>From NASCAR and Pontiac Racing

NOTES AND) QUOTES 
Busch Pole Qualifying
Martinsville Speedway
April 19, 1996

KYLE PETTY (No. 42 Coors Light Pontiac Grand Prix): "I didn't want to 
win the pole because of what's happened to the Pontiac pole-sitters 
this year (wrecking on Saturday). I wanted to race Sunday. This was a 
good qualifying run. We haven't been qualifying good this season. We 
did all right last weekend at North Wilkesboro, and you have to qualify 
good here. Martinsville's a place where qualifying can make or break 
you Starting on the outside line doesn't bother me. I've started on the 
outside here and made good times, started on the inside and gotten good 
times, but I've also started on the outside and gotten kicked to the 
back and started on the inside and gotten kicked back. At least I've 
got a good car in front of me. If you have a good car in front of you, 
it doesn't matter whether you start inside or inside. You'll get where 
you need to be eventually it will weed itself out. We've been really 
good since we've been here. We made a change just for the sake of 
making a change.  We hated running and saying, 'Yeah we didn't do 
anything. We didn't change anything.' We changed the sway bar and 
chanced the track bar and it worked. We are race ready. We've got to 
work on some motor stuff. I seem to run decent here. It's a good track 
for me. I've had some really good runs here. The best race I ever drove 
I drove here. I was about three laps down and made them all up. That's 
what I consider the best race I ever drove. But this place has been bad 
to me sometimes, too."

BOBBY HAMILTON (No. 43 STP Pontiac Grand Prix): "It was perfect. 
Everything ran fine. We had a good race here last time. You just have 
to keep your nose clean This car will really race good. If you're there 
at the end you can usually be in the top-10 somewhere. We were fast in 
practice all day. Heck, my qualifying run was perfect. It just didn't 
go nowhere."

Rick MAST (No. 1 Hooters Pontiac Grand Prix): "I slowed up because my 
car was pushing real bad. The car started out loose in practice, then 
we loosened it up a little bit, and then it started pushing real bad. 
We should have made a dummy run. We're going to have to start making 
dummy runs. The car was way, way too tight when I qualified. We 
loosened it up just a tick to qualify and it was still way too tight."

JOHNNY BENSON (No. 30 Pennzoil Pontiac Grand Prix): "We really thought 
we could run a low .40. I really thought we could. We ran faster than 
this in practice. We tried to loosen it up and we didn't go enough. As 
long as we're in I don't care, but I was a little disappointed. It 
sounds like most everybody slowed down a little bit. My car didn't feel 
real good, but when we tested here my car was really good on the long 
runs I'm pretty excited about the race "


WARD BURTON (No. 22 MBNA Pontiac Grand Prix): "I'm real disappointed. I 
just couldn't get back on the gas soon enough coming off the corner. It 
didn't respond the same way it did during our simulated qualifying 
run.''

-30-


Jack Durbin                                   indy500@freenet.tlh.fl.us
Motorsport News International                      jackd@motorsport.com
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