 |
 |
| Nextel Cup Series |
 |
|
News and Results | Point Standings | 2007 Schedule | 2007 Teams | 2006 Schedule and Results | 2005 Schedule and Results Sylvania 300 - Dodge Qualifying Quotes
“All in all I thought it was a good effort from the Miller Lite team to put our Dodge third. It helps us picking pits. We should have a good pit box selection from that. And then, just working the first stages of the race, track position will hopefully help us lead a lap early on, grab those five points. We’ll see how the race shakes out. We could have a really good Dodge Avenger or one that just does the things we need it to do except there might be a couple guys quicker than us; all in all a good start to the weekend. DO YOU EVER THINK YOU ARE OVERDUE FOR A BAD DAY? “I have thought about that Jimmie Johnson at Lowe’s for years now. I read a stat that he’s got a 1.3 average finish Lowe’s Motor Speedway. I make 1.3 laps before I am loose and not handling good. Sometimes you think you’re overdue and then other times you hope you just keep riding the good way. For us, it’s just been a night and day difference, it hasn’t just been a couple races that we ran better or just had better pit stops. It’s been a nice ten week stretch and I hope we can glue together another ten week stretch running though this chase.” IF IT RAINS TOMORROW DO YOU WORRY ABOUT THE TRACK BEING GREEN ON SUNDAY? “That’s an interesting question. In 2004, the year we won the championship and won the race here at New Hampshire, practice was rained out on Saturday and we had a good setup from the July race that helped us. So, the cars that are fast in practice today and were fast here in July if practice is rained out expect more of the same from those same cats, the No. 24, the No. 1, the No. 48 was fast. And, we’ve made a significant gain since then so I am really excited about this weekend’s race and how it could play out for us. we feel like we got 90 percent of our homework done today and we still could use a little bit of track time tomorrow to troubleshot a couple ideas.” IS THERE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN YOUR’S AND THE TEAM’S MENTAL ATTITUDE. “It has felt a bit different since we’ve been running better; but, at the same time we had to work really hard to get into the Chase. We weren’t guaranteed a spot until about 50 laps to go at Richmond. And, so that mindset of hoping you don’t have a motor failure or have loose lug nuts and have to pit and loose all your track position carries on your mind. So now we’ve had a chance to press the reset button. The points are zero again and it just feels like a wait has been lifted off your shoulder and now you go charging ahead to shoot for a championship. When races are going good you just hope that you can keep riding that wave, like earlier.”
“It was okay. We struggled a lot in practice. Last time around we had a really good car here and the suspension didn’t last, and the bump rubbers didn’t last, so we came with something different. We haven’t been able to figure out the car as well as we did last time. We’re a little better than practice, but not enough.” CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS RACE FOR YOUR TEAM? “It’s just like any other race, you just have to get there and do the best you can. You know the last two weeks for us have been tough, even having good cars being very unlucky, but that’s just part of NASCAR you learn.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE OPEN WHEEL GUYS FOLLOWING YOU OVER TO NASCAR? “I think it’s great. I think it’s good for the sport. I think it’s going to expand and bring new fans and different people to watch the sport as well. I think it’ll be pretty cool.”
“It was my best lap of the weekend. I’ve made a lot of progress. I think I just need a few more laps. I mean, I don’t know if that’ll get in, it’s going to be really close. I just feel thankful that Ray (Evernham) gave me the opportunity. It’s a lot of fun driving even if it’s only for today, but I feel like if I could just get a little more time in the car I could figure it out.”
“We were just a little too loose. The car felt good in race practice and we only made one run there at the end. We made some adjustments just before qualifying and gained about three-tenths and it’s still going to put us about 20th I think. We made up some ground but we’re too loose the back is sliding around too much and the front felt really good and really positive and we should be able to pass cars on Sunday.”
“The Energizer Dodge was okay. We just got loose there and the second lap cost us a lot of time so we’ll probably be mid pack. The car is better in race trim, but we haven’t found out a good program for the qualifying stuff yet.”
“It wasn’t that good. It just didn’t seem like it had the balance or the grip I needed. It just didn’t seem like it was underneath me as I wanted.”
“We picked up. I think a lot of people picked up because of the track conditions and whatnot, but it was a good run for the Mobil 1 Dodge and we look forward to Sunday. This track has historically been pretty good to us. I enjoy coming up here. I enjoy the weather and I look forward to it.”
“We made some changes from practice and we were a little bit too loose. We just couldn’t get the car to come off the corner like we needed to. We’re a little disappointed, but we’ll try it again.”
“It was good. We knew we could run a decent lap. I think we could have run even better we were just a little free off. The car is really good through the center and that’s going to be good for the race. DID YOU HIT THE WALL? “I hit last time we qualified here. Maybe I should have done it because we qualified third last time. I just got a little close off of four there. Sometimes you’ll get close and you’ll come out and there will be a little scratch on there. But, we didn’t touch it. So, it was a good lap for us.”
“That’s about all I had. The guys did a good job. For us to come up here and qualify that good, it’s something. The guys did a good job. We’ve done very well in our qualifying here lately, the last month or so. Now we just have to translate over to Sunday. Hopefully we’ll make some good changes tomorrow and make this Dodge Avenger fast. So far so good. It’s a great start to a good weekend.” DO YOU THINK THE EVERNHAM CARS HAVE FINALLY TURNED A CORNER? “We answer that question every week on Friday and we say yes. Then on Sunday we say no, so maybe we’ll have to take what were learning on Friday and put it to use on Sunday.”
“I’m happy we made the show but it’s a little frustrating because we had a Stanley Tools/Valvoline Dodge in the first practice that could have qualified in the top 10. It was just loose in qualifying so you couldn’t push it very hard. It was a good effort by everyone on the team and we are pretty happy to have four cars in the show for Gillett Evernham Motorsports.”
Boris Said after being told he qualified for the race …
Driver
Team
Qualified
Home | Nextel Cup | Busch Series | Photo Gallery | Forum | Silly Season | Newsletter | Fire and Ice
©Copyright 2007 Race 2 Win
|
