NASCAR Cup
Ford Racing Rockingham II qualifying quotes
KEVIN LEPAGE --7-- NationsRent Taurus (Qualified 15th) "We were just a tick off. We're still a young team. We've only been together for five weeks and we kind of had a bad set of tires for our mock-up qualifying run and that really hurt us.
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
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KEVIN LEPAGE --7-- NationsRent Taurus (Qualified 15th)
"We were just a tick off. We're still a young team. We've only been together for five weeks and we kind of had a bad set of tires for our mock-up qualifying run and that really hurt us. Buddy Barnes, Scott Lepage and myself all came up with a setup here for qualifying and we picked up three-tenths from what we practiced. It'll be good enough to be in the show. We won't be up in the top 10 like I wanted, but it pays on Sunday and not on Friday."
RICKY CRAVEN --32-- Tide Taurus (Qualified 2nd)
"We only have to put in 45 seconds today. That's the extent of our work day, but it's a pretty hard 45 seconds. Thankfully, the Tide crew made it easy for me. They really tuned this thing up and I was pretty happy with the lap. They did a great job." HOW WAS YOUR LAP? "This is a really tough place to get a hold of, but our car was really good from the minute we unloaded. The guys tuned on the Tide Ford and got it even better."
WITH THE TRACK BEING SO ABRASSIVE, IS IT REALLY IMPORTANT TO BE GOOD RIGHT OFF THE TRUCK?
"We made four runs today because you've got two sets of tires. You've got two runs on each set and then the drop off is so significant that it's irrelevant. You can actually tune your car out, instead of tuning it in. It's important to be very, very specific on the first two sets."
MATT KENSETH --17-- DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Qualified 42nd)
"I thought I had one and two nailed pretty good. I was a little bit tight getting into three, but, other than that, I thought the car drove pretty good. I don't know how you can have your car driving pretty good and be last, but somehow we're managing to do it."
KURT BUSCH --97-- Sharpie/Rubbermaid Taurus (Qualified 11th) -- "Qualifying this year has been a struggle. With this overly aggressive tire, we just tried to make sure we put this Ford solidly in the top 25. It's been difficult. We're either in the top 10 or we're bust, so I just have to thank the guys for giving me a good, solid car. It unloaded quick and the Sharpie/Rubbermaid guys are gonna work hard on Sunday. Hopefully, we can finish in the top 10."
MARK MARTIN --6-- Pfizer Taurus (Qualified 9th)
"I got one good lap anyway. I just told my guys I've got to believe that wasn't the setup. I don't know what is, but I certainly don't think that is. That's a real fast lap for the way we practiced. It was an ugly lap the first lap and worse the second lap out there, so I'm real tickled to run an .85. The track will cool down and get faster, but that lap was probably at least a tenth better than I deserved."
RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus (Qualified 38th)
"That's really nothing to brag about because we're really not sure what's going on. This is the car we finished third with at Dover and we qualified fourth here for the last Rockingham race and reverted back to that setup, but it didn't seem to work this week. For some reason, it won't turn in the middle of the corner. The guys are working awfully hard. They changed everything on it going into qualifying. We picked up a couple tenths of a second, but we need about another three-tenths to be good. The race setup will be completely different and, hopefully, we'll hit it for that."
DALE JARRETT --88-- UPS Taurus (Qualified 31st)
"We're still searching. I don't know. We just can't get through the center of the corner. The car is so slow there that it just kills it everywhere else. We've changed a lot of things, but we just haven't hit on it yet."
MIKE WALLACE --12-- Mobil 1 Taurus (Qualified 20th)
"That's quicker than we ran in practice by about two-tenths. I got really loose on the second lap trying to make up a little bit more, but, all in all, they say anytime you can improve from your practice speed you should be content. We ran like a 24.17 in practice and came back and ran a .90-something, so I'm happy with that."
RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus (Qualified 28th)
"I ran an .05 in practice and an .02 in qualifying. We should have picked up about three-tenths, but when I went to qualify I just got way too loose. The rear end was sliding around on it a lot and that's about all I could do."
-Ford Racing-
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