BOBBY HAMILTON (No. 4 Square D Dodge Ram) - Qualified Second
"I just ignore it (weather conditions). What can I do about it? This is
the best race track we go to that weather doesn't do anything to. If it
were to rain all night and wash all the rubber off, it would look like
you were swatting bees for about 15 laps. After that it's right back to
the way it was, so if every race track were like that you wouldn't hear
complaints out of anybody. This is a pretty unique place. It's about the
same setup every time you come here. Maybe you need a bigger or smaller
sway bar or maybe new technology on shocks, but you can about bind your
springs up like Rusty Wallace has been doing the last 38 years. That's
the way this place is, real consistent.
"Coming from the Cup series, we didn't have any points. If we'd needed
a provisional, we'd have had a problem. Now that we've got this race
behind us, we can go off this year's points and the 18 truck is the same
way. That took a load off of us as a driver and an owner. Martinsville
has been good to me. I didn't real care for the place, but I've always
done well here, so I like coming here. All the people within the company
have a lot of confidence everywhere we go right now. We feel like we can
be a top five truck everywhere we go. We're not trying to get greedy. If
we can't win, we're not going to do anything stupid to knock ourselves
out of the top five."
BILL LESTER (No. 8 Dodge Motorsports Dodge Ram)
"That's the first time we got to go out on stickers. The truck was a
little bit tight in the middle early on and it was a little free on
exit. We were a little bit too free off in qualifying, but if we can get
it to plant in the rear we'll be even faster. We're hoping it'll stand
up for the top 15."
BRENDAN GAUGHAN (No. 62 The Orleans Hotel Dodge Ram)
"The tires just didn't want to heat up. This will be a lot better than
where we started laswt year with it. We'll be all right and race our way
to the front. We're just going to try to keep these guys from stealing
our thunder."
JASON LEFFLER (No. 2 Team ASE/Carquest Racing Dodge Ram)
"I hit the curb on the second lap. We were going to be pretty good, but
I just hit the curb coming out of the second turn. I think we'll be
pretty good in the race. We usually qualify better than that here, but
we'll just have to take what we got and get ready to race."
TINA GORDON (No. 31 Microtel Inn Dodge Ram)
"I wish I could have been a little bit faster, but we'll just have to
wait and see what happens. It was more me than it was the truck. I just
kind of changed my line a little bit. I was really struggling during
practice, and I was watching the Winston Cup guys. I noticed they were
getting on their brakes hard going straight down the straightaway. Then
they were releasing as they were diving down into the turn. In practice,
I was staying on my brakes, so I wish I had seen what they were doing
before and I could have gone out there and practiced it."
ROBERT PRESSLEY (Harris Trucking Dodge Ram)
"That was all right. We just got a little bit loose. We were real good
in practice and we broke an A frame. We tried to fix it back and had to
change a little bit. We got it a little too free, but at least we got
the truck where it's driving good again."
BOBBY HAMILTON (No. 4 Square D Dodge Ram) - Immediately after lap
"That's as fast as we'd run all day, and I thought I could run about a
.78, so I bettered that a little bit. It won't be good enough for the
pole, but I had to be so conservative because we don't have any points
until the next race. We just wanted to get this out of the way. The next
time we race we'll go by this year's points. We're pretty good in that
department. I hope we will be when we leave here."
TED MUSGRAVE (No. 1 Mopar Performance Dodge Ram) - Immediately after lap
"That should be a top five, but it won't be the pole. Somebody will
run in the .60s in qualifying trim. We just never got a handle on
qualifying. We were working on race stuff and then at the end we scuffed
in some tires. The guys did a great job. We changed a bunch of stuff and
got close, but it wasn't quite right. Still, it'll be a good starting
spot for the Mopar team. We haven't had a lot of good luck in the past
at Martinsville. We get caught up in a wreck We're just gearing up for
the race. If we don't get the pole it's because we've been concentrating
more on our race setup."
Martinsville - Dodge Qualifying Quotes