Did teams that competed in the Budweiser Shootout gain an advantage over the ones that didn ?
“It doesn’t really give you an advantage for qualifying but we learned things that are going to help us in the qualifying races and then again on Sunday in the 500. The car handled pretty well in the Shootout but we know we learned some things that we’ll use when we get into race trim for the qualifying races and the 500. The biggest thing was getting that information because it gives us a better starting point when making preparations for race trim.” How do you feel about your Daytona 500 car? “It drove well during the qualifying lap but that’s just a small part of everything that goes on here in Daytona this week. The real test will be when we get into drafting practice on Wednesday and then in the qualifying races on Thursday. We felt pretty good with the way our car drafted when we tested and we did some things since then that should improve the car. We saw how sensitive the cars were with just 23 cars in the Shootout so I’m sure it will be a little more interesting when we have 43
