PAUL MENARD, NO. 15 MENARD'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"We picked up kind of what we expected to pick up. We didn't do a qualifying run yesterday but we figured we could get three or four tenths out of it. All week the car wasn't all that great by itself, but in testing it was really good in drafting and racing. So hopefully we'll get a decent starting position for the Thursday 150's and race our way into it."

THE DEI CHEVYS ARE NOT TYPICALLY THAT GREAT IN QUALIFYING, BUT ALWAYS RACE WELL. HAS ANYTHING CHANGED FOR THIS SEASON? "No, that's what we found in testing. All three DEI cars were really strong in the draft. I don't know what it is about these DEI machines, but this Menard's Chevy is really good in the draft and so are the other teams."

ON HIS CUP PLANS FOR THE SEASON IN ADDITION TO HIS BUSCH SCHEDULE: "We're going to run the full Busch schedule and the plan right now is for seven Cup races -- the next one being the 600 in Charlotte, I believe. We're just going to try to learn as much as we can this year and gain the experience that we need to go full time next year."

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

NOW THAT YOU AND DALE JR. ARE RUNNING IN THE SAME SERIES, ARE YOU SHARING MORE INFORMATION AND TALKING MORE THAN YOU HAVE IN THE PAST? "Yeah, we absolutely are. But we'll know more this week when we get around to drafting and see how we work together. I know our cars are real similar. Everybody at DEI has done a great job over the off-season of building some great cars. We're getting that teamwork that we're looking for. We're getting closer each week and the closer we get, the better we'll run. So I'm looking forward to next week and I think we'll have a good Daytona 500."

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FINALLY BE IN CUP RACING? "It feels good. It's something I've thought about for a long time. It's something I've been looking forward to for the past couple of years. It's good to be here. I had a lot of fun in the Busch Series and learned a lot and had a lot of success. Hopefully we can take all that we learned and hopefully do the same thing over here. We've got a great team."

TRAVIS KVAPIL, NO. 32 TIDE CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"I was really nervous coming in here for qualifying. Coming here without a guaranteed starting spot put a lot of pressure on all of us. But every one of the guys on the Tide team has worked endless hours to get us ready to come down here. We have put all of our focus on qualifying because it is so important to us. When I joined this team, we all sat down and talked about our goals and one was to get into the Daytona 500. Sure we would have liked to have been on the front row and secured a starting spot but of the cars that needed to qualify, we are in pretty good shape. I am really happy with our lap and how we did today. Now we have to race hard in the 150 and get a decent starting spot for the 500. I am so proud of this team and how hard they have worked."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"We did all right. We weren't quite expecting to be that slow, but we'll get it. We'll get after it in the race and that's what it's all about. Going through qualifying is to just kind of get a starting spot for the (Gatorade) Duels and when you finish out the Duels, of course that's your spot for the 500. I think we've got a really good drafting car here with the Kellogg's Chevrolet. Just basically being able to get a lap down here today doesn't mean much to us."

YOU WERE SO STRONG DURING THE LAST HALF OF THE YEAR AND THEN WON AT CALIFORNIA, HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS RACE TO CARRY THAT MOMENTUM OVER? "It's definitely important for us because we've never been able to be very strong in the restrictor plate races for whatever reason -- not being able to get drafting help and maybe having that yellow stripe on the bumper was a little part of that. But getting into this year with the new Monte Carlo SS and all, I'm thinking we have a pretty good car here and maybe we'll get a little bit of help and be able to get after it throughout the Duels and then of course into the 500."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

ARE YOU A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED? "Yeah, it's kind of like Kevin Harvick. We were expecting him to really click one off. I thought we'd run a little better than we did, but the wind has definitely changed. It's definitely slowing the cars down. It slowed me down out there and it's kind of disappointing. Our Army Chevy is very fast and the guys have been working hard. Bill Elliott is fast and I'm sure Sterling Marlin will be pretty quick here when he goes. But the cars are driving good and we're looking forward to this afternoon."

CLINT BOYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIEL'S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"I think that was a good run for us. It's a little bit off of the pole, but I'm happy with that and hopefully that will land us somewhere in the top 15. It think the car will drive a little bit different in the Duels, but it drove good in qualifying, so I'm happy with it.

ARE YOU GLAD TO GET QUALFIYING OUT OF THE WAY? "Yeah, finally. No more single car runs. None of that boring stuff. We're ready to get racing and learn from these guys. But the car was pretty fast, and it's just a testament to all the hard work they've put in it all winter long and I'm happy with that."

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL FOR THE 150'S? "Well, obviously we want to lean and gain some respect and finish good, obviously. But I think our Jack Daniels Chevrolet is good. It's fast. It's got the speed, so hopefully we can keep the fenders on it and if we can earn some respect out there I think they'll run with us."

ON BEING A ROOKIE AND GOING THROUGH CUP SPEEDWEEKS FOR THE FIRST TIME: "Obviously there have been a lot of single car runs and I'm ready to get out there and get to learning from these guys and see how they race these Cup cars."

