GM Racing - Post Qualifying Notes And Quotes From Darlington

Post qualifying quotes for Dodge Charger 500, at Darlington Raceway from GM Racing's Chevrolet Drivers, as followed.

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 3rd
"It was pretty sporty. We had a couple spark issues in practice. We bottomed out a little too much. These guys on the Jack Daniels Chevrolet have been working hard. They make a rookie look good don't they?" (more to follow)

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 8th
"The GMAC Chevy guys did an awesome job. Lance (McGrew, crew chief) made some good calls in practice. We were real good in race trim. We felt we real tight in qualifying trim. We made a bunch of changes. We were afraid to over adjust. We did over adjust. We were still a little loose for qualifying but it's a good start."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 12th
"Yeah, you pretty much just give it everything you got in that one lap. That's about all you can hold your breath for. It's definitely a white-knuckled lap. This place has a lot of grip for one lap. It's rough and you can really just use everything up in that one lap. The DuPont Chevrolet was pretty good there. It was a nice pick up from practice but not enough to be up there where we'd like to be. I told the guys they did a great job there and a few little things we could have done a little different but for the most part I'm pretty happy with everything."

TONY STEWART, NO. 20 THE HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 13th
"We had a good lap. It wasn't spectacular but it will do."

JEFF GREEN, NO. 66 BEST BUY HAAS CNC RACING MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 28th
"That was about 10 times better than it was in practice. We came here with some thoughts on how to do some things differently, but only having an hour and a half of practice to try some race stuff and qualifying stuff leaves you with no room for error. We may still try some different things for the race, but we had to go back and put a more conservative setup under it for qualifying. The car felt really good on that lap, and I could have probably pushed it harder than I did. To be honest, after the way it handled in practice, I didn't really know what to expect, so I just tried to get a good, solid lap and bring the car back in one piece."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 20th
"To qualify well, you've got to have a car that turns really good, but also it has to make a lot of rear grip. If you're going to be one of two things, you're better off being tight here in qualifying. But it's got to be a good tight -- a tight that's real secure to where you can drive it really aggressively. This is a track that you don't really want to drive aggressively 'cause it's so easy to hit something, but if you're going to run fast, you've got to go after it."

JEFF GREEN- NO. 66 BEST BUY HAAS CNC RACING MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 28th: "That was about 10 times better than it was in practice. We came here with some thoughts on how to do some things differently, but only having an hour and a half of practice to try some race stuff and qualifying stuff leaves you with no room for error. We may still try some different things for the race, but we had to go back and put a more conservative setup under it for qualifying. The car felt really good on that lap, and I could have probably pushed it harder than I did. To be honest, after the way it handled in practice, I didn't really know what to expect, so I just tried to get a good, solid lap and bring the car back in one piece."

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 07 JACK DANIELS MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 3rd - PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
ON HIS RUN:
"I was just holding on hoping for the best. No, this Jack Daniels crew has been doing a good job. Gil Martin (crew chief) and company do a good job preparing race cars to come out here and race with. Everybody at RCR has been doing a good job. I'm proud to be leading the troops here so far."
WHAT'S THE CONDITION OF THE TRACK - PRETTY SLICK, VERY SLICK OR DARLINGTON SLICK?
"I can give you slick and pretty slick but Darlington slick, I've only been here once. It was slick. I think it was pretty slick earlier in practice but it was getting better towards the end. Our position where we went out was maybe a little bit of an advantage. Going out sixth in the Busch car is going to hurt us over there. It was a good lap for us none the less. I was able to get to the gas a lot quicker than I was in practice and that's always faster."

WHAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE HAVE YOU HAD ON THIS TRACK? HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO GET IN HERE YOUR FIRST TIME FOR A CUP RACE AND GO FAST?
"I ran a race last year in the Busch Series. It was a valuable experience. I can guarantee you need laps around this place. I think experience is key to this track. I learn something every time I go out there. It's kind of learning over again. It has been a year since we've been there. I was a little rusty when we first got there but we had a Busch practice under our belt. I didn't get to run as many laps as we wanted. We've been having spark issues at RCR. We've been dragging but we've got the cars raised up and I think they're going pretty good."

YOU RAN A COUPLE OF LAPS WITH NOBODY OUT THERE. HOW WILL IT TRANSLATE TOMORROW NIGHT AND YOUR EXPERIENCE FACTOR HERE?
"In race trim before everybody went to qualifying trim in practice, I think we were around a 10th place car. On a long run I think we were better than that. I think we were pretty darn sporty on all the long runs 10, 15 laps in especially. I'm excited about that and looking forward to a good happy hour coming up."

HOW IMPORTANT WILL TONIGHT'S RACE BE FOR YOU TO HAVE A GOOD RACE TOMORROW?
"I think it's very important. I think this is one track that Busch experience on the race track is really going to be helpful for me just learning how to pass, learning how to save your tires. Tires, tires, tires, it's always the issue here and being good on a long run. Those extra 150 laps on this race track are going to help you for tomorrow night."