Catchfence

Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified at Auto Club Speedway:

 Speed 9^th

Logano 34^th

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER QUALIFYING QUOTES FOR THE AUTO CLUB 500 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009, PAGE 7. 

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 RED BULL TOYOTA:  “It was all right.  The track was definitely a lot faster out there than it was in practice and certainly going out early is definitely not where you want to go right now but at least we know we have a car under us that’s going to be pretty good for the race.  That’s the most important thing.  We’ll probably end up in the top-15 hopefully and be able to go from there.”  IT SEEMS LIKE EVERY TIME YOU’RE ON THE TRACK YOU GET FASTER AND FASTER.  “Not fast enough today.  I probably could have done a little bit better than that.  We didn’t get quite everything out of it but certainly I feel a ton more comfortable than at the end of last year.  The more experience I’m getting the by far the better we’re getting.”  DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE AT A TRACK LIKE THIS VERSUS DAYTONA?  “Yeah, but Daytona now, after doing Daytona, I feel really comfortable there.  It’s a trade off.  You’re learning a little bit of everything.”

JIMMY ELLEDGE, CREW CHIEF, No.. 82 RED BULL TOYOTA:  “That’s real good, especially the way we practiced.  We didn’t practice well to start with.  Scott’s never been here before and we only run about nine or 10 laps and to run that, I thought was really good.  Real proud of that effort.  Go into race trim and see what we’ve got.”  YOU MUST BE PLEASED WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF THE ENTIRE TEAM.  “Been happy with that for a long time.  It’s just that you think once you get to working with this stuff a little while that hopefully one day you’ll do all the right things and everything will start to come together.  The guys have put a tremendous effort in over the winter and we’ve got a lot of good stuff happening, a lot of good stuff here and I think we’ve got a lot of good stuff coming down the road so I’m really proud of that.”  ARE YOU A LITTLE BIT CONSERVATIVE ON YOUR SETUPS?  “Oh, for sure.  We’re trying to make sure that we’re getting him what he wants but we’re trying to keep it conservative, trying to keep him on the tight side.  As a crew chief you don’t want to scare your driver the first time out in these cars.  You want to try to get ‘em to where they’re comfortable and then work your way into it.  We were way too conservative when we started.  We were way too tight.  Fortunately we had some good notes to go back from last year and that stuff seems to be real suitable for him.  He seems to like it. We’re just trying to get our feat wet and I think this is definitely very encouraging.”  HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE IS THE RACE GOING TO BE HERE ON SUNDAY?  “It’s not going to be good bad.  The later in the day is actually going into better grip, rather than starting off with say moderate grip and ending maybe with some grip.  You’re going to be starting off maybe where ‘bout like we would normally end this race.  I don’t think that’s going to be a big deal.  These cars seem to be pretty straightforward about how they handle and how they deal with the racetrack, the racetrack rubbering up and stuff so not really worried about that.”  

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 HOME DEPOT TOYOTA:  YOU PICKED UP FROM WHAT YOU RAN IN PRACTICE.  ““I think everyone picked up though, that’s the problem [smiles].  I don’t know, just trying to get used to these cars.  It just takes time.”  WAS THE CAR LOOSE OR TIGHT TODAY?  “Fighting a little bit of both ways, just depending on which way I take it into the corner.  Working with Kyle and Denny a lot trying to figure ‘em out.  It’s just a tough deal.  These guys have worked their butts off over here which I appreciate a ton. They are a hardworking group and they’re really good.  I’m glad to have them on my side.”  AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY LOOKS LIKE AN EASY TRACK. “There’s no such thing as an easy racetrack with the COT car.  I’ve figured that out already.  We’ll take what we can and learn from it.”  WAS IT BAD LUCK TODAY WHEN YOU BRUSHED THE WALL IN PRACTICE OR GOOD LUCK BECAUSE IT COULD HAVE BEEN A LOT WORSE?  “It wasn’t bad luck or good luck.  I just hit the wall [smiles].  It’s my fault.  You control your own luck when it comes to that.”   

 NOTES:

• Scott Speed will start ninth in Sunday’s Auto Club 500, his second top-10 qualifying effort in his last three Sprint Cup Series races.  He started second in the 2008 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. 

SPEED PRESS CONFERENCE

“I mean, like normal, we’ve got 16 grand total laps here on this track so qualifying is obviously not most difficult thing to learn.  It’s going to be a totally different thing when you get out there for the race and to be able to start up towards the front is definitely going to help us run with good cars from the beginning of the race on. Hopefully we can a little bit better job than we did in Miami and hopefully keep our car a little bit closer to the front there and keep working from there.  The racing experience that I’m gaining every weekend is what’s really adding up and where I’m really getting a lot better.”  DO YOU FEEL BEHIND HERE BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO TEST?  “I don’t know, I disagree.  I think in Miami we had seven laps in a Cup car and we put the thing on the front row.  Here I think I had like 15 laps on the track and we put it in ninth.  Honestly, the testing is all fine and dandy to get your car better and to learn about how to make the car faster but when it comes to driving it fast, I think as we’ve proven it’s not the laps that we need.  It’s the racing experience. It’s going out there and racing three-wide and making passes around the high-side.  And the things that are different about oval racing and stock car racing that I need to learn.  Going out there by myself and going fast is the easy part.”  ARE YOU GOING FORMULA ONE RACING?  “No [laughs].  I don’t think so.  I’ve been there, done that.”

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