Chevy Rock & Roll 400 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at Richmond:
Kvapil 3rd
Busch 7th

TRAVIS KVAPIL IN THE No. 77 KODAK/JASPER ENGINES AND TRANSMISSIONS DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT RICHMOND. “We didn’t test here but we had a pretty good car in the spring and here today and we knew when it turned night it turned awful tight. We kind of threw in what we needed. We were a little bit free this afternoon but after what we did last week, we were so terrible, to come out there and run good I’m proud of my Kodak team. I knew we had a pretty good car all day. We were a top-10, top-15 car. That first lap I was a little bit too tight so I drove a little bit different line and made up for it and got a good result there.” COULD YOU TELL THAT THE TRACK HAS CHANGED FROM PRACTICE? “For sure. My car was pretty neutral to free earlier this afternoon but with the track cooling down and getting more rubber on it it’s going to tighten it up and it kind of came right to us, I think.” DID YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE GOING OUT LATE? “It definitely doesn’t hurt. The later you go the cooler it is and seems like there is more grip but at the same time the track gets tighter, too so you got to shoot it just right. Earlier this afternoon we had a free racecar but we knew from the lessons that we learned in the spring that that’s what we needed during the day to be good here at night. I’m pretty happy with it. We ran pretty horrible last week and really most of the year. Hopefully we can run all night tomorrow night there and get a good finish.” HOW DO YOU RACE REALLY HARD BUT NOT GET IN THE WAY OF THE CHASE GUYS? “There’s a lot of teams on a lot of different agendas. There’s obviously guys trying to get in the Chase, then there’s teams like the Kodak Dodge here just trying to get a good finish or maybe a win for their sponsor and prove to everybody that we deserve to be here. It’s tough. You’ve got to pick and choose your battles I guess and be aware of who you are racing.” HOW BIG OF A BOOST IS THIS RUN FOR YOUR TEAM? “It feels really good. We’ve been good most of the day here and felt good about what we brought here. A lot of the things that we learned here in the spring and at Loudon in the spring, we didn’t run very good at those tracks but there were lessons that we learned that we knew we have to be disciplined and stick to our plan coming here and going to Loudon next week. We’re going to run a similar setup so we should be good. It’s all about experience.” HOW IMPORTANT IS TRACK POSITION HERE TOMMOROW NIGHT? “Definitely. That’s the thing, all short track racing at the Cup level, track position is so important. The whole field is separated by just a few tenths of a second and it’s so hard to pass. A lot of times you’re running the same lap times as the leader but you’re running 25th so track position is huge.” CAN YOU TAKE TWO TIRES HERE? “It’s going to be situation dependent but I think you could. It doesn’t seem like the tires are falling off a whole lot so I think you could.”

KVAPIL PRESS CONFERENCE

Notes: Kvapil will start third in Saturday night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400, his best career qualifying effort in 29 career NEXTEL Cup Series races. His best previous effort was fifth at Martinsville in 2004 in his Cup series debut. Kvapil finished 22nd at Richmond in May. This is Kvapil’s best start since he claimed a ninth-place qualifying effort at Talladega in May.

