Jeff Burton Takes Pole For Chevy At MIS
Capturing his fourth pole of the season, Jeff Burton qualified fastest in his No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Sunday's GFS Marketplace 400. His fast time of 38.311 seconds (average speed 187.936 mph) topped Elliott Sadler's time of 38.488 seconds. Kevin Harvick (No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS) was the second-fastest Chevy driver; he qualified fifth behind Ryan Newman (fourth) and Matt Kenseth (third). The final Chevy driver in the top ten qualified eighth (Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS).

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS - Pole Winner

Press Conference Comments:

ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN: "I'm really excited about that. In qualifying trim and practice we went through (Turns) One and Two really good but in (Turns) Three and Four we had a lot of trouble. Scott (Miller, crew chief) made a bunch of changes to the car so we could make our lap. Kevin (Harvick) qualified just ahead of us. He sent word down to me that the track had a tremendous amount of grip. That helped us a well. I'm proud of that effort because we actually ran faster in race trim than we did in qualifying trim in practice. That's how far off we were in our first runs. We only got through one run and then we made all those changes. I shouldn't say we. They made all those changes. I don't even know what changes they made but it worked."

MATT KENSETH WAS IN HERE EARLIER AND DESCRIBED YOU AS THE ORANGER, SLIMMER VERSION OF RYAN NEWMAN. CAN YOU COMMENT ON THAT? "Yes, I am oranger and I am slimmer. And we get better reception too (laughs). I don't know what the heck is going on. I really don't. What the heck is going on out there? That's what I feel like. We get done doing my qualifying lap, coming to Turn Four I'm like darn that was a good lap. The car just drives so good and I'm able to be really aggressive with them and I'm real proud of that. On the other hand, we've got to step up our race program a little bit. Indy and Pocono, really the last three races we haven't run as well as we need to run. This feels good and allows us to feel good about ourselves but at the end day we've got to find a way to step our program up. Just based on the last three races, we haven't run as well as we need to. I don't think I've done a good job of feeding them information and we've got to find a way to step it up. That's the boring side of qualifying well. We know the reality of needing to step up that program is there too. Hopefully we can do that Sunday."

ON THE MORALE AT RCR AND DRIVING FOR A TEAM WHERE THE MOOD SEEMS TO BE ELEVATED. YOU'VE WON FOUR POLES. THE ONLY THING YOU HAVEN'T DONE IS WIN A RACE. "It's good. I was accustom to that. In all honesty, it took us a little while to get all of us on the same page at Childress. That was difficult for me because Mark (Martin) and I and Matt (Kenseth) and I and (Greg) Biffle and I had such a good relationship. We spoke so much about everything. We had to build that here. Kevin (Harvick) and I had to learn to work together. Everybody is still trying to figure out how to work with (Clint) Bowyer (laughs) because he's goofy. It's certified. He's goofy. I really applaud Kevin and I applaud Clint for really opening the door and welcoming me in. Kevin has been there for a long to and suffered through things not going well. He has been as good of a teammate as Matt Kenseth or Greg Biffle or Mark Martin. That's the ultimate compliment. That's as good as it gets. Things are working well. We have to continue to work to make sure they do. I think the thing that really helps is that every team feels like the other teams are giving something. In the past the 29 has been the team that propped everybody up and the 29 was the center of everything because they worked harder. They tried harder. They put more effort in. They had the most talent. I think over time that wore on them because they felt like they were doing all the work. And by the way, they were doing most of the work. Scott and Gill are complimenting and helping the 29 rather than just pulling from them. That's a big part of teamwork. The reason you have teammates is because you believe ultimately you are best served by helping your teammates because if you're helping them you're getting help back and you always get more back. But if you're always giving then I think that doesn't work. In the past the 29 has been the givers. They gave way more than they took."

IS QUALIFYING SOMETHING YOU CAN TEACH YOURSELF OR LEARN OVER THE YEARS? "I think that you can learn at anything. There is a technique of qualifying. There are things that I do differently today that I didn't do two years that I think helped me become a better qualifier. Ultimately though the cars have a huge role in that. The whole key to all of this stuff is if you have good cars then you can learn how to do it. If you don't have good cars then you're always searching. I got really bad at it because I was trying too hard. But I've learned when I get in the car how to be a better qualifier. Again the cars I'm driving today are superior to what I've driven in the last three years."

ON ATTITUDE AND CONFIDENCE: "The attitude is important. In this sport you've heard me say this many times, I think arrogance and confidence are greatly confused in this sport. I think confidence is an earned and arrogance is something you wake up with. I don't assume that we're going to qualify well but I expect that we're going to qualify well because we've been qualifying well. I don't know if that makes any sense to you guys. Confidence builds confidence. If we aren't doing well and you have confidence that's arrogance. It's not confidence. My father and I have had this discussion many times. He'd call me and say 'You're a good qualifier.' I was like 'I am?' He said 'You can qualify. The cars you are driving are crap.' But my dad thinks I'm good at everything. I think that certainly the more you do well at something the more confidence you gain in it. Then your expectations are higher. That's the one thing that we have worked hard on is raising the expectation. Let's not go to the race track and think we're going to qualify 30th. Let's go to the race track and think we'll qualify in the top 10. Let's build a higher expectation level."

