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BUSCH: Watkins Glen Chevrolet notes

Nancy J. Graziano - Motorsport.com Kevin Grubb, No. 37 Timber Wolf Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Terry Shirley, Crew Chief, is not with the team this weekend after becoming ill Friday morning. Substituting for Shirley will be Car Chief, Eric Ralph, ...

Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM

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Nancy J. Graziano - Motorsport.com

Kevin Grubb, No. 37 Timber Wolf Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Terry Shirley, Crew Chief, is not with the team this weekend after becoming ill Friday morning. Substituting for Shirley will be Car Chief, Eric Ralph, and Shock Specialist, Dan Gibbs. Near the end of this morning's practice session, Grubb spun coming out of turn nine and hit the styrofoam barrier with the left rear. Grubb then spun across the track and hit the front end against the outside guard rail. Damage to the car is cosmetic, and the crew expects to make repairs in time for qualifying.

Dick Trickle, No. 5 Schneider Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "Well, you know this European-type qualifying is fine, but the No. 59 car spun in front of me and I had to avoid him and lost some time on that lap and then the No. 17 car went off the track and knocked all the styrofoam - blocks the size of a refrigerator - on the track and I couldn't miss it all. I hit it with my nose. So, I got caught in two guys' wrecks and got the nose all banged up. I don't have anything against it (European-style qualifying), but when somebody messes up in front of you, it's hard to miss it."

Tony Raines, No. 33 Alka Seltzer Plus Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "We started out good in practice but weren't able to pick up the speed we thought we should have. We didn't qualify as fast as we should have, so we're going to make a bunch of changes before Happy Hour."

Jason Schuler, No. 17 Visine Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "I'm all right, the car's tore up pretty good. But nothing major, it's mostly sheet metal. Hopefully we'll get it fixed up and back out there for Happy Hour. I was just trying to push it a little bit too far, got a little loose and had to get on the gas. As soon as I did, the car snapped back the other way and I ended up in the Styrofoam. We just got in a little bit of trouble."

Andy Santerre, No. 25 Lance Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "It's a busy weekend for us, that's for sure. We've made a decent qualifying run that hopefully will keep us in the top 20."

Todd Bodine, No. 66 Phillips Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "The car is good, the motor is good. Sixth is good, we'll get a good start. At least I won't have to come from the back. We're going to change a couple of things on the car, but not a whole lot. The main thing is the gear."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 92 Alltel Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "This is my first time here and I'm really proud of everybody on the team. They really worked on this car. For me, it's just a matter of gaining experience. I just hope we can stay on the asphalt and get a good finish in the race."

Ron Fellows, No. 87 Bully Hill Vineyard Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "Yeah, this was better than yesterday. We made it to the end of it. We thought the track was going to get a little greasy, and it was. It was not as fast as we've run (here), but it was fast enough, and we're on the pole."

Tim Fedewa, No. 36 Stanley Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "The guys are working on the car now and there doesn't appear to be any damage to the frame. We're pretty happy with that run except for the crash. That's just trying a little too hard. But we need to run good here. This is our owner's hometown and it'd be nice to have a good finish for him. The No. 36 Stanley car needs a good run, and I think we'll have that. Right now, it's just a little unknown. But we'll give it what we can and see what happens.

"The problem was the brain and the foot. The brain said 'go' and the foot listened. I was just trying too hard. The guys told me I had a good lap before, and I thought, 'What the heck, I can do better than that.' And I tried a little too hard and got loose and spun around. It doesn't look like there's any suspension damage, just cosmetic.

"I think you've just got to go out and race your tail off. You just never know. When the green flag drops, a lot of stuff happens. A lot of his (Ron Fellows') experience is on road courses, but we're all racers. There's a lot of talent in this field and a lot of good race car drivers. It'll be interesting. I'd be happy to just follow behind him for a while just to see what he's got and try to learn from him. But if you've got a good enough car, you've just got to go."

P.J. Jones, No. 19 Yellow Chevrolet Monte Carlo: "I've had quite a few laps here in GTP and Winston Cup and Showroom Stock and stuff. It's actually one of my favorite road courses. And coming from CART when I was running a lot of road races, it's probably more to my advantage that some of the other guys have never seen a road course. We've just worked on the car all weekend long. We didn't test here, so we might just be a little bit behind of where we need to be for qualifying. On long runs, I think it should be really good. We're all shooting for Ron (Fellows), and obviously this has been his place the last couple of years."

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