Coca-Cola 600 - Rookie Happy-Hour Quotes

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER HAPPY HOUR QUOTES FOR THE COCA-COLA 600 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY, MAY 28, 2005.

Raybestos Rookies Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil posted two of the four best speeds during the final practice session for the Coca-Cola 600. Busch was third with a speed of 184.124 while Kvapil was fourth at 183.986 mph.

KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 CARQUEST CHEVROLET: “I’m pretty happy with that. Practice is always different; I don’t know why we can always practice fast then not be fast in the race. I’m hoping this weekend will be a different tale. The car was really good. We made a few minor adjustments just to kind of see what we can do. That’s about starting time for tomorrow night. We just wanted to kind of see what we could get and what changes we needed to make that would help us throughout the race.” WHO WAS BEST IN PRACTICE? “I’d have to say the 48 [Jimmie Johnson] as always, but we’re going to give him a run for his money, I know that.” HOW MUCH STOCK CAN YOU PUT IN HAPPY HOUR SPEEDS? YOU RAN A GOOD LAP, BUT ARE YOU THE THIRD-BEST CAR HERE? “We could say that. I know the 12 [Ryan Newman] is not the first best car. I know the 48 is the best car. Over the long run and what all we looked at as far as long run lap times and stuff like that, the first practice we were the best car and Jimmie was right there with us. I was able to look at second practice but I’m sure that Jimmie was pretty good. I’m hoping that we were within one of the top-five cars because it will be a good racecar for tomorrow. I’m hoping that we’re not too screwed up in the beginning part of the race so we can run well there throughout the beginning to keep up wit them. Whoever is going to keep up with the racetrack the best over the long run and over the night is going to be best.” WILL WE SEE A LOT OF ACCIDENTS TOMMOROW NIGHT? “For some reason this racetrack is really, really weird now. You can’t find a happy medium. You’re either loose or your tight so I think a lot of guys are figuring that out, that you’re going to have to be loose or if you’re tight, you’re going to be about four-tenths off. We were better off being a little bit loose and so we kind of left it that way. And I think if some guys get underneath the back of other guys too far they’re going to spin them out.” DO YOU THINK THE CUP GUYS THAT RUN THE BUSCH RACE TONIGHT HAVE A BIG ADVANTAGE? “Yeah, pretty much. The race will start pretty late here tonight so that will give us a shot on the 250, 300-mile mark for tomorrow night. We’ll have to see what goes on tonight but I think it’s going to be a pretty good race for us and I’m looking forward to both of them. If I can’t take home tonight’s race, then the pressure is off for having to do a triple duty this weekend.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: “That’s not bad. I feel like we were a little slow right at the very end there. We’ve had the car really good. We’re a good car; I don’t feel like we’re a great car yet. We really haven’t been able to hit on the perfect combination to make us one of the elite three or four guys but we’re close. We’ve made some changes, got some things in the right direction, made some things that made us worse, but more than anything the car is driving really good for me. I’m comfortable. It’s not doing anything weird. I can run a lot of laps and stay pretty fast, consistent and that’s definitely what it’s going to take for 600 miles.” IS THE TRACK GETTING SLICKER AND SLICKER? “I was actually thinking toward the end of practice there, guys would start picking it up with it just naturally cooling down and the sun going down. I thought we were getting a little slicker and losing grip and that might have had a lot to do with the track getting rubbered up and the grease and dirt from all the cars out there. Good conditions comparable to the 600, though.” WHO IS THE CAR TO BEAT? “Just looking at lap times, I’d say the 48. I haven’t really studied them close but in the first session it looked like he could go out and run some pretty fast laps, a few tenths better than anybody. But other than that, I really couldn’t tell ya. I thought the 6 car [Mark Martin] looked pretty good in the last practice but we’ll sit down and look at the lap sheet and figure out where we stack up.” HOW MUCH STOCK CAN YOU PUT IN THESE SPEEDS? “Not a lot. Obviously, to go that fast, the car has to be pretty darn close. We feel like we’re not too far off. We’ve made a lot of changes today and last week to where we can start pretty comfortably for the race. I’d rather be in the top-five than the last five, for sure. If we can run a fast lap then that means the car is driving pretty good for me.” DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE A LOT OF ACCIDENTS IN THE 600? “For sure. Six hundred miles is a long race and a number of things can happen: blow tires, blown motors, and things like that. It looks like the passing is going to come around. It’s kind of the same ol’ Charlotte, I think. Guys start wearing their tires out, sliding around a little bit and it just takes a little longer for that to happen it seems like. I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot of just running-people-over accidents, jus t a little bit of bumping probably.”