three-tenths quicker than what we practiced yesterday in our best practice speed. So I'm really excited about it. But there is a lot of grip right now in the race track. It's really cool. So I hope it gets incredibly hot right now and it'll slow everybody else up. The guys have done a good job. We were a little concerned. We thought we broke a ring in a motor yesterday. It appears it's pumping some oil out, so we may end up having to change motors after all. So I'm a little disappointed about that."
JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "My Army Chevy is running good and I'm really proud of all these guys -- all the soldiers around the world who are supporting us. We're doing all we can to make this car go fast on a weekly basis. I think we're going to be good in the race. The track temperature is down pretty good and I don't think it's going to come up that much during the whole time of qualifying. But going earlier when the temperature is down on the track is definitely better."
BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "Kansas is just now coming into it's own. I think as time goes on, the racing is going to get better and better as the track wears out like you see in all these tracks. Turn 4 and Turn 1, the wall is pretty tight getting into Turn 1 and coming off of Turn 4. Whereas at most tracks, you come off of Turn 4 and that's where you have your most room. Here, it's actually off of Turn 2. So that changes things. And the cars are a little bit looser off of Turn 4, but it's a great race track and the fans are great and we love coming here."
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I thought we would pick up more. A lot of guys are going a lot faster. I'm kind of disappointed in where I'm at. We'll just have to get up through there tomorrow."
MICHAEL WALTRIP, NO. 15 NAPA CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "I spun out there (Turns 4 and 1) in practice yesterday, didn't I? I forgot about that. I was just trying too hard a little bit in practice. I got through Turns 1 and 2 really good and I wanted to see what kind of time I could put up. It's just a difficult track. You run really fast and there is not a whole lot of banking so guys are just driving out there wanting to get all they can get in this cool morning air to qualify well. But it seems to be calming down now. A couple of crashes will make believers out of you. We'll take the NAPA Chevy and try to do better with it."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "So far, it is a good lap. Track conditions are tricky and we were really concerned. We saw guys running fast but then getting in trouble at the same time. We really didn't know what to expect out there. We went a little bit more towards the conservative side and it paid off for us. It was a nice smooth lap for the DuPont Chevrolet team. We had a great car yesterday and felt like we were going to have a good one today, but with everything going on out there you didn't know what to expect. I'm very excited for the guys and Steve Letarte.
"The track has a lot of grip but the balance doesn't seem to be quite like it was yesterday. I was expecting my car to be one way and it really wasn't. Even though we were able to run a fast lap I had to be careful. I couldn't be super aggressive with it." More to follow
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO:
"We were just a little too loose in Turn 3. I didn't want to end up like the last two guys who were a little loose into three, so I just rode it out. It was a good lap-both of them were good laps-but not quite quick enough to get us on the pole.
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE THIS KIND OF RUN HERE TO ESTABLISH MOMENTUM? "I think we established momentum over the last three months, but it is just important to keep it right now. We just need to go out and keep doing what we've been doing. So far, it's been a good start to our day, but obviously there are a lot of good cars to go. If we can stay in the top 10 that will be a big boost for tomorrow."
"The track has a lot of grip right now. We probably didn't tighten the car up enough for as fast as the track was this morning. We were a little loose or we might have been able to put it on the pole. I'm really happy with the run, really happy with the lap. Scott laid down a really good lap and that was impressive to see first thing out of the box. I hope it sticks up for him. We just have to keep doing what we're doing."
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The GM Goodwrench Chevy was just a little too free in turns 3 and 4 for me to go for it all. I could get to the gas in the corner, but couldn't put the pedal all the way down without getting loose. The car was good through (turns) one and two.
"It's a good enough lap for us to start somewhere in the middle and make our way to the front. We should be good for tomorrow."
Didn't get anything good on father-in-law and he didn't seem to want to talk about it much. You may have gotten something from TV, but if not I wouldn't worry.
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO: "The track has a lot of grip so I think everyone was being very aggressive and some guys didn't make it to the start/finish line because they were trying so hard. But for us it was fair. We struggled in practice yesterday. I think we've made the car better. We just need a couple of pit stops in the race to get it right."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET - POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE COMMENTS:
"For qualifying, the temperatures were cool and the tires had a lot of grip, but I think the balance surprised a lot of people. The track really freed up for a lot of people and that's typical when you have impound tracks. But I think we've learned how to compensate for that, but we didn't compensate enough. We had a great run, but in order to get on the pole you definitely had to get the car tighter than what we had it and I'm just real happy to be third."
ON NASCAR'S COMMENTS ABOUT SUPERTEAMS: "I don't know much about all the details that went into that meeting, so I'd be a little hesitant to comment on it. The reason why there have been owners who have owned as many teams or been a part of owning as many teams as they do is because there really haven't been any limitations. Once you build an organization up, the ability to start another team is so much more efficient for you than to start one up from scratch. I would hope that if they are thinking in that direction, they're also thinking of franchising those as well because there is just a big investment that goes into it. Once you start a team, it would be nice to know there is value in that team beyond just the ability to pull sponsorship and put good race cars out there on the race track. I think it would be nice for a lot of these teams to plan for the future by having added value. And I think something like franchising would be very beneficial.
"Obviously maybe there could be some limitations on how many teams each owner has, but I think there are ways around that as well. I'd be curious to see how they've planned on structuring that.
ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO OWN TEAMS: "I think that's what they've been struggling with so much. Racing for me, all my life, has always been about people being able to show up at the race track and put a fast race car out there and compete that weekend. But when you start to get into a sport that's grown to a level that this one has, it's turned into a big business as well. And right now, we're very very dependant on those sponsors. And we're asking a lot out of them. And when I do sit down in those financial meetings, it's scary to know how the costs are increasing over the years. We've got a huge increase that's going to come with this car of the future, or whatever they're calling it, is a huge expense to these teams. And those are things you can't factor. You can't go to your sponsor and say hey, by the way, this is going to cost the team several million dollars, we need you to pick up your costs for that. So I think that's a struggle of trying to figure out the right balance of being independent contractors and then having multicar teams that are franchises. I don't have all the answers for that. I just what it costs and where the sport is heading and what we're asking of our sponsors."
