02-20-2003 | TruckSeries.com Report

Randy Briggs in the No. 53 toolboxgrill.com/Canine's Choice Ford was the highest qualifying Raybestos® Rookie at Daytona. Briggs will start 17th in Friday's race.

"We wanted just a little bit more but I guess all of us do. It's Daytona and we're in the race and we'll do the best we can. This place is so big the wind plays tricks on you sometimes. We caught a little bit coming off of two and I could kind of feel that. We'll just see what happens next time. We really thought we could have turned a high 49. We're a pretty small team trying to get this thing up and going, maybe a 49.95 or something like that but that would have been stretching it for a rookie team.

ARE YOU GLAD TO GET QUALIFYING OUT OF THE WAY AND FOCUS ON DRAFTING PRACTICE? "Absolutely, what little bit of drafting we did get to do it felt real good. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

YOU HAVE TO BE PLEASED TO BE THE HIGHEST QUALIFYING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE AT DAYTONA. "It's been a long road to get here. I guess this one is for all the 30-somethings that never give up on their dream. We just keep digging. I know Carl (Edwards) is going to be tough all year, Tina (Gordon) and the rest of the young rookies. We can't give up. It's a good way to start the season."

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE RACE? "First and foremost, stay out of trouble. We were here last year and a lot of the leaders, the veterans, trusted us. I drafted with a couple of the top-10 trucks late in the race and we had engine trouble. I think that with my experience here last year in the draft I'll feel comfortable enough to
just get a good finish would be good for this team. A top-15 would be a stretch but that would be a good finish for us."

TINA GORDON, NO.31 3M POST-IT/MICROTEL INN DODGE, QUALIFIED 24TH.

"This is definitely a big deal. Two weeks is not a long time to prepare for a superspeedway when a lot of these guys have been working all winter long, for months, getting their truck ready plus they've already been down (to Daytona) and tested three days. They've had a chance to tweak on their bodies and do a few things where we've had maybe five sessions where we had maybe five sessions out on the track with pretty much a new truck that we put together in two weeks. It's a big deal if we can pull this off. We don't have any provisionals so we had to qualify on time so if we pull that off
we'll be very happy. We made changes every time we went out. Todd Myers is my crew chief and every time I went out the truck got a little bit better and a little bit better. If we had a little bit more time to practice I think we could have got even better than we were today."

DOUG KELLER, NO. 27 VAN AM TOOL & ENGINEERING CHEV., QUALIFIED 26TH.

"It looks okay right now, I guess. We ended up having to do seven rounds of adjustments going through the tech line. It was so tight it was killing it 200 rpm in the corners so basically every single thing we gained working on it we lost back because of all the adjustments in the tech line. Somewhere in the middle of jacking it up and letting it back down something got out of whack. It was way too high."

CARL EDWARDS, NO. 99 ROUSH RACING FORD, QUALIFIED 29TH.

"Jack Roush put me in this Ford F-150 and I'm really excited. We're going to run for Raybestos® Rookie of the Year. This team put this thing together at the last minute so we're really proud of how everybody has worked this weekend. This is like our test session culminating with a qualifying run. I'm really excited. I think that after we get through Daytona the rest of this year is really going to be awesome. I'm excited to draft."

®Raybestos is a registered trademark licensed to Brake Parts Inc. by Raybestos Products Company