Raybestos Rookie Qualifying Speeds:
Montoya 4th
Ragan 5th
Reutimann 14th
Menard 30th
Allmendinger 37th
Whitt 55th

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: “That’s pretty special. You come down to Daytona and you just have to give all the credit the guys back at the shop. This is months and months of hard work. All the guys at the Roush-Yates engine shop have really done an excellent job and I think that’s going to show by the end of qualifying today. I don’t really have a lot of time to think about what is to come. We’ve just got to stay focused on the next race and the next task at hand and so far it’s really been fun. Everyone at AAA and Ford and everyone at Roush Racing has put together an excellent team and we’re just glad to be here. We’ve got a great race car and we’re looking forward to 150 on Thursday.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO SEE THIS CAR WITH YOUR NAME ON IT? “It’s something that you think ‘Is this really the case?’ I’ve been a Mark Martin fan and Dale Jarrett fan and it’s special and it’s cool to think like that but at the same time you realize how much hard work is really ahead of us. There’s not a lot of time to think about how cool it is to be here. It’s just a matter of let’s do the right thing so we can stay here.”

COMMENT ON LAST NIGHT’S ARCA RACE. “Anytime you can come away from Daytona with a top-five finish in any kind of series is a positive momentum builder for the rest of the week, the rest of the year. Certainly we had hoped to come out with a win. Bobby Gerhart has really done his homework over the last few years but Frank and I, we tried to give him a run for his money the last few laps. We just come up a little short but a top-five run was good for the AAA Ford Fusion. I think that maybe if I can talk Jack [Roush, car owner] into coming back down here again next year I’d like to see a Ford beat Bobby one day.”

DID THE WIND SLOW YOU DOWN? “It probably didn’t hurt us but it didn’t help us any. We would have like to have picked up and ran close to a .40 or something. That’s probably going to be the pole, a high 30 or 40, and it’s probably going to be one of Yates’ Fords. We don’t come down here to sit on the pole. We come down here to run the race well. We’ve got a great race car and that’s what we’re looking forward to on Thursday.”

ARE YOU GLAD YOUR QUALIFYING RUN IS OVER? “Oh, I’m just ready to move on to the next task at hand. Now my goal is obviously the Busch car on Wednesday and the Cup car on Thursday for the 150. Whatever the next task is, that’s what I’m focused on so I’m probably going to go back to the motorhome and watch a copy of last year’s 150 and study up a little bit and we’ll be ready to go.”

BRANDON WHITT, No. 72 DUTCH QUALITY STONE CHEVROLET: “We thought we could make some changes on the car today but I guess nothing really helped. The three day test session that we had down here, we made some changes to the team when we went back home and just didn’t have enough time to get everything prepared the way we wanted it to be. It’s kind of a gamble but we knew what we were up against. We’ll take Daytona for what we can take it for, just gain some experience and move on to the regular races when we start at California. I’m just proud of the guys and how hard they’re working over at CJM and hopefully we’ll get something out of it.”

IS THAT WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD RUN? “No, no we were way off what we thought we would. We wanted to definitely be quite a bit faster than that. We slowed down from practice. I know everybody else is but we found some things last night that we thought would help us. I guess there’s nothing that will help it [smiles]. We’ll do the best race we can in the duels and go from there.”

ARE YOU HOPING THIS CAR WILL DRAFT WELL? “Yeah, that’s what we’re hoping for. We were down here testing a few weeks ago, the car ran real good in the draft, drove real good, drove real nice. I struggled with the same thing in my ARCA car the other day. We couldn’t run by ourselves but when we got in the draft it was the best driving car I’d ever had. Hopefully we’ll just out-handle them at the end [smiles] when everybody starts to handle real bad and we can make up some spots.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “I think it’s good. I think it really shows how far Chip Ganassi Racing has come. I think the engine program has come a long way and that’s good. I’m really happy for Texaco Havoline and everybody involved in this program. It’s just nice to see that we’ve got a lot of potential.”

DO YOU ENJOY DRAFTING HERE AT DAYTONA? “That’s what makes it interesting. I think the 150s are going to be a good lesson for me to learn a lot for the 500. That’s where a rookie comes in, running in the packs and knowing where to put the car and everything.”

