Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified at Talladega:
Ragan 11th
Reutimann 14th
Menard 19th
Montoya 26th
Allmendinger 31st (DNQ)

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/TURTLE WAX CHEVROLET: “We picked up about two tenths from practice so it’s always good when you pick up. I don’t know if it’s good enough. It’s close. There’s a lot of pretty good cars that still have to go. We picked up quite a bit so that’s all you can ask for. My guys broke their butts getting a little more speed out of this car from when we unloaded. They did a good job doing that.” WAS THERE AN ADVANTAGE TO WHEN YOU QUALIFIED TODAY? “It seemed like earlier might have been a little bit better. The wind picked up from the beginning. I think it’s supposed to get cloudy in a little bit so that might help the guys that go later.” WAS IT TOUGH TO MAKE A MOCK QUALIFYING RUN IN PRACTICE HERE THIS WEEKEND? “It’s hard to get a clean lap in for sure. You have to wait in line for a while and then you just burn up time by having to wait to get a clean lap. I feel like all of our runs yesterday were clean and we learned quite a bit by doing that.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 6 AAA TRAVEL FORD: “I think going out a little late probably hurt us, but man, this all goes back to the AAA team. Jimmy Fennig and everybody back at the shop has really worked really hard on the superspeedway program as you can tell. You’ve got a lot of the Roush Yates Ford engines up top. We’ve got a good racecar and looking forward to Sunday.” YOU WERE FIFTH IN THE DAYTONA 500 AND TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE. CAN YOU BACK THAT UP HERE TOMORROW? “Oh definitely we can. If we stay out of trouble, Jimmy Fennig’s prepared a great racecar if I do what I need to do. My spotter and I are going to get some more practice today in the Busch car and hopefully put on a good show today for the fans. We’ve got a top-five car for tomorrow.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, No. 42 TEXACO/HAVOLINE DODGE: “It’s qualifying. It doesn’t say anything, does it? It doesn’t mean anything here. We’ll wait and see what happens. I think we’ve got a decent car. We’ll see. You know how it is here.” IS THE PROCESS OF QUALIFYING FRUSTRATING HERE, FROM MAKING A CLEAN RUN IN PRACTICE UNTIL NOW? “We didn’t even try because it’s the way it is. It’s an impound race and you want to have a good racecar. It doesn’t matter where you start. That’s the good thing of being in the field. You don’t have to worry about it.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 DOMINO’S TOYOTA: YOU MAKE QUALIFYING INTERSTING. “I’m not really sure I can stand a whole more of that. I think Frankie [Kerr, crew chief] is about to pass out and I am too. We’re in the show and that’s what we come here to do so now hopefully we’ll have good race on Sunday. That’s been our goal since we got here. We’re in the show and that’s the main thing. They bought me this new uniform and I thought it was going to be a shame if we didn’t make the race because this is a paint scheme we’re going to use one time. I figured I’d better make it because we don’t get to use the uniform again after that. Same car I ran at Daytona some, although it didn’t leave Daytona in that good of shape. Our guys did a great job and I’m proud of them. We’ve overcome another hurdle and we’ll see if we can have a good race.” YOU MADE THE BOSS HAPPY AND SAD AT THE SAME TIME. “I wish I could just make him happy. I thought his time was solid enough to get him in and it was close. I don’t know where it ended up but I knew it was pretty close. But the go or go home guys are so close and so tightly packed there that all it takes is a little bit. It all worries you here because the wind can change direction or anything. We got a little cloud cover toward the end and maybe that helped us a little bit. The main thing here is the wind. If the wind changes direction or gusts a little bit there’s nothing you can do.” HOW WAS THE CAR IN DRAFTING PRACTICE YESTERDAY? “I don’ t know. I never ran any. I ran single-car runs all day so the first time I’ll be in the draft we’ll be when they drop the green flag.” THERE MUST BE A LOT OF PRESSURE KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE TO QUALIFY EVERY WEEK. “Yeah it is. It’s enough to make you miserable all the time but I’ve still got the greatest job in the world with one of the best sponsors. I can’t complain too much. It’s just part of the gig right now and until we get in the top-35 that’s the way it’s going to be. If I want to make myself stop worrying about it we need to get in the top-35 and then life will be good for a while.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 RED BULL TOYOTA: “It is not from a lack of effort that we didn’t make this race. We didn’t have enough speed, and we didn’t have as much preparation as we needed since we are only using this car again one more time in Daytona. My crew puts all they have into these cars trying to make these races each week. Hopefully we can get a better result in Richmond.”