Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified at New Hampshire:
Menard 17th
Reutimann 20th
Montoya 31st
Ragan 38th
Allmendinger 39th

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/SYLVANIA CHEVROLET: “We picked up from practice so that’s good. We didn’t have a very good draw. The car is driving good so if we can get a top-15 out of it we’ll be just fine.” WHAT MAKES QUALIFYING AT THIS PLACE SO DIFFICULT? “I don’t think it’s any harder than last week. At Richmond, for some reason, I can’t qualify at the place. I usually race good but last week we were just terrible all around. It’s so easy with these COTs to lock up the inside tire and overcharge the corner. You just really have to let them do all the work for you, kind of wait for it turn and get back on the gas. Can’t really hustle it. We had a good race practice, too, so we’ll be alright.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET A GOOD STARTING SPOT HERE? “Anywhere is pretty important except for the plate races, probably. If we can get a pit stall with an opening, that’d be awesome, but I doubt it. Mostly just avoid all the wrecks and track position is big, no matter where you are. Clean air always helps.” YOU HAVE THE RACE SPONSOR ON YOUR CAR THIS WEEKEND. “Anytime you can run good in front of the home crowd it’s awesome. Sylvania has been with us for a while and they’re awesome people. I got to tour their facility yesterday and got to see what they do.” DO YOU LIKE THIS TRACK? “I like the track. It’s probably my third or fourth year coming here. I never ran it before they did the changes to the banking. I think the racetrack is awesome to race on. If you can get your car working on the bottom you can pass people. Most people move up in the center so if you can get it to driving on the bottom you’ll be alright.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 BURGER KING TOYOTA: “We’ve been fighting center off all day and it was really good there. It was really good everywhere. I was pretty conservative on the first lap because it’s been its best on the second lap, anyway. I just tried to get some heat in the tires, heat in the brakes and not do anything stupid. Frankie [Kerr, crew chief] and those guys told me all we had to do was backup what we ran in practice and we’d be okay. I’m bad about overdriving it anyway so I tried to be a little conservative and it worked out. I think we’re in so that should be good.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO QUALIFY WELL HERE? “I don’t know if it’s important to qualify well or if it’s important to qualify at all. A lot of racetracks we go we just want to start. And a lot of times I’ll go out there for driver intros and just forget where I qualified at because you get to the point that once you know you’re in, you quit even paying attention. But here and Martinsville and places like that that are a little harder to pass on, none of ‘em are easy to pass on anymore. They’re all hard to pass on. If we can get a good starting position that would play in our favor, I think.” AND YOU HAVE PRACTICE TIME ON SATURDAY. “Hopefully. I know the weather is not looking real good for tomorrow but hopefully we’ll get some time in. If we do that’s going to be a huge benefit to us because we have zero race runs to this point. We had a pretty good car here earlier in the year and hopefully we can go back and use some of that if we don’t get practice tomorrow. I think we’ll be okay.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “It was okay. Last time around we had a really good car here and the suspension didn’t last, the bump rubbers didn’t last so we came with something different. We haven’t been able to figure out the car as good as we did last time. We were a little better in practice but not enough.” COMMENT ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS RACE. “It’s okay, it’s just another race. You’ve just got to get there and do the best you can. The last two weeks for us have been tough, even having good cars, being very unlucky. It’s just part of NASCAR. You learn.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT OPEN WHEEL DRIVERS COMING TO NASCAR? “I think it’s great. I think it’s good for the sport. It’s going to expand, it’s going to bring new fans and different people to watch the sport as well. I think it’ll be pretty cool.” COMMENT ON THE BLOCKING BY OPEN WHEEL DRIVERS. “I’ve seen everything, here and there, so I’m not even going to comment about it. I think both have a little bit of blocking. In open wheel, when the guy is there he’s there and if you don’t get out of the way it’s a big wreck. Here, people don’t get out of the way because they can just run there. That’s the way it is. Here you can run side-by-side with somebody for three laps. In open wheel you’ve got a chance you either take it or you don’t, especially on a road course.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE MCLAREN FINE? “I don’t really care to be honest. In a way, it’s sad to see that in a sport and I’ve got to say that I’m glad I’m not a part of it.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA FORD: “I’m a little disappointed. I wish we could have picked up a little more. We backed up what we ran in practice plus a few one-hundredths but still, I would have liked to have been there in the top-20. That’s going to put us a little bit back in the field. If our AAA Ford is handling right we can pass and make up but it’s so tough coming from the back in these races. We’ve shown that we’ve had some awesome race cars but when you start back there 25th or 30th, it takes three-quarters of the race to get to the top-10 in position. Last weekend in Richmond qualifying in the top-10 was more than reasonable and why we got a chance to finish up there. I’m a little disappointed but still got Saturday and Sunday to work on it. It [qualifying] won’t make or break you but we try to be the best at everything: practice, qualifying and racing. Like I said, I would have liked to have picked up a little bit more. Your biggest fear is going out and slowing down and certainly we don’t want that. We just didn’t have the speed enough to go out and lay down a good first lap. We’ll just have to work on it.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “When you’re really had in practice you have a lot of room to pick up. It was just a great effort from the whole team. We struggled. This is our worst track the first time we came here and it’s probably still not one of our best tracks. I’m struggling to find a way to get around it. We’re trying to find the setup but just a great effort from the Red Bull guys. This team just doesn’t give up and that’s the best thing to have on my side.”