June 4, 1999 – It’s An All-Ford Front Row at Bristol
Bristol
Greg Biffle, #50 Grainger Ford F-150: (Qualified on the
pole)”I’ll tell you, it was hang on for dear life the whole lap! We
were pretty free the whole day today. But we got some good
information from the #99 team (teammate Mike Bliss) that helped us
out a lot. I have to give them a lot of credit and thank their crew
chief Matt Chambers for helping us out. You could see that they
were quickest on the board by about two-tenths after practice. We
took some of their information and put in onto our truck and it
worked. That’s what great about having two teams.”
QUOTES FROM POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE:
“I did everything that I could to not hit the wall out there. We
were too free and had been (free) during our qualifying runs earlier
in practice. I really need to thank the #99 team. We put all the
information from them into our truck and I just went out there and
peddled it for a lap and got the pole. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE
RACE TOMORROW? “I feel really good. I like to run here at Bristol.
It’s a lot of fun. The Grainger team has done a great job all year.
We’ve run up front a lot. I’m glad that we’ll be starting on the
front row tomorrow. My boss (Jack Roush) is going to be here
tomorrow so I’d better step the program up!” WAS THE DIFFERENCE
FROM YOUR PRACTICE TIME TO YOUR QUALIFYING TIME A RESULT OF THE
INFORMATION THE #99 TEAM GAVE YOU? “Yeah it was. We made some
pretty dramatic changes. We would have never changed that much
from one qualifying run to another without having the information
to back it up. That’s what it’s like when you have two teams in
this series. We can’t always trade information. But at times like
that when you’re desperate, it helps a ton.”
Mike Wallace, #2 Team ASE Racing Ford F-150: (Qualified
second) ” I normally slow up from practice to qualifying so
we’re happy with the run. Considering our first practice where we
were about 14th and then we found out that we had some
problems right at the end of that practice. Then we came back and
ran a strong second in the second practice. Then we qualified
second, so it’s been a good day for us. We’ve got a really good
truck for tomorrow night. The Team ASE Ford F-150 has been a good
truck all year long and the guys have done a good job all year too.
We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow. HOW ABOUT THE
PATCHWORK IN TURN THREE (PATCHING WORK DELAYED NCTS QUALIFYING OVER
AN HOUR)? “There is nothing wrong with the race track. It’s just
a two-inch expansion joint that the caulking came out of. Even if
it does come out during the race, I don’t think it will hurt
anything.”
Mike Bliss, #99 Exide Batteries Ford F-150: (Qualified
fourth) “The information that we shared helped him (Greg Biffle) out
and I went slower (laughing). At least a Roush truck is on the
pole. We ran so well in practice that I hoped that we could back it
up in qualifying. It was tough because everything heated up out
there. We changed a lot of stuff on the truck and I thought that
we’d be even better in qualifying than we were. I was off just a
little bit in the corners and that’s all it takes here.”
Kevin Harvick, #98 Porter-Cable Power Tools Ford F-150:
(Qualified fifth) “That was a hell of an effort from the
guys. I’m not the one sweating; they did all the work. We were
taking a provisional just five minutes ago but NASCAR gave us five
extra minutes and we got our chance. We pulled it off. Now we’re
starting up front. We’ll take it. I have a lot of faith in the
crew and they put together a fast truck. When they said that it was
done, I just went out and put the hammer down.”
