NASCAR Cup
Fort Worth: Team Monte Carlo qualifying quotes
Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet Monte Carlo "Well, if somebody goes out there and blows us both away (he and Ricky Rudd), it won't matter. What I'm the proudest of is that this is our first full-blown test of the year. We came to Texas and ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
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Michael Waltrip, No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet Monte Carlo
"Well, if somebody goes out there and blows us both away (he and Ricky Rudd), it won't matter. What I'm the proudest of is that this is our first full-blown test of the year. We came to Texas and brought a bunch of engineering staff from DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.). I'm real pleased with our performance. However it works, you just have to grade yourself on what you know and how you performed under the circumstances."
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo
"We chose to go out on sticker tires and the car was a little slower. I don't know if the track is dirty from going out early or if that set of stickers didn't work out. A lot of guys are on scuffs, so I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of both. The stickers worked great for us in practice, so that's what we chose. The No. 24 (Jeff Gordon) is on scuffs. We'll have to see how it all plays out.
Did you swap any information with the No. 24 team this morning?
"Yeah, a little bit set-up wise, but more driver-wise. I even got some advice from him (Jeff Gordon) about how to enter the corners and it helped me a lot."
Steve Park, No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo
"This is a great racecar. We didn't come off the truck that good. The guys really worked hard to get the car to qualify as well as it did. It's real easy to go fast here at Texas. Just try to hold it wide open, but your foot is quivering on that gas pedal a little bit. I just want to thank Chevrolet for giving us a good racecar and Pennzoil for sticking by me."
Does the quiver mean you lifted, or did you flatfoot it?
"I flat-footed it in practice, and I ended up losing too much. I was lifting a little bit to get the car to turn, and then also to run wide open. So it's a balancing act out there."
Robby Gordon, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet Monte Carlo -- Scraped the wall in practice (cosmetic damage) and crashed his primary car in turn 4 during qualifying. He will go to a back-up car:
"I don't have a smile on my face, but unfortunately at times like this you have to smile a little bit and look on the bright side. We just struggled today. We went out in the first session and we weren't very good. Gil Martin (crew chief) kept working on it all day and I thought I could handle it being a little bit freer and they gave me what I asked for. At these mile and a half high-speed racetracks, your qualifying position is so important. You can see how close the field is. We were trying to get in the same position we had at Bristol (front row) and we gave that one away. We went for it and it just didn't stick."
-tmc-
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