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NASCAR: Save Mart 300 Qualifying Quotes from Sears Point

05/03/97



 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
 Busch Pole Qualifying
 Save Mart Supermarkets 300
 Sears Point Raceway
 May 2, 1997


SONOMA, CA - 

KEN SCHRADER (#33 Skoal Bandit Chevrolet Monte Carlo) - Qualified 15th -
YOU PICKED UP HALF A SECOND. "I needed to. I was 27th in practice, we had to
pick up. Had a little scare up there and just couldn't get it going. I just
couldn't get it out of neutral. It's a new car and we're not where we wanted
it to be but that's going to redeem us a little bit for some kind of decent
starting spot."
 
DALE JARRETT (#88 Quality Care Ford Thunderbird) - Qualified 8th - YOU PICKED 
UP A HALF A SECOND OVER PRACTICE. - "Yeah, if I just knew how, I'd be in 
really good shape. We've had a good car all day long. Actually when we made 
our simulation of a qualifying attempt I had a few cars get in the way so I
didn't really know how fast I could run. I'm pretty happy other than I'm still
half a second off of Gordon. I don't know where it's at either. We'll just
have to hope that he slows down more than we do on Sunday."
 
JOHNNY BENSON (#30 Pennzoil Pontiac Grand Prix) - Did not qualify; 37th 
fastest - "The track is definitely slippery since the one guy went out and 
smoked it. That's a second slower than we did on our practice run. It might 
put us in the top 45. I hope. It's obvious we're going to have to go again 
tomorrow but there's nothing we can do about it."
 
DALE EARNHARDT (#3 GM Goodwrench Service Chevrolet) - Did not qualify; 29th 
fastest - "We didn't get time to scuff the tires. It was our mistake. The 
tires didn't come in until about halfway and I was skating all over the place
for the first part of the lap. The second part of the lap was real good. We've
just been behind this whole practice. This is a brand new car. A few little
things. We're a little bit frustrated right now."
 
RUSTY WALLACE (#2 Miller Lite Ford Thunderbird) - Qualified 2nd - "Practice
times don't mean much. I was telling Robin, 'Man, I'm not believing this.
Every single time I got on the race track I got stuck behind a car. I
couldn't really show what we had. The car wasn't handling right when we got
here. We got a lot better and then we had a banzai run and got stuck behind
another car. So I ran like a 1:40 and I said, 'I have no clue what this
thing's gonna run.' All I know is I need to keep on the track, keep the
rhythm and don't lock up the tires and that's it. I hope it holds up but
Mark Martin hasn't gone yet. Here it's important to start up front if you
can't get the pole. I've already got one (pole) this year so at least this
will get me started up front. I think that's a good run though for us. I'm
real happy with it. All the guys did a great job getting this thing
prepared."
 
RICKY RUDD (#10 Tide Ford Thunderbird) - Qualified 10th - "We didn't run as
good as we thought we'd run. We ran a :38.30 in practice and ran a .70 when
I qualified. Rusty went out there and put that flat up on the board and we
knew we had to pick up three-tenths. Maybe I tried a little bit too hard.
Maybe we chose the wrong tire selection. We thought we were outsmarting
everybody. We went on brand new stickers. All the other cars that beat us
went out on half-a-lap scuffs. We thought we were going to be the smart ones
and it looks like we ended up being the stupid ones. We had a car that was
capable of sitting on the pole. It doesn't really make a big difference.
We've started on the front row out here quite a bit. If you've got the best
car you can start dead last. I saw Ernie Irvan do that up here one time."
 
SEAN WOODSIDE (#07w Cinema Vehicle Service Pontiac Grand Prix) - Did not 
qualify; 52nd fastest - "I tried to be a hero and came up a zero. A little 
dirty. I got a little dirt in my mouth so that was exciting. Well we got the 
car on TV everybody at Golden West Motorsports should be happy. We're not the 
fastest car we had to get on TV one way or the other. At least we didn't wreck
anything. It's just a little dirt. You can wash dirt off.[TO BENNY PARSONS]
Back in your day didn't they run on the dirt?"
 
JOHN ANDRETTI (#98 RCA Ford Thunderbird) - Qualified 17th - "We're real
excited about it. We still have a little ways to go. Still some teeny
problems but I think we'll get them sorted out for the race. I was supposed
to do Indy (500) this year and Wednesday I decided not to. With all that the
travel plans got all messed up and Nancy, my wife, and my kids didn't get to
come with me so I wanted to say, 'Hello'. They're back home and I'll be home
Monday morning. It's about 90% or more ruled out (running the Indy 500). AJ
(Foyt) did tell me, 'I'll keep a car open for you.' We'll wait and see what
goes on. If I win Talladega maybe Cale can swallow me going to Indy and
qualifying for the 500 the next day but we'll see how things go at
Talladega. That (qualifying) is the easy part of it. I just enjoy being in a
race car. If I can be at Indianapolis, that's even better."
 
GEOFF BODINE (#7 QVC Ford Thunderbird) - Qualified 7th - "This used to be
the QVC Ford, now it's the Dawn Gillis Thunderbird. Dawn won the 'Your Name
Gets Around' contest on QVC. She's from Mississippi (Hattiesburg). It was
pretty good. That was a lot better than we had practiced. We had some
trouble in practice. We broke a header pipe and had to change that so we
didn't get a lot of laps. This is a good car. We made a few changes before
qualifying and I think it really helped. This morning on old tires the car
felt really good so I'm pretty sure we have a good race setup. I'm a little
surprised at that speed for qualifying. I knew it was good on the top part
of the course. I think down here I got a little conservative. I told Dawn
I'd give her the hood after the race. I didn't want smash it up and it's got
here face on it. It's a pretty face, too. I think I messed up down here.