Ford Racing Michigan II qualifying

ELLIOTT SADLER: 21-Motorcraft Taurus
That was a pretty good lap. We've been pretty good all day. I'll tell you, these guys worked with a brand new car. We went back to last year's notes, the way we did things last year in qualifying. We've been struggling this year. All the Motorcraft Ford Taurus guys, the Wood Brothers, they really worked hard this week to get this car ready. I haven't smiled this much in a long time. That was a pretty awesome lap. This car has a brand new body on it. We put a lot of last year's stuff in it because we haven't been qualifying that well. Lord knows how many provisionals we've taken. This is great. I haven't smiled this much since Daytona and Bristol. I feel like we've already won this race, just running a good race like this. This should make everybody pretty happy at Motorcraft and Ford, and it's looking pretty good for us right now."

RUSTY WALLACE: 2-Miller Lite Taurus
I felt pretty good about it. I ran a .45 this morning and ran a .60 now, so I really didn't back up what I did this morning, but the track was a little hotter and I was a little too tight in one and two and three and four, so that must have been it, I guess." ON BEING THE DEFENDING RACE CHAMPION. "I hope I can take it home again this year. I got a great car. This car won the race last year and it was real good at Indianapolis and it's always run good here, so I feel good about it."

TODD BODINE: 66-Kmart Blue Light Special Taurus
The car was real good; the driver messed up. I totally messed up both ends of the race track. The car was a lot better than it was in practice. As in every week, they tune that Yates motor up and it runs great. The guys did their job, the driver let 'em down today. I just ran too low through one and two, and just got into three a little too deep, and it really cost us, probably, a good three-tenths of a second. The Blue Light Special was good, we were really good in the race in the spring and hopefully we can the get the same result and get the car good again and get the car to the finish to get to the finish this time."

ANOTHER GOOD QUALIFYING EFFORT, THOUGH.

"Yeah, that's kinda what makes me a little mad is we should be around fifth or sixth. But, we'll have a good start for the race and we'll go from there."

RICKY RUDD: 28-Texaco/Havoline Taurus
Somebody said it's like three-thousandths off the pole. They reminded we were second here the first race and we were off the pole by six-thousandths. So, I guess we're getting better at it, we're not getting beat as bad. We're real happy. That Texaco/Havoline Taurus, we were fastest in practice and we picked up a little bit in qualifying, so you can't really help but ask for much more than that."

MATT KENSETH: 17-DeWalt Power Tools Taurus
The car drove pretty good. We ran what we ran in practice. Everyone must've picked up in front of us. We're still trying to better at qualifying."

MARK MARTIN: 6-Pfizer Taurus
We didn't really practice qualifying set-up. We worked on race set-up, we didn't find anything that worked there, so at least we won't be trying that stuff in Happy Hour and maybe we'll have time to find something that we do like. We decided forego a good qualifying position to try to work on some race set-up stuff that I really thought was going to be good, but it's not. I don't know what were going to do for tomorrow, but we'll work on it and see."

JIMMY SPENCER: 26
I don't think that will hold up seventh, I think we be further back than that. It's still a good run for us again. We've been loose ever since we unloaded. We feel like we should've run maybe a .40 or maybe even a .30. But, it is a lot better qualifying effort for us. We know that'll be probably pretty close to the top 20. That's not bad. We'd rather be up further than that. Mainly, we hope the thing will race real well on Sunday, and we think we will. But, Dodge, that new nose has helped them a real lot, and Chevy's got those two inches, and I just think the Ford could stand a new grill insert or something to help the Fords a little bit, especially in the race conditions. Right now, we just got to do with what we got and do the best we can, and hopefully we can be a factor in the race."

DALE JARRETT: 88-UPS Taurus
Where you qualify isn't overly important because you can win from anywhere. We like to do well and like to get the weekend started off well. We ran a lap that was about where we practiced all day. I got a little loose off two and that messed the lap a little. This track isn't a one-groove track. You can race and pass pretty much wherever you can here, so where we start isn't as important."

HUT STRICKLIN: 90-Hill Bros Coffee Taurus

YOU SEEM TO DO WELL HERE.

"Yeah, for some reason. I don't know why, This race track has really been good to me, and I enjoy coming here, although it's not really one of my favorite race tracks, for some reason, but I enjoy racing here, it's a fun place."

GOOD PRACTICE LAP, BETTER QUALIFYING LAP.

"Yeah, actually, it really was. I was kind of surprised. I have to give a lot of credit to all the guys who work on this Hills Bros Coffee Ford. It's just an awesome car we have here this weekend, and got to say thanks to Robert Yates for doing such a great job on the engines, too. It's one of the first times that I feel like I need a HANS device mounted backwards on my helmet this week. I tell you, it was really an awesome lap for us."

KURT BUSCH: 97-Sharpie/Rubbermaid Taurus:

ON PICKING UP ON HIS SECOND LAP. "Yeah, it was a team gain from what we did here the first time here in the spring. I expected it to turn a little bit better because we learned things and we applied things to this car - and it turned, but it just turned too quickly and snapped loose on me in one and two, so we had to run that second lap. I was really focused on running one, and luckily we were able to pick up six-tenths on that second lap to get us a fairly decent spot."

JEFF BURTON: 99-Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus
We picked up about three-tenths, and most people, I don't think, will pick up three-tenths, so I think we're going to be happy with that.

ON PICKING UP FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING.

"That's all you can ever ask for. Elliott Sadler picked up a whole lot more than that. If everybody will pick up less than I did, and not compared to what Elliott did, then we're going to be okay. That's going to give us a decent starting spot, it's not going to be in the top 10, maybe it'll be 15th or 16th and if that where it is, that will be okay."

JEREMY MAYFIELD: 12-Mobil 1 Taurus
We're pretty happy with that. We changed a lot of stuff. We didn't have a lot to lose and we gambled on it and made a lot of changes, and picked up. So, we're pretty happy with that. Any time you can pick up in qualifying, or at least run the same speed anyway, but we picked up this time, so we're happy with it."

-Ford Racing