Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Phoenix:
Menard 25th
Reutimann 32nd
Montoya 33rd
David Ragan 41st
UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings:
Montoya 90
Ragan 85
Menard 54
Reutimann 47
AJ Allmendinger 23
Brandon Whitt 2
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “It started pretty decent. We were not fast enough but we were not that bad. It just got worse as the night went on.” WAS THE CAR LOOSE OR TIGHT? “Everything. It was loose in, tight in the center and loose off. You tried to improve one thing and the other thing gets worse and so on so there’s a little bit of a vicious circle. You fix, it gets worse, it gets better, it gets worse and it gets better. It’s just terrible.” DID GOING FROM THE SUNLIGHT TO NIGHTTIME THROW YOU A CURVE? “Well it got worse. Honestly, as the race went on we got slower and slower and slower and slower and slower. But that’s racing.”
PAUL MENARD IN THE No. 15 MENARDS/JOHNS MANVILLE CHEVROLET WAS THE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AT PHOENIX.
Note:
Menard finished 25th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the first time this season.
MENARD: “This is the first time we’ve been the top Raybestos Rookie. I didn’t think we were going to get it tonight. We really weren’t that good all night long. I just couldn’t roll the center. We were just tight, tight, tight. But probably the best it’d been was that last run. I think some guys pitted under green and picked up a couple of spots there and try to keep their nose clean. We ran with them all night. It started off and we were not good at all and then each pit stop seemed to get it just a little bit better where the best it was was at the end. Pretty short race and kept our nose clean and got a top-25 and got some points.” DID THE CAUTION LATE IN THE RACE HELP YOU? “That definitely helped us. We were getting ready to pit in a couple of laps and I guess a couple of guys already did so we gained a few spots there.”
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: “We knew at the end of practice yesterday we weren’t even close. We just changed the whole car around and started cold turkey there. You’ve got to do something. It’d start out at the beginning of a run okay. You could kind of run along with the guys. As it went it did a lot of things. It’d get free on entry and then push the nose in the center and then be free off. The guys gave me good pit stops and they worked on it. You get to a point during the race that you still don’t have the right stuff underneath what you want and no amount of adjusting is going to make it what it needs to be. At that point you click over to survival mode and try to get the best finish you can for everybody.” COMMENT ON THE CHANGE IN TRACK CONDITIONS FROM DAYLIGHT TO NIGHTTIME. “The racetrack probably picks up some grip and maybe gets a little bit tighter. But overall, our car wasn’t very good at the beginning and it still wasn’t very good when the sun went down [smiles]. We weren’t good off the trailer. Man, my guys work hard and I’m really proud of them and the pit stops are great. We’re getting pieces of the puzzle put together. The COT stuff has us thrown for a little bit of a loop here. We’ve got to get on the other side of it.”
