NASCAR Cup

Homestead Chevy Friday Quotes

JOE NEMECHEK (No. 42 BellSouth Chevrolet Monte Carlo) "Hopefully that will be good enough to get us in today. They've got oil down there in three and four and you've got to hit it just right. My left side tires hit it and my car slid up out of ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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JOE NEMECHEK (No. 42 BellSouth Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"Hopefully that will be good enough to get us in today. They've got oil down there in three and four and you've got to hit it just right. My left side tires hit it and my car slid up out of the groove. It was really slippery. We normally run pretty good here. I thought we were going to have a shot at the pole today and you draw No. 1, which is tough anyway, and with an oily track it's tough. I hope we'll be good in the race, but it could be ugly. I have a feeling it could be a Pontiac and Ford day up front. You've got to have downforce to go fast. That's the bottom line."

KENNY WALLACE (No. 55 Square D Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"I picked up the gas a little too early in turn one. Turns three and four were excellent. Segment times looked good, but it's over now. We've been using both days to get caught up here. We're a little behind. We're doing everything we can to overcome it. We're still battling for the top 25 position in the point standings. We know what we're up against with downforce here. You're in a controlled slide, and we're trying to overcome it every way we can."

MICHAEL WALTRIP (No. 7 Philips Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"I got into turn one good, but you've got to be patient here. I just messed up. I'm not too pleased about it. I didn't do the job today, and I'm a little disappointed. We've been fast in practice, so we should be OK."

STERLING MARLIN (No. 40 Coors Light Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"We slowed down a little bit. I thought I had a good lap, but I didn't. It's a crosswind and it'll shove the car on you, but it's been like that the whole time. Everybody had to go through it."

DALE EARNHARDT (No. 3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Monte Carlo)

"I think I was going to run a 35.20, but I came off four and got loose and got up next to the wall. If I hadn't lifted I would have got some sheetmetal on the wall. I cracked it a bit and still ran a 35.30. I'm pretty happy with that. That's the best we've run all day. The guys keep doing better and better. We tuned on it a little after practice and it made a difference. The wind it a problem, but we adjusted with the shocks and overcame it. I wish I could have been on the pole. You're never really pleased with a qualifying lap if you're not."

STEVE PARK (No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"You come here to run two cars and we went out to qualify the Busch car right after the guy lost an oil line. We ended up getting caught up in the oil and crashing that car hard. Ten minutes later I got in the Cup car and went out there to do it again. This has been a good car all weekend, but we've been trying to make it a car that could run for the pole. We went about a tenth quicker in qualifying, so I'm pretty happy about that. I really thought my confidence was going to waiver, but Paul Andrews and the guys on this Pennzoil team gave me a lot of confidence. Paul told me to just do my job and that's what we did. We're out of the Busch race. We're going home. It was a one-race deal this year. It's not the way we wanted to start it, but we had a car that we thought could qualify in the top 10."

GEOFFREY BODINE (No. 60 Power Team Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"That's not quite as good as we wanted. That's what we practiced. The car was sideways off four. It just didn't stick as good on that run as it had in practice. It's a tough corner and the Busch cars greased it up a little bit. That might be part of it. You just take what you get in this business. It was like John Force. The hotrod was a little sideways coming off turn four. It was a good run, but we were hoping to go faster."

MIKE SKINNER (No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"We worked all day yesterday on race setup and never made a qualifying run. We never put a piece of tape on the car. Our first lap today was respectable and we never got back to it. We struggled the rest of the day. I did a bunch of stuff that I wanted to try yesterday for race stuff. We tried to incorporate some of that in our qualifying package and it just didn't work. We went back to a traditional setup and got a decent lap. That's a pretty good lap for our Chevrolet Monte Carlo. I think we're pretty good in race trim, but we weren't very good in qualifying trim. We'll take that. Hopefully it'll stay somewhere in the top 10 or 12 and if it does, that's a good starting spot. We're going to try to be the best in class. That's all we can do. I'm a Chevrolet man. I'm damn proud of my Chevrolet Monte Carlo. We've got a new car coming next year and we're going to spend two days here after this race testing it. We're going to try to make it run on a flat race track. We ran it some at Atlanta. We're pretty happy with it. It's not real fast, but it sticks good on long runs. We're going to get some downforce back and we'll be OK. Our goal right now is to try our best to finish in the top 10 in Winston Cup points. A top 10 or top 15 finish here would pretty much put the icing on the cake for us going into Atlanta. That was a pretty good time for what we had to work with today. Hopefully we can get things evened up a little more next year with the downforce deal."

BOBBY HAMILTON (No. 4 Kodak Max Film Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"It's good for us after we broke our qualifying motor. We had our practice motor in for qualifying. We thought we'd run a 35.60, so we were a little better than that. I'm happy."

WALLY DALLENBACH (No. 25 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo)

"That was faster than we practiced and the car was a handful. I was big-time loose getting the green, which hurt a little bit getting on the get-go lap. I was all over the race track. If that keeps us in the top 25, I'll be happy with that. We'll have a good car on Sunday. It's real bad and slippery in three and four. It got loose on me in turn four and it was greasy."

JEFF GORDON (No. 24 DuPont Automotive Finishes Monte Carlo)

"I feel good to be the first Chevrolet. That's all we can do, be the best Chevrolet. The team is doing a great job. I don't want to get in the Pontiac thing. It's more obvious than it's ever been, so I don't need to say a whole lot. I'm looking forward to running our new Monte Carlo on Monday and Tuesday. It should be a pretty good test of where we stack up. That's pretty impressive what they did today. I'm pretty impressed with my team, though. We picked up fourth tenths for qualifying. I think a lot of it was because I went out so late. I couldn't see and I didn't know where I was going. I believe that's the latest I've ever qualified. I knew when I saw 3:30 qualifying they were going to have a problem with that. Next year, because we won't be practicing so long during the day, it will help with that. I think they learned not to have that.

"We're doing everything we can. I think the flat tracks, especially one this big, these are the truest signs of downforce we have. New Hampshire is much more of a handling race track because it's so slick. There's no grip in the race track, so everybody is slipping and sliding. Tire management and the chassis itself means so much more. Phoenix and here are very fast for their size and the way they're built.

"We've done it before. We've pulled out some things we didn't feel like we should have. We've got to be extraordinary and try to get more out of our Chevrolet than anybody else can to be a factor at the end of the race Sunday."

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