Talladega Pontiac Qualifying Notes

TONY STEWART (No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac Grand Prix): "That was a pretty good lap. I don't know where we'll end up, but we should it up in the top-10 with that deal. The car drove well and the guys worked really hard at the shop to make this Grand Prix good and the motor a little bit better than last time. This is a high-speed chess match. You never know what to expect here."

BOBBY LABONTE (No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac Grand Prix): "That was a good run for us. We had a problem this morning and put a new carburetor in it and picked up two seconds. That was good. We picked up just a little over practice, but we're still pretty satisfied with it."

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Pontiac Grand Prix): "That's quite a bit better than what we'd run. That's about three tenths better than we ran in practice. I guess they left a little bit there for when we needed it. We were hoping for a top-15 starting spot. It's a lot better race car than it is a qualifying car. This is the same Grand Prix we ran at Daytona. We were running seventh there when that late caution came out. In a six-lap run we went from 19th to seventh. That shows you it's a good race car. We were actually trying to run in the (48).70s. We're pretty happy with that. You have to concentrate for 500 miles here. You have to make sure you don't make a mistake to make a mistake for somebody else. At the same time, it's so easy to get caught up in somebody else's deal here. If you're not caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you'll run 500 miles. That's the whole key here and some of it is just luck. It's almost like when you're running a motorcycle on a public highway. You have to drive defensively. It's the same thing out here. You've got to be willing to take, but also give. We will not get around here if we don't give and take."

DAVID GREEN (No. 45 Lucky Dog Pontiac Grand Prix): "That's better than 45th, where we were at in practice. Rick Hendrick let us borrow an engine and it made a world of difference. The car drove pretty good and I believe all of us think we can get it to drive a little bit better. It was pretty fast. I was tickled with that. Now we'll go to work and see what this Pontiac can do."

JERRY NADEAU (No. 36 M&M's Pontiac Grand Prix):  "The car is great.  We
unloaded really good.  That's about all she's got.  We'll just get it
ready for the race.  I think it's a good race car.  It seems like it
drives real nice.  We'll just look forward to Sunday."

BUCKSHOT JONES (No. 30 Jimmy Dean Pontiac Grand Prix): "That's a little bit better than we did in practice. You're always wanting to go faster, but as long as we picked up a little bit, and it wasn't a lot, but it's all you need. I just hope we'll be all right."