TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 2nd

WHAT DID (pole winner) BORIS SAID SAY TO YOU? "Oh, he was laughing. He came over and told me good job for last night (IROC race win) and congratulations on being 2nd in qualifying. He put down a really good lap. I'm really happy for him. I'm just excited about this Home Depot Monte Carlo SS. It's really fast right now. It's better than I thought we were going to qualify. So, I'm just happy. We'll try to do what we did last year."

DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA YOU HAD SUCH SPEED IN THE CAR? "No, I didn't have any idea. It's a good thing to have though, for sure. Hopefully that'll keep us on the front row and we can hopefully try to do what we did here last year here at this time. So I'm really happy about the Home Depot team's effort today. I didn't have anything to do with it. I just got to drive it around there. The crew guys get all the credit today. That's their job."

YOU'RE THE DEFENDING CHAMPION OF THIS RACE, YOU WON THE IROC RACE LAST NIGHT, AND THE BUSCH RACE EARLIER IN THE YEAR..DO YOU ALWAYS BRING EXTRA TROPHY WRAPPINGS HERE? "It's just something we enjoy. I always like coming down here whether it's on the road course or the oval. It's just a fun place. I just wish it wasn't so hot for everybody. I think everybody in the stands is as hot and miserable as we are in the cars. I just hate it for everybody. But it's a good weekend. A festive weekend. We're all going to have a good time. I'm looking forward to a good Busch race tonight and a good Cup race tomorrow."

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 17th

COMPARING DAYTONA TO TALLADEGA: "I've always loved this sort of racing, and the run we had at Talledega was really good. Little disappointing, but our guys gave us a good, solid run and we finished third. But first would have been much better and hopefully we can do that today."

TRAVIS KVAPIL, NO. 32 TIDE / DOWNY MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 15th

"I'm really happy with our qualifying run, this is the best the Tide car has been all weekend. Qualifying is definitely the time to lay it all out there. Picked up two-tenths from yesterday, really didn't do nothing to the car. Pretty pleased with our lap but we'll see how it all shakes out with all the other guys going here but I think that will get us into the race pretty solid and it's a pretty good effort for us."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 4th

"I'm really hoping to take this Superman Chevy to victory lane this weekend. It was a big weekend for us last weekend. we're still riding on that cloud. It's been a fun week. We did some testing at Milwaukee getting our restrictor-plate car ready. It's been an interesting week, a short week but it's been a lot of fun.

"We went out so early we didn't make a qualifying run yesterday with the DuPont Pepsi Superman Chevy. We're pretty excited about this weekend especially coming from last weekend. Daytona's been pretty good to us. We just worked on race setup yesterday and we weren't great but we kept making it better. I was looking more forward to getting out there in the race in the draft then I was for qualifying so that's a little bit of a surprise but it's still to early to tell where we're going to end up.

YOU'VE HAD YOUR HANDS IN CEMENT AT DAYTONA USA THREE TIMES NOW. "Yeah, it's a huge honor to know that you've won this race three times. When you look at the list of names of guys who have won it. We had a great group, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Michael Waltrip, Ward Burton was there, Jimmie Johnson, this year's winner.

It's a pretty elite group to be a part of and it's very cool that Daytona USA is doing that with the handprints and footprints in the cement with a signature. You don't think you're going do that three times and that's something I'm very proud of."

TONY STEWART USED THESE RACES TO PROPEL HIMSELF TO THE 2005 CHAMPIONSHIP. DO YOU THINK YOU MAY BE ABLE TO DO THAT? "I certainly hope so. I think it's all about the momentum. Going in the right direction. For us, coming off of a win, just getting a win is special for us. We've got to take that momentum and do something with it. We've got great races and tracks coming up for ourselves and it this team is just elevating up their level of competition and quality of race cars. Their whole efforts - we're looking forward to showcasing that in the next couple of weeks."

ABOUT FUTURE ROLEX 24 TEAMMATES MAX ANGELELLI AND WAYNE TAYLOR OF THE #10 SUNTRUST PONTIAC RILEY FINISHING FOURTH LAST NIGHT: "Well, I'm happy. I think it's great that they had a good run; obviously a 24-hour race is a lot different than that short race last night. Obviously fuel mileage is something you always have to be good at. Really, leaving a lot of it up to those guys, they've been strong over the years and I expect them to be in good shape when it comes to the 24-hour race next year."

