Raybestos Rookie Final Practice Speeds:
Hornish Jr. 27th
Smith 33rd
Carpentier 34th
McDowell 37th

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 00 AARON’S DREAM MACHINE TOYOTA: HOW SORE ARE YOU? “It’s not too bad in the race car. I don’t feel much at all. As far as the race car goes I feel fine. I feel 100 percent. Getting out is a little gingerly but other than everything is great. It’s just a testament to how good these cars are because I took a big crash yesterday. I’m just thankful to be able to drive today. We got through Happy Hour there, got through practice and now we’ll work on the car a little bit and get it ready for the race.” HOW GOOD IS YOUR CAR AND HOW DID PRACTICE GO TODAY? “Everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing works really hard on having our backup just as good as our primary. This chassis is just a little bit different but other than that everything is great. It’s tough because when you pull out that backup it’s something that you don’t really want to do. We’re just fortunate to be able to run today and run tomorrow. Got through practice and now we get out in the race and that’s all that’s important is scoring points at this point for our Aaron’s Dream Machine.” HAS THE TRACK CHANGED? “It’s definitely slick. It’s a little bit warmer today, a little bit more warmer. It just doesn’t feel real into the track right now for me but we’re working on the balance of it. David [Reutimann, his teammate] obviously was really good there, clipped off a big lap there in the beginning and I think he was good in race runs, too. We’ll have to see where we we’re at in comparison to them. That’s what’s great about having a three-car team and teammates is that you have people to lean on. Obviously the 44 was pretty good, the 00 and the 55 are about the same so now we need to go look at what the 44 has done and learn and improve upon that.” THIS IS A LONG RACE SO YOU’VE GOT TO BE PATIENT. “Oh yeah, absolutely. You’ve got to be patient. It’s going to be a long, tough day and you’ve just got to basically know when to go and when not to go. That’s definitely going to be tough for us. We’re starting there in the back so obviously we’ll be a threat to go a lap down pretty early on if we don’t get going. We need to kind of come up with a good strategy and just dig hard all day long.”