Where the Raybestos Rookies will start at Bristol:
Montoya 36th
Ragan 41st
Allmendinger 43rd
Menard DNQ
Reutimann DNQ

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/PEAK ANTIFREEZE CHEVROLET: “I don’t think it’s going to be good enough. The car was just really tight. It was actually a little bit loose in practice and then we made it really good toward the end. With all the rubber laying down I think it just tightens the track up that much. I chattered the right front tire. We’ll see how it does.” IS THAT A CHARACTERISTIC OF THE COT CAR? “They don’t have a whole lot of downforce, compared to what we’re used to, and it’s a struggle to get ‘em to turn. We tested really good the other day at South Boston, getting ready for Martinsville. I actually got it turning pretty good and we had it turning pretty good in practice but the track is just rubbering up.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “It was a little tight and came out of 4 and just scrubbed the top wall. I didn’t know how bad I scrubbed it. The other car you can kind of learn when you touch the wall and I wasn’t sure here. It was still okay. We’re not enough where we want to be. The car was just too tight and still, I think in a way we could have got a little more on the second lap.” DO LAPS IN THE BUSCH CAR HELP YOU HERE AT BRISTOL? “No. I think actually it’s hurting me a little bit. Normally 90 percent of the time it helps and yes, maybe it’s going to give me a hand in the race, what to do in the race trim, but qualifying, I went out and normally you know exactly what you need to do. I run two-and-a-half hours, nearly three hours, in the Busch car and get out of the Busch car and do one lap here and it’s the one that counts. It’s not easy.” YOU’VE RACED ALL OVER THE WORLD. HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS TRACK? “I think if you grew up doing short track it’s hard but you would feel it’s awesome. I think it’s an awesome racetrack for me and I’ve never done anything like it. It’s just pretty hard.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “I’m sorry I’m going to have to make my guys work a little bit more tonight on the car because I roughed up the side of it. Oh my God, I’m just happy. Sitting there watching how fast everybody went was freaking the heck out of me. Oh man, thank God.” YOU RAN WELL AT ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT TRACKS IN NEXTEL CUP RACING. “Yeah, but, you know, it’s the first track that I’ve actually got to test at. We had a great test here back last month. Practice, it didn’t go as well as we wanted. But these guys are awesome. They kept me pumped up. I was going to use the whole racetrack if I had to. I didn’t care.” ARE YOU HAPPY OR IS THIS A RELIEF? “It’s freaking everything. It’s everything. I’m tired of hearing ‘When are you going to qualify for a Cup race?’ We qualified for one now and it’s just everything.” AND YOU GET MORE LAPS IN PRACTICE TOMORROW. “More laps, exactly. I get to actually sleep in my motorhome on Friday. I can actually drive Saturday so I’m happy about that.”

RICKY VIERS, CREW CHIEF, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “What a relief. I knew we could do it. We’ve had all the right opportunities. I knew AJ could do it. We had a few obstacles today and everybody just worked together and never give up. We worked to the last minute and made the last run. I couldn’t be any happier for the whole Team Red Bull. It’s just been a great opportunity for this whole team to come together and build together and to be here. We should have been here before now. We should have been able to race before now. It’s pretty cool. I’m hoping it’ll be easy from here. It’s been hard up to this point. We’ll fix the right side where he hit it a little bit. That’s nothing to worry about and keep digging. We’re going to have fun now. It’s huge. It’s huge for him to get in this race, especially here. Going to Martinsville in a week and have that confidence he’ll need to run well there so it couldn’t have come at a better time and we’re tickled to death.” IS THE COT AN EQUALIZER BECAUSE ALLMENDINGER DOESN’T HAVE MANY LAPS IN A STOCK CAR? “He likes that wing, doesn’t he? He likes that wing [smiles]. That’s pretty cool. We tested quite a bit here and did real well in the test here and I think that helped him a lot. He got a lot of confidence from that. Our R&D team, Randy Cox and those guys, went to Rockingham last week and ran three days and that was a huge help, too. I couldn’t be happier for everybody. Everybody at the shop has done an excellent job: fab shop, body shop, and all the mechanics. They deserve it. They’ve been working their tails off.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: “I tell ya, it was really different than my Busch car. I think my Busch car is driving so good that I get in this thing and before I could even think about what to do the two laps were over. You run as hard as you can with being in that comfort zone not tearing anything up. I felt like after practice we had a pretty decent car, pretty average, but it’s tough, especially now, the cars are so different where as before it was just a little bit. Getting out of the Busch car and getting into a Cup car definitely hurt me a little bit but we’ll get back in our rhythm and there’s no reason why we can’t be a top-25 car when it’s all said and done.” HOW DO YOU LOOSEN THESE CARS UP WITHOUT MAKING THEM TOO LOOSE? “If we knew that we’d be on top of the charts right now [smiles]. We’re close to that point and I think just more weekends at the track, more laps, and we haven’t been able to test a tremendous amount because we’ve been working on our real car program. We can see light at the end of the tunnel. I think some of it is just me just working on giving better feedback to the crew chief and at the same time all of our engineers and all of our guys working. We’re all trying to go fast but we’ve got to go about it in a different way than normal.”