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 9th

"That was good. That was really what we ran yesterday when we made a mock run. I think there is a little bit more of a headwind down the back straightaway than yesterday. The car is really, really good in the draft and we just really hope to qualify in the top 10 or 15 and then really count on this car handling in the race and doing what we need to do like that 500 Chevy that's parked in Daytona USA."

HOW GOOD IS THIS MONTE CARLO SS COMPARED TO THAT ONE? "This one is great. We took it without any testing time or wind tunnel time to Talladega and I was able to win there. Since, we've been able to work on it and really adjust it for what we want here in Daytona. It should really race good tomorrow night."

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 5th

"It was a good lap. I think we're all a little disappointed in it. We thought we could go a little bit quicker than that. We ran in the mid 30s yesterday and thought we could get close to that again but that's how it goes. NASCAR puts their plate on, spring, shocks, the whole package. We'll take it. It's a good run for us and a good starting spot. I think we've got a really good race car.

"It was a good run for this whole U.S. Army race team. I'm looking for a good race this weekend. The car is driving really good. I've got to thank Hendrick Motorsports. Their engine shop is a big part of how we run on these race tracks to be right up there in the middle of Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and I think there will be some other Hendrick cars before it's all over with. The car is driving good. The engine is running well and we're looking forward to a good race."

DO YOU HAVE TO BRING A DIFFERENT MINDSET TO A RESTRICTOR PLATE RACE? "Yeah, what's kind of tough right now is there's a lot of guys that have to get in on time, the guys that are racing in the back. Boris (Said) had a heck of a lap there. We ran in the mid 30s yesterday in practice but there's so many cars out there stirring air up it definitely helps you. The mindset here is the impound race. What you have right now is you can't abuse the motor in qualifying. You've got to be really careful or else you pay the price for it during the race. You've got to be smart. It's like playing a high speed game of chess."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 35th

"It was really hot. I think the sun hit close to the earth or something. My car runs well in the draft and handles really, really good. I was really, really happy with the way it handles versus in February. It was obviously not a very fast lap for us but I'm looking forward to the car handling well and performing well in the race."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 39th

HOW MUCH TIME DID YOU GET ON THIS RACE CAR? "We got about 15 laps which isn't a whole lot but it's a great effort to get back out. All my guys at RCR really pitched in and got us out. Those 15 laps were really valuable to us. It's part of the deal. You need to be able to have good equipment and I feel really good about this car. We finished fourth in this car in Talladega. We'll get what we can out of it but I feel good about it. I think we have a great team. We'll get through tomorrow and hopefully get a win."

HOW MUCH HAS THE INTENSITY OF THE CHASE BROUGHT TO THIS SPORT? "It's brought a lot to this sport. For sports to be fun to watch it's got to be intense. When sports are boring is when there's nothing going on. The great thing about this sport especially with the addition of the Chase is you don't know what's going on right now today except for maybe the top three guys. Fourth, fifth on down, they're not in the Chase. I know they are right now but they're not far enough ahead to relax. You got guys in 15th and 16th that can still get in. That's what sports are about. The essence of sports is great competition and right now we've got it. All we're trying to do is take advantage of it in the Cingular Chevrolet and hopefully get ourselves in it. I feel good about how we're running. We've just got to make sure we keep working hard to make ourselves go better and if we do that we'll be in good shape."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 14th

It is what it is. The guys, they put the car in race trim and we pretty much qualified that way. There were a few guys that qualified in front of us in qualifying trim just because they had to make sure they're in the race. The guys built a pretty good car for us, I'm happy about it for race trim. Like I said, it is what it is for qualifying.

ABOUT TONIGHT'S BUSCH RACE: I don't think I'll get much out of it for tomorrow's race because they've brought a different tire here for some reason. We'll just do what we can tonight. With that different tire it's going to be a little bit different result in everything else in how the car's handling. We'll just deal with it the way we need to.