NASCAR Winston Cup Pocono 500 Post-Qualifying Quotes: Ford Drivers
7 June 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Busch Pole Ford Qualifying Quotes Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway June 6, 1997 LONG POND, PA - GEOFF BODINE (#7 QVC Thunderbird) - "I thought we were quicker than that in practice, but I knew we had a little drafting help. But the way things have been going, anything we get is good. I'm happy with that lap. We'll get things turned around here. I'll tell you what, this team won't give up. As bad as things have been the last few weeks, a lot of teams would have given up by now. But we won't give up. We've got some deals in the works that you'll be hearing about that are going to make this team a lot stronger." RICKY RUDD (#10 Tide Thunderbird) - "This about the third race since they've repaved it, so the track is still in good condition. It's a real good qualifying day, so it's going to be even for everybody. If you're not on the pole, you're never pleased, but all in all it was a good lap. It was a little quicker than we practiced." RUSTY WALLACE (#2 Miller Lite Thunderbird) - "The car is good. In fact, I thought I ran a lot better than that in practice. We ran an 0.80 on blocks, so the track has slowed up some. But we'll be good in the race. We've won a bunch here, and we can win again." MARK MARTIN (#6 Valvoline Thunderbird) - MARTIN SCRAPED THE WALL IN PRACTICE THIS AFTERNOON, BUT SUFFERED ONLY MINOR DAMAGE TO HIS CAR - "It felt OK. I've just had a little bit of a tough day today. I just couldn't hang it out. I just wasn't on the money today for some reason. I don't have any reason to thing we won't race good, I just couldn't ever get the lap times to be as good as the best cars." TED MUSGRAVE (#15 Family Channel/PRIMESTAR Thunderbird) - "I'm disappointed in myself. I'm not disappointed in the car or the crew or anything. They did exactly what was supposed to be done. As I went down into Turn 1, it had been a little tight down there. We had it just right, but I overdrove it and ran over the apron a little bit and I got sideways and it cost us. We had a good shot at the pole, the driver just screwed up. But we'll be good on Sunday. This track is coming back to me now. We used to come here and every time we would be in the top five, then they repaved the track and we weren't as good, but now it's coming back to me a little bit. This car is flying. We'll be fast on Sunday." MICHAEL WALTRIP (#21 CITGO Thunderbird) - "We've struggled here. That felt like a real good lap. I hit the corners pretty good and felt confident that that would be a 53-something, but it wasn't. We'll just have to regroup and look and see what tomorrow brings." ERNIE IRVAN (#28 Texaco/Havoline Thunderbird) - "We just needed to be a little bit better. We ran the same speed we ran in practice. We thought we could pick up. We made a little adjustment on it to try to pick up, but we went the other way." JEREMY MAYFIELD (#37 Kmart/RC Cola Thunderbird) - "I don't know. We've been racing with them every week, but we're just not qualifying very well. Coming off that fourth at Dover, we were hoping that momentum would carry us this week. It didn't for qualifying, but we'll be good in the race. We still need to get this qualifying figured out." RICK MAST (#75 Remington Arms Thunderbird) - "We were off a little bit. The car unloaded fast and we made a few changes and made it a little better. We didn't know what to do with the tires. We went on about eight-lap scuffed. We put new tires on and the car just didn't do as well. The car was sliding just a little bit more than I wanted it to. If we could have gotten balanced on the new tires, we could have gone faster, but the way our year has gone, we'll take it, because it's getting better every week now." DALE JARRETT (#88 Quality Car/Ford Credit Thunderbird) - "I left a little bit in Turn 3. The car slid up in the corner there and I was a little later getting back into the throttle than I wanted to be. But it was a good run. It's the fastest that we've run, so I'm pretty happy. We're pretty much ready to race. This is the car that has won the two races this year, and we've given it a pretty good race up to this point, so I think we'll be OK." DICK TRICKLE (#90 Heilig-Meyers Thunderbird) - "I've just had a hard day at the office. The third lap we ran, when I came around (turn) 3, Chad Little was coasting in on the bottom and I lightfooted it a bit, and I don't know if it was tires or the shocks did it, but when I came up off 3, it just turned around on me and I knocked the wall down a little bit." BILL ELLIOTT (#94 McDonald's Thunderbird) - "I was happy 'til I got out of the car. But a year ago, I wasn't here, so we continue to gain on this deal. I feel like this particular car will race good on Sunday. The main thing is just getting in the race. Every time we come back, we get a little better. I feel like that with just a little bit of work, and we'll be where we need to be. This has been a good track for me in the past. It seems like we've always run good in the past." JOHN ANDRETTI (#98 RCA Thunderbird) - "We got a little bit nervous. We went out on sticker tires in practice and we had a really fast car, then all of a sudden we had a kinda mediocre car. We went on older tires for qualifying and made a few adjustments. We could have been faster, but they tell me that when we don't qualify wee, we race well, so maybe this time we'll qualify well and race well." JEFF BURTON (#99 Exide Batteries Thunderbird) - "The car drives real god. I'm real comfortable with this car for the race. I think it's going to be a good car. It drives good and does everything I ask it to do. I'm excited about the race. I just don't know what we need to do to go fast for just one lap." Provided by Ford Motorsports Public Affairs
