NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Hanes 250: Post Qual Quotes (Dodge Drivers)
27 September 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Dodge Post-Qualify Quotes Hanes 250 Martinsville Speedway September 16, 1997 MARTINSVILLE, VA - The following provided by Chrylser Corporation, Motorsports Public Relations: The Dodge boys faced fierce competition today with 51 teams trying to make the "show". The best qualifier among the Dodges was Tony Raines posting an 11th starting position on the grid. Jimmy Hensley managed a solid 13th starting position at his home track. Winston Cup driver Johnny Benson qualified the #18 truck in 15th position. And the last race winner Bob Keselowski managed a disappointing 27th starting position. The #90 NHL Dodge driven by Lance Norick failed to qualify. TONY RAINES (#19 Pennzoil Dodge) - Qualified 11th - "My qualifying laps were good. It's what I thought we could do, but you know we can always do better. I was smooth in the center and exit of the turns but not so good on the entrance. We got a little loose; it was an overall fair lap. This new engine we have is definitely better." JIMMY HENSLEY (#43 Cummins Dodge) - Qualified 13th - "I'm not real pleased with the qualifying lap. That's about what we ran in practice, and honestly I thought we'd be able to pick it up. The truck is set up to race for 250 laps, and tomorrow I wanna go out and win in front of my hometown crowd." JOHNNY BENSON (#18 Dana Dodge) - Qualified 15th - "I just made a terrible lap. It was mostly driver error. The truck was loose in the turn entrance, tight in the middle and loose on the exit. It has been a long time since I've been in a truck -- there's been a lot of changes since the last time I drove for Kurt (Roehrig)." BOB KESELOWSKI (#29 Mopar Dodge) - Qualified 27th - We came down here about a week ago and did some testing, and we found that this truck won't run a good two laps. I need about five laps to get it going good. During testing, the longer we ran it the faster it went -- just like Richmond. Which that's not all bad. If we have a clean race with few cautions we'll be just right." ###