Dickies 500 - Ford Qualifying Quotes

KURT BUSCH – No. 97 Crown Royal Taurus – “We picked up time, and that’s all that you can do as a team, is pick up time when you go out to lay down a qualifying lap. So, a good job for our team, and hopefully on Sunday we’ve got another top-10 in us.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Taurus – “We just adjusted a little bit too far, we’re just too tight. It’s frustrating. I thought we had a legitimate shot at the pole as fast as it was in practice, but we know we’ve got a good race car. It’ll be alright.”

ELLIOTT SADLER – No. 38 Combos/M&M’s Taurus – YOU LIKE THIS TRACK, DON’T YOU? “Yeah, I do. The guys gave me a great car, the driver just messed up a little bit. I’m proud of the job they’ve done. We should be somewhere in the top 10, we’ll see where it ends up. We’ll be good no matter what on Sunday.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus – “It was good. We’re not going to sit on the pole with that, but I think that’ll be in the top 10, so that’s pretty good.” WHAT ABOUT SUNDAY? “We didn’t really work that well in race trim this morning, we ran a little bit, really didn’t work that will. We just got to get in tomorrow and see. We worked on qualifying a lot today. We were a few people short with some different personnel, so we tried to take it kind of slow today and work on qualifying.”

KEVIN LEPAGE – No. 66 Dickies Taurus – “First of all, I’ve got to thank Dickies for stepping up this weekend to help us out. You know, they’re the title sponsor of the race, and they decided to help us out as well. Just a little disappointed. The guys have been building great cars, and Greg and all the guys have been working real hard. We were 10th-fastest in practice, and we picked up a little bit from our practice run, but we’re just a little bit too tight. We’ve been balancing. It’s my fault. One time we’re a little loose, one time we’re a little tight. We just said, ‘Hey, I can drive a tight race car here versus a loose race car.’ We’re in the show, but, again, this is not an impound race so hopefully we can race better on Sunday. The guys, just every week they’re building great race cars for me. And, again, I’ve got to thank Dickies and all our sponsors that have helped us out this year, with Peak Fitness and EAS and Jani-King. There are a lot of things in the future that we can’t announce right now, but it’s getting real positive, and it’s just a lot of fun to drive right now.”

RICKY RUDD – No. 21 Motorcraft Genuine Parts Taurus – “It’s a lot better than it was in practice. It was just too tight in qualifying, coming off the corners. It was really good getting in, it wasn’t in practice, and they made a change on it during the break and made it better. We’ll see what we got.”

DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Taurus – ON THE “TOYS FOR TOTS” PAINT SCHEME ON HIS CAR THIS WEEKEND. “The kids had a fun time in doing something for kids, and that’s the important thing with it – that the message gets out that what we’re trying to do and the Marines have been doing for years with Toys for Tots, so that’s the important thing. And then, obviously, the other thing is to make it run a little bit faster.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 National Guard Taurus – “I’m still shaking a little bit. You know, I was 29th in practice on speed and hadn’t gone around here faster than a 28.60 yet, so we’re real nervous. When I did the 28.20 I was pretty happy about it. The guys just did a good job on the car. They really pulled one out for me. We were dragging the race track, and then too high and it wouldn’t turn, and then back on the race track, so we couldn’t get that balance. But, really happy with that. Starting in the top 10, that’s really what I want to do.” WHAT’S YOUR APPROACH TO THE WEEKEND, BEING 75 POINTS OUT OF FIRST PLACE. “Let it all hang out. I mean, I got to win here, and we got a race car that can do it, I think. Just got to be good all day, and my race car was good here. It’s the same race car, just get running like I had it before, get it on the bottom. Just real anxious to get in race trim. Now, I’ve gotten so used that impound, I hate this big qualifying drama now, just practice qualifying all day today, and I hadn’t really gotten any race laps under my belt so I don’t know how my car is going to be.”

MATT KENSETH Press Conference
ON THE LAP, AND HIS FEELINGS HEADING INTO SUNDAY’S RACE. “Our lap was a lot better than I expected. I got through one and two really good, and kind of missed three and four a little bit, but actually turned out to be good because I maybe could’ve ran what Jeff ran but I couldn’t have ran what Ryan did, and kind of a unique circumstance are going to be on the pole anyway with Ryan going to back. So, that’s pretty cool. I’m pretty excited about starting from the front on Sunday and hopefully we an get out front and lead some laps and tryo lead as many laps as we can.”

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR PHILOSOPHY IF YOU HAD A GREAT FIRST LAP ON WHETHER YOU’D RUN A SECOND LAP? RYAN HAD EASILY OUTQUALIFIED EVERYBODY ELSE AND THEN WE WRECKED ON HIS SECOND LAP. “He always does that, you know, if he gets a good first lap he always runs that second lap – and a lot of times he’ll get a faster lap. I think he even did that at Atlanta for the pole, if I’m not mistaken – somewhere like that where you wouldn’t ever expect the second lap to be better. I just saw a little glimpse of the replay, but I think Ryan blew a tire or something. So I don’t think that’s anything, it had nothing to do with running the second lap, it was just bad luck.”

THE CREW WAS SHORT TODAY, MISSING ROBBIE REISER, AND RECENTLY THE CREW CHIEF LEFT, SO WHO’S IN CHARGE? “I don’t know. I guess I am. It’s a lot different without Robbie being here. It was hard to keep him away today, and I would think he’d probably be here tomorrow. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since this morning. His dad’s not doing real great, and definitely Johnny R. and Robbie gave me the big break coming into racing and without them I certainly wouldn’t be sitting up here. It’s been kind of a tough week because of that, and then a different car chief starting last week, our car chief was gone from a lot of years, so it’s a little different group over there, but Robbie’s laid a great foundation, he’s done a great job of organizing everybody, so even if you miss a person or two, everything just keeps humming right along and everybody’s stepped up and has done the work and has done a great job preparing the car. I’m sure that’s our best qualifying effort here. They’ve all done a good job and stepped up and did the things that he taught them to do. I think no matter what it will turn out okay, everything will be fine. We’re going to have a little re-building for next year with some different people, and just wish the best for Robbie’s family.’

THIS TRACK HAS BEEN TOUGH ON TIRES. WITH RYAN BLOWING A RIGHT-FRONT DURING QUALIFYING, DOES THAT WORRY YOU, OR DO YOU THINK THAT WAS JUST A FLUKE? “You could probably find out if you asked him. I would think they ran something over. I don’t think you can blow a tire in two laps. I don’t think that’s hardly possible. So I’m sure that they ran something over, which can be done anywhere. The rubber is the same thickness in all the tires. I’m not overly concerned about tires. I think the track, we were okay in the spring, I believe, on tires and our air pressure is way, way, way higher than probably what everybody raced in the spring, what they’re making us do. And I’m not sure. I got mixed feelings on that. They’re mandating our air pressure, but that doesn’t stop you from putting more camber in or sometimes it makes the car tighter where I think you’re actually harder on that tire because the car won’t turn, you’ve got so much air in it and you could be harder on the tire and blow tires more because of it, too. I don’t know. They’ve got a lot of stuff going on, a lot of rules, mandated a lot of stuff. But, overall on the tire question, I think the weekend will be fine.”