REUTIMANN: THIS IS AN IMPOUND RACE AND YOU ARE ON QUALIFYING SETUP. “You saw kind of the same thing at Daytona too until it rained. We work on all qualifying stuff and we push things as much as we can to get in and those other guys don’t because they are just concerned about the race. The stuff we have in our car sometimes don’t always live the longest but you don’t have a choice. You can either think about what a good car you have while you are sitting on the couch watching on Sunday and that’s never any fun. I’ve been there and that’s not a good feeling at all. I thank the Lord that we’re in. Now we can concentrate on tomorrow’s deal.” WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER ONCE THE RACE STARTS? “The cars are probably going to drive pretty good anyway because you know how this place is. Race tape is going to be a question so we got to make sure that we don’t run the thing hot early on by running too much tape or whatever and just kind of massage on the thing as the day goes on and come out of here with our first Raybestos Rookie of the Race award. I haven’t gotten one all year and I really want one.” DID YOU WORK ON RACE SETUP AT ALL YESTERDAY? “No, we didn’t even have race setup’s address [smile]. At an impound race you’re not all a whole lot different. The COT deal, as tight as the box is, you’re not going to do a whole lot anyway so everybody is kind of doing the same thing. We ended up running the levels in the rear end a little lower and the transmission a little lower and maybe a little bit thinner fluids that those guys in the Chase can’t afford to do.” IT MUST BE A BIG RELIEF KNOWING THAT YOU ARE RACING HERE TOMORROW. “It absolutely does and I’ve got to hand it to everybody at Michael Waltrip Racing. They did such a phenomenal job and Toyota has done a good job as well. My crew chief and my team brought me a good Burger King Toyota here this weekend. We came here down for the test and weren’t even close to what we needed and they went back and cut the body off of it. The guys in the fab shop did a great job and they are the main reason we’re in the race. I thank the Lord this part of it is over with.” YOU DON’T HAVE ANY PRACTICE IS RACE CONDITIONS. IS THAT A CONCERN? “Yeah, there’s a little bit of concern but we had two days to test down here so we kind of got a general idea of what we hope we want to have, anyway. We didn’t even think about racing until now. Frankie Kerr [crew chief] and everybody has done a great job. They’ve done a good job for me all year and I think we’re gaining a little bit of momentum. It’s hard to gain momentum in this sport.” YOU WERE ONE OF THE LAST CARS TO MAKE A RUN TODAY. “From what everything was going to happen as far as the way the weather was supposed to get, the clouds were supposed to start moving out and it was supposed to get hotter, which is kind of what it did. The clouds hung around a lot longer than I thought they would. The cooler temperatures, the motors make a little more horsepower, and it just makes the motor run better. You know how it is here: if the wind changes direction or gusts a little bit it’s going to kill your lap so there is nothing you can do about it.” COMMENT ON RACING LAST NIGHT AT TALLADEGA SHORT TRACK. “It was fun. I enjoyed it. Red Farmer, who is 75 years old, absolutely wore me out last night. He just drove away from me. I felt a little bad about that but I’ve always wanted to get on the racetrack with Red Farmer and I was for a little while, even though he was way ahead of me. Bobby Labonte was there but he was running the regular show and he got wrecked. There were three of us so I run second in a three-car race. You go over there and you dirt race which is kind of my first love anyway and beat around a little bit and you kind of forget about what you’re going through over here on this side. I was thankful to be able to do that. My friend from Florida brought a car up and he was going to run over there and I’ll probably go back over there tonight and watch ‘em.” HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE STRESS OF QUALIFYING? “All I do is I tend to do is just get sick. I don’t know if that’s handling it or what [laughs]. It’s been working so I might as well stick with it.” DID YOU ANTICIPATE IT WAS GOING TO BE THIS MUCH WORK FOR YOU AT THIS LEVEL? “You know it’s going to be rough and you have an idea in your mind how tough it’s going to be. But it’s like anything else, you don’t realize how tough it is until you get here and start doing it week in and week out and go through the whole thing. It’s very humbling and it definitely keeps you grounded. Just because you had a good race one weekend, there’s another one next weekend and it doesn’t count anymore. Once you leave the pit gate, everything is off. You’ve got to go do it again.” WILL IT BE LIKE A VACATION WHEN YOU ARE IN THE TOP-35 AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE CONCERNED WITH QUALIFYING? “I’ll probably gain weight if I get in the top-35 and don’t have to worry about that. It’s just part of the deal. It’s almost to the point where you know you’re going to feel that way and you accept it. When it’s important to you and things matter you put a lot of emphasis on it. It’s supposed to be easy, I guess.” IS STARTING NEAR THE FRONT AN ADVANTAGE? “I really don’t think it is. You see guys coming from the back to the front and the front to the back and I’m pretty sure all those guys that have been doing race runs will gang up with you and pass you anyway early on. Main deal is that we get to start, whether it’s first or 43rd. That’s really all that matters. It’s like after you get in the race, whenever I know I’m locked in, we could go out 20th and if I know I’m locked in, I quit watching. I don’t even care where we qualify, except maybe Martinsville.”

REUTIMANN PRESS CONFERENCE

“I’m glad it’s over with. You worry about that one lap the entire time you get here and it’s no different than any other time being outside the top-35. We came down here and tested and we weren’t even remotely close and we didn’t have a car that was even capable of getting in the race. They took it back and cut it up and all the guys in the fab shop did a good job. So we came down here and we were able to get in the race. My teammate and team owner is on the pole and we got all three in the show and that’s pretty big for everybody at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota so I’m real proud of them. We’ll just see what we’ve got for the race. I haven’t even thought about the race until now. I’ve got something else to get sick about I guess.” WHY ARE THE TOYOTA TEAMS SO STRONG HERE IN QUALIFYING? “Because I think most of the Toyotas were the ones outside the top-35. You look at it and it’s not like we had a choice. When you’ve got a majority of the cars, the go or go home guys are Toyotas right now, all they’re doing is making qualifying runs. That’s probably what you’re going to see. It’s just kind of strange to know that you can come here and qualify ninth and not get a chance to race I guess is probably discussion for another time [smiles]. It’s just odd how you can get inside the top-10 and not have a chance to race. I think Toyota has done a good job of bringing a pretty good motor package back. I think Toyota teams are getting slightly better as time progresses. It’s starting to show up on the racetrack ever so often.” ALL THREE OF YOUR TEAMS ARE OUTSIDE THE TOP-35. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU WON’T BE IN THIS SITUATION NEXT YEAR? “I’m still trying to figure out where I’m going to be [laughs]. I’m actually really close on the MWR deal and I think that’s been pretty well covered all across the board. I feel like starting out next year not having a new team and so many new things I feel as confident as I guess you can be. It’s not like you walk into Daytona and it’s like ‘I’ve got this easy.’ It’s not like that at all. There’s always the great unknown and anything can happen. I feel better about next year than I this year, if that means anything.”