Andretti pleased with stout qualifying run

LAS VEGAS -- Kyle Petty snuck his head into John Andretti's hauler Friday night, looking for a bite to eat. Petty's car didn't handle the way he wanted it to during his qualifying lap, and he ended up 19th fastest.

	John Andretti

Still, Petty had good things to say.

"Good job," Petty told Andretti before wolfing down a piece of pizza.

Andretti had put Petty Enterprises' No. 43 Dodge in the sixth position for Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, so there were more than a few smiles in the Petty camp.

And though qualifying results don't usually mean much on race days, at least it's something good for the Pettys. Andretti qualified 26th for this race a year ago, when he started in the top 10 only twice in 2002, and he had starts of 12th and 32nd in the previous two races this season.

So you can see why a sixth-place qualifying run gets Andretti a little excited. Heck, he even wondered if he could have done more.

"We all did," Andretti said. "With this night qualifying, I think we expected the track to go one way, and it exactly the opposite way. If you had somebody that you felt comfortable with and you could trust, and he went out before you, you could adjust on your car and maybe get it quicker.

"But you never want to touch it because you know what you've got. And you never want to trust somebody in this business, not even somebody you might ought to."

Andretti's team didn't change a thing on the car. Well, they replaced a faulty tachometer and changed the spark plugs, but that's it.

"We didn't do anything," Andretti said. "We tested here for two days and did three qualifying runs. The car was pretty good the first setup Gary put on it. We made a couple small adjustments to it that day, and then based on that he made a couple adjustments before we came back.

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"When we unloaded, it was real fast. We can see the front from where we're at, we can smell the front from where we're at. We're getting there step by step."

The next step is getting ready for Sunday's race. Qualifying for two laps, of course, is a lot different than running a 400-mile race with 42 other cars.

"I think we're pretty good," Andretti said of his race setup. "We had a couple different directions we went in, and we're working off those. And we have a couple big things we want to try tomorrow, so hopefully the weather holds good for us and we can try them.

"Right now, based on what I saw in testing, we think Chevrolets - the 20, the 48, the 24 and those guys -- were really quick. And then the 18 was really, really fast today. You've got to be looking at those guys and say, 'We've got to get as good as them.'"

Andretti said they aren't there yet, as his car was about a tenth of a second off during testing. Maybe that's why Andretti isn't even listed in Las Vegas casino sports books. Instead, he's part of "The Field."

But Andretti isn't tempted to try to make some fast cash.

"I won't Pete Rose," Andretti said. "I won't get in trouble. Someday I might be in the Hall of Fame, and I don't want to be restricted because of that."

	The No. 43 Dodge will start sixth Sunday at Las Vegas. Credit: Getty Images

You wouldn't think Andretti is a Hall of Fame driver at this point in his career, even though he does have two Winston Cup wins. But Andretti is looking to the future, building with Petty Enterprises. The team is getting smarter with the resources they've acquired through the Pettys' upgraded research-and-development program. Plus, the '03 Dodge, Andretti said, is a better car than the '02 version.

Andretti is learning crew chief Gary Putnam more each day, and things are slowly falling into place.

"We've got a lot of pressure on ourselves by ourselves," Andretti said. "That's good because that means (Putnam is) a real serious competitor and take today as being good enough. We're pleased, but you always want a little more. The team and the organization are coming.

"We're going to have our bad days still, and we'll probably have more bad days than good days in front of us. But it's getting more weighted the other way."