Subway 500 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at Martinsville:
T. Kvapil 12th
K. Busch 23rd

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: “We slowed down a tenth from where we were in practice and a tenth here can be a mile. We’re a little disappointed. We just couldn’t get the car to turn in the middle. I was late getting back to the gas and couldn’t get the front tires to hook up, just being cold. We knew it was coming so we tried freeing the car up a little bit but probably just didn’t go enough. Hopefully that will land us 15th or so and get us a decent spot on pit road. I think the pole is going to be in the mid-30s so we’re a tenth and a half to two tenths off that so that could be a number of spots. When you go fast in practice and slow up a little bit in qualifying it’s kind of a letdown but we knew in qualifying it’s hard to back up what you run in practice just because everybody’s got heat in their tires, heat in their brakes and it’s hard to make them come to life in two laps when everything is cold. It’s not bad but we were hoping to back up what we ran or a little bit better. We’ll see how it all shakes out.” WILL THIS HURT YOU IN PIT SELECTION? “I think it will. Pit road is so close here and everything is so tight, pit road selection is going to be big, track position is big. Hopefully, it don’t shake out as bad as I think it’s going to but we’ll have to wait and see.” YOU CAN STILL GO FROM THE BACK TO THE FRONT HERE. “It definitely can be done. I’ve seen a couple truck races won from the back. You’ve got to stay on your toes and keep your nose clean. At worst I think that will put us mid-pack, so at least we won’t have to worry about staying on the lead lap for half the race. We should be able to do that just fine and just keep working on the car and make it better for that last 100 laps.” WILL WE SEE ANY TWO-TIRE STOPS? “You might. It depends on how long the runs are and things like that. I think you could do it and I think you could get away with it. It’s going to be all about track position. I think in the spring Sterling [Marlin] took two or none and got a good finish out of it.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “That’s not the lap that we wanted. Its just Martinsville. I seem to struggle at this place. We’ve got a good Kellogg’s Chevrolet and we’ll do the best we can Sunday.”

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 5 KELLOGG’S CHEVROLET: “That’s not very good. Qualifying is not the big deal. We’ve got to get it to race better. It’s disappointing because we didn’t run that bad all day and we run that bad qualifying. Martinsville is tight; the lap times are real close. If you miss it a little bit you’re going to be back there.” TIRES HAVE BEEN THE BIG STORY THIS WEEK. HAVE YOU NOTICED ANY PROBLEMS TODAY? “No, I think we’ll be good here [laughs]. I think Martinsville is a pretty safe place to come and not have to worry about tires. There’s not much you can do different with the cars here to change anything. We should be good here. It should be a good nice weekend.” WILL WE SEE TEAMS GAMBLE WITH TWO-TIRES STOPS IN THE RACE? “Track position is going to be big: two tires, no tires, just staying out front could win you the race or get you a top-10 or put you in good position.” HOW MANY LAPS CAN YOU GO ON A SET OF TIRES? “You can go a long way on a tank of gas. I don’t think you’ll want to do that on tires. You can probably do a 100 laps on tires.”

SHANE WILSON, CREW CHIEF, No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE: “We lost a tenth so I’m not very happy, but hopefully it will hang in there for a top-20, top-15. It’s always disappointing when you lose time from practice to qualifying. It’s better than we normally do every week but we put a lot of emphasis in this race. We thought we had a shot at the pole but we have a good racecar and Travis is good here and we’ll have a good day on Sunday.” WILL WE SEE A LOT OF TWO-TIRE STOPS IN THE RACE? “Definitely for track position, and you want to set yourself up so you can do two at the end and everybody will do that. The lefts [left side tires] will go quite some time, especially when the track gets some rubber on it.” IS THE STRATEGY TO JUST PIT AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE HERE? “Yeah, because a lot of times if you’re up in the top-20 track position it’s nice racing up there. No one is in a frantic mode; you’re not worried about getting lapped so the racing is a lot cleaner up there. Where a lot of the stuff happens is when the leader’s coming and you’re back in 30th and you’re fighting to not be the guy to get lapped and you’re trying to get some cars behind you and between the leader and a lot of times that’s where the accidents happen. They’ll be accidents all over through the pack this weekend but that’s where you don’t want to be. If you can keep yourself in the top-20 it’s going to help you not get into some bad situations.” DO YOU THINK 20TH IS THE POINT WHERE GUYS WILL START GAMBLING WITH TWO-TIRES? “Yeah, maybe even 15th. It just depends. Sometimes here it isn’t bad to get out of sequence but what you risk is that time where you’ve got to be in the back and the leader is coming. It’s hard to tell and it’s a strategy game and that’s what’s fun about it. You never know what’s going to happen. Some people’s strategy will work really well and some people’s won’t. Everyone at this level knows what they’re doing. It’ll just be a matter of circumstances that will make your strategy good or bad.” WHICH END OF PIT ROAD DO YOU PREFER? “If you don’t get an opening, I prefer to pit on the straight, just because that’s what we do every week. It’s just more of what we’re accustomed to. When you get on the corners you can’t see behind you, can’t see in front of you real well. We’ll probably try to stay up on the frontstretch.”

More Notes:
· Travis Kvapil was the top Raybestos Rookie qualifier, grabbing the 12th starting position for the Subway 500.

Kvapil was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race in the Advance Auto Parts 500 (race No. six) at Martinsville in April, claiming a 27th-place finish. Kvapil was also the top Raybestos® Rookie qualifier, grabbing the 17th starting position.

Kvapil made his NEXTEL Cup Series debut at Martinsville in the 2004 Subway 500 at Martinsville, posting an impressive fifth-place qualifying run.