Chevrolet Sweeps Front Row For USG Sheetrock 400

Casey Mears Scores Pole for Chevrolet; Seven Monte Carlo SS Race Cars Qualify in the Top 10 at Chicago

Joliet, Ill. - Casey Mears, No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Monte Carlo SS, will start from the pole position for Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Mears circled the 1.5-mile tri-oval with a lap of 29.580 seconds at 182.556 miles per hour to score his third career Bud Pole and first of the 2007 season. Martin Truex, Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Monte Carlo SS, took the second position on the grid giving Team Chevy a sweep of the front row for Sunday's event.

"I'm happy to get my first pole here with Hendrick Motorsports in the National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet," said Mears. "It's just awesome. Obviously when we start something new you always want to do things right and to get a win this year and a pole - now we're in the All-Star race for sure next year and also in the Bud Shootout. (I'm) looking forward to next season for those and hopefully we can get some more before the year's out. I was real proud of the guys because we unloaded off the truck today and the thing just felt awesome."

Seven Team Chevy drivers qualified within the top 10 with Mark Martin starting fourth, followed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson in the fifth through eighth positions respectively. Sunday's race, the 19th stop on the Nextel Cup tour, will feature a total of 20 Monte Carlo SS race cars.

The USG Sheetrock 400 begins Sunday at 3 p.m. central standard time and will be broadcast live on TNT and MRN radio.

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 19th

HOW DID YOU FEEL OUT THERE TODAY AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THE WEEKEND? "I'm excited. My Home Depot Chevrolet feels pretty good. It has real good stability right now, and that's the biggest thing here. Even when we were behind cars today it seemed like it drove well, and this is a place where the aero push can be really bad, so track position is always important. It's just a matter of trying to keep our balance good all day long."

HAVE YOU TALKED TO YOUR TEAMMATE, DENNY HAMLIN, AT ALL YET? "That's for us to talk about and you guys to think about and worry about. That was last week and I'm on to this week. The more we talk to you guys about it the longer you guys drag it out and it makes our lives miserable. If I'd of just kept my mouth shut like I should've done I wouldn't have to worry about dealing with it this week."

YOU HAVE TEAMMATES OFF THE TRACK, BUT IS THERE SUCH A THING AS HAVING TEAMMATES ON THE TRACK? "Absolutely. You look at how Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have stayed up front in restrictor plate races for so long. They work together really well. Dale Jr. and I did the same thing for many years before guys figured that the more they could keep us separated on the race track the less of a threat him and I were together. It's definitely a proven deal."

YOU'RE HAVING A VERY GOOD SEASON, YET THERE HAVEN'T BEEN THE WINS THAT NORMALLY COME WITH A SEASON LIKE THE ONE YOU'RE HAVING. "We've had really good days. You look at where we were at Charlotte, you look at Sonoma and how we were running at the end, Bristol how we were running - we've had good days, we just haven't had the end results on the sheet to go with it. A lot of that is just circumstances of what's happened. But the good thing is that we're in position and we're running good enough to at least be in those situations where we know we've got a shot."

DOES THAT GRATE ON YOU AT ALL, OR DO YOU LOOK AT IT AS, 'WE HAD A GOOD DAY?' "I think we look at it from the standpoint that this series is so competitive, if you're just good enough to be running good enough at the end of a day like. it may not be exactly where you want to end up, but the consolation prize is that you weren't running 35th all day, going 'What do we have to do to get caught up to the rest of these guys?" Our packages are good, we just got to get a little luck to go on or side too."

WHAT KIND OF A GRADE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR TEAM RIGHT NOW? "I would give us an 'A' for effort. The results haven't necessarily been where we've wanted them to be, but it's not been because of a lack of effort. I really feel like there are places that we've typically struggled that we've actually been really good at this year. We ran really well at the spring Pocono race. Bristol, obviously, we were better than we've ever been at Bristol. So, places that we struggled at we've actually picked up, and some of the places we've been really good at historically, we still are good, we just need that little bit extra to get back into victory lane. So, I feel like we gained over last year."