“It feels good. We’ve struggled a lot this year, especially last week. We had a terrible run. At the spring race here we were pretty good in the daytime, in the heat of the day, and in the night race here in the spring we were terrible tight. We were pretty free this afternoon in practice tonight and more than anything tomorrow night. The car felt really good. I moved the car around a little bit on that second lap and picked up a little bit of speed. I felt pretty good about it.” DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM RYAN NEWMAN AFTER HE WRECKED? DID THEY SHARE INFORMATION? “No, not really. Probably the biggest thing that helped us this week is that Rusty came and tested here in the spring and we both came to the spring race with the same setups and we were both really tight at nighttime. Rusty hit on a few things at Loudon that really helped him and Rusty and I both came with very similar setups for here. That helped us more than anything. Ryan was pretty busy over there with that whole deal. Me and Rusty share information pretty well. He was pretty excited about his car, too. I think he just had a little bit of an early draw probably hurt him but he’ll be up there tomorrow night, too.” ARE YOU UNDER ANY PRESSURE FROM YOUR OWNER? “Not that I’ve really known. I know that it eats on him; I know that Kodak is wondering what the heck is going on. They were in this situation last year. I put a lot of pressure on myself and like these guys said, I’m out here digging every week as hard as I can, doing the things that we think are right. Shane Wilson, my crew chief, and I are beating our heads against the wall thinking what are we doing wrong. I just really feel like the last couple of weeks we’ve used a lot of things that we learned in the spring and a lot of things that Shane has learned over the past few years and I’m really starting to apply them and get good racecars built now. We’re coming with better setups than we did in the spring. It just takes time, it’s experience, and it’s a whole different ballgame than what I was accustomed to in the truck series. It takes time, but I know that the heat’s on and we need to do better. Hopefully this will start us off on a little bit of a roll here.” WHO DO YOU SHARE INFORMATION WITH? “I think everybody knows the situation between the 2 and the 12. There’s really no information being shared there at all. Fortunately for me, I’ve got the 2 car very open with the 77. Everything the 2 is doing we know about or vice versa so that helps a bunch, having someone like Rusty Wallace eon your side and Larry Carter with all their experience to help us along. That was one of the things that helped us the most here today. Rusty had led the most laps here of anybody and he knows how to get around this place. He tested here in the spring and we learned some things since then. I’m looking forward to the future with Penske Racing. I don’t want to say there’s a personal conflict there but those two don’t see eye to eye so maybe the situation will be different when Kurt comes over and maybe all three times can maybe be a little better.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 5 KELLOGG’S/DELPHI CHEVROLET (STARTS 7TH): “It was a decent effort. Of course the guys did an awesome job for me I was really, really loose into the corner and I’m actually surprised that we ran that quick of a lap time. The guys gave me an awesome piece and I’m looking forward to the race. I know it’s going to be good there so qualifying up front will be good track position. That will be a good start for us here come tomorrow night. I don’t know if our car is pretty good when the sun goes down but I do know it was really, really loose into the corner there in qualifying. I’m looking forward to being able to take the tape off it and get into race trim and be able to go out there. Hopefully qualifying up there somewhere up front like that will give us some good track position and we’ll be able to kind of play it by ear and see how it goes all night long. We were able to qualify here today and get a good lap in but last week released all that pressure of getting that first one and getting one this year out of the way. We’ve had not so good of luck as of late so that’s why I was really, really tense at the end of that race just knowing something was going to happen. To get it out of the way definitely means a lot and I’m hoping that the floodgates are open because we want to come through.” HOW CRITICIAL WILL TRACK POSITION BE HERE SATURDAY NIGHT? “Track position is definitely a good deal. You always like to have it anywhere you go but especially at a place like Richmond. Anything can happen. We had some real long runs here in the spring, though, so I’m confident that we’ll be able to get some good racing in. Starting up front will give you some great pit selection, too.” ANY STRATEGY TOMMOROW NIGHT? “Stay out of all the Chase stuff, that is the plan. I do not need to mixed in with any of that. The 5 team here, we’re going after our own Chase right now. This is our practice time for this time next year. We want to see how well we can compete within these last 12 and especially last 10 races for next year.” DID THE WIN TAKE A LOT OF PRESSURE OFF? “The win took a tremendous amount of pressure off, just being able to get it. We’ve had some back luck lately where it’s like man, we’ve got to break through. As soon as we knocked the doors open we’ll pretty much be able to charge in. Richmond is a really, really fast racetrack and for only three-quarter miles in length, it’s one of those animals where you have to just have to task.” HOW WAS THE LAP? “The lap went well for us. It wasn’t all that I expected. We got really, really loose into the corners, especially into turn 3 and I just stepped on the gas and drove it off the corner the best I could. I’m happy with that. That’s definitely a lot better than where we practiced and I’m looking forward to being able to take the tape off it and get into race trim.” HOW HAS YOUR WEEK BEEN? “It’s been excellent. I’ve had a tremendous amount of phone calls from a bunch of different people. I think I’ve shook just about everybody’s hand in the garage area. It definitely means a lot, especially to get the first one out of the way. I’m hoping there’s many more to follow here late in the season. We got our own Chase going. The 5 team has put forth the effort to come out here and practice for next year. This is our Chase and we just want to see how well we can perform to see if we’re going to be ready for it or not next year.”