Dover qualifying quotes 97-09-19

Report from Motorsport News International

NASCAR Public Relations

MBNA 400 Friday quotes

DOVER, Del. (Sept. 19, 1997) Quotes from selected drivers after Busch Pole Qualifying for the MBNA 400 at Dover Downs International Speedway:

MARK MARTIN No. 6 Valvoline Ford

"I needed to lean against something there for a second, my knees were shaking so bad. It was a good lap and we've got a good race car. We're still trying to win this championship. We've got a great race team, and this is the year. We've got to go do it. This really pleases me. I really hate qualifying poorly. We qualified extremely well in New Hampshire at 17th. We were 29th in practice. That just doesn't make me feel good. Sure, we're going to race good. When you run good, you race better. This race team has dodged a lot of bullets this year, and we've stumbled a couple of times. I'm not too proud to admit that. But we're doing all we can do. "We had an awesome car. We had the right setup on it. I didn't intend to make a run at the pole, but I knew we were pretty good in practice. It went so well through 1 and 2 that I figured I would reach down in the bag and see if I could come up with something in 3 and 4. I got a hold of all I could hold onto there. It was a good lap. I'm just thankful. I see that $114,000 there, and I will take that. We could. We've always run really good here. We should have won here a half dozen times, and we've never won here. This is a race track that we should win a race at, but I don't know if we will ever get it or not. It would sure be nice to get in Sunday. I'm real proud of this race team."

JEFF GORDON No. 24 DuPont Refinishes Chevrolet

"I was real loose. I knew somebody would go faster than that. That was as fast as we'd gone all day, so I'm pretty happy with it, but I thought several guys would beat it. The back end of the car was really sliding around a bunch. I wish we could have tightened it up a little more. The track changed a little bit on us. I tried to get everything out of it I could, and when you're pushing that hard, a lot of things change."

DALE JARRETT No. 88 Quality Care/Ford Credit Ford

"I just stumbled off the corner with the carburetor. I picked the throttle back up, and it took a while for it to catch up. That hurt us. We just didn't quite get the RPMs that we had. The car drove great, we just didn't quite get what we had."

BOBBY LABONTE No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac

"That's the best we've run all day. We made some changes before qualifying and that's what picked us up."

JOHN ANDRETTI No. 98 RCA Ford

"That's good, because when we started out the day, we were about last in the first practice session. We just kept working at it and we got it better and better. Hopefully, we can race good here, too. We qualified well last week and we qualified well this week. Hopefully, we can make that a habit."

JOE NEMECHEK No. 42 BellSouth Ford

"I was real good in (Turns) 3 and 4 and on the timed lap, I got a bit loose in 1 and 2. I had to pick up the throttle a little bit and gave up a little bit of time. Qualifying in the top-10 here at Dover is pretty tough, so we're happy with that lap. The track stayed just about the same for us. We made a couple of adjustments based on the way people were getting loose out there. It worked good for us, so we're looking forward to the race. I think we can have a good day on Sunday."

HUT STRICKLIN No. 8 Circuit City Ford

"That was pretty decent. It was probably a little slower than we ran in practice, but we kept seeing guys get loose, so we tightened our car up. We just played it safe. We didn't want to take no chances of wiping the thing out, because we feel like we have a good car for the race. We played it conservative."

RICK MAST No. 75 Remington Arms Ford

"We just missed it a little bit. The car was real good in practice and it just didn't do the right things to qualify. We always run good here. We had a good run going in New Hampshire. We're starting, I think, to turn this thing around. Dave's (Charpentier, crew chief) got a lot of good things in place. In time, I think we will be good. I'm not confident enough to say just how good we can be Sunday, but I know that in the next couple of months, by the time this season is over, we should be in pretty good shape."

RICKY CRAVEN No. 25 Budweiser Chevrolet

"Turns 1 and 2 were good, but I got loose in Turn 3 and that hurt us. We picked up a couple of tenths from practice and that's what we're supposed to do. I had the luxury of going a little later, so I watched the cars qualifying and I couldn't believe all the 24 flats. I'm happy with our lap. The guys did a great job."

DALE EARNHARDT No. 3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet

"That's as fast as we've been all day. We changed some things and made some gains. We've just got to keep tuning on it. We're missing a little something somewhere. We've just got to keep flirting at it. We can't give up on it, and we're not going to either."

STEVE PARK No. 14 Burger King Chevrolet

"The body isn't perfect, but the wreck we had in practice didn't hurt the chassis at all. You go from a last practice crash to straight out qualifying without being able to turn a lap. The car was a little loose. We just wanted to turn a lap without hitting the wall. We had been real good in practice. We went out on sticker tires for a qualifying run and the car spun out coming up off the corner. It's the same old rookie deal. We're just trying to learn our way around and we're trying to keep our head up high. We'll get 'em."