KEN SCHRADER – No. 21 U.S. Air Force Ford Fusion (Qualified 28th) – YOU WERE TWO TENTHS FASTER THAN PRACTICE. “I had to (laughing). It’s time to qualify now and the track is cooler, so you’ve got to run better. I don’t know where that will be, but I’m guessing somewhere from 18th to 20th.” YOU MUST FEEL LIKE YOU DID SOMETHING RIGHT TODAY. “We tested here and were good. Then we went to Phoenix thinking that stuff would work and chased it all day long at Phoenix in practice. We finally hit it at Phoenix and brought the Phoenix stuff back, but we’re not seeing where these two tracks run the same.”

DALE JARRETT – No. 88 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 26th) – YOU WEREN’T QUITE SURE WHAT YOU HAD BEFORE THE DAY STARTED. HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW AFTER PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING? “We made it better than we were here on the test, but we’re still fighting some of the same problems. If we could go that much more – and we made a few changes – but we didn’t want to step out too much. We probably got about half of it out of the way just turning the car through the center of the corner and not killing the forward bite is what we’re fighting. A lot of people are gonna say that same thing that aren’t very good, but we’re much better than we were. I think we at least have a little bit of a chance to race reasonably well tomorrow night. I feel better than what I felt after the test.” SO DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT FIRST ADJUSTMENT NEEDS TO BE TOMORROW NIGHT? “Probably so. We made some changes in the front end to help the car go through the center a little bit better and then as we get to tomorrow night we’ll see how the track changes from the Busch race tonight and then getting into the cooler weather. From the test we saw that you’ve got a little more grip there, so that helps things.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Qualified 11th) – “We never got to do a mock up run in practice so I’m really happy with that because I didn’t know what it would run. That was a great lap. We didn’t quite get it all, but that will still probably get us a top five or top seven – somewhere in there – so that’s good.” A GOOD LAP? “Yeah, I think that was really good. I think we all look forward to running at Richmond. It’s a great race track and that was a great lap. That will give us a great starting spot.”

MARK MARTIN – No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) – “It was a good run, but I just want to thank everyone on the AAA team, Ford and everybody that supports us, especially Jack Roush and AAA and Pat Tryson and everybody that works on the 6 car. It’s an honor to drive the 6 car. I’ve been in it a long time and sometimes I forget, but that just reminded me what a true honor it is to drive the 6 car.” DID YOU KNOW IT WAS A GOOD LAP? “Yeah, I knew it was pretty good. I certainly didn’t expect the pole and I don’t expect the pole. That would be too much to ask, to ask for the pole here but it’s gonna be a real good starting spot and I do like that.” DOES THAT GET YOU CRANKED UP? “The car did the work. The first lap was pretty good and the second lap I got into one too easy and it kind of made me mad, so I figured I’d kill turn three so I went in over my head and made it through there and I guess I made up what I threw away going into one.” THAT MUST BE A RUSH. “I was glad I made it. I didn’t know if the second lap would be faster than the first and it was about a quarter-of-a-second faster so it just goes to show I don’t know what’s going on out there.” HOW WILL THE CAR RACE? “The car is awesome in race trim. We always race better than we qualify.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Qualified 9th) – “That’s a top 10. It’ll be great. We’ve got a good race car. We got real lucky with the draw and I was pretty conservative there after my Busch deal. It’s alright.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 National Guard/Subway Ford Fusion (Qualified 1st) – HOW WAS THE LAP? “It was a great lap. I just really did everything right. I eased it down in the corner right on the bottom and got back to the gas as early as I could. I left some in three and four just because I tore up my Busch car a little bit qualifying there, so hopefully it stays up there at the top but, if not, it’ll be a top five starting spot.” AFTER WINNING THE POLE ON PIT ROAD – HOW DOES IT FEEL? “It feels great. We struggled today back and forth and the guys worked really hard on the race car. Then they had a jack bolt that the threads galled up on it, so they had to re-tap the nut. We were late getting through inspection and being a one-day show these guys have a lot of pressure on them, especially the races that we’ve had leading up to this. There’s just a lot of pressure to perform perfectly and not make any mistakes and they did it for me. I was able to pull it off on the race track and now the big thing is to finish tomorrow night with a good finish. That’s what we’re after.” YOU HAD A SIMILAR SETUP AS MARK SO DID YOU THINK YOU COULD GO TO THE TOP? “Our cars are pretty close to the same. Mark’s got a good race car and I think we do too. I felt good about the qualifying run – that I had a chance. I had a great chance in my Busch car to be on the top of the board and I just skinned the fence over there coming off four on my second lap. I knew I didn’t want to do that in my Cup car, so I just concentrated and wanted to do it right.” ARE YOU SURPRISED? “I’m pretty surprised. I knew we had to be right in the top five. I’ve qualified very well here. Jeff Gordon beat me by one-one thousandth of a second before and I’ve qualified third here, so I knew we’d have a good run at it but I didn’t know it would be that good.”

