NASCAR Cup
The Nextel: Ford teams All-Star qualifying quotes
Nextel All-Star Challenge qualifying ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (Qualified 7th) "I'm proud of my guys as always. That's really the first qualifying run we made all day on a brand new race car, so I was a little bit nervous but we ran a ...
Published: May 22, 2004, 6:29 AM
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Nextel All-Star Challenge qualifying
ELLIOTT SADLER - No. 38 M&M's Taurus (Qualified 7th)
"I'm proud of my guys as always. That's really the first qualifying run we made all day on a brand new race car, so I was a little bit nervous but we ran a really good lap we thought. I thought I got on pit road decent. I was a little conservative because they got the 32 car - probably a little bit too much, but it'll be a good start. I think I got off pit road good, which is very important, so I'm proud of my guys. We'll see where that stacks up, but hopefully it will be very, very close to the front."
DO YOU THINK GUYS LIKE THIS ONLY UNTIL THEY TEAR UP A CAR? "I like it. It's good, hard racing and that's what the fans deserve. We've got such loyal race fans that come and watch us points race every single week for 500 miles, so when we have a shootout like this, we want those guys to enjoy it too. We'll see what happens. We brought a car that we don't want to mess up, but if we have to spare it we will to try to get the trophy. That's what it's all for. It's the driver's time of the year where we can just really have a good time and really race hard and not worry about points, so it's a lot of fun."
GREG BIFFLE - No. 16 National Guard/Subway Taurus (Qualified 10th)
"I'm really proud of my guys, I just didn't hold up my end of the deal. I was way too slow getting onto pit road because I was a little fast earlier getting on in practice a couple times. The first guy out was too fast and now this latest guy was too fast, so I was a little spooked by it. We changed the transmission for this deal and I just really wasn't used to the way it was slowing down. It slowed down way quicker than I thought. I gave up a lot there, but it'll be alright."
MARK MARTIN - No. 6 Viagra Taurus (Qualified 4th)
"I'm happy about the fast lap, that's what really counts. I think we're gonna do good here in the race and in the 600. I think we're gonna qualify better than we've been qualifying because we cut a pretty good lap there and there's a lot more left. When you do this kind of qualifying, you can't get it all because you have to leave the grille open and stuff like that. The guys had a good pit stop and I got on pit road well, so, all in all, it was pretty good. It'll all come down to who cheats right to the limit on the speed on pit road."
YOU SOUND ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT SATURDAY NIGHT. "Saturday night will be alright, but next Sunday night is the one we want to win. It's the sixth anniversary for Pfizer and Viagra and we plan to do some celebrating next weekend, but we'll take this one, too."
MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DEWALT Tools Taurus (Qualified 3rd)
"I might have been a little too careful getting on pit road. I might have lost a little bit of time there, although I got down there pretty good, you always feel like you can get a little bit more getting on there. You're never sure how far you can go without getting caught, so I went right dead on the mark because I knew a lot of guys were getting caught. I had a great, great pit stop. My guys did a great job and we had a great engine and our car handled pretty decent, so I'm pretty happy."
HOW KEY IS STARTING UP FRONT? "The qualifying is a thing for the fans and a thing for the teams to be involved in our qualifying lap and have a pit stop, so it's a lot of fun to do. It would be cool to start up front. It pays a little bit to win that first segment, I think, but they invert six-to-12 after that first segment and after watching what happened last year, I'm sure that's where most people will be shooting for if they can't win."
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TOMORROW NIGHT? "I don't know. We didn't test here and that's a really weird format. They used to always give us practice at night after the truck race or whatever race they run here and they're not doing that this year. All of our practice was in 100 degree temperature today and it was a real greasy track. Without testing, without ever racing this car since we put a new body on it, and with no night practice, I'm not really sure what to expect, but I think we've got a pretty decent car."
-ford-
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