NASCAR Truck

Texas post qualifying race quotes

Report from Motorsport News International NASCAR Public Relations NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series FORT WORTH, Tex. (June 5, 1997) Quotes from selected top qualifiers at the Pronto Auto Parts 400K at Texas Motor Speedway: Jack Sprague, No.

Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM

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Report from Motorsport News International

NASCAR Public Relations

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

FORT WORTH, Tex. (June 5, 1997) Quotes from selected top qualifiers at the Pronto Auto Parts 400K at Texas Motor Speedway:

Jack Sprague, No. 24 Quaker State Chevrolet: "The Quaker State Chevrolet is running awful good. I don't know whether I got the job done tonight or not I hope it (his lead) stands up. It felt good but I was a little slower than the 'banzai' run we did this afternoon. I was a tick quicker then. I didn't lift down here (Turn 4) and barely down there (Turn 1). It may have felt a little bit too good but we ran a 54 banzai and a 59 in qualifying. It's all right there. I gave it all we got. Hopefully it'll stand up."

Mike Bliss, No. 2 Team ASE Ford: "It's a better truck than what I qualified. I should have been a little better. But I'm just biding my time right now and waiting for the race. I'm still a little leery of this place. I want to respect it. Like I said it was a better truck, but we're up front and that's what counts. We just need to stay there all day."

Rich Bickle, No. 17 Sears DieHard Chevrolet: "Good lap. I wanted to take the second lap but I tried to arc it in there (Turn 4) a little higher and it went loose on me. I just rolled out of it and shut it off. "I thought it was a better lap than that (174.627 mph). It felt perfect. That's the best I went through 1 and 2 and it stuck good. I went through 3 and 4 a little quicker than before. That's all right. We got a great race set-up for tomorrow."

Bob Keselowski, No. 29 Mopar Dodge: "I'm real pleased with my qualifying run. When I was suiting up I thought a 30.90 would be a good lap and that's what we ran. We found something in our set-up that gave us an edge. But during tomorrow's race we'll have to make adjustments as we go along."

Boris Said, No. 44 Federated Auto Parts Ford: "Not bad. If it holds, that's fifth three weeks in a row. Not bad. I was a little more nervous before this qualifying than any other one just because the track is so big. We had a little handling problem in practice, but we changed the whole setup, and the truck is getting pretty good, so I feel pretty good. "I love it (the track). It's fast, and I love going fast. And it's got the best food of any track I've been to in a while."

Kenny Irwin, Jr., No. 98 Raybestos Ford: "Not at all. It just wouldn't run. Evidently it just wouldn't run. I don't know. I think we'll be all right I guess (for the race). We'll just see."

Rick Crawford, No. 14 Circle Bar Motel & RV Park Ford: "It's been good since we got here. It helped to come in and test with Ford. NASCAR really helped us out by being smooth on the race track. That's the key here, be smooth and get more laps. The more laps you can get here, the smoother you can get. "He (truck owner Tom Mitchell, who has never attended a race) said if there is a red Harley Davidson pulled up beside the rig leave him a place to park it. If not, he said his family would be here to enjoy the weekend, and he'll be proud of us."

Tony Raines, No. 19 Pennzoil Dodge: "A top-10 qualifying position is respectable considering some of our practice laps. The track cooled off considerably, and it was an uneventful qualifying round. We'll be changing a lot tonight to get ready for our race set up."

Jimmy Hensley, No. 43 Cummins Dodge: "I'm pleased with our qualifying lap. We got a little loose on our qualifying lap. Our team has been struggling lately, I think we may be trying too hard. Sometimes it just doesn't fall into place . The nice thing about driving for Richard Petty is that he understands because he's been there before."

Jay Sauter, No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet: "It was a good solid lap. We were a little tighter than we really needed to be coming up off the corners and that hurt us a little bit. It'll be good. The big key now is to get it to race good. "The real deal is no one has really run together so we really don't know how they'll react in traffic or in the draft. When four or five trucks get in the draft it'll be something new.

Joe Ruttman, No. 80 LCI International Ford: "It's about what we practiced so I guess we'll have to take it. "We still have some work to do to her, but it's better than what we were. It's still not where we need to be. We've got a couple more practices to go to make it better. It we can get it just a little better I'll be happy."

Jack Durbin indy500@freenet.tlh.fl.us Motorsport News International jackd@motorsport.com (Moderators for "rec.autos.sport.info") Homepage http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/users/indy500/index.html

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