BOBBY LABONTE – No. 96 Ask.com Ford Fusion (Qualified 17th) – “I wish we could have gone out later just so you have a little bit better feel and that’s what I just asked Mark. He thought his was great. A bunch of people could beat him, but we just don’t know that yet. It’s kind of hard to go out first or second and have a good feel for that, but, all in all, it’s been a great day. These guys have done a great job. The motor was flawless and the RPMs were right where I thought it would be. I got one and two good and I messed up a little bit in three and four. I got just a little bit tight and had to wait on it just a little bit, so there were little things like that. I picked up a little more than Mark did, so maybe that will help us. I don’t know what the track is gonna do speed-wise, but, in my heart, I think we got all we could get out of it so I’ve got to thank everybody for that.”
GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 24th) – “The splitter was on the ground and it just wouldn’t turn. You’ll have that. You’ll miss it a little bit every once in a while.”
CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 16th) – “I guess that’s good. It’s not where we wanted to be because I thought we could be faster, but there is more in the car. I’m proud of Bob and the guys, and that should hopefully be a top 15 so we’ll go race. It’s a long enough race. They added those extra 27 miles, so I’m looking forward to it.”
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 37th) – “We never really qualify great here. We had a good car last year and I think we finished top 10, but I feel like our UPS Ford isn’t that bad, but there’s just not a lot of speed in it. It looks like we’re gonna be about 30th again when qualifying is all said and done, but we’ve always unloaded in race trim and put a lot of effort into our race car for Saturday and Sunday. It’s nice to qualify up in the top 10 or 15, but it looks like we’re gonna be coming from the back, which is fun to put on a good show for all the fans.” CAN YOU GAUGE WHETHER NOT TESTING HAS HAD AN EFFECT AT PLACES LIKE THIS? “I don’t think so. I think that the cars that were gonna be fast coming into the year – testing or not – are still fast. You’re gonna have some guys that sneak up on everyone, whether we had a two-day test out here or not, so I think it’s been a great things so far. It’s made us all work very hard that first practice at the race track, learning new things and trying to implement some new ideas, along with trying to get the car going fast in practice. So I think it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been good and I think the competition will still be great.” WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN THIS RACE? “Just staying out of trouble and getting our car to where it’s easy to pass other race cars. I think we’re gonna have a fast car. We’re not gonna have great track position to start the race and it looks like a few of our other teammates are gonna be back there where we’re at, so we’ve just got to maneuver around the other guys. Our UPS pit crew has been doing a pretty good job on pit road, so we’ve just got to make sure everybody is on the ball and I think we’ll have a good car when the race comes, we’ve just got to use it well.” DO YOU HAVE ANY TIME TO ENJOY YOURSELF IN VEGAS? “I did go to the “O” show at the Bellagio Thursday and that was pretty cool. I’m not a guy that could live out here in Vegas. I just like to visit for a couple of days. I like the more quiet, hometown, slow pace action of South Georgia or North Carolina. I couldn’t hang out here all the time.”
TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 28 Golden Corral Ford Fusion (DNQ) – “We unloaded off the truck in race trim and had really good speed. We went to qualifying trim and not that we didn’t have good speed, but it just didn’t drive quite like we had it in race trim. It was bouncing off the track and we had some trouble, so we made some adjustments and got it off the race track, but we got it too tight for qualifying. That hurt our speed a little bit or we didn’t get the pick up that we needed. It was close, but there are a lot of fast cars. The field is really tight and if you’re off just a little bit, that hurts it a lot.”