HOW SPECIAL CAN THIS YEAR BE FOR THIS YEAR RUNNING WITH ALL THESE OTHER ROOKIES? "I'm really excited about this year. I think it's going to be a big year for all of us rookies. All of us know what we're getting into and the kind of talent we're up against. I think it's going to be a strong rookie class all year long and a race right down to the end."

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

"It's about what we probably expected. All the cars at DEI don't have a lot of speed on their own, but they've got good motors and good bodies on them for the race. So it's a little disappointing. We like to qualify better but obviously, we're not too concerned."

HOW DO YOU PLAN TO RACE IN THE 150? "To the front. Get the trophy. That's the plan."

HOW DO YOU DO THAT? "Just haul butt and pass people. We've got a fast car. The car is there, you know, we've just got to get some good pit stops and make no mistakes, we can pass them all on the race track. That's no problem."

DID THE WIND SLOW YOU DOWN OUT THERE? "It's hard to tell what it does from one car to the next and obviously blows harder at times. You can't tell when you're in the car. It just seems really windy out there. We kind of anticipated our speed and we'll be fine once they line them all up."

HOW IS YOUR CAR IN THE DRAFT? "We don't have any problem being good in the draft. We've always been good in the draft. We'll be fine. There have been some stronger cars here over the last couple of years, but we're still the best."

HOW DOES THIS CAR COMPARE TO THE ONES WHEN YOU WERE DOMINATING HERE? "It's as good. The competition has just gotten a little bit better. We're still as good as we were but the competition has gotten a little bit better."

HOW IMPORTANT WOULD IT BE TO HAVE MARTIN TRUEX JR. IN THE SAME 150 AS YOU? "It would be nice to have a teammate -- either Martin or Paul (Menard). Paul has a great car. I like both teams and both drivers. I can work with either one of them."

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

"I'm not disappointed. That's about what we should run. The No. 07 and No. 29 should be pretty close, and they are. So it is about what it should be."

HOW IMPORTANT WOULD IT BE TO HAVE BOTH OF YOUR TEAMMATES IN THE 150? "It would be important. It would be nice to just hopefully have a teammate that can do something besides just ride around."

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIS ROOKIE SEASON AND NOW "I have learned a lot. It's a deal where your learning curve just takes off for a year or so and then it levels off and continues to rise gradually. The advantage between your first year and the guys who have been here a long time is huge. The advantage between the guys who have been here three or four years versus the guys who have been here 15 isn't quite as much."

DO YOU LIKE THE DAYTONA 500? "I absolutely love restrictor plate racing. Some guys love it. Some guys hate it. It is a chess match at 200 mph and it's a lot of fun."

WHAT DO YOU FOCUS ON NOW? "The handling. Here, the car is very important and qualifying is important, but at Daytona you've really got to have a car that handles. So we're really going to focus on that and on the drafting. Hopefully we'll have a decent starting spot. I'm really proud of the whole GMAC team have done a good job of picking up from yesterday. We lost a bit compared to the test, but I think we got most of it back."

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

"I knew the car was running strong. I'm glad we had a good lap out of it. I'm very proud of all the guys at Hendrick Motorsports and how hard they've all been working -- especially this Lowe's team. We've got a lot of cars left including the No. 24 team. We'll just see how this turns out. I'm open for a Hendrick car front row."

WHAT IS YOUR FOCUS FOR THE REST OF SPEEDWEEKS IF YOU'RE NOT ON THE FRONT ROW TODAY? "Starting off the season, points are important but I think everybody shows up at Daytona really just looking at winning the Daytona 500. That's on my mind and I know my team's mind as well. I just want to go out and try to win the biggest race of the season and really start worrying about points after this event and the races following."

ANY CHANGES IN YOUR APPROACH FOR 2006? "No, we've looked back over each year and tried to make changes and address little things that we thought might have affected the championship run for us. And we've done that again. We're fresh and eager and have had a great off-season. We have some new members on the Lowe's No. 48 team and everybody is excited and geared up."

COULD YOU FEEL THE WIND ON THE BACKSTRETCH? "No, I didn't feel it bumping the car around, but I did notice the flags on Turn 3 were blowing pretty strong. I was hoping they were going to die down when I came through."

DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO GET QUALIYIFNG OVER? "Yeah, it does feel good to go out and post our best lap."

BILL ELLIOTT, NO. 36 GINN CLUBS AND RESORTS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"Not bad. I think anytime you can back up what you run in your practice speeds is probably the most important thing. I think the wind probably helped a little bit yesterday, but once they go through all the inspections and to still come in and run at a 47 is a very important part of what we did today."

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL FOR THE 150'S? "We'll see once we get through all the qualifying today. If we're still pretty good, then you can go into the 150's as a test for the 500. I think a lot of these guys who are guaranteed a start -- you'll have two different groups. The ones that has to and the ones that are just using it for the 500. Hopefully we can use it as a test for the 500, but we'll know more after we leave here today."

