Raybestos Rookie Practice Speeds:
Reutimann, 10th
Montoya 15th
Ragan 28th

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “The car is still good. It’s good to see that. We’re changing motors for tomorrow so it should be interesting. We were just seeing the car how it would run out of fuel, just run it out of fuel. They left more fuel in there than they were expecting. The car is running good. No problems.” EVERY PRACTICE SESSION HAS HAD DIFFERENT WEATHER CONDITIONS. “Whatever it does, more windy, more hotter, it’s more tight the car gets. It’s the same for everybody.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CAR? “Yeah, much happier. We got the ignition deal worked out. The motor runs like it should. Frankie [Kerr, crew chief] made a bunch of changes this morning and the car is driving well. All in all, pretty satisfied with what we’ve got right now.” HAVE THE CHANGING WEATHER CONDITIONS THIS WEEK BEEN SOMETHING ADDITIONAL TO ADJUST TO? “It doesn’t seem to show up as bad at a track like Daytona. It does seem like it’s a little bit cooler out, the track maybe picked up a little bit more grip and that’s always a good thing. I think what you see is when it’s really, really hot down there then it kind of gets greasy like most tracks do. The cool weather has been a benefit, for the most part, and hasn’t really thrown us too many curveballs.” HAS THE CAR BEEN RUNNING HOT WHILE IN THE DRAFT? “No, we haven’t had that problem. We’re pretty good. We’re pretty open on tape so it’s not bad at all.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: “Our AAA Ford is in one piece after the practice session. This is the same car we tested down here so we knew what we had down here in January so we had some good notes to go off of. We’ve got one more hour tomorrow to work on it a little bit. It’s real comfortable, got some decent speed, so we’ll work on it a little bit tomorrow and see how we fare on Sunday.” HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO HAVE A GOOD PRACTICE AND GET YOUR CONFIDENCE BACK? “It’s a good thing for everybody. My Dad always told me you hate to run that last lap on the track and you wreck. You always want to go back out as soon as you can and get back in the rhythm of things. It’s good for everybody. I’m happy to get out and get the few laps we did. We’ll talk about it tonight. Certainly the car is a little different but there are some plusses to this car that we didn’t have in the other car and we’ve got some good cars around us: the 42, 24, Kevin Harvick and some of those guys. I think we’re in fine shape.” DID THE ACCIDENT IN THE DUEL PUT YOU WAY BEHIND? “Yes and no. The Roush Fenway Racing Team has a lot of depth. That doesn’t mean we can go out and tear cars up and still be all right. Yes, it puts us a little behind getting prepared again for Talladega. We’ve got a lot of good cars at the race shop and Jimmy does a great job preparing our backups to our primary. We’re not hurting by any means but we can’t make it a habit.”