MARK MARTIN PRESS CONFERENCE

HOW WAS THAT RUN? “It was great. I didn’t notice any wind or anything. The car worked fantastic. I can tell you that this makes 19 years that I’ve been in that 6 car and obviously I take it for granted from being in it for so long, but something like that – to drive a car like that – really reminds me of what an honor it is to drive that 6 car. I’ve been really lucky for a long, long time to be strapping in that thing and that reminded me just how lucky I am.” IT HAD BEEN FIVE YEARS YESTERDAY SINCE YOUR LAST POLE. MAYBE WE SHOULD ASK BIFFLE WHY HE DIDN’T LET YOU HAVE IT AND LET YOU IN THE SHOOTOUT NEXT YEAR. “I’ve said all along that the Bud Shootout and the All-Star race were races that I was interested in doing, so even if I would have been gone truck racing I would have wanted to be in the shootout. But let me tell you one thing, though, talking about Biffle letting me have a pole. Listen, that ain’t gonna happen. I don’t know if you all were paying attention at the banquet last year at New York but listen, every driver’s nightmare is to wake up every day knowing that they’ve got to race against Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and now Jamie McMurray in the same stuff. I’ll be honest with you, when I found out that Biffle hadn’t gone yet, I knew I was had because nobody gets on the wheel like Greg Biffle.” A NICE COMEBACK FROM LAST WEEK TO PUT IT BEHIND YOU. “Last week’s race was beyond making me mad. I mean, it was just beyond that. Now I will say that last year in the chase when we went into there second or third or whatever we were in the points and wrecking before the first pit stop, I had real trouble with that for a long time. But this race I blew off because we’ve run so good this year. We’ve scored a lot of points and it was just so out there that I couldn’t even get mad about it. We ran great. We ran OK in the test here. We ran great at Phoenix and we came back here and we worked a little bit more after learning some things at Phoenix and tried to make some additional adjustments that maybe made the car a little bit better. As Casey (Mears) said, he ran the same speed he did in the test. When I tried to qualify in the test, I ran a .40 and I thought I was gonna be last place. I thought I’d have to use a provisional here, so those little changes that we made to the car moved us way up the grid. Some of that is just luck and some of that is magic. You strap into that 6 car and sometimes there’s magic dust flying around.”

GREG BIFFLE PRESS CONFERENCE

“I think we qualified third last time here, so this is great for us to be able to start on the front row.” DID THE WEATHER HAVE AN IMPACT? “Everybody knows when it cools down that the engines will run a little bit better, but obviously this is a pretty short race track so the little bit of power you’re gonna pick up probably isn’t gonna affect the qualifying time as much as the car handling. My car handled very well. I tell you what, my guys have worked so hard. I changed so much stuff today. I was watching Bobby change the last left-front spring and I thought he was gonna fall over dead. And then the jack screw galled up and they were trying to prep the car for the race and they were late getting through inspection. They had to tap the thing and change the bolt out and they’ve worked really hard. We need to work hard right now because all eyes are on us because of where we’re at and how we’re running. We’re sure putting 100 percent effort into it.” HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING TO PUSH IT AND GET BACK INTO THIS TOP 10 RACE? “No, I don’t think so at all. I’ve really got a great level head. Like in Phoenix, my car wasn’t that good early and I said, ‘Hey, top five.’ I’m running third. I’m running fourth. I can’t catch Mark. I’m not gonna catch Mark. I was OK with that and then somebody else came up there and was a little faster than I was. Then Mark left a lugnut off and then we made an adjustment and we got a little bit better, so I wasn’t pushing it at all. Of course at Talladega I wasn’t. I was kind of being cautious there as well. We were staying around the 88 and the 20 and I saw them kind of doing the same thing and kind of got myself in that position. And the same thing tomorrow night. I don’t need to win here, I need to finish fifth. I’ve got to finish in the top five and that’s really our goal, so I don’t think it’s pushing too hard. We’re just gonna set a good pace if we can stay out front. If we can’t, we’ll fall in wherever we can.” DOES IT FEEL LIKE GROUNDHOG DAY TO YOU WITH THE SAME THING SEEMINGLY HAPPENING EVERY WEEK? “Yeah, I feel the same way. I’m right with you, but the only thing I can do is just be excited about tomorrow night and look forward to this. I’ve got to put that big shield up from what happened last week, what woulda, shoulda, coulda and might have happened. I’ve got to think about tomorrow night and concentrate. The best remedy for me is being in the race car with the belts pulled down because then I’m not thinking about it. The testing two days at Charlotte was therapy to not think about it. We were really good and almost one of the best cars at Charlotte at the end of the second day. I felt really, really good about our car. I’m excited about it to go back. I can’t wait and now running this well here, this is my Phoenix car of course. A lot of guys did that and hopefully I can get it turned around. That’s what I keep saying, but I’m just gonna run the race tomorrow like I won last week.” HOW DO YOU GET IN THE TOP FIVE? “Not pushing the envelope for second or third I think is what I’m saying. I feel like I have a car that I can run in the top five with and if I can’t, I won’t push that issue either. Still, finishing inside the top 10 is not gonna be bad for me, but we would really like to get three of four top fives in a row and see where that puts us in the mix. I’m gonna take whatever I can get. If it’s 12th tomorrow night, I’m gonna end up 12th. If it’s a win, I’m certainly gonna be there for the win, but I’m just gonna do the best I can do.” HOW HAVE YOU HANDLED ALL OF THIS? “People ask me if I’m superstitious and I say I’m not, but I went into the shop and kind of reassured everybody that we’re all on the same page and we’re all working together. That was before our Phoenix trip and we went out there and ran very well. I’m trying to do the same thing that I’ve always done. If that’s going and mess around at my shop on Monday, go to the race shop on Tuesday and sit in on the meeting, fly my helicopter on Wednesday or go up and do whatever – mow the grass. I’m trying to do the same thing and not panic about it because when we show up at the race track we’re doing the right things. We’re not doing anything stupid to put ourselves in those positions, so I’m trying not to change anything, but I don’t know what else to do.” IF WE GET RAIN WILL IT CHANGE THE TRACK A LOT? “It will change the track some, but we don’t race until tomorrow night. The first 10-15 laps might be a little bit different, but the track will come in pretty fast. If it rains out tonight, I’m gonna quit racing the Busch Series because I’m looking so forward to a day off you wouldn’t believe it and I don’t want to be here on Sunday.”