ARE YOU STILL ON THE EDGE HERE IN QUALIFYING? “You’re still on the edge. Here, it’s a little different. Here by yourself is not that hard. The car moves around a little but it’s not so bad. The hard thing here is the drafting. When you run in a pack it makes it very entertaining.”

ARE YOU HAPPY TO HAVE QUALIFYING BEHIND YOU? “I think it’s good. I’m happy to see how everybody in the engine shop come up. They did a heck of a motor for us for Daytona and it was nice to see that.”

DO YOU GET A SENSE OF THE HISTORY HERE AT DAYTONA? “Yesterday I was amazed at the amount of people that came to see the Shootout and it was pretty cool to watch. I thought it was pretty exciting.”

WOULD IT BE SPECIAL TO YOU TO STAY ON THE FRONT ROW? “You’ve got to wait for the 88. Our other car, the 40, has been really fast as well so he has another chance as well. I would think both Yates cars are going to be in the front but that doesn’t mean much for the race. It shows that we’ve got good motors, good cars and we’ll see what they do at the end of the race.”

YOU JUST KIND OF PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN AND LET THE CAR DO THE WORK. “You always want to try and get a little bit more, be a little bit smoother, be a little bit more precise, try a little trick here or a little trick there and see if you can gain anything.”

DID YOU SURPRISE YOURSELF AT HOW WELL YOU PICKED THIS UP? “I’ll be very happy at the end of 500 miles I’m there and I’ve got a good finish, I’ll be more than happy. This is a lot of work with the team and Speedweeks and everything but the big deal here is the race, not this.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL ENERGY DRINK TOYOTA: “Obviously, you’d like to be a bit faster, but overall, I was pleased with that. Not really looking at the lap time so much, that’s the best the car has driven so far of the two days. It’s a great job by the guys. We’re all working hard trying to figure this out so I think overall, with where we were at, I’m pleased with that.”

DO YOU FEEL HELPLESS AS A DRIVER HERE? “Yeah, it comes down to I don’t think there’s a lot a driver can do to help it. There’s probably a lot he can do to slow the car down. You’re at where you’re at. That’s all you can do. That’s what is so great about this whole team. We’re working hard and obviously everybody knows how difficult it’s going to be and they just keep plugging away. We’d like to be further up than where we're at but the best thing is we knew we were going to have to race our way in and that’s the best the car has handled so far. I’m excited about that going into Thursday.”

IS YOUR MINDSET ABOUT THE DUEL ON THURSDAY AND RACING YOUR WAY INTO THE 500? “Yeah, for sure. When we ran the first practice session and we weren’t anywhere near the top-20 and there’s a couple of guys like Sterling and Johnny and those types of guys that have to race their way in, too, but they’re fast on speed. We kind of knew that it really wasn’t really going to be one of those things where we were going to qualify our way in, but what pleased me was that it handled really well by itself. We’ve been struggling with that a little bit so that at least gives us the right direction going into Wednesday and especially with Brian last night running the Budweiser Shootout. We’ve learned a lot going into Wednesday and start drafting.”

HOW IS THE PROGRESS? “At least we’re going forward. We’re not making the gains, the chunks that we want to be making to where we’re taking out a couple of tenths here and there. It just shows how difficult this is and what you’re up against. The great thing that shows about these guys is we don’t put our heads down. We don’t get mad about it. We just keep working hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it so we’re just going to keep plugging away.”

