Texas: Kinser post-qualifying interview

KRAIG KINSER , No. 46 CENTRIX Auto Finance Silverado, Qualified 3rd:

How did your laps feel?

"It felt pretty good. It felt about the same as it did toward the end practice, we had gained a lot of grip. My guys did a great job on the truck and we thought we could lay down a pretty good lap and we did."

How do you feel about Texas Motor Speedway?

"I am definitely more comfortable here than I have been, it is fast. But I think we are getting better as a team and I am just getting more comfortable in the truck and am figuring out some stuff. We are doing better each week and Texas does agree with us. Randy (Goss) and I are really getting a good level of communication going, I am getting better at telling him things about the truck. There is a learning curve that we are getting better at figuring out each week."

Were you a little bit nervous knowing you were making your first superspeedway run here at Texas?

"Yeah definitely, I was pretty nervous and probably all the rookies here are going to say the same thing. This is a fast place and it's a stepping-stone for me. Those two-and-a-half hours of practice seemed like forever today. But my crew chief Randy Goss really put a good Centrix Silverado under me today. Its a good piece and we got up to speed real quick and once we got our line down, the lap times just started dropping and dropping. We worked on some set-ups and got a little quicker and it definitely paid off for us in qualifying.

Kraig, obviously your family is from winged sprint cars and you've done a lot of sprint car racing and started your career there. How big of a learning curve is there in getting into a much heavier vehicle and running on pavement?

"Yeah, that's definitely the biggest thing. Seat time is everything. You just can't compare a sprint car to a truck; they are two totally different vehicles. I know what I can do in a sprint car and ask of the car, and where I can get away with certain things but I haven't found that edge yet in the truck and know what I am looking for and get the feel for the vehicle. Its definitely hard, but I like the feel of the truck right now, it went quick and it seems like each race we'll run a good race and then we'll go two steps back. But now I think me and Randy (crew chief) are starting to communicate real good and we got the whole Morgan-Dollar program running real good."

-gmracing-