Rockingham Pontiac Qualifying Notes

QUALIFYING FROM ROCKINGHAM

NOTES AND QUOTES Bud Pole Qualifying North Carolina Speedway October 22, 1999

BOBBY LABONTE (No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac Grand Prix): "That's a lot better than we ran in practice, that's for sure. We made some adjustments on our Grand Prix. It still wasn't quite what we wanted. But we're pretty pleased. Jimmy Makar talked to Greg (Zipadelli) a little bit and we just kind of threw something at it really. That Pontiac came around. It didn't feel quite as comfortable, but it was faster than we anticipated, so that was a good call. It was a little too loose and it was tight at times throughout the whole lap. I can't complain about it now, but I wish I had had a little bit better feel for it earlier so I could tell them more. I really couldn't tell them because we were tight to begin with and then we were real loose. I was trying to tell them things, but I really wasn't making much sense because the car was doing two or three different things at the same time. I think we picked up about two-and-a-half tenths. We've got a good starting spot."

TONY STEWART (No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac Grand Prix):  "That wasn't quite
as good as it was in practice.  I was a little too loose.  It's still a
solid run and we've got a good starting position.  I think we've got a
pretty good Pontiac to race them with.  It wasn't a great lap.  It wasn't
what we ran in practice.  We slowed down about a tenth."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Pontiac Grand Prix): "Tommy Baldwin said that's the best we've ever qualified here. We'll be OK. We've got a long day Sunday and we'll work on this Caterpillar Pontiac all day Saturday trying to get a good race setup under it. It got a little loose off of four and I've been having a little problem getting into three, but once we put the race setup under it I'm sure we'll have something else to start working on then."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 STP Pontiac Grand Prix): "We didn't get to do a qualifying run. We tried a bunch of things to try and get it ready to qualify, but it was a handful. I didn't hit anything and that's unusual. Our Pontiac has been a little loose all day. We didn't get a qualifying (practice) run because we broke the transmission. Robbie and I took a stab at it and it's my fault we weren't better. We'll be good in the race."

DAVID GREEN (No. 45 Lucky Dog Pontiac Grand Prix): "The lap was good. I have to watch it coming over from the Busch side over here. These cars don't drive the same. Our Pontiac did exactly what we needed it to do. I just didn't need to blow that lap by trying too hard. The guys worked really hard. We didn't unload to good. But that's faster than we ran in practice, so that's good."

KYLE PETTY (No. 44 Hot Wheels Pontiac Grand Prix):  "We ran good, we just
ran the same.  We're not going to get any faster."

MIKE BLISS (No. 30 State Fair Brand Corn Dogs Pontiac Grand Prix): "Getting into turn three it wiggled a bit. We were a little freer than we were in practice. Getting into both corners I had to wait for the thing to settle down. I hate it for the guys. That hurt us big. It's disappointing, but you really don't get enough practice here to get enough laps in."