HOW HAS THIS WHOLE EXPERIENCE BEEN FOR YOU? “Obviously, I’m nervous. I want to be in the race and all that but there’s not a lot of guys that get to say they get to come do this and experience Daytona. I sat back last night in the Team Red Bull pit box watching the Bud Shootout just listening to the crowd go wild. It’s awesome. I love being able to be a part of it and as nervous as I am and wanting to be in the race I’m trying to take that back a little bit and just take everything and take it in and be excited about it and I’m having a lot of fun.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/PEAK ANTIFREEZE CHEVROLET: “We ran a .95 in practice and I was kind of hoping that we’d at least pick up from that but it’s a lot more windy today. We’ll just have to do it the hard way and race our way in.” DO YOU HAVE ANY STRATEGY FOR THE GATORADE DUEL ON THURSDAY? “Just finish in the top-two. Whatever we have to do to finish in the top-two is what we have to do. I don’t think it really matters which 150 we’re in. If Dale Jr. or Martin are in either one of ours then hopefully we can hook up and help each other out. But like I said, we’ll just have to do it the hard way and it’s going to be interesting.” COMMENT ON THE WEATHER CONDITIONS. “It’s a lot more windy today and it always slows you down. We put a little gear in it to help that and I’m not sure if it helped it or not because you get a push down the frontstretch and a headwind down the backstretch. It could go either way I guess.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: “It’s fourth best [of the cars needing to qualify on speed]. The guys did a great job, especially for a team that didn’t have anybody to start with. To be where we are I think is pretty impressive for our organization. I think they’ve done a great job. I’ve got a great group of guys. We’re just a little bit short. We’re not going to give up by any means. It would have been nice to do it today.”

MONTOYA PRESS CONFERENCE

“It went pretty good. With the wind the car was pretty tight through 1 and 2 and when I ran high I was like the wall was coming at me but other than that it was good. I think everybody at Ganassi has done an amazing job. The engine program really stepped that up from last year and it’s just nice to see. We’ve always had really good handling cars from what they say and now with the extra power we should be looking pretty good.”

ANY SURPRISES TODAY? “No. I tell you, this felt like a Formula One weekend: go out, two laps, come in, two laps, come in, qualify [laughter]. It did. You were so restricted on the laps you could do for the motors that that’s what you did. Here you’ve got, with the qualifying trim all taped up, you get two laps out of the car and that’s the way you do. I went out in the morning the car felt good, came in, afternoon felt good, parked it, went out and did two laps and change again. I’m just looking forward to getting into normal business.”

YOU HAVE A KNACK FOR FINDING THE EDGE OF THE CAR PRETTY QUICKLY. DOES THAT SAME APPROACH APPLY IN NASCAR? “It’s the same thing, to be honest. Something we did for example in Vegas I think we were one of the few cars that didn’t do a qualifying run. And the reason we didn’t do that is because we’re so early in the stages of developing the car for my driving that I’d rather spend more time trying different things. I think more comfortable in the car, quicker we’re going to go. The driver speed relates how comfortable he is in the car. When he goes into the corner he knows that the car is going to do then he’s going to go fast and I think that’s very important. I’m getting more comfortable and more comfortable. We run very good lap times at the end of the second Vegas test. We’re getting there. I think I’ve still got to learn all that starting really loose to get a good car at the end and all that. And I think from what I saw in the Shootout people were getting really tight really early.”

HOW EASY IS QUALIYFING HERE AT DAYTONA? “There’s not too much to it. You try to be as smooth as you can and run high and run low. My first lap here, when I came here for the test, I had never been here before and I asked ‘Is it the same as Talladega?’ and they said ‘Yeah.’ So I went out wide-open, straight out, and I had never been here before and it was fine. I was glad it was fine. Something interesting here is it’s a lot bumpier. There’s a couple of bumps. There’s one going into 1, if you run high coming out of 3 and 4 there’s a big bump there as well and it really moves the car around and I think that’s a lot more interesting than Talladega because a good handling car can make a difference.”

THIS IS GOING TO BE YOUR FIRST 500-MILE RACE IN A STOCK CAR. “I think the Busch races went pretty good. In one I got taken out, spun out. The other one I hit the wall and it just made the car tight and if you push a fender in you’re done. You look at my Homestead race last year as the race went on I was getting better and better and better. The key thing here is bringing the car home and if you do that, you’re probably in a decent position. Hopefully you can avoid the wrecks and see what happens. If there’s like three-wide running and stuff, you don’t need to be part of that. I think early on you’ve got to cruise along and make sure your car handles good and I think every pit stop you need to make the car better and I think that’s going to be the key, especially for me. I don’t have that much experience but if every pit stop we can make the car handle better and better and better it’s like in open wheel and all the 500-mile races. Everything you did was adjust your car to make sure that the last tenth you had a very good handling car. I think the base is the same here. If you’ve got a very good handling car, you’ve got a shot. If you can stay wide open here, you’ve definitely got a top-10 car, even a top-five car. I think being my first year I need to get people to be comfortable around me, especially in the 500 and don’t do anything silly. If people get comfortable with you, they’re going to push you and they’re going to help you. In testing when they did that just make sure you didn’t do any silly moves or anything because if you do that people will respect you and will work with you.”

