NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
NASCAR SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER SHOWDOWN QUALIFYING QUOTES
MAY 20, 2011
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MOEN/MENARDS CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “I have a really good race car. Really good long-run car. We are going to start third, which is good. The track picked up a lot of speed from where we did our last run. It is about how brave you are diving off in the corner. The car stuck really good in one and two. I might have tried getting to the bottom a little bit too soon in three and four and lost a little speed off four. But, it is going to be fun tomorrow night for sure.”
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT – MENARD: TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT: “I am really happy with my race car. We have a great long-run car for the 20 laps. We did practice break free. We were really happy at the end of 20 laps. Didn’t concentrate a whole lot on qualifying, but you have to start up front. We did a run. The car is pretty quick. I feel like I nailed it in one and two. I gave up a little bit in four. We have a really fast car for tomorrow night and I am really looking forward to it.”
YOU STARTED OFF THE SEASON WELL, WOULD A GOOD RUN TOMORROW NIGHT HELP START TO TURN THE SEASON AROUND? “When we come back next week, what we learn tomorrow night will translate to next week. We’ve struggled the last three week. Richmond, got caught up in a wreck. Darlington, had some motor issues all night. Last week we tried something totally differently from what we’ve been doing all year and did not work so we are back to the basics this weekend. Intermediate sized tracks have been our strength the last two years. So back to the basics and what we learn tomorrow night will translate to the 600 and then we go on to Kansas and some other good tracks coming up.”
JEFF BURTON, NO 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH: “We were hoping for a little better than that. We were second in practice and fifth in qualifying so that hurts your feelings. We can win it from there and do what we need to do from there. We feel like we have a really good car in race trim and just didn’t lay down quite what we needed to there.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DALE JR. FOUNDATION/VH1 SAVE THE MUSIC/AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: “We weren’t very good. We just haven’t been good today, just not good. We just haven’t been fast. Don’t have much speed. If it was a long race, we’d be in good shape, I don’t know. We just can’t go quick in the first couple laps. We just don’t have speed. We haven’t had any all year. But after five laps our car is fine, it is a short race it will be important that we fix that. Once we get a caution and we cycle the tires, I think my car gets a little bit better. Just we haven’t been able to qualify this year, I don’t know what the problem is.”
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