JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS:

"We put a good number up. But it's really so early, right now, I'm not sure what's going to happen. The temperature has gone down a lot and the sun has been gone for a little bit. I'm hoping there is not that much of an advantage later. But still, I think we'll be in the top 10 with that run and that's what I'm really after.

"We've been very competitive and working on our cars and improving them every week. I still think we still have a lot of growth in our new Monte Carlo SS body that we're working on and the chassis as well. We're off to a great start. We weren't the best in practice, but I didn't expect to sit on the pole either. We spent more time working on the race set-up than the qualifying set up."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS:

"I think I can get a good solid spot somewhere in the top 15. It's a track you can pass on. You can pass relatively easy if you've got a good car you can make your way up through the field in the first gas run you ain't worried about getting stuck in the back and having a hard time passing and getting a lap down. It's a great race track. I just like running here. We're enjoying tonight, but really looking forward more to Sunday."

JOE NEMECHECK, NO. O1 U.S. ARMY MONTE CARLO SS:

"The car actually turned in better than I thought it was going to turn in. I got my left sides below the white line on both laps. I was trying to compensate for it in my second lap, but I still got right back there. I was just a tick too low and it made me a little bit loose right in the middle. But all in all, it was okay. Overall it was a good run. This is a brand new race car. It's never been tested. We're looking forward to the race. We didn't run very well at the last race here, but we've had some great runs here in the past, and hopefully we're going to redeem ourselves."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX MONTE CARLO SS:

"I wanted to get in the 28's but it was one of those deals where I felt like I could have run a lot faster. It's just one of those deals. Our Chevy Monte Carlo SS is pretty good. To pick up seven tenths isn't bad.

"We have a brand new car here and it was excellent in race trim. We're really excited about it. It's untested and we came here and right off the truck it was perfect. So it was ready to go."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS:

"That's a tough call. We've made some good adjustments. The track has picked up a lot of grip. It's cool and fast and you've just got to go for it. I'm running this Chevrolet Monte Carlo down into Turn 3 and if it sticks there, I'll run it into Turns 1 and 2 and hope it sticks there. But we were really better in our race runs than our qualifying runs.

"I think we're seeing some improvement in this race team and every week we're just going to get better and better. The good thing is that we've gone the right direction in the race cars. They feel good. The adjustments we're making feel good. And we're just real proud of this team and their effort."

J.J. YELEY, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES MONTE CARLO SS:

"You know, they put walls around these places so we don't get lost and that's probably the biggest thing that affects a run like that. Yeah, I watched Denny (Hamlin) go out and the set-ups are pretty much the same on all three (Gibbs) teams. We just wanted to go out there and make a good lap. We were pretty tight in our first qualifying run in practice and then loose in the second so I didn't know what to expect. But it was a great run and our car was probably too free to shoot for the pole there and overall we were pretty surprised to get a lap that good. They told me how fast that first lap was on the way down the backstretch and we didn't want to tear anything up and that's why we decided to shut it down and not finish the second lap."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS:

"That was a pretty good lap! We didn't struggle in practice but had to work through some problems and ended up taking another Richard Childress Team set-up for our No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. We just had to regroup and obviously it paid off. I'm just really proud of the entire GM Goodwrench team."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS:

"That's a lot better than what we ran in practice. We kind of struggled today. We just worked on race runs and never got a chance to make a qualifying run. But we learned some things on our qualifying lap. In fact, I'd like to do it over if I could."

GOLDEN CORRAL 500 QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCES

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 3rd:

"This is great. I am qualifying challenged at Atlanta. Actually I told my wife one day last week, I said, 'If we can qualify as good as we've been qualifying in Atlanta, I'm going to be impressed.' I'll tell you I'm just thrilled to death to qualify that well. And that doesn't mean we're going to win the race or that everything is great, but it's an accomplishment for us and our qualifying average this year has been really, really good and that doesn't hurt. Hopefully tomorrow we can put it in race trim and it'll drive as well as it has the first three races."

ON THE IMPACT OF BILL LESTER QUALIFYING FOR THIS RACE, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THE SPORT? "Our sport, for one reason or another -- and we could debate for hours about why -- but our sport is not as diverse as it needs to be. I don't think it's from a lack of trying. Our sport, to truly be a cross-section of America the way we need it to be, it needs to be more diverse than it is. Bill is someone who has done a great job tonight and that will bring a tremendous amount of recognition to him and his team, which is very deserved. More importantly, it'll bring more exposure to minorities to get them excited hopefully about this sport. This sport is open to everyone and it's how it ought to be. I look forward to the day when we're not having to talk about it and about what Bill Lester did tonight. That's when we know that we're where we need to be. But we've got to be here first and it's good that we're here."

J.J. YELEY, NO. 18 HUSQVARNA / INTERSTATE BATTERIES MONTE CARLO SS - Top Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate, qualified 5th.

"It was an excellent run. I'm just real proud to have a good run for the first time for Husqvarna on the car. We have a really good race car here. It was fun qualifying at night. The race track picked up so much speed. We were talking with Ryan Newman about how much fun this place is to qualify. So the car was just a little bit too free for me to go out there and push that second lap to pick up that tenth to try to challenge for the pole. But I'm just happy to end up fifth."