UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at Las Vegas:
T. Kvapil, sixth
K. Busch, 10th
E. McClure, 41st

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUALIFYING QUOTES FOR THE UAW-DAIMLERCHRYSLER 400 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP ERIES RACE AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, MARCH 11, 2005.

TRAVIS KVAPIL IN THE No. 77 MOBIL 1/KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT LAS VEGAS. Notes: Kvapil will start 6th, his second top-10 start in six career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races. This is his best start of the 2005 season and the first time he has taken top Raybestos Rookie honors in qualifying. “That was really good. Shane [Wilson, crew chief] told me he was going to tell me what the lap was as soon as I crossed the start finish line so I knew if I had to run a second one or not and I was clear down in the center of 1 and 2 before he called it out. I was like ‘Oh man, it must not have been pretty good.’ I knew we were going to have a good lap. We ran a pretty decent lap in practice and it was on scuffs so I knew sticker tires would give us a little more grip. The sun is going down so the track is cooling off a little bit, the track is getting a little bit faster. The Mobil 1 guys did a great job preparing my car and I’m excited. I’m excited for the race now.” DID YOU GET A BREAK GOING OUT LATE IN THE QUALIFYING SESSION? DID THE TRACK COOL DOWN? “I think so for sure. I think the ambient air temperature is going down a little bit and more than anything turns 1 and 2 are almost fully shaded and I think that’s a big help to add grip. Fortunately for me, that’s where we were struggling in practice. In turns 1 and 2 my car was tight, didn’t have a lot of grip through there and I think the cooler temperatures helped us a little bit. I knew after practice we’d have a good car. I’m actually surprised that it ran that good. I was hoping to run a .70 and we ran a .40 so I’m pretty happy with it.” YOU HAD A REALLY GOOD TEST AT ATLANTA. “I struggled in the Cup race last fall there. I finished like five or six laps down, just terrible. I was actually a little bit concerned going back. I said ‘Man, we really need to run good at Atlanta. We unloaded and the car felt really good. I felt comfortable in the car and I don’t think they are building better racecars than what I had a year ago. I think a lot of it is just me having confidence in knowing what the Cup car should feel like. It’s a big adjustment. A place like Atlanta or like Las Vegas, I knew exactly what I needed to feel in the truck and how far I could push it and I think it’s just taken me a little time to figure that out in the Cup car. After that Atlanta test and coming here, I’ve got a lot of confidence right now in my race team and we’re starting to run a little better.” WAS BUDDY BAKER AT THE TEST? “Buddy was down there trying to coach me along. He didn’t yell at me too much during the whole two days of testing so I knew that I must have been doing something right. He’s not afraid to speak up and tell me if I’m doing something wrong. He said we did a real good job and had a great test and he was happy with it.” WHAT IS THE MAIN ASSET OF HAVING BAKER? “Reassurance. The biggest thing that he’s told me is that you’re only as fast as that racecar and if the racecar isn’t fast tell those guys to fix it. Get on their butts and make ‘em fix that racecar for you. Be assertive and communicate with the guys real good. It’s hard these first couple of races. You’ve got to feel these cars out and really understand. It’s a whole different feel from the truck and I’m learning that and trying to figure that all out and I feel like I’m doing a good job and it’s just great having Buddy right there telling me ‘Make them guys get the racecar going for you. You can do it.’ It’s hard to say when you’re car is not good enough when they’re built out of the same shop as Ryan Newman and he’s on top of the board. We’ve got great racecars and I know that it’s just up to myself and Shane and the 77 guys to get that performance going.” HOW BIG OF A CONFIDENCE BOOST IS THIS CONSIDERING THAT YOU STRUGGLED AT CALIFORNIA A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO? “We struggled even worse in the Las Vegas test a month ago. We left here really disappointed after our test and went to California and we thought we tested decent there and we went and raced not very good. I know that Shane worked really hard on the car and I think having that 500 miles under my belt at California was a big help. Halfway through the race we got the car running good. I kind of figured out what I needed to feel and it translated a lot to here. It’s just working out right now.” AND YOU HAVE TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS TO WORK ON RACE SETUP. HOW BIG OF A FACTOR IS THAT GOING TO BE? “I’m even more excited about it now because we spent the first half of the practice today working on race setup just to get me out there and get laps, get me comfortable in the racecar before we taped it up and did any qualifying laps. I’m excited. I think we’ve got a really good racecar. I know we’re going to be pretty good in race trim because we were today. I’m excited to get the weekend going and get the race going on Sunday.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “It’s pretty cool. Elliott Sadler had to go up there and ruin my fun. I thought I was going to have a good qualifying effort but it is a good qualifying effort. The car ran pretty good. We were a little bit loose, just like how it was in California. If I could get back to the gas a lot better I think we probably could have ran about a .40 or something in that range. That was a good run for us and I’m looking forward to the race on Sunday. Hopefully we can get this Kellogg’s Chevrolet running like it should.” HOW MANY OLD FRIENDS CALLED WANTING TICKETS FOR THE RACE THIS WEEKEND? “I’ve had quite a few calling up for tickets. The Las Vegas place has sold out for I think it’s been all seven years. It’s sold out once again this year and that’s definitely awesome for all these fans that come out here and support Las Vegas Motor Speedway the way that they need to be supported. I think that the only tickets left are for Saturday.” DID YOUR QUALIFYING DRAW HELP YOU OR HURT YOU? “It didn’t make much difference. It’s pretty much been hot the whole time so I don’t think the track’s going to cool down that much. In Busch qualifying it will. Going out later in Busch qualifying is definitely going to be better. If we could end up in the top-five, top-10 somewhere that would be good. I’d like to do a couple different things to the chassis. We were still a little bit loose. We made some qualifying runs with it but we just couldn’t ever get it right. It was always either loose in or tight off. This was the first time where it was loose all the way through. I think now having the one problem to fix we can fix it pretty easily.” DID YOU FOCUS ON QUALIFYING ALL DAY? “Yeah we did. We can down here and tested so we have a pretty good basis on what the race setup needs to be so we will work on that in Happy Hour.” WILL TIRE WEAR BE A FACTOR HERE IN THE RACE? “I think so. Last year it was because the times fell off a bunch. Guys that would save their stuff early in a run were coming on later and me, who had run the thing to death every lap, we were kind of falling back. It’s going to be a mix on who does what with their tires and who had what kind of strategy.” WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THIS TRACK? “It’s got to be down in turns 1 and 2. There’s no other track like it. Down in turns 1 and 2, once you get down to the white line, the car wants to shove. If you can get on the white line or just below it, your car is going to be pretty good. Otherwise, if you miss that six inches, you’re junk through the whole corner. I only hit it about twice today in practice, hopefully more so on race setup. You’re just trying to go out there and run consistent laps so it would be easier to hit it on race setup. Qualifying is definitely a different story.” YOU TESTED HERE UNDER DIFFERENT WEATHER CONDITIONS. “We’ve been a little bit slick since we’ve been here. The car has kind of been dancing around a little bit and kind of wishy-washy. We’ve got to work on that to get the balance more like we need. If the temperature stays the way that the track is right now, this hot, it’s definitely going to be a little bit slick. If we can get a little bit of a cooler day it will obviously help us out a little bit more. It think it’s going to be whoever can stick the bottom the most is going to be the one to get it done.”

