"I felt confident yesterday that we would make the race. I really didn't think about the pole. The two runs I got in the final practice were both wind-aided. We didn't really know what we had. Our qualifying lap, the car actually went faster than it had when I got the drafting help in practice.

"I guess I'm just kind of weird because I was first, so then I had to worry about that. I knew I was in, if I just had to worry about that I would've been happier, but then I was first. I had to see if that was going to work or not. I added it all up and then it was up to Boris (Said) to see if he was going to mess up our whole day by knocking me off the pole and Dale (Jarrett) out of the race.

"It's more important to me that we have all three (drivers) in than that I'm first. It's a bonus to me that I'm first. To have all three in the first eight is very gratifying. We didn't sacrifice our race chances by the way we qualified. We certainly had more time to practice for qualifying than the other guys do. You might be thinking, yeah right, but you watch. I'll be right there tomorrow. My car is going to run well and I'm looking forward to it.

"I'm definitely ready to go. We tested down here a couple of weeks ago and we got our cars as good as we wanted it, and then I went out and got in the draft and I was able to drive to the front of it and ride around in the middle of it and I was happy. I told my guys last night, I said, 'If we can get in, we can win.' We did, so now it's up to me to show them that at least we have a chance to win. Who knows who will win but I at least think we will be able to race for it." Dave Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota (qualified second)

"Our car had been pretty solid in practice, so we were fairly confident we could run a lap good enough. But it was so close, you just couldn't be sure. We wanted to do a little drafting yesterday (during practice), but you just couldn't do it. All the go-home speeds were so close, you had to keep concentrating on that. I hope it doesn't hurt us tomorrow. But we had to do first things first, and that was make the race."

Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota (qualified third)

"This year has obviously been a long year for us. We've had some great runs and we've had some very disappointing runs where we missed the race all together. It's been an emotional rollercoaster.

"Today was tough. The COT obviously helped. We have a new aero guy who has helped a lot. Toyota brought a great package here as well. Just the combination of everything paid off for us. We made the race and came out with a good qualifying start on top of that. So far so good this weekend. Hopefully we can have a good run in the race."

David Reuitmann, driver of the No. 00 Burger King Toyota (qualified fifth)

"I'm glad it's over with. You worry about that one lap the entire time you're here. When we came here and tested (last month), we weren't even remotely close. We didn't have a car that was even capable of getting in the race. They took it back and cut it up, and all the guys in the fab shop did a good job. So we came out here and were able to get in the race.

"Team owner is on the pole and we got all three (drivers) in the show, so that's pretty big for everybody at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota. I'm real proud of them. We'll just see what we have for the race. I hadn't even thought about the race until now. So I have something else to get sick about, I guess.

"I think Toyota has done a good job bringing a pretty good motor package back. The teams are getting slightly better as time progresses, and it's starting to show up on the race track every so often."