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Pontiac
Racing Quotes; Talladega Advance
JAMES INCE, CREW CHIEF, NO.
10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
BASED ON PRACTICE SPEEDS YESTERDAY, YOU LOOK LIKE YOU
HAVE A PRETTY GOOD CAR...
"We're highly disappointed. We were 100 percent convinced we
were
going to be on the pole yesterday. We had quite a bit left.
We worked
extremely hard to come here and sit on the pole, and all
that was going to
work out for us we felt like. You hate to work that hard for
about a month
and then not get the chance to do it.
"The other disappointing part, as far as our approach to
this weekend, was
that we were going to sit on the pole and then hang out in
the back all day.
There are going to be a lot of people in the grandstands
that think we can't
run tomorrow. But, if they wreck 40 cars we're going to
finish third.
"It's frustrating, but we'll take it and we'll go on. We
know we've got a
good race car and we're going to take it out of here in one
piece and get
the best finish we can."
ARE YOU STILL PLANNING TO HAVE JOHNNY HANG OUT AT THE
BACK TOMORROW?
"I'm not building a new speedway car and I'm not going to
the hospital. It's as
simple as that."
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD A GOOD SPEEDWAY CAR?
"About 4,000 hours.
That's as simple as I can put it.
"We work extremely hard on our speedway program. I've got a
group of
people - that is pretty much all they do. We work towards it
all the time.
We've done a lot of testing with Pontiac. We've done a lot
of testing in the
wind tunnel. We've done some track testing. We devote a
whole lot of time to
our speedway program. It's something we're proud of. It's
harder to make a
speedway car work than it is other stuff. And, we've got
that huge asset of
Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick does a fabulous job for us on
motors. We work
hand in hand with those guys because if you don't have a
good motor, it
doesn't matter how hard you work on the cars. We've worked
with those guys
really hard. They always do a great job for us. We knew they
had an animal
coming for an engine, so we worked twice as hard on the race
car to make
sure we made them look good, just like us."
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE NEW FUEL CELL REGULATIONS FOR
TOMORROW'S RACE?
"I think it's the best thing we've ever done in a long time.
I'm confident
in our pit crew. I'm confident in the things we do and I'm
confident in our
race strategy. It ought to make for a more interesting race.
The cars are
going to end up back in a pack, but it will be about the
time that you have
to pit again.
"We may get bit by it tomorrow. There are going to be people
that are hurt
by it, having to pit a whole lot, because any time you go on
pit road things
can go wrong. But, we're excited about it. It's probably the
simplest,
smartest thing we've done in a long time when it comes to
speedway racing."
JOHNNY BENSON, NO. 10 VALVOLINE PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT YOU LOST THE OPPORTUNITY TO
QUALIFY YESTERDAY?
"The only thing that matters is that we had a shot at the
pole, maybe. But,
that didn't happen, so it doesn't matter now. You can
probably start at the
back and be fine. I would probably prefer to start at the
back. We'll just
have to wait and see, and see how the day goes. We're not
sure exactly what
strategy we're going to use, yet, but I know starting in the
middle can
sometimes be tough."
WILL YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT WITH YOUR SPOTTER TOMORROW
AS COMPARED TO ANY OTHER RACE?
"No, you just let him do all the talking. He just lets you
know where everything is at and you just deal with it. If
you hear you're
four-wide, you try to get out of it. Four-wide is not the
best thing. You
can run three-wide here, although it's not overly
comfortable. But,
three-wide is not a big issue as long as somebody doesn't do
anything wrong.
Bur, four-wide is just not worth doing."
SINCE YOU SEEM TO HAVE A PRETTY GOOD CAR, WILL THAT LEAD
YOU TO BE A LITTLE MORE AGGRESSIVE?
"You can only do what the car is going to do. You've got
to be patient and not do anything foolish and make sure you
stay out of the
wrecks.
"I'm sure we're going to hang out for most of the race. It
may be in the
back, it may be in the front, but it won't be in the
middle."
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