HOW WAS THE CAR IN PRACTICE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHANCES ARE ON SUNDAY? "We had one qualifying run. The rest of it was race stuff. We took off. We were very fast but way too loose and tight at the same time. We were trying some pretty different setup stuff. Once we got that normal setup package in it, we were decent but not great. We have to make some improvements but we have what we believe to be some good directions to go in. We work on Fridays to learn so we can apply what we learned on Sunday and Saturday. If what we think we learned we really learned then I feel real good about it but we won't really know that until practice starts. It looks a little iffy tomorrow with rain. If it does rain then we've got some ideas of what we want to do on our car. I feel pretty good about it but not great."

JACK ROUSH ALWAYS SAID THAT HE NEVER WORRIED ABOUT WHERE YOU QUALIFIED BECAUSE HE ALWAYS KNEW YOU WOULD BE UP AT THE FRONT. CAN YOU AFFORD TO DO THAT ANYMORE WITH THIS CLOSE COMPETITION TODAY? "I think if you have a fast car, you have a fast car. It is harder today and it takes longer to get to the front but if you have a mediocre car and you qualify well, I think it helps you. If you have a mediocre car and you qualify 40th, I think that hurts you. There are advantages in qualifying well. I swear the biggest advantage is the pit stall. That's the biggest advantage. That's bigger than anything else in my opinion is being able to pick that first pit stall."

CAN YOU EXPAND ON YOUR COMMENT EARLIER ABOUT DOING THINGS DIFFERENT IN QUALIFYING THAN YOU DID TWO YEARS AGO? "No, I can't. I had some things that I've done. I have some things that my team has done. I have put a tremendous amount of effort into it. My team has put a tremendous amount of effort into it. Those things we're going to keep to ourselves. That's as simple as I can put it."

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS - Qualified Fifth

ON QUALIFYING: "The car was decent in practice. We made one small spring adjustment for qualifying and it seemed to help. Lot of grip in turns three and four but I definitely didn't get all of it."

ON POTENTIAL PERFORMANCE IN THE RACE: I think we just have to do what we've been doing and if we get ourselves in position towards the end there then we might be alright.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS - Qualified Eighth

ON QUALIFYING: "It was a good pick-up from when we were here last in the spring. We're doing a couple of things differently. It felt like we were going in the right direction with things; we had a little tough time in practice getting it right but the guys made great adjustments and picked up a lot in qualifying. Hopefully that steers us in the right direction for race trim."

ON WINNING HERE FOR CHEVY AND EXTENDING THE STREAK: I hope we can do it - this hasn't been one of my best tracks. I would say it's been one of Jeff (Gordon)'s better tracks. I think of the No. 29 (Harvick) and the momentum they've got; the No. 31 (Burton) has been very strong. I feel very good for the Bowtie's chances, to be honest with you. This could be a very good weekend for them."

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS - Qualified 12th

"We were real tight in practice and we had to free the car up for qualifying. We just went a little bit too far. I just had to get out of the gas a little bit. I hurt our qualifying effort by going faster but still it was a solid lap."

HOW DOES THE CAR FEEL? "The car feels great. We did some race practice runs this morning. I was real happy with the balance and how the car was feeling. I was more concerned about qualifying. The last time we were here we ran real good in the race so I'm hoping we can back that up and maybe be a little bit bitter this time.

DO YOU LIKE GOING THIS EARLY IN QUALIFYING? "I always rather go at the end. Usually the weather conditions are better and you get a chance to see what other guys are running. As long as we're not going too early, I'm happy."

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/Delphi Monte Carlo SS - Qualified 11th

"It was a pretty good lap for us. The Kellogg's/Delphi Chevrolet was good. I just tried to make it turn a little bit there in the center part of the corner in practice and not try to get it too loose coming up off. We achieved that pretty well here today. We'll trying to keep that as a top 10 starting spot so we can go into tomorrow and work on race trim for Sunday."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS - Qualified 17th

ON HIS CONFIDENCE LEVEL HERE AND QUALIFYING WELL HERE IN THE PAST: "We had a better qualifying run last time. I got loose. I got loose right there. I had about a third-place lap going into Turn Three and then got loose through (Turn) Three and Four and never could get back to the gas so we lost a lot of time right there."

ON HIS CAR: "The car was real good in race trim this morning. I'm real confident going into practice tomorrow. I think we'll be fine during the race. We're running with the same car we ran real good with earlier this year and I think we'll be fine."