ERIC MCCLURE, No. 73 ARC DEHOOKER/RFA CHEVROLET: “This is a blessing. It’s a real testament to our race team. It’s been frustrating for us to test so good everywhere we go and not to be able to back it up and today started out the same way. The car was a gremlin. We don’t know what it was but it would not drive. We reinvented the wheel there at the end and man it was like night and day. I wish we could have started the day like that. We’ll take what we can get. This is like a pole for us. We’ve changed crew chiefs a lot, every week, just trying something different. We had a collective crew chief effort today between Scott Brewer, Johnny Miller, Chris Carrier, and Larry McClure. They put their heads together and we were able to get in the race. No matter what happens the rest of the weekend we’re real excited.” YOU HAVE TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS TO WORK ON RACE SETUP. “We’ll worry about that in the morning. This is great. This is like a win for us. We’re real happy. We’re a new race team and we’ve overcome a lot and a lot of people don’t know that but for us to just be in this race is a true testament to these guys.” YOU PICKED UP A BUNCH FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING. “We changed the car around and it worked. Last week we did the same thing and I overdrove the car’s capabilities and ended up wrecking so this time it was just pick your battles, have a good smooth lap and hope for the best and fortunately it was good enough for us to make the race today. It’s a big relief, a big weight off the shoulders. The weight of the world off the shoulders.” THAT’S A LOT OF PRESSURE IN QUALIFYING. “It really is. It’s hard not to put pressure on yourself but when the stakes are this high…the most pressure really has come from the fact that we knew that we were better than this. I'm happy most of all for Ed Raabe and Raabe Racing. Larry McClure and Ron Puryear gave us a whale of an engine. I’d put it up against anybody’s. I’m real thankful and we’re going to enjoy this. We’ll get back to work tomorrow but no matter what happens we’re happy.” WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE RACE? “Run all day and stay out of trouble and get better, race smart. Even if we finish in the early 30s, that’s okay because we’ve accomplished a lot already. The main goal is to finish.”