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| Raybestos Rookie Qualifying Report: CALIFORNIA
02-25-2005 | TruckSeries.com Report
Raybestos Rookie Todd Kluever was the top rookie qualifier at California Speedway for tonight's American Racing Wheels 200. He will start seventh in his Ford after posting a lap of 40.747 seconds, 176.700 mph. TODD KLUEVER, No. 50 SHELL ROTELLA T FORD: QUALIFYING IN THE TOP-10 MUST GIVE YOU A BIG BOOST OF MOMENTUM. "I have never seen this place until we got here. We didn't test out here or anything. We had a really good day on Thursday in practice. My guys worked really hard. We got a good truck and I'm excited about the race. I messed up a little bit in my qualifying and wasn't really happy with the job that I did but things happen. We picked up a little bit from Daytona where we qualified 11th. We're off to a really good start. We unloaded on Thursday and we were in the top-10 right away. Any time you can come to a new racetrack and have a truck that's good right off the bat is really nice. You don't have to learn a racetrack and try to find a setup for your truck, too. This was a really good effort by my guys after I clobbered trucks all over Daytona for 'em last week ." HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BUILD A SOLID FOUNDATION HERE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON? "It's really important. I have to keep in mind what the real goal is here. My crew chief's goal is top-15 but I'd like to say top-10. But if we can just get out of here with a good respectable finish and start building momentum for this team I think we've already proved that we can compete at this level. I'm a Raybestos Rookie and a lot of my guys are new, but I think that we are proving that we can find the speed and compete at this level. We've just got to put the whole package together now but that will come. I've always said that it would take four or five races at the beginning of the season for us to hit our stride and I think that's still going to be the case. I think things are going well." HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO KEEP YOUR CONFIDENCE UP? "Yeah, and after Daytona it was a little tough too. I felt so bad for my guys, whether it was my fault or not. They had been working six and seven days a week all winter long and we're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel for that and then I shut that off very quickly for them at Daytona. I went back and felt really low about myself and the guys in the shop are like 'Man don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault. You guys were running good.' They told me that they'd fix anything that I wrecked as long as I was running in the front, especially if it's not my fault. They were behind me 100 percent. It's been really neat, the support they've had for me there. This is a good confidence builder here and hopefully we can get a good finish and start building and building."
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