ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge Charger) Qualified – 1st

“First of all, it’s a great weekend for all of us. I think what Sprint puts on here at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is a lot of fun for us drivers, sponsors and teams. It’s right here in everyone’s backyard, so a great, great fun weekend. I can’t think of a better way to get it started off than sitting on the pole. With a 40-lap shootout format that we have, track position is everything. We focused hard here at the test to get our car to qualify good and race good. We definitely want to race our way in. It would mean a lot to me to do that. We need to do that right now with the Stanley team. We should have an exciting race tomorrow night. I’m sure there will be some fireworks. I just want to be a part of the big show (All-Star Race). It’s a great race to be a part of. No points involved and just racing very, very hard. I’m just looking forward to tomorrow; it should be a great day.”

HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE PROGRESS OF YOUR TEAM RIGHT NOW? “We’ve made some huge progress as a team – speed wise, confidence wise – when we show up at the race track every week. We’ve been qualifying great. We’ve been putting out some great efforts, especially the last month-and-a-half. Unfortunately, the race finishes are not where we want to be. In the last four races, we’ve had something go wrong in each race. Whether it’s my fault or malfunctions or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we’re running better, so we have some confidence in that. We just have to learn how to put it together for a 500-mile or 400-mile race. After coming off of Darlington where I really messed up real bad the second lap of the race, to come here and be fast in practice, to put it the car) on the pole and legitimately have a shot to race our way into the big race means a lot to me and my team. We want to do that and build on that for the Coca-Cola 600.”

DID YOU GUYS FIND SOMETHING DURING THE TEST AT CHARLOTTE OR WAS IT A MAGIC EUREKA MOMENT? “We found some stuff and kind of put it all together. We added two or three pieces to the puzzle that we know was better. Here at the Charlotte test, it seemed like we put it all together and it just came together for us at the test. When I talked to you guys at Phoenix when I qualified second, we had this new style of car and the front-ends were a lot different. We’ve kind of implemented that to the larger race tracks now. The Charlotte test was really the first test of that. So when we came here and tested very well, we went to Darlington and qualified very well and we should have been really good in the race. To come here and back it up again, we’re definitely making progress. We’re trying some things new for this weekend, chassis wise. We’re going to race it tomorrow and see how it goes. And it will give us a good idea of how we need to be when we come back for the 600. But at the Charlotte test, I’ll say it was probably the most important test that I’ve ever had in my career because we have struggled so much on the mile-and-a-half’s and the big tracks at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports – Texas and Atlanta and California were very sub-par for our organization. So to come here and have a two-day test, I’ve very thankful that we were able to have those and learn some things. It’s a big milestone for our guys as a team to come here and be competitive on a mile-and-a-half track the way that we have run on the mile-and-halfs so far this year.”

HOW WILL YOUR CAR RACE TOMORROW? “We did a race-run today and I did eight or nine race-runs at night here at the test and we were very happy. We unloaded right off the truck and were very fast in race trim today. We feel like we are very much prepared for tomorrow night’s race. We just have to go race hard and hopefully stay up front in the top one or two positions to keep clean air. I think we are prepared as best we can be. Today went as smooth as we hoped it would to get ready for tomorrow night’s race. So we have high hopes for tomorrow night.”

IF YOU DON’T WIN TOMORROW, DO YOU LIKE THE FAN VOTE? “I love the fan vote. I think it’s a great deal to get the fans involved in our racing. I think NASCAR does a good job of bridging that gap between the race car drivers and the fans. So they should have a say so. We’ve done all we can do to try and get voted into the race. It was unbelievable when Dale Jr. came to me at Richmond and asked me was it OK for him to ask his fans to vote for me with nothing in return. He just did it because he’s a friend of mine. I’ve probably been friends with him longer than anybody else in the garage – since we were teenagers we have been racing against each other. He just did it because he said, ‘I know you’ve had a tough year, it be cool to see you in the All-Star race. Its Dale Jarrett’s last race, it would be cool to see you be a part of that.’ So that’s how it kind of came about. That’s the kind of person Dale Jr. is. His fans definitely stepped up. It’s got us close in the voting. I think we’re second or third right now. We just have to go race our way in. That’s the mentality I’m going to have tomorrow night.”

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 Jim Beam Dodge Charger) Qualified 5th

“Our Jim Beam Dodge was real good. The truth is that I under drove the car and there was more left on the table. I’m real happy with the run so far this weekend. All the guys have been working real hard every week trying to get this car better and better. I’ve got to thank all the Jim Beam guys for what they’re doing to try to vote me into the All-Star race. If we don’t get voted in, I like our chances to be right up near the front during the Showdown tomorrow.”

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PATRICK CARPENTIER’S SPIN IN TURN 4? “When in doubt, go full throttle and that’s exactly what he did (laughs). I’m happy for him that he didn’t get into the fence because that hurts your confidence heading into the weekend. He’s a teammate of mine and one great driver. I’m glad that he didn’t hit the wall and wreck the car. They’ll put a fresh set of tires on it and run hard in the Showdown.”

PATRICK CARPENTIER (No. 10 Charter Communications Dodge Charger) Qualified 27th

“It (the car) just got loose on me. I was going to lift because we need to make the race, but I thought what the heck and stayed in it and it kept spinning and going sideways more and more and more. The car was a little too loose. We didn’t do any qualifying runs; we just practiced most of the afternoon. For some reason we were real tight this morning and real loose this afternoon. I think we have a real good race car. I like our Charter Dodge going into tomorrow as long as we don’t hit something (laughs).”