MBNA RacePoints 400 - Ford Saturday Quotes

This weekend's event marks the second points race and third overall for Bill Wilburn since he was named interim crew chief of the No. 88 UPS Taurus last month. Driver Dale Jarrett started seventh and finished eighth last week at Charlotte following a sixth-place finish in the All-Star race the previous week. Wilburn and Jarrett both talked about the transition and the two Robert Yates Racing teams working more closely together.

BILL WILBURN, crew chief, No. 88 UPS Taurus - "We look at what Robert Yates Racing has got in place here and with the way things have been going for Elliott [Sadler] and just some of the direction took upon the first couple of days there, it was pretty obvious that we were gonna be able to perform - I felt like, anyway. So we went to the race track and things went well, and they went a little bit better for the 600. We still don't know what we're going to do here at Dover, but we feel confident, based on how Dale ran last year, and then with the ways things went with the Busch car on Thursday, I don't see any change. I think we should be able to run in the top five or 10 and, hopefully, if we get practice, we'll be good enough to feel like we can this race." HOW DO EVALUATE THE FIRST COUPLE OF RACES? "We've run good and we've made progress it seems like each time on the track, and that's what we've got to do. Even if you win every week you still gotta make progress or move forward, improve your performance. So, with that said, I think we're going to be looking to improve on his fourth-place here last year and try to put up a win. Improvement is the only way you can keep your job." HOW HAS THE TRANSITION BEEN FOR YOU? "The support is the biggest and the best part of what's happened so far. You come in and you've got guys that are here to work with you and lead you down a certain path, and you ask a question and most of the times you can get an answer, and that's a good thing. As far as the transition to here, I know a lot of these guys, I never worked with them but I know them, and that's the key word, I think, is I'm working with them, I haven't come in and said, here, do this or that. I'm just the lucky guy who gets to help make the decision. I'm just the lucky guy, I guess, to help make the decisions right now."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus - "Everything's going well. It's the two teams working together, so that's what we needed to accomplish and that's happening so far." ON THE 88 TEAM'S CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE AT BOTH CHARLOTTE RACES. "That's what we're trying to do is make the cars and the teams as comparable as possible so we can look and see where we can be better and compare apples to apples. So, the performance was there, we raced a lot better, and hopefully that's a sign of things to come."

Ford Racing drivers Kurt Busch (No. 97 Sharpie Taurus), Elliott Sadler (No. 38 M&M's Taurus), Greg Biffle (No. 16 National Guard/Charter Taurus) and Ricky Rudd (No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus) each posted a top-10 speed in at least one of Saturday's two practice sessions, the first of the weekend for the Cup series following rain all day Friday and early Saturday.

KURT BUSCH - No. 97 Sharpie Taurus - DOES A CONCRETE TRACK, LIKE THIS ONE, REACT DIFFERENTLY TO RAIN THAN AN ASPHALT TRACK? "It does more than any other race track. This place, much rubber builds up and it completely changes - and it usually does that about halfway through the race. Right now, with it being so fresh, it's hard to get the right indication of what setup to run because the track will change so dramatically later, especially with a Busch race and a truck race later today." ANY WORRIES FOR TOMORROW? "It's going to be definitely different, and we have to find the right combination of adjustability in the car." THIS IS THE SECOND YEAR OF THE CHASE FOR THE NEXTEL CUP FORMAT. WITH THIS SEASON ONE-THIRD COMPLETE - AND NEARLY HALFWAY TO THE CHASE CUTOFF POINT - AS THE DEFENDING CHAMPION, HAVE YOU ALTERED YOUR STRATEGY THIS SEASON? "We've done small things to change what we did last year so we can be better, and right now we're in a bad position, we're 10th in points, so it's a tough. I hope that we don't have to use any of our tests to make sure that we're in the Chase. We want to make sure that we're a team that gather enough points each and every week, so we can save all our tests for the later part of the year. We're still under the same format and we'll see after these next five or six races where we stack up."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus - IS A "GREEN" CONCRETE TRACK DIFFERENT THAN A "GREEN" ASPHALT TRACK? "Concrete, when there's no rubber on it, is a very slick surface and very loose. It's got to get good and black for the cars to get really tight."SO, THE TWO RACES TODAY WILL HELP? "I think it'll change the way the car reacts. Our car's a little loose now, but by the time the two series race today, it'll be tighter tomorrow and we'll be in good shape. That's what we're planning on tomorrow, is the track tightening up."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Charter Taurus - WITH RAIN, DOES A CONCRETE TRACK LIKE THIS ONE REACT DIFFERENTLY? "When you get rain on it, it's so loose along the bottom, and then you get up a little bit, you're tight, the track doesn't get enough rubber built up on it. That's what we're struggling with right now, exactly. I'm turning too good at the beginning of the session, and down on the green part of the race track, or the white part, I'm too loose, and up in the black part I'm terrible, tight, it won't turn. It's hard to get that balance to get the two to work out." SO, WITH TWO RACES TODAY, IT'LL BE GOOD TOMORROW? "Yes."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus - "This track, from where we started practice, to where we ended practice, the only thing that's different is the track looks a little blacker. The groove has taken some rubber, but the track's characteristics haven't changed the whole practice session - even though it was very clean when we first started, now it's got rubber in the groove. The grip didn't change and the setups on the car didn't change through the whole practice."