Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds:
Yeley 10th
Hamlin 18th
Stremme 19th
Sorenson 21st
Bowyer 32nd
Truex Jr. 33rd

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER HAPPY HOUR QUOTES FOR THE COCA-COLA 600 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY, MAY 27, 2006.

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: DID YOU HIT ON SOMETHING AT THE END OF PRACTICE? YOU WENT FROM MIDDLE OF THE PACK TO 10TH. “Yeah, we made the thing quit trying to spin out on me [laughs]. The track kept cooling down and I think it just got faster and faster and we just weren’t keeping up with the changes. We made a change and went back out and we were real free and we thought it was the change and we went closer to our base setup and we were still real loose. We did a couple of changes and tightened the car up there and we still need to go a little bit more. It was a lot more comfortable and I was able to get on the gas.” ARE YOU GETTING MORE USED TO THE TIRE? “Ah, no [smiles] because just when you think you’ve got it figured out it surprises you. It can jump on you. You’d be tight and all of a sudden you’re loose and you haven’t been loose in 10 laps. You still have to stay on your toes the entire time and you definitely have to respect this tire because it’s not going to give you any in return.” DO YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE 600 NOW THAN YOU DID BEFORE THE START OF HAPPY HOUR? “I don’t know if we feel better about it [laughs]. The big key is that it’s going to take a lot of adjustments during the race. We’re starting so early and not getting too overzealous at the start if you’re bad and if you’re good, you’d better keep up on changes because I think if you get behind a little bit it’s going to take so long to catch back up that you might not ever catch back up to what it’s going to take to win the race.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX FREIGHT CHEVROLET: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CAR? “Yeah, I mean it seems like it’s the same deal that it was in testing where we were really, really loose in the day and really, really tight at night. But we’re a lot faster at night than what we were. We’re definitely pretty confident in our car. We know our adjustments that we need to do and I think we’re going to be pretty good.”

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 LONESTAR STEAKHOUSE DODGE: “At least we’re on the left side of the board. We’re not on the right side. I’m pretty happy with my Lonestar car. We kind of screwed it up there towards the end but I think as we go into night it’s going to be a lot better. I’m pretty happy. We’re making a turn, just keep getting a little bit better.” ARE YOU GETTING MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE TIRE? “It’s not the tire, my team is getting better and we’re getting the cars better. I think it’s going to be alright. We don’t want to screw it up too much during daytime because we’ve got to finish at night so when you go into nighttime you’ve got to be a lot stronger. I think that’s when we’ll show our best.” DID THE TRACK CHANGE A LOT FROM THE START OF THE FIRST PRACTICE TO THE END OF HAPPY HOUR? “It’s just slippery when you first go out there. It’s going to be the same thing tomorrow. It sits around and nobody is on it and then you go into running so the first hour, hour and a half, you’re going to have to be very careful. It’s going to be two different races so we’re definitely going to have to take it easy and make sure we don’t out tune ourselves.” UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE IN A BUSCH CAR THIS WEEKEND? “That’s going to be a lot of wear on those guys running both races. I like racing, so of course I’d want to be in the Busch car, but on the other hand I know I can sit here and I know what I’ve got do with my Cup car. I know one thing, last year when I did run both races here in the fall the track changed tremendously from the Busch race to the Cup race. You couldn’t even run the outside in the Busch race and you could in the Cup race. You could start out right there. It could screw some guys up but it don’t hurt to run and see what the strategy is going to be tonight.”