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

"Going out early today was the key. The cooler track temperatures definitely helped some earlier cars, but we're locked into the show no matter what, on points."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"You lay your cards on the table when you pull out there. There is really nothing you can do to control the wind. We just got lucky and caught that. That's the best wind we've had down here in all of testing and everything else. It just played in our hands and we had a car that could take advantage of it."

IS THIS A STEP IN THE DIRECTION OF BRINGING RCR BACK TO THE FOREFRONT? "First of all, it's not over yet. But this is just one qualifying run out of a long year. I think we have things in place to make a lot of noise. I think we have great race teams and drivers and some of the best people in the business. We'll see what we can do with it. But there are a lot of obstacles that stand in the way of success and we've got to make sure we step on top of those and work real hard. But I think we've made huge strides in the right direction."

YOU WERE SO LUCKY WITH THAT WIND: "Yeah, there you go. We can't take credit for that. But in all honesty, we had a great car down here in testing. We were good yesterday. I knew we had an awful lot left. We had a lot of tape to put on the car and a lot of stuff to do. This car has just been really fast. When I left, that was the prettiest American flag I'd ever seen. It was blowing directly across the race track rather than against the straightway. That's big here. That can be as much as three-tenths from what we saw here in testing. This Cingular Chevrolet is really fast and we had some aid with the wind."

HOW MUCH DID THE WIND PUSH YOU AROUND ON THE RACE TRACK? "We worked really hard on getting qualified and when we get done here, we're going to change everything to get it ready to race. It takes a lot of work to get ready. It doesn't drive well at all like it is. But it drove well in drafting practice and I felt really good about it. It drove well then. But I didn't like the way it drove in qualifying trim. With the wind blowing, it drove really bad. Coming to get the checkered flag, I lost the bottom in Turns 3 and 4. That's how bad it drives. But when we get the right stuff in it for racing, I'll feel really good about it."

TERRY LABONTE, NO. 96 DLP CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"I wish we'd have been a little bit faster, but I thought it was a good run for this team's first time out. It's a new team and they're doing a good job. We'll work on it in practice and try to get it to where it handles as good as it can for the qualifying race and that'll be a good test for us for the 500. I'm pretty happy with it. I wish it would have been in the top 10, but that's not bad."

DENNY HAMLIN, NO. 11 FEDEX CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

"I'm pretty happy with that. It was a pretty good effort for us. We picked up a couple of tenths from practice, so I can't be too disappointed. We're 8th right not and we'll probably end up somewhere between 10th and 12th. But it's a good run for the FedEx Chevrolet."

ON HIS FIRST CUP DAYTONA 500: "It's quite a bit different. There is a much higher experience level out here in Cup, but I've got a lot of guys out here that are rookies also. So hopefully we can get a lot of help. I'm looking forward to the Bud Shootout later on and getting a lot of experience and maybe build some friend for the Daytona 500."

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

"It's nothing real impressive - just a lap to see how fast the car will go," said Stewart. "We were just riding around there."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

GREAT RUN, GREAT PERFORMANCE - "We let Steve Byrd adjust the spoiler so we are going to blame (missing the pole) on him (LAUGHTER). I don't know how many hundreths of a second we are missing it by but I am just really happy right now. That front row is just so important here at Daytona. The pole is obviously something we would love to have and Jeff Burton and those guys put up a great number. We are just happy we hung on to this front row starting position. It means a lot for us because now we can just focus on the 500 and really just do all we can to get the car now handling as good as we can for the 500.

HOW IS YOUR CAR? "It felt great, everything was good. I knew it was going to be reall, really close. I was really paying attention to the RPM's and all the gauges from yesterday to today. The Dupont Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS is strong. I didn't know for sure what we were going to have. Then there was more drama added by having to wait so long for the time and speed to come up and not knowing where we were at on the board."

WAS IT TENSE FOR YOU WAITING FOR THE TIME AND SPEED TO COME UP? "Yes, it was, first four hours to get through inspection and then 30 seconds waiting to find out if we are first, 10th or wherever. So much hard work and effort goes into this. There are many guys who have been putting in long hours for this effort at Daytona so we could get this front row start.

HOW WILL YOU APPROACH THE 150? "We obviously have to be careful during the 150 qualifier to make sure we can keep this car in one piece. I am so proud of all the guys on th9is Dupont Chevrolet team and everyone in Hendrick Motorsports. All the guys in the engine shop, chassis shop, fab shop, all the people on the 24, 48, 5 and 25 teams. This is a good day for all of us. We were on the front row one other time, '99 when we sat on the pole and we won that race. So we want to take this front row start and make the best of it as well."

STERLING MARLIN, NO. 14 WASTE MANAGEMENT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS:

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN? "We were hoping to be a little bit quicker.We had a major problem the first practice yesterday and we lost a bunch of time. We made a lot of changes but we didn't get back out there to see what we could do because it rained. I think if we worked on the car a little more, we could have gotten a couple more 10ths out of it."

