Budweiser/Ralph's Della Penna Racing Swift Ford Qualified: 3rd
RICHIE HEARN
This is one of the few tracks we've tested at this year. We had a really good test here a month and a half ago, but this afternoon showed who had the quickest car. I'm very pleased with my car. I'm perfectly pleased with my result, and I'm looking forward to the race.

	Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Qualified: 2nd
JIMMY VASSER
If you're not on the pole here, it doesn't really matter where you start. The car was good, the balance was good. Hats off to Adrian, that was a heck of a lap. The Honda has been real strong. We just plug them in, do our jobs and hope for the best. I think we'll be all right. First and foremost, you've got to have reliability. You try to turn it up at the end if you have the opportunity to be near the front, but it wouldn't be advisable to go for the lead in the first three or four hundred miles.

 

	Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Qualified:17th
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
As far as the handling is concerned, I'm pretty happy. We missed on the gearing. It's almost impossible to predict how many revs you're going to run on your own, and we put in too tall a gear. We couldn't get all the revs we needed. But it was easy to run wide open, and the car feels good in traffic. If my team gives me a solid car like they normally do on race day, we'll be OK.

	PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 19th
MARK BLUNDELL
My car is doing better than I am (exhibiting flu-like symptoms). I'm not too upset that we're where we are at. 500 miles is a long race, and a lot can happen. The key is to be in position to win near the end.

	Arciero/Wells Reynard Toyota Qualified: 23rd
ROBBY GORDON
The track stayed pretty close to the same as what it was this morning. Of course we don’t have the great draft that we did. I think it is going to be an exciting race and you are going to see a lot of passing; that makes it a good race for the fans. It’s like pulling a parachute [in reference to the handford device], but what it does do is it allows someone to slipstream you and get by, so it’s going to make for a very exciting race. Racing this kind of distance is difficult for everybody, you’ve got to make the engine last. We’re making big gains and Toyota has made some huge progress. For us to qualify over 221 [mph] that’s pretty good and Max at 223 [mph]. I think Lee White and all of the guys at TRD [Toyota Racing Development] have done a great job at getting the engine more reliable and make more power. It’s on the way up for sure.

	MCI Arciero Wells Reynard Toyota Qualified: 22nd
MAX PAPIS
It’s a good feeling to be back here, we had a very good finish here last time. We are really geared up for the race. We did a lot of laps with the race set-up this morning so everything should be good. It’s a very long race and I think I can apply all my knowledge I have from sports car and endurance racing. Knowing to pace yourself and knowing the limits of your car, that’s how you go fast. We’re going to go as fast as we can when needed and when we can save our engine and my body as well, we’re going to back off a bit. I think this is going to be a very tough race and it’s going to be flat out all the time. Of course being on the lead lap is the goal, but realistically it’s very difficult. What we’ll try to do is stay with the group of people in front of me. Being in the slipstream and staying with the other guys is the key to being successful. I hope we can turn it around and get a faster lap. I am sure we’re going to see faster laps in the race than we did in qualifying. It’s a great achievement (speed today). I was not expecting a 223 (mph) run, I was expecting something around 220. That means my engineer Iain Watt and the MCI crew did a great job. Now the most important thing is working for the race. We had a good set-up this morning for the race so we’ll go ahead like that.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified: 16th
DARIO FRANCHITTI
That was all she had. I was flat out the whole way around and tried to scrub off as little speed as possible. It's a long race tomorrow - attrition will play a big part - and we're reasonably confident with how the car runs in traffic.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified: 15th
PAUL TRACY
Our speed wasn't very good today. It was disappointing for both of the KOOL cars. We ran good in practice but couldn't get it to go well in qualifying. We got the gears wrong or the downforce level wrong. It's going to be tough starting from where we are. But it's a long race with a lot of laps.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 21st
PATRICK CARPENTIER
It is going to be important to keep focused, because 250 laps around this track can become hypnotizing, but you have to be sharp because the cars are running at fast speeds. If you don’t stay focused, it could be disastrous not only to one driver but to many. We have a really good race setup for tomorrow. I expect that we’ll be very quick and if all goes well we’ll be there at the end, hopefully with a win.

	Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford Qualified: 1st
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ
We didn't test here. Scott [Pruett] did one day of testing and we learned a lot from him. The car really felt good. It didn't feel good in traffic, but that was just a matter of adjusting yourself to the wing. This morning, the car felt very good, but a little bit nervous and that made it a little bit of a guessing game for qualifying. We made the right corrections to the car after practice. The car was perfect, the best car I've ever had here. I'm very happy and I'm looking forward to the race. It's very difficult to predict what the car will want for the race, but the pole is a good place to start.

	Baan Software Davis Racing Lola Ford Qualified: 18th
ARND MEIER
The car felt perfect. It was easy all around the course. Sixth gear was running with low RPM’s and I think as a result of that we could have gone faster I think, but I had a good run. The Handford makes a really different game for the race because you really need to set up the gears. If you don’t have the right gears, than it will be very difficult for guys to pass during the race.

	Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 14th
GREG MOORE
We weren’t as trimmed out as some guys were, so we had a bit too much downforce which had us running flat out all around the track. I think you'll see us moving up quite a bit tomorrow early in the race. There should be some great side-by-side racing, too, which the fans always love. By the end of the race, I’d sure like to be up on that podium.