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TERRY COOK, No. 46 WHITNEY MOTORSPORTS DODGE: YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO MAKE A PRACTICE RUN BEFORE THE RAIN TODAY.  “Well the first thing we’ve got to do is that we’ve got to make sure that we’re going to be able to have at attempt to qualify.  We didn’t actually get on the racetrack.  When you’re this far back in the point standings, they’ve got 53-plus cars here, it take a long time for NASCAR to get to ya [inspection] and we’re second from the last for cars to be teched.  We were late getting teched which means we were late getting to the racetrack and unfortunately we never did get on the racetrack because of the fact the rains came but we did cross the start-finish line on pit road so I hope that at least constitutes an attempt to make a practice lap.  Not sure where that fits in with what NASCAR is going to do as far as qualifying procedure is concerned.  We certainly hope that we’re able to make an attempt to qualify because we feel like we have a good racecar but very disappointing that we didn’t get on the track but nevertheless a lot of that was out of our own control.”

HOW MUCH PRIDE DO YOU HAVE WALKING INTO THE GARAGE AREA AND HAVING A CHANCE TO QUALIFY FOR THE DAYTONA 500?  “Well a lot.  This is huge.  I’ve been coming here since 2000 racing in the truck series and had a lot of great runs here, come very close to winning a couple of ‘em and had a lot of top-fives, top-10s but had never had the opportunity to be in the Cup side.  First of all I think just to be in the Cup series is a big deal but then to come here first race out of the box and have a chance to race in the Daytona 500 or qualify in, maybe, tomorrow, is a big honor and a big deal.  I’m very excited. A lot of stuff going on this weekend and hopefully we’ll make it to our fullest and make sure that we’re around a little over a week from now we’re still racing in the Daytona 500.”

YOU SEEM TO HAVE GOOD EQUIPMENT.  “We do.  We were able to purchase some great cars from Richard Petty Motorsports.  Those guys know how to build racecars and these are some of their 2008 racecars.  I believe that AJ Allmendinger may have raced this car in the Daytona 500 last year with some success.  I don’t know the exact history of this particular car but I know they did have some history with it on the speedways and we’re very successful with it.  We’ve got some great Dodge R5 engines from Evernham Motorsports along with those cars so we’re pretty excited about how it’s going to run.  With the plate increase we were kind of excited about that too because everybody I talked to it seemed to favor the Dodges when you increase the plate size.  Hopefully it will bode well tomorrow.”

HAVE YOU HAD A SMOOTH BEGINNING TO SPEEDWEEK HERE IN DAYTONA?  “We have.  We had a few bumps getting the car prepared to get here and of course being this far back in tech as I mentioned earlier it was tough getting the car teched.  We didn’t really have any problems with the car, it was just a matter of getting it through the whole technical procedure and it’s just expected when you have this many cars at a racetrack in a short amount of time to get ‘em teched before practice.  Outside of that, so far everything has gone pretty smooth and hopefully the rest of Speedweeks will continue to go smooth.”       

Raybestos® brand brake and chassis parts are produced by affiliated companies in Affinia’s Global Brake and Chassis Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and chassis parts in the transportation industry.  The brake line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts, while the chassis line features tie rods, ball points, idler arms and sway bar links.  Raybestos brand braking and chassis systems are also the only systems used by NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing in competition.  For more information about Raybestos brakes, visit Raybestos.com.  For more information on Raybestos Chassis visit RaybestosChassis.com

Affinia Group Inc. is a global leader in the on and off-highway replacement products and service industry.  In North America the Affinia family of brands includes WIX® Filters, Raybestos®, AIMCO® and BrakePro® brake products, and McQuay-Norris® and Raybestos™ Chassis parts.  South American and European brands include Nakata®, Filtron®, Urba® and Quinton Hazell®.  For more information, visit affiniagroup.com.

* Affinia Group Inc.’s affiliated companies include Brake Parts Inc. WIX Filtration Corp LLC, Affinia Products  Corp LLC and other high quality manufacturers of the Affinia family of brands.

- Camp & Associates, Inc., for Raybestos, Press Release