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Daytona 200 By Honda qualifying quotes
Neil Hodgson, No. 100 Honda, Rolex Pole Award winner “It’s an honor and a privilege (to win the pole for the Daytona 200). Last year, I was here as a spectator. I was Mr. Long Face, depressed, walking around jealous, looking at all the other riders, thinking I’d never get another chance. I remember watching Miguel fighting for the pole with Jason DiSalvo. It’s weird. Twelve months later, here I am, on pole position. It doesn’t seem real. I’ve got to thank Honda for giving me this opportunity to give me a shot at this. Hopefully, I can repay them this season with some hard riding and try to get some wins. If I can get the win Saturday, that would be absolutely awesome. I don’t know if that’s possible, racing with these guys. I’m looking forward to the race. I’ve watched it the last five years and always thought I wanted to be involved, it looks like a lot of fun.” (On his qualifying lap) “It was actually not a very good lap. It was a safe, good qualifying lap. I came in and thought I’d definitely go faster than that. That was my second qualifier. I put my third in and got blocked really bad. I came in and crashed on my last one. I knew there was a lot more time out there to get into the 1:38’s. I got the first section really sweet. I went past my pit board and everything felt good. I was asking too much, I guess, to turn into turn five. I followed the front and banged my ribs on the ground. “Honestly, I am not joking now, I’ve not changed the 600 bike once, not one click, nothing. It’s weird. We’ve got the new Superbike, and we’ve got some issues dialing it in. Every time I jump on the 600, it’s the most beautiful bike I’ve ever ridden. It’s a pleasure to ride. It’s incredibly fast. It’s very agile, and gives me a lot of feeling. The bike’s really dialed in. Credit to what the team did last year, what Miguel and Josh Hayes doing with their bikes. The bike is such a proven product. Anybody could jump on it and go incredibly fast. “I’ve never raced a 600cc bike before. I tested one this winter on this bike. The only time I rode a 600 bike was back in 1998, I rode a 600 around the track during lunch time at a test.” Chaz Davies, No. Attack Kawasaki “It was a good lap, but you always think you can do better, no matter how good a lap you do. I don’t know any rider who said they put together a perfect lap. It was a good lap, free of traffic. I thought I could go quicker, but that was all I had. I was by myself every time I went out. I’m not real experienced enough like Miguel, who can get in the draft. I’m working on it and trying to plan it, but I get it wrong more times than I get it right. “Winning the Daytona 200 would me a lot of me, obviously. It would be a pretty big deal. But, one step at a time. You’ve got to be realistic and look at the competition. You saw how hot qualifying was today. There are a lot of good people with very good packages. We’ve got a great package ourself. There are probably six riders with a shot of winning the race. It’s all up in the air. It’s quite exciting.” Steve Rapp, No. 15 Attack Kawasaki “I’ve always liked Daytona. I’ve always had some little things here that never worked out, but the last couple years with the Attack team, Richard’s really great at setting the bike up and letting us do the riding. Last year, we didn’t qualify all that well. This year is a big improvement, especially with the tires. Pirelli came up with a better tire. Our race tires are a little better, too. “I don’t even know when my fast lap was. I think it was my first qualifying tire. I had a lot of laps that were really similar, but I just couldn’t break that barrier around the 1:37 mark. I never did get a draft, I was running by myself the whole qualifying session. You try to time it and set it up, but it usually doesn’t work out. I’m pretty happy with the bike. The race setup’s good, and I’m looking forward to riding with these guys.” Miguel Duhamel, No. 17 Honda “It went really well. Next time we go testing, I’m just going to test qualifying tires, and get better with them. They were really good, and I just didn’t take advantage of it. “One time I had it times just ride. There were two riders, and then a group of four. I thought I tow off the two guys, and slingshot to the next group, and that would give me my lap. Kind of like when you go to the moon, you do a couple laps around the earth. But they saw me coming and they moved out of the way and that threw me off. Looking at the bright side of it, I did my qualifying time with my race tire on it, with 17 laps on it, which is kind of funny. I did get a tow from Josh Hayes. We try to work together. “We’re really proud of our package. We want to be able to win it for the 200 miles. It’s not a quickie. You want to make sure you make it last, and for that, you’ve got to have a great package. “I think it’s going to be real exciting this year, as it always is. It’s very long and it’s going to be hot. It’s going to be fun. A pace car can throws a big curve ball, hopefully we won’t even have one and we’ll just go racing. Neil, my teammate, has been working out and I don’t think he’ll be tired and Chaz and Steve want it so bad, and so do I. I think it’s going to be an exciting race, one of the best 200s.”
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