NASCAR Cup

Michigan II: Ford drivers qualifying quotes

GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT? "Oh yeah, I've got to be. We've been fighting this car a lot since we got here and we changed a bunch of stuff. We came a long ways. The very last run on the race track I ran a ...

Published: Aug 17, 2003, 2:18 PM

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GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 Grainger Taurus

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT? "Oh yeah, I've got to be. We've been fighting this car a lot since we got here and we changed a bunch of stuff. We came a long ways. The very last run on the race track I ran a .40-flat in qualifying trim. It was really, really loose and I could hardly drive it. Then we came back and it rained and they tightened the car up a lot and we came out with a 38.2, so you've got to be pretty happy with that."

KEVIN LEPAGE - No. 57 CLR Taurus

"It's just great to get back in a race car again. Greg Campbell gave me a call a couple of weeks ago at Indy and we had such a good run at Indy that he said, 'Let's go to Michigan.' I wasn't sure if the early draw was gonna help us or hurt us. Right now this is what we've got. I'm praying for some sun right now. It's starting to come through and hopefully it will get a lot warmer and we'll have a top 20 starting spot."

JEFF BURTON - No. 99 CITGO Taurus

"We changed a lot on the car and the track changed a lot. I didn't do a very good job the first lap. I left some on the table and had to go get it the second lap. Even though we went fast on the second lap, it's still giving some speed up. I just didn't do a really good job on that first lap. The car drove so different that I wasn't prepared for it. It traveled a lot and bottomed out real hard and that kind of messed me up. I had to get used to that and, once I did, the second lap was a little more comfortable for me. We're hoping now the sun will come out. We were way off in practice and I don't think we're gonna be quite as far off now."

IT SEEMS LIKE AT MICHIGAN IF YOU DON'T START IN THE TOP 15 OR SO YOU CAN STILL MAKE UP GROUND FROM THE BACK. "Let me tell you about Winston Cup racing, if you have a car that handles and drives good, you can go from anywhere to the front at any race track. That's kind of how this race track is, so if you have a good car, you can go to the front. You've got to have good pit stops. You've got to have a good car. This is kind of a brand new type of car for this CITGO team, so we're doing a little experimenting this week. Hopefully it'll work out."

DAVE BLANEY - No. 77 Jasper Engines Taurus

"That was actually a good lap. It was maybe just a bit tight because it didn't let me get wide-open quite quick enough, but it felt really good to me. I was surprised. That's three-and-a-half-tenths off the pole. That pole lap is pretty good. But I thought that was a good lap for the Jasper car, not even considering the time we went out. I thought it went around there pretty well. I wasn't on the gas very long, so I was pretty impressed with that lap Bobby Labonte put up."

DO YOU TALK MORE ABOUT STRATEGY BEFORE THE RACE OR JUST SEE HOW IT PLAYS OUT? "Fuel mileage is always a concern here and our team goes to some lengths to get good mileage as far as carburetors go and some other things. We're always trying to gain as much as we can in that direction. If it falls that way, great. If it doesn't, OK. But we try not to compromise too much, but still get good mileage."

RICKY RUDD - No. 21 Motorcraft Taurus

"We bolt on new tires and we don't go any faster, so I don't know. In practice on hot tires we're pretty fast. When everybody puts on stickers and we put on stickers, we don't really go any faster. It's disappointing, but we'll get ready to race."

DALE JARRETT - No. 88 UPS Taurus

"I got spooked by being here in the past thinking that this place would loosen up with the sun. We adjusted the air-pressure some and made the car too tight and that just killed us. You can't run around here that tight. It's unfortunate. We have a good race car, but the draw and everything today just kind of worked against us. That's the way it is. I'm just a little disappointed in myself for making that call. These guys worked hard to give us a good race car and I made a call there that probably messed things up a little bit, but hopefully we'll be good on Sunday."

ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus

"The draw just killed us. The car was neutral. It wasn't loose or tight. I was pretty surprised by how slow we were so it's just disappointing. We'll try to get it good for Sunday's race when we'll all go at the same time, but it was definitely a very disappointing lap. We'll just go back to work."

MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Power Tools Taurus

"We just struggled in practice. We kind of changed something the whole time and when we ended up putting tires on it the car was totally different, so we didn't have a really useful practice. Then we probably didn't get the best draw. I'm not making any excuses because everybody else had to qualify with us too, but the track had a lot of grip early and it didn't have a lot grip late. So when the time came and we drew late, we thought it was gonna be an advantage but it probably didn't help us too much today. We've started farther back than that, so we'll see what we can do on Sunday. It's just a starting position and not a finishing position, so we'll just have good pit stops and hopefully have a good handling car that can get to the front on Sunday."

-ford racing-

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