WAS THE WIND A FACTOR DURING YOUR QUALIFYING RUN? "The wind changed but it wasn't as bad as I think some of these guys think it was, maybe their cars weren't as good as they needed them to be."

WHAT IS THE STRATEGY NOW? "We will go out Wednesday and continue working on our Waste Management Chevrolet in race trim. Our car is really good in race trim. It drives really good, it will go from the back to the front perfect. I am looking forward to the the qualifying race and then the 500 on Sunday. Our three MB2 cars are within a 10th of one another so that is pretty good for us I think.

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO WIN THIS DAYTONA 500? "It would mean a whole lot. I mean a whole lot. Since the '95 500 win I had, this sport has just really gotten big, with the media and the fans. So it would be really good for us, our organization and our sponsors."

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

CLINT BOYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - FASTEST ROOKIE, QUALIFIED 7TH

HOW MUCH SPEED DID THE GUYS FIND BETWEEN TESTING AND WHEN YOU RETURNED TO DAYTONA? "Quite a bit. Obviously the engine people were the biggest part of it; but just fine-tuning the body and massaging everything. The main thing was bringing them ponies underneath the hood back."

DID RICHARD CHILDRESS TALK TO YOU AND/OR ALL THREE DRIVERS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS YEAR? "RCR needs to come back and change and turnaround. Richard has made a lot of difficult changes personnel-wise. It was for the good and it's already starting to show. This is our first race, but the attitudes at the shop are better. It's just improved all through the shop across the board -- from our aero program and engine program. Last year, our Busch cars were always really awesome and our Cup cars really struggled. I think (crew chiefs) Gil and Todd and Scott have done a good job figuring out the differences between those and have found a couple of things we can pick up on the Cup cars as well. Aside from Daytona -- that's one thing -- I'm really optimistic about getting to California and seeing what we've got there because I think we're going to be pretty happy as well."

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT YOU AND JEFF BEAT KEVIN? "I think a lot of people were probably surprised about that after practice. But you know we just stayed on our game plan. I don't know what happened to Kevin. I really haven't talked to him. But they weren't quite as fast. But as far as Jeff and I, we were actually about the same. It was a good lap for both of us. All of us are pretty close to the top 10. I'm really proud of everybody at RCR and I'm really happy for Richard. I know he had a smile on his face when I just saw him."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - QUALIFIED 2ND:

"I'm really excited about being on the front row. I started looking at the laps that those guys were putting up there and with the wind and conditions, you have no idea whether you're going to be able to pick up or not. I'm just really excited to be on the front. It's a big deal for all the hard work and effort that goes into Daytona qualifying. It's a big deal to be on the front row and I'm proud of my guys for making that happen for me."

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING LOCKED IN ON THE FRONT ROW: "Every year I say man, it's so important to get on that front row and get locked in. It really does a lot for you. But at the same time, it adds pressure going into the Duels. You've got to make sure you keep that car in one piece. But I've got to say I'm not going to be conservative in the Duels because my guys have already assured me that we've got as good as car sitting in the truck, the backup car, as this one. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week and just getting the car dialed in for the 500. Now it's all about just getting the car to drive as good as you can. We put it in the slickest conditions we can to go out there and run fast by itself. Now you've got to make sure it runs fast in a group. And there are little things that we'll do to the car to make that happen. But you don't know what you've got until you get into those conditions on Thursday. Sometimes you've got to be shuffled back in the pack to really know what you've got. I don't want to get into a dicey situation where we're risking too much, but at the same time I don't want to be too conservative."

BOTH RCR AND YOUR TEAM HAVE BEEN REBUILDING AND YOU'RE BOTH ON THE FRONT ROW. DO YOU SEE ANY COMMON THEMES? HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO COME BACK INTO CHAMPIONSHIP FORM? "Sometimes it takes some beatings before you really get things turned around. It puts you in a position to make changes and be humbled and really want it that much more. I would say right now we're as hungry and fired up as we've ever been. We've got youthfulness and excitement back in the team and it's all about chemistry. We've been talking about chemistry since we missed the Chase last year. And I'm seeing that chemistry back. This is Daytona. We ran good here and qualified good here last year. We won the Daytona 500 last year. We ran good at restrictor plate tracks the rest of the season last year, maybe other than here in July. But we really could use some thing like this to happen and I'm sure Childress would tell you the same thing. Anything positive is good for the team and good for you. I'd like to see us do is have a good strong run in the Daytona 500 and carry that momentum and try to keep it going. We're not as good as we can be, right now. But we're a lot better than we were last year at the end of the season and I think we're only going to get better as the season goes on."

JEFF BURTON SAID HE WAS LUCKY THAT THE WIND WAS JUST RIGHT. WAS THAT A FACTOR IN YOUR RUN TOO? "That's just good television. Don't listen to that (laughs). When you're in that car, you have no idea whether you caught the wind or not. You have no idea. You know if it's a better run than what you've had the day before because you see the rpm's get up there a little bit. But I could not have told you whether we had too much headwind or not enough tailwind. I knew it was going to be really close. I could tell just by watching the rpm's that we weren't dropping from what we had yesterday."

