[After qualifying] "Not bad... The heat and the lack of a tow from other traffic iswhy you see speeds dropping from the practice times, but we were able torun within one mile-per-hour of our best test times. My team has beenworking hard to give me the most stable and consistent car because that isthe key on race day. We worked on our set-up to run best in traffic, so weare very encouraged by that."

[After qualifying] "We're happy, because we did not have a 'qualifying' car — we justwanted to work on getting this car set-up for the race tomorrow. We couldhave won a point for pole position, but there are 20 points on the line towin tomorrow, so that is where we want to focus. The car has been greatevery session. Very consistent and very solid in traffic, and that is whatit takes to win the race. I hope the track develops a second groove duringthe race."

[After qualifying] "This is just great. The car has been well-balanced all weekend,and we've been very quick, so we were hopeful we would get the pole. Thishas been a great season — I can't say anything bad about my team, PacWest,Mercedes-Benz and Firestone — the combination works great.

"I tend to think of 240 mph as just a number, but that's a damn bignumber! I knew I had run 240 on my warm-up lap, so I tried to remain calmand just do the same on my next two laps. Running at those speeds, you canget a little hyper. I knew it was two good laps, and we also should do verywell in the race. We always run so well at superspeedways, and this teamgets stronger by the day.

"The car was not perfect, I had a bit of a push, mainly because ofthe heat. But, in qualifying, you have to concentrate mostly on steeringthe car. You know that the team has prepared the car well, and you justkeep your right foot clear to the floor, so your job is to just steercorrectly. But, it is almost too much to say that I steer the car on thistrack. At those speeds, you feel like you are on a different planet. Thecorners look so tight and small, very narrow. To run the perfect line atthat speed, you try not to upset the car, so you almost lean into thecorner (with your body), you don't want to steer the car and scrub offspeed. You reduce every movement by (a factor of) 100 -- you have to be sominute and so precise. Yes, it is a nice feeling when the car is that good,but it is too fast. I have a good feel for the car on the ovals, but wedon't need to go that fast."

[After qualifying] "We were virtually flat out on our first lap, but I scrubbed-offtoo much speed to make it a great lap. Then, on the second lap, I justdidn't have the perfect line, even though our speed was much higher. We aregoing to take our time in the race. I'm still getting used to the car,although I did feel more comfortable today than I did yesterday. We decidedto run on full fuel loads throughout each practice, so we hope to handlewell in the race."