JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 3rd

HOW DID YOU JUST GET SO FAST? "I'm just as shocked as everyone else. We have a great set up, a great car here and a great feel for this track but for whatever reason at night time is when we shine. In practice we were real loose, real out of control. I almost threw this car a way a couple of times. I crashed the Busch car. I've had my difficulties when the sun is out but for whatever reason when the sun goes down we fly and have a great race car."

YOU'VE HAD SEVEN WINS IN THE LAST 10 CUP RACES HERE. ARE YOU SURPRISED AT HOW SUCCESSFUL YOU'VE BEEN AT THIS TRACK FOR SO LONG? "Without a doubt. I don't even try to pay attention to those things. I just get in the car and go. It is quite an accomplishment. I can't say enough for Hendrick Motorsports and the commitment they have to this race team and obviously to be able to perform here for Lowe's at their home track and really the home track for the entire series. It's something we're proud of."

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE:

ON HIS RUN: "We picked up a lot of speed from practice and once again the track was really slick. And then going into the night session, our car really wakes up and comes to life. Tonight, I was excited to see the pick up in speed. In practice, we were pretty loose and I think 32nd on the charts. Chad (Knaus) made some adjustments to the car that really helped it. And then the sun going down and the track cooling down really helped us out and I look forward to the race."

HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THIS RACE? "Oddly enough, we were on pins and needles out there. Thirty-five laps seemed like 80 laps. It's nice to have a little breather after 35 laps and catch your breath and regroup and go again. That in general, has made the run seem a little bit longer since we're so on edge out there. It'll be interesting to see if people try two tires or no tires and just gas or whatever the situation may be. Harvick in the All-Star event made a great move in trying two tires late. I don't think it ended up working out like he thought it would but at the time, when I was taking four, I thought man, that was a great move. I think I learned a little bit from that -- watching those guys -- it didn't work out like they thought it would."

ON BRINGING THE ALL-STAR BACK -- WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS CAR? "Chad felt that the car at the shop that we didn't race at the All-Star event had a little bit better body on it and that the aero balance would be a little bit more what I would want and it had more grip built into it. We scienced out the suspension and all the other things that went on, I just felt like we'd been working with this car for a while and understood exactly where it was. We didn't have a drag in the track; we had everything fine-tuned and adjusted right and that we should bring that car back.

"I think I left here and Chad came in after. When I saw him when I was leaving and he said he'd heard at the Media Center that I wanted to bring this car back. And I said, 'Absolutely, let's bring it back.' He asked me if we could sit on it overnight. And the next morning and we talked and he'd already had the guys in the shop working on this car and getting it turned around. So I'm excited to have it. I know what I'm looking for. We know exactly where we need to end up. So at least we've got something to work from. I felt like the car was very competitive. Granted, some cars were taken out in the All-Star event, but we feel like we've got a real good idea of where we need to be in the later stages of the race with this race car."

LAST WEEK YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO BUY AN OLD CAR WITH YOUR WINNINGS. WHAT DID YOU BUY? "I haven't done anything yet. Right now I have my '69 Camaro that I built and put the Randy Dorton engine in. I need to get that thing up and running. I had it back from the west coast from where it was built. I just need to put some time to get it running. I also have a '51 Merc and I'm trying to get a new interior put in. I've got two cars already but they're both out of commission. I need to get them working since this is the right time of year to drive an old car."

DOES WINNING HERE EVER GET OLD? IF YOU WERE ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN WOULD YOU WONDER WHO ELSE WOULD EVER WIN A RACE HERE? "I'm sure if I was sitting in the stands I would or if I were any of the competitors. Again I don't know why or how we do it. There's been different surfaces and tires and all those other things. Somehow we keep doing it and I'm just as shocked as everyone else. I'd love to keep this streak alive and do something that no one else has done before. I think that would be nice to accomplish and have that in my stash. Streaks come to an end. There's no telling how long it will last. I didn't feel going into the All Star event that we were the favorite for it. We left with the trophy so I'm not sure what to expect come Sunday night."

J. J. YELEY, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 4th

YOU'RE EXCITED BECAUSE YOU HAD A GOOD RUN AND GOT A GOOD PIT STALL, BUT THIS MUST BE BITTERSWEET FOR YOU: "Yeah, I'm still pretty disappointed that I crashed the car (during practice). This was only my second time in my short NASCAR Cup career that I've had to bring a back-up car out before I even got to qualify. I don't like tearing up equipment because I know someone back at the shop is going to have to fix it. But the only way I can do something good is to go out there and do something good now."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 12th

"Our Reece's Chevrolet did pretty good in practice. We scuffed all our tires and made a qualifying run. We had a great race last week with our GM Goodwrench Chevrolet and hopefully we can do one better this week."

WILL THE BUSCH RACE GIVE YOU SOME TIPS FOR THE CUP RACE? "We have finished in the top five here a couple of times anyway. So we've got to get back to that. The last couple of years haven't been very much fun. But last week was fun and our test was fun. The cars are handling good, so I think that's the cure to most of the problems. If we can just put together a good strategy, that's going to be the main thing is just putting together a good tire strategy and knowing when to put and when not to pit and hopefully not make too many mistakes."

JOHNNY SAUTER, NO. 70 HAAS AUTOMATION MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 14th

"It was pretty cool. We were obviously worried about making the parade. I've got to thank everybody at Haas CNC Racing. They build darn good race cars. I'm just happy. I didn't know how fast we could really run. We struggled a little bit in practice. It was a pretty good lap. I'm happy.

HOW MUCH DID TESTING HERE HELP YOU? "A lot. I think it helped everybody. I've got to thank my teammate Jeff Green. He's helped me a lot obviously. I'm driving one of his cars actually. I'm even using his seat. It's just good for everybody at Haas. Hopefully it will hold up for a decent lap."

TRAVIS KVAPIL, NO. 32 TIDE/DOWNY MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 31st

"I'm pretty happy with that. It should get us into the show. On the first lap I drove a little too hard going into Turn 1 but hit my marks in Turns 3 and 4 and it felt great. Then on lap 2, the car was good. If any thing, the car was just a little tight but it drove nice. I'm happy with our overall performance today. This team is really working well together and progressing nicely."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 32nd

ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN: "It was terrible. We spun in qualifying practice. We didn't have the confidence to go out there and run the lap we needed. The car is a little loose again. It's a decent car. We just don't need to wreck it in qualifying."

HAS YOUR TEAM BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE OUT SET UP WISE WHAT CAN BE DONE? "No, not yet. We're still working on it. We'll probably have an hour and half on Saturday to keep working on it. We'll just keep plugging away but right now it's not very good."

ON WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND IN THE ALL-STAR RACE: "Last week is last week guys. This is a whole new week this week. We're just figuring out what we got to do for 600 miles now and not worry about an All Star race. It's a different breed. It's a totally different format this week. It's back to the normal grind."

ON NOT HOLDING GRUDGES: "We're just getting ready for a race that is 600 miles right now."

ON PIT STRATEGIES: "We're probably going to have 20 pit stops. Track position is going to be so important that it's going to be really critical to have good stops all night."

WILL THE PIT CREW BE A BIG FACTOR? "They (the pit crew) are probably more of a factor this week then we are as drivers. There's only going to be so much you can do behind other cars. I'm speaking from ours. We don't have a car that is good enough to drive through cars yet. If you've got a car like Jimmie Johnson has got, he can pretty much race with anybody on the track and he's the fastest car so he can get up there. Where we're at right now, anytime we can get a spot in the pits it's monumental for us."