HOW MUCH EMPHASIS DID YOU PUT ON QUALIFYING? "I think everyone in this garage area -- especially the top 15 or 20 teams -- put a tremendous amount of effort into it. Some guys find things that work and some guys don't. Some say their car doesn't qualify good but it's going to race good. All I can tell you is that last year we had a car that qualified good and it raced good also. The car that qualifies good typically doesn't handle as good so you've got to do a little bit more to get some of the downforce and get the car driving a bit better. We did that last year and I feel confident we can do that again this year. We know the speed is there and that's important. And we're locked into that front row. It paid off. That's why so many hours are spent. We do things for Daytona that we don't do anywhere else -- not even Talladega or this race in July. This car is completely paint. Sometimes to save time in the paint shop, we'll paint the car but we'll use decals for sponsor logos. But this car. This thing is completely painted. This is just one of a hundred things that we do different for qualifying than we do anywhere else."

ON THE MINDSET OF THE DAY: "I wish this was Saturday and we were doing all this yesterday -- qualifying and then running the Shootout Saturday night. I was fired up last night to get the Shootout going and hated to see the rain. But now it's even better for us to carry a little momentum out of that qualifying run. It has nothing to do with the speed of the cars and all that. It's jus the energy you have as a driver and a team. To get back to the chemistry thing of going into a race. Hey, we just got one trophy for being on the front row. Let's go get another trophy. I'm looking forward to the race."

ON ROBBIE LOOMIS LEAVING THE TEAM AND IS MIXING IT UP WITHIN THE TEAM IN GENERAL IMPORTANT: "Absolutely. I was the first person to try to make that clear to people on the outside. Robbie Loomis' departure had nothing to do with his abilities and talents. I think the guy is awesome. We won a championship together and came close in '04. So for us, sometimes those things do happen. With some of the things that Robbie went through with his mom, he really started re-evalutating life and thinking about his long-term ambitions. To get into that position at Hendrick Motorsports was one option for him. We went into the 2005 season already knowing that option and talking about Steve Letarte becoming the crew chief. We wanted to win the championship in 2005 and send Robbie either up in management at Hendrick Motorsports, or on his way somewhere else if that's what he wanted to do. So, it is so important to have chemistry and confidence and everybody believing in one another. It's really hard to get it, but it's so easy to lose it. Last summer, we were all frustrated including Robbie. So the whole thing made sense."

AS DEFENDING CHAMPION OF THIS RACE AND STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW, AND AFTER HAVING AN UP AND DOWN SEASON LAST YEAR, POLITICALLY WOULD THAT MAKE PEOPLE MORE PRONE TO WORK WITH YOU? "When practice is going on out there, at least when drafting practice is going on, step out into the grandstands or get a better view from TV cause I have no friends out there. Everytime we come to Daytona, I've got no friends. I haven't had any for a long time and you know what, I have stopped trying to make them. I work with my teammates the best that I can. I have explained to them that in that process "Guys, I want to do everything I can but lets not forget that each of us are here trying to win the race too. You are going to do things that I could take as hanging me out. I will do things that you could take the same way.' You try to make the best friends you can out there but I just don't see how you can. You hear about all the things Michael (Waltrip) and Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) have said. Let me tell you that is more commitment on one side than the other. That is the only way you get a friend out there is when one person heavily commits to you and sticks with it. You know what, enough restrictor races have come along for me that I can't make that commitment. I know that I am going to break it somewhere along the way and it is going to cost me positions or the win along the way. Last year's race, if you watched it, I was in second place in a great position, I had Jimmie Johnson behind me and then he got shuffled back by Junior behind me. I just knew I had a good car, it is time to go, I have got to go to the outside. Junior was behind me and I pretty much knew he wasn't going to go with me. But I hoped by making that move, it would create some other scenarios and it did and we ended up winning. There is nobody out there feeling sorry for us because we didn't make the chase and win the championship, especially when we come here to Daytona.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BUMP DRAFTING? "I think bump drafting is probably the worst thing that has come along in this sport. I know why it happens, it is about getting momentum. You get locked into side-by-side racing and the only way to break yourself away is to get a bump from behind or get a bump from the guy who is in front of you. One of the reasons why we have so many wrecks is because of that. Then you got guys that bump draft in the middle of the tri-oval and through the corners. You have some guys now, who, and I have seen Junior do this, he will get a run on a guy and will run right square in the back of him, and practically turn him sideways, about sending the guy to the grass. But he goes on. I just think that as long as we build the bumpers up on these cars, with 1/4 steel and the tubing the way they are, we are not going going to see bump drafting stop. And as long as we have it, we are still going to see wrecks. I am not saying, we aren't going to see wrecks, but it certainly doesn't help that and I haven't really seen NASCAR do anything about it either. I would like to see them try and make an effort to slow it down or stop it.

