Dodge Michigan II qualifying notes

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"That was by far the best lap I've ever run at Michigan. All the guys have been working hard, and that was a real good lap. It was a great run for us. This is the same car we had at Indy, and I feel real good about it. It's a great car. I've never run good at Michigan. If we can get a top five, we'll be real happy with that."

DAVE BLANEY (No. 93 Amoco Ultimate Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We've been struggling all day. It's the same car we qualified fourth with here last time. I don't know what's wrong with it."

STACY COMPTON (No. 92 Kodiak Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I don't know what happened. The car ran out of gas on both laps. I don't know if the fuel pump was going bad or what. We didn't have but about three pounds of oil pressure. Ernie Elliott brought us a horse of a motor here for this weekend. We haven't had any problems all day, but on both laps in qualifying in stumbled at the end of the straightaway and up off the corner. I was happy with the lap with the motor shutting off. I think we've got a good car. We just need to work on it for Sunday. I think D.W. just more or less answered some questions for us testing up here. He got in the car and was fighting the same thing I've been fighting all year. I think he just answered some questions for us. I think he helped us some on shocks. Having someone else step in and run some laps answered a lot of questions. I don't know if it helped us go faster or not, but we ran faster when we got back here. He was just up here the first day last week. Unfortunately it was 102 degrees when we were up here, so what we learned then doesn't really translate now, but I think the track time certainly helped."

BILL ELLIOTT (No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We picked up a little bit from practice, and that's what you've got to do. My lap was pretty good. I don't know what I could have done to make it any better. We might have changed the car a little bit, but still, we'll see where that ends up. It'll be something we have to work through. Whether it's good, bad or indifferent, I think I'll know more tomorrow in practice. From the last time here until now, I think we learned a little bit. We ran a .42 here last time, so we pretty close to what we ran the last race. The lap was uneventful, and that's the way I like it. If you can keep things going in a straight forward direction, you're doing pretty well. Mike and his guys are doing a great job. All the guys are working hard. With the Dodge change and what we need to do, I think it's going to take a little more time, but hopefully we can catch on to a pretty good setup for this weekend. We'll just have to see."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We made a few changes before qualifying and got the car too tight. We didn't have a real good practice. We ran one decent lap. We tried to make it better and ruined it. The car was real good here last time. I expect it to be good again on Sunday."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"We ran a good lap right off the truck and never could get back to it. I think we ran an .80 on our banzai and picked up a couple of tenths. We were a little loose in practice and then we made some changes and got too tight in qualifying. I think we'll be pretty good in the race. We qualified 28th here last time, so we're starting a little better than that at least."

KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Sprint Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"That was slow, but it was three tenths faster than we were in practice. I wish we could have picked up about three more tenths. We were faster when we were here last time. I don't know what's different. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

JASON LEFFLER (No. 01 Cingular Wireless Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Leffler, a Raybestos rookie of the year contender, will start 11th in Sunday's 43-car field, his career-best Winston Cup start.
"I knew I didn't get through one and two very good on the first lap. I knew I had left some on the table. I took the second lap and it paid off. We ran 14th quick in practice, and we did that on seven cylinders, so we knew we had a pretty good car. Starting up front here will really help. Our finish didn't show it, but we had a good run here in June. If we can pick up where we left off in June, we'll be in good shape for Sunday."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T)
"I'm ecstatic. We got a lucky break in qualifying and drew a decent number. With the weather moving in, it looks like the track might have picked up a little bit. Congratulations to Ricky Craven. He's very deserving of a pole. I'm happy for this Cheerios Dodge team, too. It's not to start up near the front. We've had our run of bad luck. It's been a year and a half, and we're ready to turn it around."

CASEY ATWOOD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid R/T)
NOTE: Atwood will start start sixth Sunday. It's the eighth time this season he's been the fastest Raybestos Rookie of the Year qualifier.
"We're learning a lot. We've got a brand new car that we took to Indy, and we're running it here. We've just improved a lot of stuff, and we used a lot of Bill's setup here. We ran a lot better here than we normally do. This was one of my worse tracks. I think I took a provisional every time I've been here, in Busch and Cup. I feel pretty good about it."

-Dodge Motorsports