HOW MUCH WILL THE ARCA RACE AT TALLAGEA HELP YOU IN THURSDAY’S RACES? “A lot. That ARCA race was funny. It was a lot tighter than I thought. They said ‘There’s only like five cars that are going to run in front in a single race line’ and it was side-by-side for a long time and it was three-wide and stuff. I think the three-wide here is a little scary because of the bumps and the car moves around a lot more. By learning where to lift if you’ve got to lift. Lift early and make sure you get back in the gas early so you can get good momentum out of the corner. Something that amazed me about Junior yesterday the run he was getting out of the corner. You don’t really realize that until you actually see it so I think actually watching the races yesterday and I think I’m in the second 150 so I’ll get some experience looking at the first one. The more you learn stuff like that it’s going to make me a better driver. The side drafting thing, yes, I understand it now. I can work a little bit at it but the more experience you do the better you’re going to be.”

HOW DO YOU COMPARE “CIRCUS” ATMOSPHERE OF NASCAR TO OTHER SERIES? “I think it’s really good. Something I’ve said before and I’ll say again is the guys here at NASCAR look after the fans and I think that’s unbelievable. The fans get to see the cars. A fan goes to a Formula One race he’s lucky and if it passes him doing less than 100 miles per hour ‘Oh he had a good look at that car’ [laughter]. The fans here can actually get closer to the drivers, closer to the cars and I think that’s a big deal and I think that’s very nice to see. My timing couldn’t have been any better. The Car of Tomorrow and one of the circuits I’m going to be good at is road courses and everybody has a new car on the road courses. So I think that’s a big thing for me.”

WILL THIS QUALIFYING RUN MAKE MORE PEOPLE WANT TO DRAFT WITH YOU? “I think it’s going to help. It’s great to see. It’s not only my car but also all the Ganassi cars are fast. Reed was unlucky. I think he had an electrical problem so he was a bit unlucky. At the end of the day we’ve got fast cars and people appreciate that. Something that I noticed in the draft was people were pretty good with me. For me it was a little bit easy because people see that I’ve done a lot of other things and I’ve got a lot of experience. Yes, I’m a rookie here but racing-wise I’m pretty smart. If I was 20 or 21 being a rookie, it’s a lot different because you want to race hard and you want to be upfront. You learn when your car is not good you let people by, you work with people. I think you’ve first got to work with them and help them and I think if they see you will help them and work with them they’ll do the same for you.”

WHEN YOU GOT A LOT OF TRACK TIME AT INDIANAPOLIS, YOU WON THE 500. IS THAT POSSIBLE HERE? “We have a good handling car with the power anything can happen. It was nice to see a lot of Dodges yesterday in the shootout were pretty strong so that’s interesting to see and good to see. And from our qualifying time against them we’re quicker than them so we should have a decent shot. You’ve got to work with people and when there’s 10 laps to go you need to see where you are and see what happens, see what you can do and who can work with you. It’s not only about speed here but being smart and making the right moves and everything. It adds into the racing a special thing like where do you position your car because in open wheel the whole drafting is getting a run out of the corner. You draft behind them, you get beside them, you pass them. Here, you get beside them and they get beside you and they slow you down. You’re like ‘Man, how do I pass a guy?’ You can see on the one-and-a-half-mile racetracks if you run high and get good runs out of the corner, nobody will pass you or you can make their life pretty miserable. I think here you’ve just got to be smart to see how you play it.”

HOW HAVE ALL THESE CHALLENGES FORCED YOU TO REINVENT YOURSELF AS A DRIVER? “I think it’s good because I’ve managed to apply a lot of things I knew and as a driver I think it’s great to have new things to learn. It gets to a point that you keep learning new things but they are always a lot smaller amount of things. You ask Jeff Gordon and he probably still learns things but let’s say Jeff Gordon finds 10 things, I find 100 things. So this point is really exciting. It’s a real exciting stage for me where I am.”