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Bristol: GM teams qualifying notes, quotes

Aric Almirola Puts No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado on the Outside of Front Row at Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol, TN - Raybestos Rookie contender Aric Almirola put his No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado on the outside of the front row at ...

Edited: Dec 11, 2006, 4:12 AM

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Aric Almirola Puts No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado on the Outside of Front Row at Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol, TN - Raybestos Rookie contender Aric Almirola put his No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado on the outside of the front row at Bristol Motor Speedway. Almirola's second place starting position for the O'Reilly 200 equals his career best qualifying effort set at O'Reilly (Indianapolis) Raceway Park. For the second time, the Tampa, FL native will start along side the No. 6 Ford, driven this weekend by Mark Martin. At Indy, Almirola sat alongside fellow rookie driver, David Ragan, who shares the ride with Martin.

A total of three Silverado drivers captured top-10 starting positions. Mike Bliss, No. 16 Xpress Motorsports Silverado, qualified fourth for tonight's 200-lap race. Kyle Busch No. 15 Bowen Family Homes/Manheim Silverado will start on the inside of row four in seventh.

The O'Reilly 200 has a scheduled start time of 9:15 p.m. with live coverage by SPEED TV, MRN Radio and XM Satellite Radio.

***

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Silverado, Qualified 2nd: "Wow, I just cannot believe those laps. After spinning earlier in practice today, I never imagined running a lap that good. It just shows everyone how hard this team works, and how they never give up when it didn't look very good earlier. I am really optimistic for the race; Bristol is a place that you really have to start up front to have a good finish, so maybe tonight will finally be our night. Our Silverado team will have to have good pit stops during the race to keep us up front, and I am going to have to do my part behind the wheel also."

***

MIKE BLISS, No. 16 Xpress Motorsports Silverado, Qualified 4th: "The first lap I ran pretty hard, and the second lap I tried to run harder and I just lost the grip on the rear tires. It could have been worse, I could have gotten really loose and wrecked, but we will take what we have and prepare for a good race tonight."

***

KYLE BUSCH, No. 15 Bowen Family Homes/Manheim Auction Silverado, Qualified 7th: "Man, those laps felt really good. We were quick in practice and that showed on those laps out there. These guys on this Billy Ballew Motorsports team have worked really hard on preparing these trucks for me to race, and I have such a good time racing for them. Bristol is one of my favorite tracks, so I am looking for a good run tonight."

***

OTHER SILVERADO QUALIFIERS:

RON HORNADAY JR., No. 33 Allstates Employer Services Silverado, Qualified 18th: "Well, our truck is better than what those laps were out there. Our guys will adjust on the truck and will get this thing ready to race. I am just going to concentrate on staying out of trouble and being there to fight for the win at the end. I am just really proud of these guys and they continue to work their tails off for the team, and it is showing on the race track."

***

DENNIS SETZER, No. 85 E85 FlexFuel Silverado, Qualified 19th: "That was about the best that we have been out there in our FlexFuel Silverado today, so we are making some improvements. We will just make adjustments during the race, and just keep tuning on it. We have a great group of guys and I know they will make the right calls and adjustments during the race later tonight."

***

MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Menards/Energizer Silverado, Qualified 25th "The laps felt horrible. We have a good race truck, and our laps just didn't show it. The truck was good in race runs, but we just couldn't lay down a good qualifying lap, so we'll see. I think we will end up somewhere around 30th, so we will have to work on staying out of trouble and work our way to the front."

-credit: gm racing

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