Kasey Kahne:

“Handling is huge. Even yesterday in the 150, my car was off a little bit on the first run. We got up there and then fell back. The second run we got the car handling pretty good and drove all the way up to fourth or fifth. I’m really happy with the way our Dodge Dealers car was handling and the way we communicated as a team without Kenny this weekend and the way everybody has stepped up so far. I think the guys are doing a great job. I’m pumped for the 500 on Sunday. I think we’re going to have a shot to hopefully win the race. These next two practices are going to be big. They probably mean the most for the whole week. We’ve had the Bud Shootout and the 150s now and we’ve got two more practices before the final. I want to take care of our car, yet make long enough runs to see where our tires are, where the right front is at, what’s going on with tire wear and how the car is handling. If we do that we should be pretty decent on Sunday.”

Kevin Harvick:

ON A GOOD FINISH AT DAYTONA MAKING OR BREAKING THE REST OF THE SEASON: “Not really. I have had it both ways here. We have had 42nd place finishes and fourth place finishes and had bad seasons on the good finish and good seasons on the bad finish so it can go either way. For me, we approach this race as almost a whole separate week itself. Once you leave here, the season actually starts. We treat this as its own race.”

Elliott Sadler:

“It’s the great American race. A ton of off-season work and preparation goes into this one race. I want to run well and I think looking back to Talladega last fall Evernham’s plate program was very competitive. We had a great run going until we blew a tire, but Kasey did finish second. Daytona will require us to get our cars handling well. I think a good run at Daytona is a great way to kick off the season and really add a boost to team morale. By the time the 500 rolls around I’ll have a lot of seat time after racing in the Shootout, running practice and racing in the Duels. We have to work hard during all of those sessions to get the car ready for the Daytona 500. I’ve had some strong runs in the Daytona 500 and I know we have a good enough team to compete for the win.”

Scott Riggs:

“What a difference a year has made for this Valvoline Evernham Racing team. Last year at this time we were faced with the challenge of having to race our way into the 500 during the Duel 150s. Now we are locked into the show, thanks to the way this team performed the remainder of last season. Obviously missing the 500 was a sort of rallying point for us last season and we went on to accomplish a lot for a first year team. We never wanted the 2006 season to end, so we have anxiously been waiting for 2007 to be here.”

David Ragan:

“Starting in the back you can have a gameplan to hang out back there and maybe possibly be behind the big wreck, or try to make the smart moves to make your way up towards the front. Certainly we’d rather be up in the front racing than back in the back cruising around. We’ve got the 42 of Montoya, Gordon, Kevin Harvick — there are some pretty good cars that are gonna be back there — so our plans right now is obviously to get our AAA Ford Fusion driving well, where I can make the right moves to hang in there with those guys. Secondly, we just need to play it smart. Certainly it’s a 500-mile event and try not to bring any bad situations upon ourselves. It’s so easy to get caught up in someone else’s bad situation there’s no need to bring anything bad among ourselves.”

Denny Hamlin:

“I was just talking to Mike (Ford, crew chief) 30 seconds ago about how he thought the 150s were probably the best superspeedway race he’d seen me run just because I’m getting a little more comfortable with how I need to maneuver myself to put myself in position. I told him it’s just going to come with time. I’m not going to be Tony Stewart right now. I’m not going to be one of the guys that just go right to the front and stay there all day. I just don’t have that kind of experience at superspeedways yet. It’s getting better and that’s all we can ask for.”

Kyle Busch:

“I feel pretty good for the way we’ve run so far down here in Speedweeks, we’ve been the class of the field, I feel like. And the guys haven’t got enough recognition for being able to bring me the best car down here, leading the most laps both times round in the Shootout and in the Duels. “So a lot of praise should go to those guys for bringing me a well-prepared car. We just haven’t been able to close the deal out and we need to turn that around Sunday.”

Mark Martin:

“I think that we can have some flashes of brilliance. I don’t think that we can post the kind of consistent level that we all are working toward. I think that this is a long term commitment from Bobby (Ginn) and all the guys here. They finally have the tools that they need to build a team that can be a contender, I mean a heavy hitter kind of contender in this business. That’s comforting to me because number one, it’s a great challenge and number two, I feel that they have a use for me and need me here for a long time because we know it’s going to take a long time. It makes me feel good to be needed. It makes me feel really good to be a part of it so I’m real excited about that. We’re all hopeful that we can have our flashes of brilliance but we also realize that we are not yet on the level of Hendrick or Gibbs or Childress at this time.”

Jeff Burton:

“Certainly after qualifying on Sunday we were pretty down with the speed we were able to lay down. But my guys are a pretty resilient bunch. We felt pretty good about racing yesterday pretty well. Hopefully we’ll bolt in a little more horsepower for the 500 and we’ll try to make the car drive even better than it does. So far the car has driven really well and I feel really good about our chances. I feel optimistic about the 500 and I feel very optimistic about the year in general. We’ll see: this race has a habit of odd things happening pretty consistently. We just want to go out, stay out of the way and get in the middle of it when we need to and when we don’t, don’t - position ourselves to have a chance to win the Daytona 500. It’s something I’ve never been able to do. I have a huge desire to make it happen and I think I’ve got as good a chance as I’ve ever had.”

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