Ford Racing Phoenix qualifying quotes

RICK MAST --90-- Hills Brothers Taurus
"We're pretty happy with that. That's about what we ran in practice, but we made a couple of adjustments hoping to be a little better, but we weren't. We helped the car a lot in practice. I didn't get the car to where I wanted it to be, but hopefully it's good enough to get us in good." WHAT ABOUT A VIRGINIA GUY DRIVING FOR A VIRGINIA CAR OWNER? "That's pretty cool. You'd be surprised. We started at Talladega (last week) when I drove Junie's car there (the 91 car that did not qualify) and a lot started that week, but this week it's been amazing to the e-mails and phone calls I've gotten from people in Virginia. I've heard from politicians and fans and everybody thinks it's such a good deal. It's pretty cool." WHAT'S THE PLAN FROM HERE ON OUT? "We're looking to do the rest of this year and we're in talks about next year right now. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'd love to do the deal, but we'll have to see what goes on."

RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus
"That's a pretty good run -- a 49 was good. I think the track is gonna get hotter and hotter as the day goes on, so I'm hoping the speeds are gonna slow up a little bit. I was worried about going out sixth, but everybody I know here in Arizona tells me that around 4 o'clock is the hottest time of the day. If it warms up a little bit, we'll be in good shape. We'll see what happens." WAS THE TRACK DUSTY AT ALL? "There were five cars that went in front of me and I think they swept the track off and I didn't have a problem with the dust out there."

KEVIN LEPAGE --7-- NationsRent Taurus
"We slowed down about a tenth right there. The guys on the NationsRent team did a great job all day long. We made an educated guess trying to pick up a little bit of speed and went the opposite way, but we're in the show and we'll just race hard on Sunday."

MARK MARTIN --6-- Pfizer Taurus
"It was a really good run in three and four, but I missed the mark both times in one and two, which was the same as in practice. If I could have wired one and two in a little bit better, it could have been worth several spots on the starting grid. We're gonna be in the middle of the pack, but that's okay. We'll work on this thing and try to get it good in one and two and three and four for the race. If we do that, we'll be alright."

ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Motorcraft Taurus
"We tried a lot of stuff. I don't know what to say. I don't have any answers. This just hasn't been a good year for us in qualifying. I wish I had something definite I could say as to what the problem was, but we don't know. The guys tried hard and I can't fault them. We're doing the best we can and now we'll just try to get ready for Sunday."

RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus
"That's about like we were in practice. There wasn't a whole lot of difference. We never really could get it to turn like I wanted to in turn one, it was just sliding the front end." WAS IT THE HEAT OF THE DAY? "I don't know why. It looked like just from watching the first couple of cars qualify, it looked like they were pretty quick and had an advantage, and then it seemed like after about 10 cars it slowed down a little bit. It really shouldn't be that way. It should be fairly even for everybody because the sun has been beating down on the track all day. I don't think it's gonna make a big difference, but we were just a little tight. We lost a couple of tenths of a second down in turn one, so we'll probably end up in the middle of the pack."

RYAN NEWMAN --02-- ALLTEL Taurus
"I locked the left-front up going into one and that kind of caught me off guard. That cost me some time. That's not the kind of run we wanted to have, but that almost backed up what we ran in practice so it wasn't too far off." HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE WAS TODAY FROM YOUR TEST? "It's actually almost identical conditions and we're not running as fast as we did in the test, so we've got to figure out why we're not doing that."

MIKE WALLACE --12-- Mobil 1 Taurus
"We were 20th or 21st when practice was over, but that wasn't bad. We made some changes and they probably weren't exactly what we needed to do. I was a little tight down in one and two and when we were trying to get the tightness out of it, I got it loose, but all in all it was a pretty good day for the Mobil 1 Ford. The guys did well and worked hard, so we'll race on Sunday." ONE AND TWO SEEMS TO BE THE TROUBLE SPOT TODAY. "I wish I could really tell you what it is, but it's just totally different than three and four. I think you focus so hard on getting through three and four that you compromise with one and two because there's more banking down there. You drive in and as the car goes down it starts to cut really good and then my car slides the front end right in the middle. You try to drive through and turn the wheel a little bit more and that kind of makes it wiggly coming off. It's not exactly what you want to have. You want to have both corners perfect, but, all in all, it was pretty good I think."

TODD BODINE --66-- Blue Light Special/Kmart Taurus
"We started the day absolutely terrible. The car was a handful to drive, but to end up close to the top 10 is a tremendous gain. That's a testament to how good the team really is because when we have a little adversity they seem to rise to the occasion and get the job done. The car was about the same as it was in practice, we just got a faster lap so we're pretty happy with it."

RICKY CRAVEN --32-- Tide Taurus
"These guys bail me out every week. It was good and I'm really proud of the guys because they made a great effort today. I'm probably the world's worst practice guy, but we always seem to step it up. I couldn't do it without this group because they bailed me out today."

DALE JARRETT --88-- UPS Taurus
"That's the fastest we've been since we've been here, so I guess from that standpoint we did the right thing. We made a lot of changes before qualifying, but we just weren't quite good enough." WHAT ABOUT THE LAP IN GENERAL? "I wasn't really sure of what we had when we went out there because we made so many changes, but it was a pretty good day. That was the best lap we've had, so from that standpoint it was pretty good. We just haven't been fast and I don't know why. That's the best we made the car go through the center of the corner, but it's still off quite a bit from some of the other guys."

ROBERT PRESSLEY --77-- Jasper Engines Taurus
"I really thought we had something for the pole. I really laid something out there the first lap and then went after it the second lap. I got off turn two real good and I knew if I got into three good, but I tried taking a little bit extra and I got in three too hard. I had to get the car slowed down a little bit and that cost us a little time. That's still gonna be a great starting spot, so we're happy with that."

JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus
"At this track you can really change your driving style and make the car do something different and I didn't expect it to be that tight. We knew to loosen it up some and that was a good run for us. That will give us a good pit selection. I was hoping to beat Andretti. Whoever wins in qualifying has to buy ice cream, so I've got to buy tonight."

BRETT BODINE --11-- Ralphs Supermarkets/RedCell Batteries Taurus
"That was a great effort and I'm so happy for the guys. They worked so hard on this car. We've wrecked this thing three or four times this year and they just keep rebuilding it and it keeps coming back and running good. We tried a new brake system at Martinsville with it and really shot ourselves in both feet. We came back today with our standard old package and here we are in the top 15 all day on the board. That's a good effort for us. It seems like we've got a good combination here. We're gonna test Geoff down at Homestead next week. Hopefully, he can have a good test down there and each of us can have a great run at Homestead."

-Ford Racing-