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified Fifth

TAKE US AROUND THIS CHICAGOLAND TRACK: "I got down into (Turn) 1 a little high, and got a little loose in the middle. But the car was there for me. It had a lot of grip. Tony Junior and my Budweiser team did a great job giving me what I needed for qualifying right there. I'm really, really proud of Martin (Truex Jr.) and the lap he ran and it would be great if we could be on the front row, but it would be hard for that to happen. I think there are some guys that can beat that. But two good laps for the DEI cars."

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIEL'S MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified Seventh

"Gill (Martin, crew chief) and everybody have been doing such a good job. We're getting close. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing. The important thing is to be in this Chase, obviously, when it's time. But we want to win a race. We want to get that out of the way and we want to do it this year. I can't think of a better place to do it than right here in Chicago."

Casey Mears, No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS and Martin Truex, Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS qualified first and second, respectively, at Chicagoland Speedway for the USG Sheetrock 400. Their post-qualifying press conference transcripts follow.

Casey Mears, No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS - Pole position

ON YOUR QUALIFYING RUN: "It was good. I was very, very happy with it. We fortunately got a bit of a cloud over in (turns) three and four. It's kind of funny because one and two is actually my better corner. Three and four the thing got a little bit tight but one and two was just unreal. I felt like we got through there very well. Just happy. I'm happy to get my first pole here with Hendrick Motorsports in the National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet. It's just awesome. Obviously when we start something new you always want to do things right and to get a win this year and a pole now - we're in the All-Star race for sure next year and also in the Bud Shootout. Looking forward to next season for those and hopefully we can get some more before the year's out. I was real proud of the guys because we unloaded off the truck today and the thing just felt awesome. I told them when I got out of the car after practice I said 'we've got a shot at the pole here, we've got a real good shot at it.' Th ey made the right adjustments and (I) put a good lap in and got it."

SINCE YOUR WIN IN CHARLOTTE, HOW MUCH MORE CONFIDENT HAVE YOU BEEN AND IS THIS POLE AN INDICATION OF THAT CONFIDENCE? "I don't know if it's as much confidence as, for me, relief to where we got rid of that monkey off our back a little bit and could just focus on what we need to do week in and week out. We've had a little bit of trouble. We lost our power steering at Sonoma, got into it with somebody at Loudon and knocked the toe out of the car. Had a bad couple of races after the (Coca-Cola) 600 but we obviously were in contention there at Daytona. Chicagoland has been a great race track for me and sitting on the pole here in the Busch car and winning a Busch race. Always run real well in the Cup car and I'm looking forward to it. Obviously our team is on a little bit of a roll. Definitely all the guys are thinking positive and have got great attitudes. Constantly figuring out how we can get better. Even though we're running well, figuring out how we can get better and make t hings better all the time. This is the car we ran at Charlotte and they worked on it to try and make it better so I'm just real proud of the job they've done."

HOW DO YOU EXPECT NEXT SEASON TO WORK OUT? "I think next season is going to be great. I'm really looking forward to it with (Dale) Junior coming in. He's a great guy; we get along well. Obviously he's got a lot of talent and has a resume to prove it. So we're looking forward to having him there and I think we're going to work really well together. I feel like Kyle (Busch) and I have been working really well together this year. It's been fun working with him as well, obviously talented and doing a good job. But looking towards next season, I'm very excited about it. I think it's going to be maybe a little bit more of a relaxed atmosphere. He's really laid back so you can't help but to be relaxed. Hopefully things flow well."

