FORD MOTORSPORT NOTES AND QUOTES
           Friday, April 19, 1996

 BUSCH POLE QUALIFYING -- GOODY'S 500,  Martinsville, Va.


BILL ELLIOTT -94- McDonald's Thunderbird --"Everybody's been kind of 
aggravated that I've taken a champion's provisional the last couple of 
weeks, but these guys don't give up and this shows their effort.  The 
first lap, this thing didn't get hooked up good, but it seems the longer 
it runs, the better it gets going.  I'm tickled to death with these 
McDonald's guys.  I think this Thunderbird will run good come Sunday.  
Thug is the car we ran here last fall and finished sixth with, and I 
think it's going to run better than it did then.  I hoped I could run 
about a .40, but after that first lap I was kind of worried a little 
bit.  The car just didn't hook up good on cold tires.  We might 
should've scuffed 'em a little bit different, but the car came around 
and ran a good lap.  In this business, life is made on a couple Of 
tenths of a second.  If we'd only had the first lap, we wouldn't have 
made the top-25 today. Everything in this business is critical.  For 
those of us that do this week in and week out, it's hard for people on 
the outside to understand what this business if all about.  I know what 
this team can do aria I feel like we'll run good come Sunday."

MARK MARTIN -6- Valvoline Thunderbird-- "I'm real happy with that. We've 
had trouble qualifying here at times.  Obviously we're not having any 
major trouble qualifying on the short tracks this year. Now, if we could 
just have a great race, we'd be grinning going into Talladega.  We've 
run good here and run bad here.  It looks like we're on the better side 
of bad this time."

RUSTY Wallace -2- Miller Thunderbird -- "The quickest we ran in practice 
was about a .28, but it's tough to get the temperature up in these tires 
real fast.  I'm pretty happy with a .38, but that's OK.  The car slid 
around a little bit, but it was OK. The big thing here is you have to 
pit on the front stretch." 

 YOU HAD A PRETTY EXCITING LAP ON YOUR WARM-UP...
 "Yeah, I was trying to sell some T-shirts. (HE LAUGHED)  No, no.  
I was trying to get some heat in the tires and I came out of here pretty 
hard and went into turn three pretty hard and picked up the throttle and 
I did one of those dirt track deals and got a little loose."  

THIS IS THE CAR THAT WRECKED AT NORTH WILKESBORO LAST WEEK?  
"Yeah, and we tested at Talladega this week, too.  The team's been back and 
preparing this car and it looks wonderful.  You can't tell it's been 
crashed. It's running great.  I'm a notorious qualifier, and the thing about 
Martinsville is if you mess up just a little bit, you can end up on that 
back straightaway, and that's not too good.  I know victory lane here 
real well, and it's a good place to be.  It's a real good place to enjoy 
a Miller."

DALE JARRETT -88- Quality Care/Ford Credit Thunderbird -- "I think we 
got a pretty good effort there. i would like to have gone a little 
quicker, but that's pretty good.  If we could just get a decent starting 
spot, we could have a good day.  This is an important race for us.  We 
want to go away from here, hopefully with a victory, but certainly with 
a good top-five run.  I look at points like, if you win the race, you 
get the most points,"

DERRIKE COPE -12- Straight Arrow Thunderbird -- "It wasn't great, but 
not bad.  It didn't feel that good on the first lap, so I didn't hustle 
it like I might have, so I really waited on it. Maybe I should've 
hassled it more."

JEREMY MAYFIELD -98- RCA Thunderbird -- "With the sun in, we couldn't 
get the heat in the tires like we needed to.  Anything could have 
happened here in qualifying today."

JOHN ANDRETTI -37- Kmart/Little Caesars Thunderbird -- "Our second lap 
should have been faster, but it got tight and I hit the wall. I'd be 
surprised if that holds up in the top-25 today. (ANDRETTI QUALIFIED 
17TH, DESPITE HITTING THE WALL ON THE SECOND LAP.)

GEOFF BODINE -7- QVC Thunderbird -- "It stuck good.  We're in good 
shape."

MIKE WALLACE -90- Heilig-Meyers Thunderbird -- "In simple terms, we've 
been struggling these last couple of weeks trying to get qualified for 
these short tracks.  It's nice just to be in good company today.  But 
whether it was a good lap -- if it ends up in the top-25, it's a good 
lap. (WALLACE QUALIFIED 22nd)

	


Jack Durbin                                   indy500@freenet.tlh.fl.us
Motorsport News International                      jackd@motorsport.com
(Moderators for "rec.autos.sport.info")
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