NASCAR Cup

Watkins Glen: GM teams qualifying quotes

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 8th WHERE DID ALL THE SPEED GO? "Good question. If I knew that, I wouldn't have let it go. But it doesn't seem like the track is really quick right now. I'm surprised that I ran that slow.

Edited: Aug 12, 2006, 2:37 AM

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TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 8th

WHERE DID ALL THE SPEED GO? "Good question. If I knew that, I wouldn't have let it go. But it doesn't seem like the track is really quick right now. I'm surprised that I ran that slow. I don't know. It didn't drive like that in practice."

WHY DO YOU THINK YOU AND JEFF GORDON HAVE BEEN SO GOOD ON ROAD COURSES? "I have no idea. We just always seem to have a good package when we come here and our cars drive well when we get here. We just get in the car and we go. We don't reinvent the wheel. We just get in and drive the race car."

***

ROBBY GORDON, NO. 7 JIM BEAM MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 6th

"I think the track has really lost a lot of grip since practice. I don't know if it's the Busch cars that have run on it or what. We thought we'd run better. We had a little bit of a brake problem. We'll work on that and have a good race car for Sunday."

***

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 5th

"Yeah, I'm pleased. We came close to backing up our speed in practice. I think the track is a little bit slicker than it was in practice. I do feel that the track is going to be a little better for the guys who go out later. But to be able to go out and be competitive with the No. 7 and the No. 20 and beat those guys, I feel good. I feel really good about what I did on the track and what we have in the race car. It think that should put us in the top 10 and that was our goal today."

***

MAX PAPIS, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW MONTE CARLO SS: Note - tryng to make his first-ever NASCAR Nextel Cup field - DNQ

"The Furniture Row car really ran really well. Everyone on the team gave their heart and soul so hopefully that's going to be good enough. But whatever happens, this has been a great day. I'm really pleased to be here."

***

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 11th

YOU HAD A GOOD LAP GOING BUT RAN A LITTLE OFF COURSE. WHAT HAPPENED? "Oh, I just got loose. I really didn't get too far off. I was about third at that point. I just lost about three-tenths. I ain't no big deal. But I've got a great race car. I was really surprised at how good the race car was off the trailer. I've just got to do everything I'm supposed to do inside the race car on the race track and we should be fine."

***

RON FELLOWS, NO. 32 TIDE / DOWNY MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 18th

"We just didn't get through the esses the way we wanted to. I got in maybe a little bit hot and pushed wide from the apex and that just kills your speed here. When you mess up the bottom, it's going to hurt you all the way to the bus stop. Hopefully this is enough to make the race and we'll keep working at it tomorrow. It's certainly disappointing from what we ran in practice, but it is what it is. This is a tough business (laughs), this one-lap stuff."

***

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 16th

"I just carried a little bit too much speed at the beginning of the esses and that messed me up all the way up through there. For the rest of the corners, I was really happy with it. I just think we gave up a tremendous amount of time up through the esses. It's not terrible, but it's not what we were looking at with the Cingular Wireless Chevrolet. That's about what we ran in practice. I was just looking for a little more than that."

***

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 37th

"I'm pretty disgusted right now. I messed up. I was trying to carry a little too much speed up through the esses and it got a little loose on me and then I touched the inside curve and then it got really loose. Then I was trying to make up time and that's probably the worst thing you can do here. I lost so much there I had to do something. That's the slowest lap we've run since we've been here. We've got a good race car, but man, we've got a big hole to dig out of now."

***

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 9th

"It was pretty loose. We tried adjusting it and tried to make a little bit better drive off. But we just missed it a little bit. But overall it was a decent effort for the Kellogg's Chevrolet team. That's a top 10 right now if we can just keep it there. If we can get some good practice in tomorrow and have a good race day on Sunday, we'll be all right. We're getting there and I'm getting there as a driver and everything takes time. I don't think Jeff Gordon won a road course race until about his third or four year, so I've still got a year to do."

-credit: gm racing

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