HOW MUCH WAS THE WIND AN IMPACT ON QUALIFYING - "There was wind yesterday. Maybe it wasn't quite as gusty today and the direction changed a little bit. I know we made a gear change based on that and felt like it helped us yesterday and played role in us being strong today. The wind, you can't predict it, you can't change it so you have to just deal with it. You have to be as smart as you can about it. I know there are times when a gust might help you or hurt you, it does happen. But I think we are talking 100ths of a second. We aren't talking half a second. So I think when you go through that inspection line, and you get out there, that has a lot more to do with how fast you go than a gust of wind. Unless it changed drastically from beginning to end, but I felt like it was pretty consistent all day today."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS - POLE WINNER and RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER OF RCR:

BURTON:
TALK ABOUT YOUR LAP OUT THERE TODAY - "Well, we had a fast car out there, fortunately. We knew that yesterday, we knew we had something. We never put tires on it, we never put all the tape on it. We had not much time on the engine. I knew we had a shot a running well but I didn't know we could run that well. Jeff (Gordon) is exactly right on the wind thing. It isn't about a half of a second, it is a tenth, That is the most we have picked up from the first two-second lap since we have been down here in qualifying trim or in testing. On that second lap, I saw the flags, I have gotten used to looking at the flags and can tell what kind of an affect the wind is going to have. I could tell they were blowing in the right direction and I knew that was going to be advantageous for us. Fortunately it worked in our favor.

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR POLE AND CLINT BOWYER QUALIFYING SEVENTH SHOW THE IMPROVEMENTS AT RCR. "Well. I don't know. I would love to say we had a great day today and all is right in the world and everything is perfect from here on out. But I am smart enough not to say that. There is a lot of racing yet to go at Daytona much less the rest of the season, there are a lot of days that will challenge us. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that the test we had in January was the best test I have ever been involved in. We had a really really good test at Las Vegas. My confidence level is as high as it was in 1998 and 1999 when I came down here. That is not just wanting to feel good, that is based on what facts in regard to our test. We will see what happens, but I have very high hopes for our team. I hope this isn't the only highlight of our season. Hopefully we can outshine this accomplishment a lot. You have got to remember historically I am not a good qualifier, that isn't a big secret. When you don't qualify well, you justify it to yourself that qualifying isn't that important. So when you do qualify well, you can't get too excited about it, cause it isn't that important. It is a great day for us, hopefully we can build on this. But we came down here to put ourselves in position to win the Daytona 500. Today is a day that went well for us but when the green flag drops, they don't care anymore who was on the pole. It is all about who can race well and that is what our focus will turn into on Wednesday.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR INPUT AT RCR? "Well, part of my role at Childress is not so much to tell them 'Hey we need to be to be a certain way to build cars'. It is more the idea of me to be a part of the process to figure out what the best way to build cars is. How to best use our aero group. How to best use the engineering group. How to make sure we are getting the most out of the tools we have. We have enough tools at RCR to compete at a high level. We have to make sure we utilize those tools and use them to the best of our advantage. That is something that we were not doing and the results showed it. One of the reasons Richard wanted me to come to RCR was to help with that. And that is what I have tried to do. At the same time I have tried to be very focused on the Cingular team in particular. But for us to excel, we needed to have better equipment than we had last year. So part of my role is helping build the structure and format to go build better cars. As far as how they are going to draft and race, this car and the other car we had down here at the test both drove about the same but this car was a good three 10ths quicker. So we brought this one as the primary car. I have won down here once before and I have come down here an awful lot of times and I only sat in one car that was fast enough to win. We need all talk about our car needing to drive well and I am a proponent of that. But a good driving car that is slow won't win. You have got to have a fast car that will drive well. And we have a fast car and now it is up to us to make sure it will drive well. I think that it can.

