NASCAR Winston Cup Pocono 500 -- Busch Pole Award Winner Quotes
7 June 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Busch Pole Award Winner Quotes Pocono 500 Pocono Raceway June 6, 1997 LONG POND, PA - NOTE: This is Pontiac's second consecutive pole. Bobby Labonte earned the top starting spot at Dover last week, giving Pontiac it's first pole of the season. This is Bobby Hamilton's third career pole, after the top spots at Michigan and Martinsville last year. BOBBY HAMILTON (#43 STP Pontiac Grand Prix) - "This is a brand new Pontiac, and for them to build something like this from scratch is quite an accomplishment. We haven't had to touch anything on it. We changed the right-front spring on it, and then we went back to the original one, and that's all we've touched since they built it at the shop. From the minute we unloaded we were fast. We've been exceptional with the Grand Prix in every corner. I don't know if it was a perfect lap, but it's what I like. "It has to be the car. I like Pocono, and I like Martinsville (flat tracks) but there are a lot of tracks we run fast on that I just don't like. We have good race cars for those tracks, though. The cars drive really well. Needless to say, the motor ran good, because this is a horsepower track. They just seem to fit our needs, the flat tracks do. "We think we'll start the race with the same kind of setup that we qualified with. We're pretty simple when it comes to stuff like that. Our race setup is usually real fast or real bad but we always race good no matter what. I asked Robbie (Loomis), 'Do you think it will hold up?' He said, 'It it don't somebody's going to have to earn that one. I don't think anybody can do it.' "We were real fast all the way through practice. I had made a mock qualifying run and had ended up third quickest. The 16 car was fast, the 22 car was fast, and of course, the 24 car is always fast. Somebody asked me before qualifying, 'Which corner do you work on here,?' I said, 'We work on all of them.' He said, 'Well they say you can only really get through one corner here.' But ever since I've been at Petty Enterprises we've been good through all three corners. I don't know why. Our cars just seem to drive identical through every corner. It's just a race car than can get around here. "I don't know if we're on the same tire (as last year), but we had new asphalt and we came back and deteriorated a little bit. When I first went out I noticed it didn't have quite the grip we had last year. I would say it would be more the race track (for slowing qualifying speeds). The track is still smooth and it drives good. "I don't think (Pontiac) has found anything. We've got some good race cars. (Labonte) is always a contender and he runs good on flat tracks. Ward will be good here. I think we've got as good a shot as anybody. I don't think we've we've stumbled on anything, we've just been really good the last couple of weeks as far as qualifying. "I hate the flat tracks. We just run good on them. I swear I have no use for them. These are nice race tracks. I'm not slamming the race tracks. I just don't like flat race tracks. I think people I drive for have a good flat track program, It's either the chassis we use, the motor combination, or whatever. I don't know what it is, but we always run good on every glad track we go to. On the flat tracks you've got nothing to hold you at these places. It's like you're backing in the corner all the time. I think as you get older the steering wheel gets closer and the tighter you like the race car or whatever. I don't like backing one in a corner. Like I said, the car isn't always good on a flat track and it doesn't have that feel where as I think a lot of these other guys do. I just like high-banked race tracks because you can get through the corner. "Here you can take on two tires and still get around good on the race track. If you come in and take four and someone else takes on two you're dead in the water toward the end of the race. Track position is a big necessity at this race track." By Performance Marketing Group
