Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified:
Montoya 9th
Menard 22nd
Reutimann 33rd
Ragan 39th
Allmendinger DNQ
Whitt DNQ

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA INSURANCE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FORD: “We’re sitting in the top-five pretty comfortable right now I think [Ragan qualified third]. We picked up from practice. We made a few adjustments on the AAA Insurance Ford Fusion. We’ll see what we’ve got. We started 35th at Daytona and wound up all right. Certainly qualifying doesn’t pay much so as long as we’re in the show pretty decent, in the top-25, that’d be great.” LAST WEEK IS NOW OFFICIALLY OVER. “I feel like that’s kind of on the back burner certainly but when we need a little boost of energy we can always go back to Daytona and think about such a great run. We’ve got 35 more of these things and we’re going to run good in quite a few of them.” DOES THE BUSCH CAR HELP THE CUP CAR HERE? “Yeah, oh it helps me. Just coming to these tracks running helps me. When we get to Martinsville, not really, but California, Michigan, and Kansas City, tracks I don’t have a lot of experience on, running that Busch car is going to be awesome. We’ve got similar setups and certainly the more I can learn the better off I’m going to be.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “The first lap was good. Everyone on the Texaco/Havoline team did an amazing job. Maybe there was a little bit more in it but I don’t know how much more. Jeff Gordon’s lap was awesome. It’s great to see the team doing well.” DID YOU THINK YOU COULD BEAT JEFF GORDON’S LAP? “I thought I could run a flat and I did. For the experience that I have at the moment, that’s pretty good. I didn’t have much left in the car, maybe a tenth or so but it was a really good lap. It was a very clean lap so it was good.” DID YOU LEAVE ANYTHING OUT THERE? “A little bit, maybe a tenth, but that’s about it.” WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS TRACK? I’ve raced here before in open wheel and it’s very different. There is a lot of hard work in this car. This has probably been the hardest track for me so far.” WHAT KIND OF RACE DO YOU EXPECT ON SUNDAY? “A tough one. I think the guys that race here before have got a big advantage over me in what to expect out of the car and stuff. As the race goes on hopefully we can improve the balance of the car and understand a bit more what I need out of the car for the race.” COMMENT ON RACING NEXT WEEK IN MEXICO CITY. “I think we should be competitive in everything. But it’s hard to really judge how quick we’re going to be. If I can get a top-five out of there I’d be over the moon.” HVE YOU RACED THERE BEFORE? “Thirteen years ago.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/QUAKER STATE CHEVROLET: “The first lap was real conservative. I wanted to get one down in the books and then Pops [Tony Eury Sr., crew chief] told me the time and I was going to wreck the car or get a 20 so that’s what we did. Our Intermediate tracks have come a long way since this time last year and Pops and the boys have had an awesome off-season. We learned a lot in the Vegas test and it’s kind of applying here. The pressure is off now. We can just go run in Happy Hour and get some good laps in and make our car drive good. I’ve just got 500 miles Sunday.” HOW MUCH EMPHASIS DID YOU PUT ON RACE SETUP? “Zero. We didn’t make a single race run. It was all qualifying runs. Our goal this weekend, especially since last weekend, is get in top-35 in points. To do that you’ve got to make races. Quaker State came on board helping us out so it’s cool to get them in the show and have some fun on Sunday.” ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE RISKS TO GAIN AS MANY POINTS AS POSSIBLE? DO YOU HAVE TO RACE CONSERVATIVE? “It’ll probably be pretty conservative on Sunday. If we finish top-20, I’d be very happy with that as far as getting the car to drive good. Don’t dive bomb anybody trying to make stupid passes or anything; just be there at the end and try to regain some of the points.” DID YOU PUT LAST WEEK OUT OF YOUR MEMORY OR DID YOU THINK ABOUT IT? “I woke up Friday morning and it was totally out of my memory. We had a job to do with the Busch car. Come Monday we started thinking about what we did wrong and how to fix it. Daytona is one of those deals where we had a really good race car. The 10 car checked-up and lost our momentum and we stayed out when we probably should have pitted and just got really tight at the end. Daytona is kind of it’s own animal and now we can go to a California, Vegas, and Atlanta and kind of make our own destiny.” YOU TESTED WELL AT LAS VEGAS AND BACKED IT UP HERE TODAY. “The Vegas test was really good for us. We unloaded and we were pretty happy with the car but then we hit on some things that are really going to help with our intermediate program and it’s kind of showing right now.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: “I was just telling the guys that we’ve got hurry up and get in the top-35 because I’m not sure I can keep living like this. I prayed as hard as I’ve ever prayed for anything before we went out and it’s just a blessing to get in. I hate that it had to be at the expense of a teammate but we’ll try to go and have a good race and maybe that’ll make up for some stuff.” CAN YOU COMPARE TO QUALIFYING WITH NO POINTS TO ANYTHING IN YOUR CAREER? “No, not even close, ever and it all honesty, I hope that I don’t ever have to that feeling. It’s way past pressure. I said it in Daytona and it’s the same here. It feels like sink or swim. You’re either going to make it or not. We’re still treading water here trying to make some headway. The guys are doing a good job and I’m proud of them. We’ll go after ‘em on Sunday.” YOU MUST FINISH WELL TO TRY CRACK THE TOP-35 IN POINTS. “This is just part of what you’ve got to do. It’s a very large part of it but at the same time, after it’s over with, you just forget about it and concentrate on the race. Getting in is one thing but going out and finishing 43rd is not going to get it, either.” DO YOU FEEL FOR MICHAEL WALTRIP? “I do, because Michael has done a lot for me. He’s put a lot into this team and this program and I want all three of us to be in and we’re not. Hopefully we’ll keep gaining and make the whole organization stronger and we don’t have to worry about not making races anymore.” DID YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE GOING OUT LATE? “Yes, definitely, I think it was. You saw the times get quicker and quicker. If I would have gone out a little earlier it could just have easily gone the other direction.” HOW MUCH PRACTICE TIME DID YOU GET? “We were a little bit limited. My guys did a really good job getting things turned around. We missed some practice but not as much as some guys did.”

BRANDON WHITT, No. 72 DUTCH QUALITY STONE CHEVROLET: “We really struggled in practice bad but we picked up a second. That’s good that we can do that but it’s never good that you have to pick up that much and still be as bad as we are. We just started off bad and that was the demise of the whole deal. We got what we got and we know we’re not going to be in. We’ll go to Vegas where we tested and hopefully unload closer and not have to go through this again.” CAN YOU LEARN ANYTHING GOING THROUGH THE PROCESS TODAY TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER AT LAS VEGAS? “Yeah, exactly. We’re just coming off a crew chief change and starting to try to work together better and just get the cars better when we arrive at the track. It is a whole process and we’re trying to do the best we can and hopefully it will all pan out here in the end.”