Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds:
Ragan 5th
Montoya 26th
Reutimann 31st

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “Today I’ve got the 300 in the Busch car so for the NEXTEL Cup tomorrow it should be pretty interesting.” ARE YOU STARTING TO FEEL COMFORTABLE IN THE DRAFT? “It’s pretty tough. I’m getting more comfortable. The car is running a little bit better today. So far it’s good. The hard thing is, where I’m starting is so far back that it’s going to make my life interesting. I think it’s very important to be patient and be smart about the moves you make.” ARE FINDING OTHER GUYS WILLING TO WORK WITH YOU IN THE DRAFT? “You find everything, guys that will and guys that won’t, but generally it’s pretty good.” IS YOUR CAR BETTER PUSHING SOMEONE ELSE OR LEADING A PACK? “Both, it works both ways. It’s pretty good so far. You can push people and you can get pushed so it’s good.” HAS THE CAR RUN HOT DURING DRAFTING PRACTICE? “Mine is good. Mine is actually pretty cool.” HOW IMPORTANT IS THE BUSCH RACE GOING TO BE AS YOUR PREPARE FOR THE 500? “It’ll be good experience. The drafting is different because you’ve got a lot more runs on some people so it’ll be pretty hard. The car is good. I want to thank everyone at the Texaco/Havoline Dodge has done a really good job. We’re just happy. I think the car is awesome. We qualified good, had a good 150 until we had that failure. The important thing here it to be able to have a chance at winning you’ve got to be there at the end. It’s going to be pretty hard. I’m pretty good, pretty comfortable, and a lot more comfortable in the draft. The more runs I do, the more laps I do and I think today running in the Busch is going to be pretty interesting. The car is good and everybody is working good. I’ve done plenty of testing so far so I’m pretty happy. I think we’ve done our homework and things are working good so I have no complaints. It’s my second race already. My first race was last year so from that point of view I’m happy. Everybody at the Texaco/Havoline Dodge has done a really good job. The engine program is good. The car is good. We’ll just wait and see what happens.” WHAT HAS YOUR RECEPTION BEEN LIKE HERE? “Everybody has been really good. The fans have been awesome. I’m just happy.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: “Here in practice it all depends on what kind of line you get in, if you get a good push or a good pull. But certainly it drives great. That’s why I’m standing here [before the end of practice] and not by my race car. We’re extremely happy with it. It’s comfortable. We made a few changes to it this morning and both were great changes. We feel like we’ve got a good race car.” HAVE YOU HAD TO ADAPT FROM THE CAR YOU HAD LAST WEEKEND TO THIS CAR? “A little bit. Driving style, a little different, but through two practice sessions we had a good game plan and a good baseline and this car wasn’t bad to start with. It was a good car for us down here at the test and it drives really well. We made a few key changes and when you’re working with Jimmy Fennig [crew chief] they know what to do and how to do it and it makes things easier.” WHAT IS IT GOING TO FEEL LIKE TO START THE DAYTONA 500? “It’s going to be exciting right before but the first few laps just get in the mindset of a 500-mile race: sticking in line, don’t try to force the issue and we’ve got some good cars back there with us. The 24, 42, Harvick, Reed’s back there with us so we feel like we’ve got some good quality cars. It’s just going to be a matter of good pit strategy and hooking up in the right line and being there at the end of the race.” IS THAT THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING A VETERAN CREW CHIEF LIKE JIMMY FENNIG? “Jimmy will do his job on the box but he’s been coaching the spotter and I along. Tony Herschman is an experienced racer and he and I working together, we’re rookies. We’ve got our work cut out for us and certainly Jimmy can help us a lot there. Bobby Hudson and some of the other guys up in the booth have helped and some of the other Roush spotters can help him. We’re going to ask for some help on Sunday and our teammates are going to help us a little bit. Jimmy is going to help us and if we’re in the right place at the right time there’s no reason why we can’t finish in the top-five or top-10.” HOW IMPORTANT TO THE 500 IS THE BUSCH RACE? “Busch race is important to get some new friends out there. We’re looking forward to our Busch season just as much as our Cup season. We’ve got a new sponsor in Discount Tire and we feel like we’ve got a Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle to win to win over on the Busch side as long as the Cup car stays where it should. We feel like that’s just as important as over here.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: YOU STAYED IN THE CAR FOR A LONG TIME AFTER PRACTICE. “I was moving the mirror around. Some of these deals here you look out the back as much as you look forward sometimes. I was just trying to get it all because that was our final chance to make it all right for the 500. HOW GOOD IS THE CAR? “It’s not bad. It drives pretty good. We switched motors this morning and just wanted to make sure everything was all right. We kind of did a little shakedown run and it seems to be okay. Hopefully it will be good.” WHERE IS YOUR CAR THE BEST IN THE DRAFT? “It seems to be okay pretty much everywhere. It doesn’t seem to be super-great in any certain scenario but it seems to be okay in all of those. Hopefully it’ll be good enough.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT STARTING THE DAYTONA 500 IN YOUR HOME STATE? “It’s going to be pretty amazing [smiles]. I’m still not sure that has its full effect until they give the command to start engines and that’ll be it, I think.”