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BUSCH: Texas: Ford teams qualifying quotes
STACY COMPTON-59-Kingsford/Bush's Beans Ford Taurus (Qualified 13th) "These guys keep working harder and harder, and every week we're getting better and better. Jeff (Chandler) and I talked about it and the first thing you know, this team is ...
Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM
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STACY COMPTON-59-Kingsford/Bush's Beans Ford Taurus (Qualified 13th)
"These guys keep working harder and harder, and every week we're getting better and better. Jeff (Chandler) and I talked about it and the first thing you know, this team is going to be good every week. We're putting everything in place and doing everything we're supposed to do, and this qualifying run is reflective of that. The Kingsford/Bush's Beans Taurus has been good week-in and wee-out, we just need a little bit of a break sometimes. I think we're getting better, we're getting quicker and we're getting closer."
DO YOU HAVE TO LET OFF THE GAS IN QUALIFYING HERE? "You
don't breathe it much. You don't ever completely roll off the gas; you roll
out of it a little bit and get back in it. It's a fast race track; it has a
lot of grip. The tires right now are great and I don't know how much
they're going to slow down. They're pretty good right now."
THIS IS THE THIRD BUSCH SERIES RACE AT TEXAS SINCE IT WAS REPAVED. IS THE TRACK SURFACE SETTLING? "Not really. This place seems to be pretty good. There are a couple of little bumps down in one and two that create a little bit of havoc sometimes, and when you get off of three, right now there hasn't been enough racing here to get as many grooves as we'd like, and in time that will happen. Right now, there's just not quite enough groove out there. As they weekend goes on we'll have two grooves, but before a lot of cars get out there you don't see a lot of grip out on the second groove."
JEFF BURTON-9-Pennzoil Ford Taurus (Qualified 24th)
"We never got to making a qualifying run today in practice. We had a problem and didn't get to make a run on our tires, so we really didn't know what we had. I made a half of a lap and then the caution came out, so I made the changes to the car based on that, and I just didn't do the right stuff. That's going to be pretty bad, but our race stuff is OK."
ARE THE BUSCH CARS TYPICALLY TOUGHER ON TIRES SINCE YOU'RE ABLE TO DRIVE THE CAR HARDER INTO THE CORNERS? "Historically, the Cup cars are harder on tires than Busch cars. I guess that extra horsepower, although in the past the Cup cars have weighed more but now they weigh the same. It still feels like to me, the Cup cars are harder on tires than the Busch cars."
BOBBY HAMILTON, JR.-25-Team Marines Ford Taurus (Qualified 10th)
"We picked up from what we did in practice; we just bottomed out a little bit and it cost us a little it. I don't know if we could have run a 40, but we made it through the day. We would have had a spot anyway, now it's time to go racing. We're ready to go."
WHAT TYPES OF CHANGES DO YOU NEED TO MAKE FOR THE RACE? "Just normal race stuff. You build these cars just enough to hang on to them for two laps and then after that you get it to where it's consistent. We've got a little bit of work, but we did a lot of practice this morning as far as race stuff, so we're about know where we need to start. We made it through the day without tearing anything up, so now we start working on the race."
MANY OF THE CARS WERE BOTTOMING OUT IN QUALIFYING. IS THE TRACK SURFACE STARTING TO CHANGE? "I think the reason everybody is bottoming out is because they're picking up so much. The track is as smooth as it has ever been. I don't think it's getting any kinds of bumps or anything like that. It's to the point where it's go time. Practice was just seeing what you had, but qualifying, you have to go, so that's when you really drive in there harder and pick the gas up harder. You carry a little more speed, so you're going to bottom out if you're right there on the edge. They've done a great job here. This track has always been smooth and really predictable. I think everybody is just pushing the issue with springs and they're just bottoming out. They're carrying so much speed in qualifying that they're just bottoming out."
HOW MANY GROOVES ARE ON THE RACE TRACK? "It's still a one-groove track. You're going to need another four or five years on this pavement to get it where you can do like Atlanta and get up there on the top. Right now it's right there on the bottom, right there on the edge of the center. I got up there this morning just to try it on a couple of race runs and got really loose entering the corner, so it's still a one-groove race track."
MATT KENSETH-17-Weight Smart Ford Taurus (Qualified 15th)
"That's about what we had in the car. I tried to go faster on the second lap and ran the same speed, so I thought I got pretty much everything out of it. We didn't really work on qualifying very much and tried to work on the race and didn't get a lot of laps. It was all right."
DO YOU HAVE TO DRIVE THE BUSCH CAR DIFFERENTLY HERE COMPARED TO THE CUP CAR? "Yeah, it's different. The Busch car, you use a lot more throttle just because you don't have as much power as you do with the Cup car. With a shorter wheelbase it handles a little bit better, so you definitely use more throttle with the Busch car."
DOERS THAT EQUATE TO GREATER TIRE WEAR? "I haven't run enough to tell. I think the compound is the same, it's just the sidewall that's different, so I don't think you'll see much of a difference."
ROBERT PRESSLEY-47-Clorox/Wisk Ford Taurus (Qualified 28th)
"We're getting the car better with every run. I'm glad to see Stacy have a good one, too. We've been just loose getting in and we've got that fixed now. Now we're a little snug, and at least we know we can go back in the middle for the race."
IS THE TRACK STARTING TO SETTLE, AND ARE WE SEEING ANY CHARACTERISTICS THAT MAKE THIS TRACK UNIQUE? "You still have your little bump, and it's coming back more in turn one. It's going to play a big role in there, and then you have your little bump over in three still. The race track has changed a little bit from when it was brand new and now it's coming back around from after the new asphalt."
WILL THERE BE A SECOND GROOVE IN THE RACE? "I don't think we are going to really see one. We'll see a second groove, but I think it will be the cars that aren't handling quite as good. I think you're going to see the frontrunners on the bottom."
JASON KELLER-22-Miller High Life Ford Taurus (Qualified 29th)
"We haven't made many strides today. We started off struggling and stayed struggling. I don't know, we'll just keep working on it and hopefully make it better."
IS IT A CASE WHERE YOU FEEL THE CAR WILL RACE BETTER THAN IT QUALIFIED? "I
was actually worse in race package. I can't explain it. It's like we're
not going in the right direction. I wish I had a reason for it, we're just
really not good. I'm kind of puzzled right now and don't know where to go."
-ford racing-
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