Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified at New Hampshire:
Montoya 5th
Reutimann 17th
Ragan 33rd
Menard 36th
Allmendinger DNQ
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 BURGER KING TOYOTA: “We unloaded and the thing felt good right off the bat. Sometimes it feels good right off the bat and we work on it and make it worse trying to make it better. They worked on it and made it better and made small gains. I’m really happy with the effort. Hopefully we’ll get in the race Sunday and then get us some Raybestos Rookie of the Year points for a change. We’re way behind all those guys [laughs]. I’m looking forward to Sunday if everything works out right.” YOU RAN WELL AT A DIFFICULT TRACK. THAT MUST BE REWARDING. “It is because the flat racetracks haven’t really been all that kind to us quite honestly, especially the COT stuff. I’m really happy with the effort everybody is putting forth. The guys at the fab shop at Michael Waltrip Racing, everybody in the organization is doing a really, really good job working hard. We haven’t had a lot to cheer about but as the year progresses I see us making great strides and that’s pretty exciting.” HOW DIFFERENT IS THE NEW CAR ON A TRACK LIKE THIS? “I’ve never run a Cup car here so I don’t really know. In all honesty, it drove a little different than our Busch car but not a ton different. And that was surprising because I have been to some racetracks where the two have just driven completely different. I guess you just have to pick and see what’s going to happen any given weekend because you don’t ever know for sure.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA IN THE No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Montoya will start fifth in Sunday’s race, his best qualifying effort on an oval since he started fourth at Las Vegas (race No. 3).
Montoya leads David Ragan by 15 points (180-165) in the Raybestos Rookie standings entering the Sunday’s race.
MONTOYA: HOW DID LIFE CHANGE FOR YOU AFTER SUNDAY’S WIN AT INFINEON RACEWAY? “It just took a lot of pressure off myself, out of the team, out of the whole Texaco/Havoline Dodge and the whole Chip Ganassi. It’s a lot more relaxing coming here knowing that you’ve already won a race. That was the big question of everybody, if I could do it and I did it. For us and for my own sake, we’re just starting what we want to achieve. That’s just showing where the whole organization is going and where we need to be and the car we’re running has been competitive the last few weeks with the COTs. It really shows we’re going in the right direction.” DID YOU GET ANY PHONE CALLS FROM GUYS YOU’VE RACED WITH OVER THE YEARS IN ANY FORMS OF RACING? “Na [smiles]. I tell ya, a lot of people, friends and people that have followed me have done that. And the guys here have been amazing. All the drivers and teams, it’s unbelievable. It’s nice to see.” HOW DIFFICULT IS QUALIFYING HERE? “It all depends on how good the car is. When the car handles good, it’s easy. When the car handles bad, it’s difficult. Our program has stepped up a lot. We were a little conservative from what we could have run. We lowered the track bar a little bit and it was maybe a little better in practice but it was too edgy. We just took the safe route out and it paid off. We were fourth when I run so we should be pretty good.” HOW MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE ARE YOU NOW THAN YOU WERE 18 RACES AGO? “A lot, I’m a lot more comfortable. This short track seems to be pretty good. I seem to be able to not only perform better in the big ones but it’s been pretty good. The last few big ones have been pretty hard for us.” DO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR CHANCES TO WIN ON A TRACK LIKE THIS COMPARED TO DAYTONA NEXT WEEK? “About the same. You know, when the car is good, we’ll run good anywhere. It’s nice to see the Ganassi cars up there. Having all three Ganassi cars there is huge.” DO YOU ENJOY THIS PLACE VERSUS OTHER TRACKS? “Each one is in its on way fun. Daytona with the drafting and I heard the summer race is a lot harder to drive. It will be interesting to see what happens. It will be like every week. It’s a new experience. It’s pretty exciting.” DO YOU GET ANY FEEDBACK FROM ANY OF YOUR FORMER COMPETITIORS ABOUT THEM TRYING NASCAR? “To be 100 percent honest with you, I don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t. I really care about myself, my team and the people I work with and that’s about it.”
PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/SYLVANIA CHEVROLET: “The car drove pretty good. It’s been driving pretty decent all day. It was a little tight in the middle, kind of what we’ve been fighting. It seems to get off the corner really good. It can’t quite roll through the center like I need. We’ll see how it plays out.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “I don’t know what happened today. We were just off from the start. That is two races in a row we have missed now and we need to get our momentum back. I really don’t have anything to say except I hate it for the guys. Hopefully things will start falling into place for us again next week in Daytona.”
MONTOYA PRESS CONFERENCE
“For us it was okay. I was a little loose in the morning practice and we just tightened it up and maybe it was a little too tight. I just had so much wheel in it. But it was good. It’s good to see all three Ganassi cars being competitive. The last few races in the COT have been pretty hard for us apart from the road course. It’s funny I actually told my wife yesterday back to reality and we were pretty competitive here so it’s pretty good.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS QUALIFYING EFFORT IS AN EXTENSION OF LAST WEEK? “I think it shows where the team wants to go. We’re working really hard, the whole team and the whole organization is really pumped up about getting good results and I think this just shows how hard we’re trying. It’s been tough the last few weeks but whether we won last week or not it really shows that the team is headed in the right direction. We’re getting more competitive every week and as races and time goes by I think we’re only going to get better and I think it’s good to see.”
