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News and Results | Point Standings | 2007 Schedule | 2007 Teams | 2006 Schedule and Results | 2005 Schedule and Results Bank of America 500 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes
“It was a great lap for the alltel Dodge. Michael Nelson, Travis (Geisler) and the guys from the engineering group did a great job to bring the car off the truck fast. We did some scuff runs in race trim; switched the car over to qualifying trim, did two qualifying runs and qualifying was just a matter of beating the 48 car. He was the guy to beat in practice, after practice. He had a good draw; we had a tick better draw. I had the advantage of knowing what he ran and I pushed my car to what I thought I needed to. It was a great lap for us. It was smooth. If I had to do it all over again, I’d say I could have done it better, but maybe not. I just look forward to the rest of the weekend after a great start here tonight.” YOU BEAT JIMMIE JOHNSON BY HALF A SECOND. CAN YOU FEEL THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE IN SPEED IN THE RACECAR? “You can typically feel the speed difference. We picked up over a half a second difference over practice. So, I felt the grip in the car in my out lap through three and four. I had a pretty good one and two. I think I gave up just a tick in three and four. You can have a good sense of it. I’ve had a good sense of it, I thought I had a good sense of it before and be off. Typically here at Charlotte you can feel the speed and it was a great lap for us.” AS A DRIVER NOT IN THE CHASE, ARE YOU GETTING WHAT YOU CAN GET? “I don’t look at it that way. I think from my standpoint and the team’s standpoint we have a job to do on qualifying nights. We have a job to do on race days and try to get the car right in practice. Today was all about doing what we had to do to be first. I don’t look at it as what we need to do to create some fame because we’re not in the Chase or anything like that. It’s just a matter of going out and getting the job done. Tonight was a good night for that. Talladega was a good day for that. Jamie Little was asking me what’s the advantage of trying to qualifying so well here. It’s about getting it done in your back yard. It’s about beating everybody their on home turf; that’s what’s the most gratifying of it all. WOULD THE RACING BE BETTER IF THE CARS WERE SLOWER HERE? “You would get to a point where the balance wouldn’t matter. The more you slow the cars down the less the balance matters to the point if we all raced rental cars around here we ran wide open we’d all run the exact same speed. The speed is a good thing as long as we’re safe. I would say NASCAR has done a good job policing that at placing like and places like this and places like Daytona and Talladega to make sure the drivers are safe and most importantly the fans are safe.
“I think we did good and it just felt like the track had more speed than what I was ready for. We picked up a good amount of time from practice just like we needed to. Right now, I think the pace is there for anyone who wants to run it. We’ll see where we’ll end up. I have no idea where we will end up.”
“It was a good lap. The car was really fast. I just didn’t get into the corner like I need to. I just missed it a little bit in three, but it was fast. I was a little bit free sliding around getting in and gave up a little bit there. Other than that it felt good and I look forward to Saturday night.”
“I definitely thought our run would be better. All three of the Ganassi cars were right there together. I think we’ll all race well. It is a little disappointing because I thought we would qualify better. We’ll see how it goes. I’m happy. I love racing here at Charlotte, it’s fun. A little disappointed but it’s still a long weekend.”
“It was a great lap. The guys did a great job on our race car this weekend. We tore our other car up at Kansas a couple weeks ago. We brought this car out and it is the same one we had here last year. I don’t think it has been touched since. They did a great job working on it. It hasn’t seen a race track since the early part of the year. I thought our lap was great. We had a pretty uneventful lap. The car stuck really good and turned good. In practice we were getting better at it. I was really proud of everybody. It was a good effort for our race team and a good starting spot for us.” HOW MUCH HAVE THINGS COME TOGETHER SINCE YOU FIRST CAME TO PETTY ENTERPRISE? “Obviously it was really good for us. The restrictor plate package that we had last weekend was the best one we’ve had since I’ve been at Petty’s with Evernham’s engines. They have been getting stronger all the time but that was a big step for us. We always want to get a little better. I think that their engine program always gets better just like everyone else’s does. I think we’re gaining on it. To come here to Charlotte I think it is a good package for this track. We always run good here. We’ve run good here in the past with the Petty’s. I feel like it is one of our strongest tracks that we come to. So hopefully we can get some momentum on our side. Last weekend we had it for a while until we absolutely lost it but we’ve still been running pretty good here lately. With Doug Randolph as an addition to our race team, it has been really good. That has been helping out. I’m really proud of everybody working and getting the whole team better since I’ve been there.” DO YOU THINK THE TEAM HAS IMPROVED AS MUCH IN RACE SETUP AS YOU HAVE IN QUALIFYING? “I do. I think that one lap of qualifying is different that 400 laps of racing. We probably excel a little bit better in qualifying than we did the race. We still need to be a little bit better for 500 miles. We are getting that communication between us. We’re getting stronger as we go. Our engines are getting better. I think every team has 85 percent of what everyone else has it is just that last 10 or 15 percent that makes a difference. It is harder to get that 10 or 15 percent. I think we’re getting stronger at the races but we still lack a little bit for the whole 500 miles.” WHAT DOES A QUALIFYING SPOT DO FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE “It is definitely a little bit of a game of confidence too. Obviously that is a big part of our sport. When you can gain it or get it through the strengths of your team and weakness and try to figure out your weaknesses and make them stronger. You’re more confident when you get in the racecar. Your feedback is better. You go in there and give them better feedback. All the stuff really helps out. Bringing Doug in the mix the past few weeks has been great for me. We have known each other for a long time. He is a really good communicator with me and understands my language and I think I understand his. That really gives us confidence coming to Charlotte. I’ve been busy all week long so we hadn’t had that much time to talk. When you sit in the car and you have confidence you just go. It is a whole lot better than when you’re always wondering. You have to get it with the right people and with the right atmosphere. I think Doug has helped out and given me the confidence that I need.”
“Yeah. My guys gave me a great car all day long. I was just trying to get going. We were just a little too tight and I drove into turn one a little too hard so that messed us up a little bit. The guys did a good job. I’m proud of them and we should have a good car for Saturday night.”
“It was alright. We had been struggling all day. I don’t really know if the balance was good or bad. The car just washed up a little bit going in. We have been fighting that all day. Hopefully we will get it better tomorrow.”
“It was pretty good. We had a long way we needed to pick up to be a contender for a top 10 here and made some changes right at the very end of practice based off of what our teammates were looking like in practice. We picked up a lot. We picked up over a second but I don’t know if it’s going to hold up for a top 10. It was in the right direction. I just wish we had a little more time in this direction of set up to fine tune it for us.”
“We were tight. At the end of practice it was a little better. It was just a little too tight. We lost a lot in three and four, just turned the wheel and it went straight up the racetrack. It’s okay. I think we have a good racecar when it really matters. “We had been tight all day in qualifying trim and race trim. Early on we were pretty good. We went to qualifying trim pretty early and couldn’t free it up. There was quite a bit more grip out there and for us more grip meant tighter.”
CAN YOU PUT YOUR FINGER ON THE PROBLEM WITH QUALIFYING? “No time in the car. No time on the track. It’s kind of hard to make it up when you don’t have that much time. We’ll just keep working away at it, keep our heads up and do the best we can.”
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Qualified
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