JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6TH ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:

“It is a good starting position. It’s been an interesting day for us. We weren’t real happy with the car in race trim. We swapped over to qualifying trim and then we were really strong and went out for qualifying and that first run the car just didn’t have the grip, just didn’t stick the way I expected it to. We feel behind. I didn’t think we were going to be able to make it past that first round and Alan and the guys did a great job making a few changes and adjustments. I was able to get up to fourth and then we had to make one extra run on our tires than a lot of those other guys we were competing against. I think that might have been a little bit of the difference there. The car is strong. We will go to work on it tomorrow for the race.”

HOW MUCH OF IT WAS ADJUSTMENT, AND HOW MUCH WAS IT OF YOU MAKING UP THAT TIME?

“The grip of the track threw us off. We were really strong in qualifying trim in practice and went out there trying to put down a similar lap, and I was just kind of caught off guard by the way the front was sliding. And then I put wheel to it and the back was sliding and we just didn’t make a good first lap. And some of it was maybe heat in the tires and some of it was just track conditions. So Alan (Gustafson) and the guys on this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet made some good adjustments. I was able to go back out and get ourselves back into the top 12, and then we just had a little bit more time on our tires for that last run. I’m happy we’re up there. That was a good fight. That’s the way this place is. We’re going to have to do that all day long on Sunday; but at the same time, after practice, I thought we were going to be a little bit closer to (Kevin) Harvick, but at this point we just weren’t able to make it to him there.”

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