HOW DO YOU AND RICHARD TALK ABOUT THINGS AT RCR? "Well Richard is a pretty informal kind of guy. We don't have a whole lot of scheduled meetings where you get a notice that says there will be a meeting at 2:00. We have a lot of informal conversations, much more than we do have structured formal meetings. I certainly been part of my fair share of formal, structured meetings, but my time with Richard is generally him calling me when I didn't know he was going to call or me calling him when he didn't know I was going to call.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE A CAR FAST ENOUGH TO SET ON THE POLE TO GET PREPARED? "In all honesty, it is a matter of me not messing up. Make sure you run the right line on each lap. I have seen people forget what lap they are on and go into turn one on the last lap and take the high line instead of the low line. And those kinds of things. But today had nothing to do with me. The only impact I had today was to be a warm blooded person to mash the gas and turn left. I think it was Michael Waltrip said a drunk monkey could do it. So today I guess I was the drunk monkey.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS IN THE DRAFT? "I walked in on what Jeff Gordon was saying and he is 100% correct. You have teammates and you do your best to work with them. The conversation Jeff said he has with his teammates, I have the exact same conversation with my teammates. You can help each other as long as it doesn't hurt you. At the end of the day, this is a self serving sport. When you get it in your mind that you are only going to help him no matter what he does, you are just going to hurt yourself and that is just how it is. A lot has been made about Michael (Waltrip) and Dale (Earnhardt, Jr) and all that. But only one of them that worked out for. You do want to work together but you do want to do what is best for you and your team. I know you guys watch it and I have watched restrictor plate races with very race intelligent people. They are like "He hung him out, he hung him out." and it just isn't that way. You have to do what you have to do for you and your team and that is just how it is. And you can't get upset when you make a move and somebody doesn't go with you, because if they go with you and it is wrong for them, they loose 15 spots. I was part of a deal years ago when Dale Jarrett won the race - Johnny Benson was leading, Mark Martin was running second, Jarrett was running third and I was running fourth. Mark thought he had a deal with Jarrett and he thought Jarrett was going to go wherever he went. So Mark went high and Jarrett went low and before I knew it they were side-by-side. So then I had a decision to make. What am I going to do? I am going to be in a line of eight cars, on the outside the second car in line and when this group clears me, I am going to be running last in this group. I could not do that even though it hurt Mark, a person I care about tremendously. But it was going to put us in a position to lose a ton of spots. He was going to get passed anyhow. So if I stayed with him, it was going to put us both in a position to get hurt, but I was going to lose the most. I stayed with Jarrett and I caught some flack from that. I did what I thought I had to do to give myself a chance to win the Daytona 500. It wasn't a good situation but man it is hard. You can't be willing to slit your own wrists. On the last lap if you can push your teammate across the start finish line he wins the race and you finish fifth, that might be an acceptable thing, but if he finished fifth and you finish 20th, that doesn't work. Mark said he wasn't mad at me , I went and found him in his office and he said he understood why it happened the way it did.

DID YOU THINK YOU COULD BE ON THE POLE FOR THE DAYTONA 500? "I thought we had a legitimate chance, I thought we would be in the top-10, but I didn't know we could run that fast. I really didn't know. Although I will tell you, that during testing, we made a qualifying run and for whatever reason, it didn't make the times. I don't know why. It was the last day in drafting practice and it didn't show up because they weren't showing individual times. But is was only like a 10th off of what the 38 had run and I went ok, we got something now. We knew we had better engines coming and lots of other stuff coming so I knew we might have a chance.

CAN YOU EMPATHIZE WITH THE PRESSURE OF THE GUYS WHO HAVE TO RACE THEIR WAY IN. "Last year Kevin Lepage got in the race and Robby Gordon didn't. Robby Gordon finished seventh in the 150 and went home. Tony Stewart was leading, I was second and Robby was behind me. He was content to stay in line and finish third and got knocked out of the way and went home finishing 7th in the 150. That is a tough deal. I have been lucky enough to never miss a Daytona 500 field, we did have a situation once when I was driving for the Stavola Bros when we came down here and I was slow slow slow. That was when you could keep on trying to qualify. That was like the 20 days of qualifying at Daytona. On the last day, we posted a speed that might kinda sorta get us in if it didn't work out for us in the 125. I came in on a rookie group that was as big and as talented as the one this season. Ward went home, Nemechek went home, I thinki a lot of the rookie class went home and I think I was one of them to make it. I know how hard it is and it is harder today if you are not in the top 35 because there is so few spots available. It is hard for them.?

LOCKING YOURSELF INTO THE 500, DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH? "No not at all, we have to do our work to make sure we are ready. This is the only race where we have a race before the race. It is a huge opportunity to learn everything you can. So we will go into the 150 trying to win it, we need to have a good pit stop, we need to know what happens when we need the thing, we need to know what will happen when we are not leading, we need to learn what we need to learn for the Daytona 500. We won't change our approach to that race one bit. Because we are here to win. HOw many 125 did Dale Earnhardt win? HOw many poles and outside poles? You have to go into that race and try to win, you have to attack it."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR LAST POLE? "Our last pole was at Richmond and there was a Bush race right after that. They were yelling at us to take the pictures quick quick quick because you have to go change for the Bush race. So we really didn't have time to enjoy it or celebrate it. No time to celebrate because we were back in a car racing. It happened that fast. In fact, I was looking at some pictures and there I was standing there at the board while they were taking the pictures and I kept thinking, darn I have to go. That is what I remember about that.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE RCR PLATE ENGINE PROGRAM? "All I am going to say about that is the effort that has gone into turn the entire engine program around, to lead NASCAR racing in horsepower as well as reliability, we have made huge strides. We dropped in our 2006 engine here at the test and I am telling you it wasn't a small change, it was a big change. We did the same thing at Vegas with our Bush engines and it was the same thing. It was a lot better. It was more than I thought you could pick up. It was a lot. Before that we were running well before, which I was ecstatic with and we dropped that in and now we are about a third or fourth place car. It was a significant change when we put it in.

RICHARD CHILDRESS JOINS THE PRESS CONFERENCE:

ON JEFF BURTON WINNING THE DAYTONA 500 POLE:
CHILDRESS: "We just had a lot of positive changes at RCR. Every race is important. We want to come here and win the Daytona 500. But today, winning the pole, was a big plus. Everybody has worked so hard at RCR -- including the drivers. These guys get a lot of credit for getting us going at RCR. I'm just proud of everybody and proud of Jeff getting on the pole today. It's really great to see RCR back up front. We've won a lot of poles here and been up front a lot. We're just excited to be here."

DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS IS A MAKE OR BREAK YEAR FOR THE NO. 31 TEAM?
BURTON: "It's a no-excuse year. Richard has provided us with the funding and the people and the plan and a lot of things we didn't have last year. We had some legitimate excuses last year, but this is a no-excuse year. If that means it's a make or break, I'm okay with that. As previously being part of a company that has won a lot of races over the last 7 or 8 years, and seeing the way they do it -- we're not going to compare what we're doing now, but I'm really comfortable with it. I know that every race is not going to go the way we want it to go. There are a lot of people that want to kick our ass every Sunday. But I also know it's going to be hard. It's harder today than five years ago. But we need to perform."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MINDSET ABOUT THE CHANGES YOU MADE AT RCR?
CHILDRESS: "I look back at 2004 and I spent some time at a couple of shops and I knew we needed to get things turned around and get going. I made a lot of decisions for change. We made a lot of changes and brought new people in. I'm just excited about the whole year. Today is wonderful with Jeff getting the pole and getting a shot at winning this Daytona 500. That's something every team out there has worked all winter for. But I'm excited about going to California and Vegas. After the test we had at Vegas, it just excited me about all the things I've seen and how our drivers and teams are working together and have pulled together. Hopefully this will be our year."

WITH SO MANY VETERANS ON YOUR TEAMS, HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO REORGANIZE?
CHILDRESS: "It was tough when you've got to take people who have been with you for 20 years and move them into different positions. The business has gotten so tough. I used to walk around and know everybody's family and kids names. Now, I've got to ask if that guy or lady works for me. The business has grown so much. And you've got to keep it personal because that's what we're all made of. But at the end of the day, we've got to have results. We didn't have them for the last couple of years. We made some changes and this year we should have good results."

BURTON: "The people that have been there for 20 years are still there. And that place has talent that is second to none. There is a really big group of a lot of committed people and Richard has stayed committed to them. People are there that don't deserve to be there, I can tell you that. Before I went to Richard's people whispered in my ear that he kept people around because he was just too nice. But those people who are there are there for a reason because they are damn good at what they do. We are blessed with a lot of people with a lot of experience."

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET BACK TO THAT LEVEL BEFORE DALE EARNHARDT'S ACCIDENT?
CHILDRESS: "Well, we've been competitive in some races, but nothing like we have in the past. We've got to work hard. The level of competition today has really stepped up. You've just got to step up to the plate. We've definitely got everything it takes to get the job done. We've just got to pull it all together as one big team and make it happen."

ON BURTON COMING OUT OF NOWHERE TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 POLE:
CHILDRESS: "It's great anytime you can win a pole or a race. I feel like we've let Jeff Burton down over the last couple of years that he's been with us. We had high expectations. We had the equipment and everything, but we just didn't get it all put together. I think it is something we should have done a long time ago."

YOU GAVE BURTON A HUGE BEAR HUG WHEN HE WON THE POLE. WAS THIS MORE EMOTIONAL THAN SOME OF YOUR PAST POLES HERE?
CHILDRESS: "I think it was. We've been up front. Kevin (Harvick) has led a lot of laps and Jeff maybe led some laps last year and was up front. But we've just got to put it all together and we've got to win."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT JEFF BURTON AS A PERSON AND ABOUT THE DRIVER HARMONY HE BROUGHT TO THE GROUP?
CHILDRESS: "Jeff came in and fired me back up. Knowing some of the ideas and things he's brought to the table -- he's just good for the whole organization. He can look and day hey, I know we're off here or there in aero or wind tunnel or horsepower. We've just made a lot of changes."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LONG-TERM IMPACT THAT DALE EARNHARDT HAS HAD ON THE ORGANIZATION?
CHILDRESS: "When you lose a great driver and a great friend like that, it takes time. We came back in 2002 and Kevin won rookie of the year and finished 9th in the points and won a couple of races. Our whole company went into shock and probably will always be. But it's guys like Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick that have made it a little easier. It's tough on all of us -- the loss that we all went through. Hopefully he's up there looking down and proud of what the sport has done and where the sport has gone and the many things that have happened in this sport. Five years later...it sure doesn't seem like it."

DO YOU THINK THAT BOTH THE NO. 31 AND THE NO. 29 TEAMS WILL STEP UP TOGETHER?
CHILDRESS: "I think you'll see our whole organization move up. I've got high expectations for Clint Boyer and Gil Martin (too). The thing that made me feel so positive is that I went to Las Vegas and watched the test. That's been one of our weaker points is that type of race tracks. They were all up front. We had a team meeting and I told them that what we planned was to win the championship. We finished second in 2002 to Jeff (Godon) and I think Jeff Burton was third that year. I feel good about our whole season -- our road course and short track programs and our engine program. We have a lot of positive things going on at RCR."