ARE YOU SHOOTING FOR TOP-FIVES EVERY WEEK SO YOU CAN MAKE THE CHASE? "We have to. We really do. Because you can't count on those other guys having bad races when you want to try and make the Chase. Our goal was to top 10 it from Charlotte out and that hasn't happened yet so we've just got to get some good top fives. Obviously we'd like to win this race; it would give us a good boost. But we need to top five it from here on out if we want to make the Chase and we probably need the help from some other guys that have bad ones. We're on the outside looking in right now but we still have a shot at it and we're going for it."

DO CLOUDS OVER THE TRACK REALLY HELP YOU RUN FASTER OR IS IT IN YOUR HEAD? "It does. It's a little bit of both. Sometimes I tell the guys to put a darker shield on so I think it's cloudy out so I go out and run faster. But definitely when a cloud comes over, if you can count to five it's going to be a little bit quicker. Fortunatley we had one down there in three and four; that's where I needed it the most because I got a bit tight and it may be kind of in your head a little bit but for some reason whether it's in my head or it's grip on the track, it will always go faster when a cloud is out. It goes hand in hand, I guess.

Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS - Qualified Second

ON YOUR LAP: "It was a great lap. We unloaded off the truck really good and did some race stuff. Went though qualifying trim with about an hour left and the car was really fast on our first run. We made two runs and I felt like I could go faster and (crew chief Kevin) Bono (Manion) wouldn't give me any more tires because we needed them for tomorrow. I felt like the car was really good and it was in qualifying. We picked up a good amount of speed from practice and it was just not quite fast enough. But a great run for the Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet and Bono just continues to give me good cars and that's what the difference was today."

DO CLOUDS OVER THE TRACK REALLY HELP YOU RUN FASTER OR IS IT IN YOUR HEAD? "I think a lot of it's mental. We think the track cools down so maybe we push a little harder. Some tracks it makes a difference but whether. if there's a cloud for 10 seconds and then no cloud for 10 seconds, I don't know if there's that huge of a difference. But we all pray for clouds, just trying to get every little advantage that we can. Casey (Mears) ran a 5:80 and we ran a 5:93 so any tiny little bit can help you. So you just try to get all you can."

AFTER YOUR RUN AT MICHIGAN, DO YOU FEEL ENCOURAGED THAT YOU COULD WIN HERE TOO? "Definitely there's a lot of confidence knowing that Michigan is not exactly really similar to this track but they've got similar characteristics. So we've got the same race car which has proven itself and run well at different. we took it to Pocono and ran third with it, at Michigan we ran second. We know it's in the car, we just have to tune it up and make it work well in this race track. This surface is getting to be more like Michigan. Last year the groove here was really wide. A lot of guys ran against the wall. I think Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ran against the wall and was probably one of the best cars towards the end of the race. I did that at Michigan and hopefully what we've learned and have been learning will work here. The car was pretty good in race trim today. We've got two hours to work on it some more tomorrow and I'm pretty confident in my race car and the things we've got in it that it should work here too."

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK OF THE CHASE RIGHT NOW? "We want to run well and finish up front no matter what the case is. Obviously we want to get in the Chase and once we get in it we want to be able to content for the championship. Performance over the next seven races is critical. Not only to get in it but to be competitive once we're in it. We don't want to just get in there and sit there and finish twelfth. So we want to do the best job we can for Bass Pro and everybody at DEI. They're doing a great job for me right now and I want to do all I can do to get us up there, make the Chase and compete for that championship.

HAVE YOU BEEN IN A POSITION WHERE YOU'VE QUALIFIED UP TOP SOMEWHERE BUT SOMEONE HAS BUMPED YOU OFF? "This is the first time I've been this close to a pole in the Cup Series but I've had many, many other times where I've went out pretty early and put down a pretty good lap and had to wait it out. It's not much fun. I'd rather go out late and be second than go out early and sit there and wait. This is the best qualifying effort we've had in the Cup Series so I'm real proud of that; real proud of the team. They're doing a great job. We really want to get a pole this year. Obviously getting in that Bud Shootout next year is pretty important to us. We'll just keep going at it. I feel like we'll get one this year. We came close today but we'll get one."