BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Gatorade Duel 1 Finish: 11th
Daytona 500 Starting Position: 23rd
How good does it feel to know that you're qualified for the Daytona 500?
"This feels about as good as that skydive the other day -- not quite. This feels like a win. We had so much adversity to overcome and we had a lot of friends out there that helped us, but most importantly it was all the hard work from Red Bull and Toyota. We had to overcome the ignition box in qualifying, the spin at the beginning of this race, the right-rear coming apart, and pitting to get new tires, but it all worked out."

What happened that caused you to spin early in the race?
"That was my second spin today. I got spun off of turn four in Nationwide practice this morning -- it's a good thing that I had that practice. I was thinking; 'Oh no, not again'. I was afraid that was going to happen, it was three-wide and it was kind of early, but I really didn't have a choice. The No. 15 (Paul Menard) went to the outside and I went to block him and when I did that it put us three-wide, and I didn't have much of an option there. I don't know if Boris (Said) got tight or just misjudged it, but he got into us and spun, but I was able to keep it off the wall and then came back to make the race."

What did you learn that you need to change on the car for Sunday?
"We definitely learned a lot. We have a good car, but we need to be better. We're going to go try to win the race and that's our goal. We need to find a little more in this car. It was a little loose all day, but we just need to find more grip overall."

Do you feel like this year you're playing with a full deck? You have competitive equipment -- compared to last year when you guys really were behind the eight ball?
"The deck was definitely stacked against us. We were kind of joking through the off-season and going over how last season went. We talked about it. If Red Bull tried to pick a harder way to start a race team, I don't know if they could have. You know, starting from scratch, not buying the team, starting late in the season in '06. They didn't really start hiring employees until almost '07 for their first season, and then building cars and going with a brand-new manufacturer. But, their vision was long -term. I knew that when I came to Red Bull that it wasn't about '07, it was about what the future holds. That's the reason they partnered with Toyota and they invested in their own team, so they could do it their own way. We paid the price last year. It was painful. It was dreadfully painful to miss the races we did, not going to the 500, going through all the adversity we did. It built a really strong team. We learned a lot from it. We've gained some strong people in the company along the way."

Can you compare making the Daytona 500 today to jumping out of the airplane the other day?
"I'll be honest with you, I think that my heart rate was higher. My stress level was definitely higher today from the time I woke up until the end of that race, until the very last lap, than at any point in time prior to me jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet. Solo on top of that. It wasn't tandem. But, jumping out of the airplane was obviously awesome. Red Bull has been such a great -- I get to do so many great things. Jumping with the Red Bull Air Force guys. The guys I've jumped with have 25,000 jumps. I felt like I was in good hands. But I'm not going to lie to you. You jump out and you see the ground coming at 100, 200 miles an hour at 13,000 feet, it's definitely an eye opener. But to elaborate more on your question there, it didn't hold a candle to trying to make the Daytona 500 in one of these races, not even comparable."

J.J. YELEY, No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry, Hall of Fame Racing
Gatorade Duel 1 Finish: 25th
Daytona 500 Starting Position: 37th

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Gatorade Duel 1 Finish: 13th
Daytona 500 Starting Position: DNQ
What are your feelings after falling short in making the Daytona 500?
"This pretty much (stinks). This is unfortunate for the Red Bull team. They deserve to have two cars in the race. It's good that Brian (Vickers) got in for the guys back at the shop, but my guys deserve better than that. We just couldn't get the car right. We were just so tight the whole time, and we never had that in practice. That caught us a little off-guard. I ran my (behind) off trying to get back to the front to have a chance. It's only one of 36 races, though. It's not the best way to start, but we started a lot better than we did last year. This will take a weekend to get over, for sure. "

JACQUES VILLENEUVE, No. 27 Bill Davis Racing Toyota Camry, Bill Davis Racing
Gatorade Duel 2 Finish: 23rd
Daytona 500 Starting Position: DNQ
What happened that took you out of the race?
"The car was just a little too loose and I got sideways quite a few times. I knew one of those times it was going to catch me up. These cars aren't bad when you have a perfect set-up in the car, but when you start sliding they're a handful, mostly in the traffic. My car was quite quick, it was just a little too loose and I got caught out there. The car's move around a lot, but that's not really too much of a problem."