Raybestos Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya posted the sixth-best overall speed in the second practice session this afternoon at Daytona. Montoya was the only Raybestos Rookie to crack the top-10 on the speed chart. The rest of the class: David Reutimann (12th), David Ragan (15th), Paul Menard (37th), AJ Allmendinger (49th) and Brandon Whitt (58th).

DONNIE WINGO, CREW CHIEF, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: DO YOU HAVE A SHOT AT THE POLE? “When you look at where Yates’ cars are and how much the time difference is, when you’re in the top-10 you feel like you’ve got a shot at it. But it depends on what the winds does tomorrow, too. At the beginning it could blow one way and at the end it could be blowing the other way so you don’t ever know. I think we’ve still got a little bit left, I hope. I think we’re pretty legit with everything we’ve done. Do we have a shot? I feel like we’re in the top-10 and we’ve got a shot but comparing off what those other guys do, they’re a half-second quicker. And I’m sure they haven’t threw everything at it either.”

DOES THE QUALIFYING DRAW MAKE THAT BIG OF A DIFFERENCE HERE? “I don’t know that the draw makes that big of a difference because everybody is going to start out stone cold anyway. Whatever you warm up is what you’re going to have here in the garage, but it just depends on what the wind does. Sometimes the wind will change directions and we’ll just have to see what happens there.”

DID YOU FOCUS ON QUALIFYING DURING TESTING HERE LAST MONTH? “Anytime you can get speed by yourself that’s going to be speed in the race. You try to work on getting the fastest car you can but then sometimes you may have to compromise some of it back for handling here at Daytona. Any speed you can gain I feel like you’ll be better in the race. We’ll probably have to go back and sacrifice a little of it for the race.”

ARE YOU PLEASED? “I really am. All the guys in the motor shop have really busted their tails this winter getting more motor for us to come down here with. Derrick and his guys have built these speedway cars and all the guys in the fab shop, they’ve really worked hard, too. I think we all felt coming down here that we’re better than we’ve probably ever have been as far as a competitive standpoint for qualifying. Now for the race, we’ve always been pretty good for the race. We’ve always had our cars handling pretty good and here at Daytona in the 500, that’s what you’ve got to have.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO RUN WELL HERE ALL WEEK? “I think if you just look at our season last year, we started off with Casey and we come down here and we had a good Speedweeks. We didn’t qualify like we wanted to as far as the single-car stuff goes, but when we started drafting we were at the top of the sheet in every drafting practice and finished second in the 500. Anytime you can start the year off that way, it’s a big boost to everybody, not just this team but the whole organization, all three teams. If somebody can come down here and run good, it just boots everybody up. And these first five races, you know how critical they are to make sure you stay up in the points and you don’t have to worry about the qualifying every week.”

HOW HAS THE COMMUNICATION BEEN BETWEEN YOU AND JUAN PABLO MONTOYA? “That really hasn’t been an issue from the beginning. He kind of knows what he wants to feel. We did a lot of testing last year together. He kind of knows what he wants to feel and we make changes and he’s got to the point now where he can say ‘I feel like if we do this it’ll make it a little bit better.’ I think that’s good and as we go on I think that will even get better.”

CAN YOU WIN A RACE THIS SEASON? “I think so. I mean that’s what we’re here for. I guy of this caliber, you bring him in and you don’t feel like it’s going to take him five years to get to the point where he needs to be. If we put ourself in position at the end of some of these races I feel like we can definitely win a race, no doubt about it.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: YOU RAN WELL IN THE LAST PRACTICE SESSION TODAY. “Yeah, the only problem is a couple of the cars that we’ve got to outrun are right there with us. It’s really, really tight. I’m really, really stressed out about that whole deal [laughs], but a lot of people are like that. I think we’ve got a little bit left. I think we’ve got a pretty good draw for tomorrow. Hopefully the wind won’t blow and we get a good lap in.”

CAN THE DRIVER MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE DURING QUALIFYING HERE? “The driver has to be smart and be very, very smooth on the wheel but yeah, you’re pretty much stuck with what you’ve got. You’re pretty much got what you’ve got. You’re not going to drive it any harder. Everybody is running wide open. That’s kind of how it is and it’s nerve wracking [smiles].”

IS THE CAR BETTER TODAY VERSUS THE TEST HERE LAST MONTH? “Much better, much faster. I don’t know that it drives any different, any better, but it definitely runs quicker on the watch and at this point, that’s all that matters. It actually drafted pretty good and I was pretty happy with that. Historically, if a car drafts really, really good it may not be all that great by itself sometimes. I think that’s what the 44 has got. They’ve got a car that drives really, really good but it doesn’t like to be by itself very much. It felt decent in practice when we were down here testing and the guys did their homework and got us better. It’s still tight though, man.”

WHERE DO YOU HAVE TO QUALIFY TO GET IN THE 500? “First, second or third of the go or go home cars. Anybody else, if they’re not a star car, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not going to sit on the pole or outside pole, you’ve got to be first, second or third in that and nobody else really matters.” WAS THIS A GOOD DAY OR BAD DAY? “A good day. We made big improvements, big gains and I’m proud of the guys and we worked well together so it was a good day.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: YOU RAN WELL IN BOTH PRACTICE SESSIONS TODAY. “We really haven’t tried to go out and make a super-bonsai lap so we’re real happy. I think the AAA Ford Fusion is a pretty special speedway car. Jimmy [Fenning, crew chief] and everyone back at the shop has worked hard. This is a race that takes months and months to go fast. We don’t get fast here at the racetrack; we get fast at the shop so that’s who all the credit goes to. I think it’s easier to screw something up than it is to improve on it. We made some very small changes just to make sure that you’re comfortable and you don’t lose any speed. We really haven’t found any big gains here, maybe a little bit in testing. But when you unload here at Daytona for the 500, it’s more or less just make sure that you don’t mess up and make sure that everything is in line.”

IS IT A RELIEF TO BE FAST RIGHT OFF THE TRUCK? “Oh, heck yeah. It can be so frustrating to be in 30th or 35th, something back there in back because it’s tough to find speed here. Now if you roll off the truck 30th at Martinsville it’s not okay but you can overcome it. You can overcome handling but here, it’s body, engine, what kind of package you got. It feels good to unload in the top-15 and certainly at Martinsville or something we can work on our car and make it faster.”