Jeff Green, No. 66 Haas Automation/Best Buy Monte Carlo SS - Qualified 35th

"We're definitely not too pleased with that lap. We made some changes after practice that made me tight on exit, but did help the back end in the center of the turns. I just don't feel like I've got enough overall grip. 'Bootie' (crew chief Robert 'Bootie' Barker) and the guys are putting their heads together to try and make it better, so hopefully we can get it dialed in tomorrow."

Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Monte Carlo SS - Qualified 33rd

"We picked up about a tenth since practice. I think that's pretty good. I usually don't pick up much here. We got a car that races a lot better than our qualifying today. I'm just we gained a little bit. I would have liked to have gained about three more tenths."

"It was kind of up on top of the track so it never really felt like it had a lot of grip, so we went a little more aggressive with air pressure here than we have in the past and I'm not sure if that was quite the right thing to do."

DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK? "Yeah, this is a fun track for drivers. Most of the time the bigger the track the less fun you have as a driver but Michigan's always been one of those places that is fun for drivers because if your car is tight you can move down on the race track and if your car is loose you can move up. You can't always fix the car but you can help yourself out a lot of times with where you drive."

ON PASSING HERE: "No problem here, this place is plenty wide enough to go four-wide. This is one place you don't mind going four-wide if you have to."

ON YOUR LAP TIME: "We're already third so I'm pretty sure it's not going to hold up very long."

YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE HOME STRETCH TOWARDS THE CHASE: "We'll take it one day at a time. I mean, we're not worried about anything, we just have to go and do our job every week. Typically we've been in the top 10 in points every year since we've been in the Cup series. We're not reinventing the wheel, we just need to not have any bad luck, that's what it really boils down to. We're not doing anything different, you just cant afford to have a bad day. You don't have to have a great day, you just can't afford to have a bad day."

TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH KEVIN HARVICK: "Well, I drive his Busch car, rather his wife's Busch car. I drive for Delana, I tell everybody. It's fun. I enjoy racing with Kevin and Kevin and I are good friends, we have a lot of respect for each other. Knowing that you are racing. if it's anybody besides a teammate or Kevin. there's a lot of guys I trust out there but I really trust Kevin. We just have a great relationship and I know that when we're racing each other hard for the win like that, he's not going to do anything to jeopardize me and vice versa. So it makes it a lot of fun being able to race him like that."

DID LAST WEEK GIVE YOU MORE COMFORT TO GET A PLACE IN THE CHASE? "Not necessarily. A lot can happen in four weeks. It's a two-step goal. First you have to get in to race for it, then we've got to do the things we've got to do to win it. Last week didn't hurt. Anytime we can run in the top two you're not losing points to anybody. It's a step in the right direction. It basically boils down to this: you don't need to have a great day but you can't afford to have a bad day."

DID YOU HAVE A FEELING THAT THINGS MIGHT NOT WORK OUT? "Not really. You just go out and do your job each week. In four weeks we're going to know where we're at. We're either going to be in or we're going to be out. Worrying about it is not going to make it better or worse or anything like that. It's just a matter of taking it one day at a time. Today I was worried about working on our race practice for the first two-thirds and then qualifying trim after that. Then we do qualifying and then back to race mode for tomorrow and then worry about the race on Sunday. But you really just take it a day at a time right now."

WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER THREE TRACKS LEFT BEFORE THE CHASE? "I'm pretty confident about them. We go pretty good at Bristol, we go really good at Richmond and we're getting better at California too. So we're excited about it in all reality."

ONCE YOU GET IN THE CHASE DOES IT CHANGE AT ALL? "You literally just take it one day at a time. I can't tell you what's going to happen in 10 weeks, you don't know what's going to happen in 10 weeks and nobody can predict what's going to happen. You realistically just have to take it one day at a time and adjust to the circumstances of whatever is happening that day. I mean, we could go out and have a loose lug-nut and have to come back in and that would alter the whole day for the deal. So you basically just go out and do the best you can at trying to win the race. If something happens, then you've got to adjust what your plan is for that day. We can't sit here 14 races from the end of it and say "well, this is what we're going to do and this is how we're going to do this and that". It's all about going out and trying to win races and if you can win races, the points take care of themselves. It's that simple."

SO BEFORE YOU GET IN THE CHASE, DO YOU MAP OUT ANY TRACKS THAT YOU MIGHT NEED TO FOCUS MORE ON? "What are you going to work on? I mean, if I'm trying to win the race anyway, what can I do any different than what I'm already doing. Right? What am I going to do different there?

ARE THERE ANY TRACKS YOU'RE CONCERNED ABOUT MORE THAN OTHERS? "No, because everybody's got to run them too. We've all got to run the same ten races. It worked out for us last year so there shouldn't be any reason to be concerned about them this year."

IT SOUNDS LIKE EXPERIENCE HELPS. "I'm talking about it for what it is. I mean, there's no "we're going to do this, or we're going to do that," you just go out and you do what you do every week to try to win the race for the first 26 weeks. When you get off your program is when you start making mistakes. Nobody's going to try to do anything any different than what they're already doing."