NASCAR Cup

Chicagoland: Ford Racing quotes

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (qualified 8th) - "The guys made some great adjustments after practice. This M&M's Groovy Summer car is pretty fast. The guys did good. I'm still shaking a little bit. That's a pretty fast lap. To go out there ...

Published: Jul 14, 2003, 4:36 PM

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ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (qualified 8th) -

"The guys made some great adjustments after practice. This M&M's Groovy Summer car is pretty fast. The guys did good. I'm still shaking a little bit. That's a pretty fast lap. To go out there this early and run that fast, I'm just so proud of these guys. We really want to run good this weekend. We have a brand-new car, brand-new body. We'll see what happens."

WITH THE SUN COMING OUT, DO YOU THINK THE TIMES WILL GET FASTER?

"I think so. I think the cooler it gets, the faster these guys are going to get. So, I think a .43 that I ran will be about fifth or sixth. I think Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, some of those guys, will definitely run a lot faster."

FRIDAYS HAVE BEEN GOOD TO YOU THIS YEAR.

"We have. We've been the highest-starting Ford about seven or eight times this year, and we have, like, 10 or 11 top-10 starts out of the first 18 races, so, yeah, qualifying has been good to us. We just have to get ourselves together a little bit on Sunday, get a little bit better luck, but they've definitely been bringing some great cars from the race shop - because that's where it starts, at the race shop. So, to be that fast every week unloading off the trailer, I'm very happy with that."

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus (qualified 7th) -

"Yeah, I'm really happy with that. These guys have done a great job with this Grainger car, getting it going here. But, I feel kind of bad. Everybody's been faster on their second lap, and I thought I had about a tenth more in it, and I drove off into one and it just didn't turn. I don't know if I didn't get the nose down tight against the track. But, I'm just excited for the Grainger team to come here, maybe a top-10 qualifying run here. I think we've got a good car. We tested here a couple of weeks ago, so we'll see what we can do."

WITH YOUR VICTORY SATURDAY NIGHT AT DAYTONA, DOES THIS ADD TO YOUR MOMENTUM?

"Well, it gives us a tremendous amount of momentum. Daytona's a big place to win. I figured the Grainger team was capable of winning a race this season, and didn't count Daytona or Talladega, restrictor-plate tracks, as a win, so I still think we're up for a win later this season, and just hope we can do it."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Power Tools Taurus (qualified 24th) -

"It wasn't very good. I mean, the car handled really good, it just doesn't seem to go anywhere, so we just didn't have the speed we were looking for this weekend."

MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (qualified 13th) -

"It bit better than practice and a little bit better than I expected. I like my car. It wasn't fast enough in practice, but it's going to qualify a little better than I thought."

DAVE BLANEY - No. 77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Taurus (qualified 9th) -

"It's going really good. I thought we made some big gains today on the Cup car in practice. The Busch car is good, qualified fourth in that, so it's been a good day so far."

YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS CAR ON SUNDAY?

"Well, all of these cars will run good. I felt like Bootie and I learned something today in practice. We've been struggling on the flat tracks and it really picked us up this morning. I'm kind of hoping that will carry through. If it stays like that in race practice, we'll be in the hunt."

WHAT DOES A DAY LIKE TODAY MEAN FOR YOU HEADING INTO SUNDAY?

"Oh, man, we've been searching. We've struggled as of late, and every time we do get running decent we have something happen. We need a smooth weekend. If we come out of here with a top-10 and a smooth weekend, we're going to be happy. So, we need to start building some confidence back in me and the team."

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 Citgo Taurus (qualified 27th) -

"We fought tight most of the day and got a little behind in practice and just never really made any headway with it. And they we cleaned it up and got us through qualifying. We've been way too tight and not being able to go fast enough because it's been too tight, and we decided that if we weren't going to go fast enough it needed to be because we were too loose, and that's what we made it do. So, at least we made the changes we wanted to make. We just got it a little too far."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus (qualified 42nd) -

"We were disappointed with that. I think we were like 28th- or 29th-fastest in practice, and thought we'd be better than we'd practice, a little bit, and we ran slower than we practiced. And, looking at the pace here, you had to at least run what you did in practice or be a tenth faster, and we were a tenth slower. So, that tenth is going to make a big difference. It's not a great run for us, for sure."

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