Scott Riggs (No. 10 Valvoline Dodge Charger)

WHY NO SECOND LAP - “To be honest with you we were taking it all the way off because we were pretty hot temperature-wise there that first lap and it seemed the second lap was slowing down. I don’t know maybe I should have tried a second lap. If it takes us out of the race I’ll beat myself us for not taking a second lap.”

Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Dodge Charger)

ON QUALIFYING - “We did all we could. I felt like I ran a pretty good lap real hard, aggressive lap. The time isn’t as good as you hope, but I feel like we tried hard and ran hard, we just didn’t go that fast.”

HOW DID YOU PICK UP OVER YOUR PRACTICE THIS MORNING? “I think about a tenth or so. We picked up a little bit. Its better than losing I guess.”

Elliot Sadler (No. 19 Dodge Charger)

ON QUALIFYING - “Not too good. Just kind of frustrating. We didn’t run the lap we thought we could. We got 400 miles Sunday and we’ll work on it tomorrow to try and get it a little bit better for Sunday.”

John Andretti (No. 45 National Tire & Battery Dodge)

ON QUALIFYING - “The NTB Dodge has been fantastic ever since we unloaded it from the truck, and they just keep been better and better. My hat goes off to the race team because we tested in Kentucky and they had to really trash to get the car ready because what they found in Kentucky they wanted to put into here to give me the best opportunity here. My hat is off to Petty Enterprises and Evernham Engines and all the people around it because its just a ball to drive. And its great to be back at Petty Enterprises because even though its just for a short period of time, its like going home for a visit.”

HOW GOOD IS THE CAR? “Its good in qualifying trim so we’ll see how it goes in race trim. We unloaded it and ran it in qualifying trim. Like half of the field. We’ll see how it runs tomorrow. I have all the confidence in the world. They worked on it and made such an improvement and I know Kyle is going to love it. And Bobby is going to do real well. He’s probably gonna block me off, but it should be a great race.”

Bobby Labonte (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge)

ON QUALIFYING? “We were just a little bit too tight and I was just hesitant to free it up a little bit but I should have just a skosh. Overall, it was pretty good. We unloaded here and are pretty happy and we continued with a pretty good roll with it. It’s not probably going to be in the top 10 but its better than we have qualified lately at tracks like this.”

Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge)

ON QUALIFYING? “I thought we’d go a little faster but didn’t have many practice laps with it because we had to change the engine. It’s just a weird Friday the 13 for us, so we’ll just have to start in the back anyway.”

Ryan Newman (No. 12 Mobil 1/alltel Dodge)

HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO THE BUD POLE TODAY? “Just close enough that we didn’t get it. It’s fast. The Mobil 1 Dodge is good in practice, we bettered it, we just didn’t get the break we needed. We worked with a great, brand new race car. It’s the first time we’re bringing it to the race track. We tested it once. So we’re looking forward to the race.”

David Stremme (No. 40 TUMS/Coors Lite Dodge)

HOW DID YOUR CAR HANDLE TODAY? I thought it would be pretty good but then we hit the wall off of two. I mean, nothing bad, but enough to kill my lap. We’ll have to start from the back on Sunday.

Reed Sorenson (No. 41 Target/Maxwell House Dodge)

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN TODAY? It was pretty good. We ran race trim this morning and the car felt really good and then we just did a qualifying run there. We struggled in qualifying trim in practice and we had a vibration for the last 30 minutes of practice and it was tight. The qualifying run was really good and the car was a lot better just wish I got to feel that before I got to qualify and we made a pretty big change to make it turn and it definitely helped it and we didn’t get quite enough out of it and I just didn’t know I was going to have it there.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR QUALIFYING DRAW EFFECTED YOUR QUALIFYING TODAY? I thought it was going to effect it. I thought clouds would have affected it more than anything. You see guys going out in the beginning and running really fast so it didn’t matter a whole lot.

RYAN NEWMAN
POST-QUALIFYING INTERVIEW
USG SHEETROCK 400
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY

NOTE: Ryan Newman qualified third for Sunday’s USG Sheetrock 400.

Ryan Newman (No. 12 Mobil 1/Alltel Dodge)

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN: “We were second quickest in practice and I did my quickest lap the second lap. So I ran two today and the first one was really, really good. It was, it just wasn’t good enough, but it was a good run for the Mobil 1 Dodge Charger to start in the top three and I look forward to the race. I think we have a very competitive car based on our race trim times today.”

IN A QUALIFYING SESSION LIKE THIS WHEN THE CLOUDS ARE IN AND OUT IS THERE ANYTHING YOU DO TO AVOID THE CLOUDS? “You have the five minute clock and I joked about it afterwards about would I have sat there, if I knew the cloud was going to be there. I really don’t think it makes that big of a difference. The track can’t instantaneously cool off that quick to make that big a difference. It would be nice but you can only take it as it goes. If you did something like that, I’m sure NASCAR would have a little meeting with you or something at some point.”

IF A CLOUD MOVES OVER THIRTY SECONDS BEFORE YOU’RE ON THE RACE TRACK, CAN IT REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE? “That’s been the theory. Definitely the flatter the race track the more the more influence it has as far as the track temperature. Outside of that, nobody I think has really quantified it to make an answer that I could give you and make it sound correct. It might take a minute of clouds to make a thousandth of a second of difference at a certain race track with a certain size, a certain grip level. I mean it’s quite an equation. I’m not blaming it on the clouds just so you know.”

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT A SECOND GROOVE COMING IN. YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO BE ON THE TRACK TWICE. DO YOU THINK WE’LL GET SIDE BY SIDE RACING ON SUNDAY? “Without a doubt. We’re very, very confident that it will be three-wide racing at some point at both ends of the race track. And the track, for whatever reason feels like it has quite a bit of grip because it’s really, really fast but there’s already a second groove out there. I know I was passing some cars in the Busch practice. The Busch race depends on how wide it will get for the start of the race, and on Sunday. I think without a doubt it will have some second and third grooves. So it may be faster on the bottom.”

BEING SO CLOSE TO INDIANA HERE AT CHICAGOLAND, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE RACING CLOSE TO YOUR HOMETOWN? “It’s neat to see faces that you don’t see very often. I mean it’s faces that I grew up with racing. It’s midgets and sprint cars like that. Open wheel people. Guys I used to race with. Car owners I used to race for. Just in general, seeing those faces and being in this area it’s kind of a homecoming. Outside of that, it’s another stop on the schedule.”