Where the Raybestos Rookies finished at Atlanta:
Hornish Jr. 25th
Franchitti 33rd
Carpentier 35th
Smith 38th

UNOFFICIAL Raybestos Rookie standings:
Franchitti 41
Hornish Jr. 39
Smith 38
Carpentier 20
Villeneuve 1

SAM HORNISH, JR. IN THE No. 77 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL DODGE WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S RACE. “We got a lot of laps in and the car was really good on the first run and then from there we just couldn’t get it back tightened up. It was so free I felt like I was running on dirt most of the race [smile]. But we kept it underneath us and kept running out there. It’s definitely a learning experience. All the guys on the Penske Truck Rental Dodge did a great job for me in the pits today. We’re all getting used to working with each other and trying to make the right directions, that’s tough enough to do in practice let alone on the fly in the race so I was pretty happy about that. I was a little bit frustrated at times with the car, just decided that we couldn’t get any better. Next week will be different and each time we go to one of these races and get to run the full thing I’ve got a better idea of what I need out of the car the next time we come back. We were pretty much loose all day. We had a good start to the race. I think we went from 33rd to 20th and really moving forward and whatever happened on the first pit stop if the track changed or anything after that it was just free, free, free. I mean, it was loose all the time and had a really tough time getting it off the corner going sideways most of the time [smiles].” HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO RACE HARD AND RACE FOR POSITION BUT RACE RESPECTFULLY? “You’ve got to be careful running with the guys that are on the lead lap. Even other guys if they consistently get a run on you, you’ve kind of got to let ‘em go by, as long as they do the same thing for you. A lot of guys want you to let them go by if they’ve got six inches of their nose up there, but you can be all the way up beside them and they won’t lift. It’s just getting to know everybody and running with and who you can run side-by-side with and them getting comfortable with you, too, and feeling like they can let you go because you’ll let them go next time.”

DARIO FRANCHITTI, No. 40 FASTENAL DODGE: “It was important to finish. It’s like every week for us, a big learning experience. I cannot believe how loose the cars were all day. I think everybody was in the same boat. We were just hanging on. We hit the wall a couple of times just on exit with the thing being so loose and the rear being toed-out, stuck out so much, but we finished. We kind of got hurt there. We were on the same lap as a bunch of the guys ahead of us and Edwards just lapped us and then blew up. That got us a lap further down which we didn’t need. I drove as hard as I could all day. My guys did a great job with the pit stops. We just couldn’t get the adjustments in the car to handle the way we needed.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET LAPS ON THE TRACK, FINISH RACES, AND BUILD UP A NOTEBOOK FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON? “Oh it’s important. It’s important to get experience. It’d be nice to have some better results to show for it. As I say, we’re all doing our best.” ARE YOU FEELING WELL? “Yeah. I was sick all weekend so I’ve felt better [smiles].” HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU ABOUT THE TOP-35? “Ah, it is what it is. We just do our best. If we’re out, we’re out. We’ll just have to do qualifying performances like we did on Friday night. If we end up out of it, we’ll work our way back in. Nothing else we can do.” COMMENT ON BRISTOL. “Bristol is going to be wild. In one way I’m looking forward to it and we’ll see what happens.”

PATRICK CARPENTIER, No. 10 CINTAS DODGE: “We want to run better, more competitive. It was not as good as I wanted to. I want to mix it with these guys a little bit more. It’s okay. We finished the race, got some points and we’ll move on to the next one. It seems like we’re not too bad so far qualifying so hopefully we’ll get to make the next races and keep learning. It’s those laps that you keep running that really helps you out. That’s what we’ve got to do and not doing the first few races has kind of cost us a little bit. The car was just loose, really loose from the get-go. At one point I was like ‘Man, you’ve got to tighten that up a little bit because I was sideways in all the corners. He tightened it up at one point and then started picking it up, lap time wise, towards the end there. I asked for a change and said ‘Ah, that’s a little bit too tight’ made a small change and got really loose again for the last run. I was really on the knife edge with the car but I’m so happy we finished. It’s the first one this year for us. We got some points. We got to qualify all of them and finish all of them if we want to get back there.” WHAT HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT BRISTOL? “Oh I heard a lot of stuff. I heard Juan Pablo say ‘What the… [laughs].’ So it’s a different place. We ran New Smyrna which is a short track and should be similar and I’ll play the video games this week [smiles].”

Notes: