Las Vegas — Hermie Sadler, driver of the No. 66 Peak Fitness Taurus, qualified for his first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race of the season yesterday. He spoke about the accomplishment before Saturday's first practice session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

HERMIE SADLER - NO. 66 PEAK FITNESS TAURUS
THOUGHTS ON QUALIFYING FOR SUNDAY.
"It's unfortunate that our season got started off the way it did. This race doesn't fix all of our problems, don't get me wrong, but it certainly is a step in the right direction. We're already two races behind everybody else in terms of working on our cars and actually just racing, but it is exciting to be in. It's exciting the way our team responded after we had some turnover in our people. We had two choices - folding the tent or regroup and keep going, and we had a bunch of guys at the shop that really stepped up. They know we still have a long way to go, but we have the potential to be a decent, competitive race team and that's what we're working towards doing this year."

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE AS FAR AS CREW CHIEF DUTIES GO?
"Greg Conner, who worked a couple of years ago with Ricky Craven at Hendrick and has been in the Truck Series a little bit - he's a Virginia guy - and he's helping us for the foreseeable future. We definitely needed a leader so he came in and has been at a little bit of a disadvantage. By the time he decided to come help us, the car was already out here so the first time he got to see the car was yesterday morning. So Greg has stepped in to help us a little bit and we've replaced, for the most part, everybody who left but it was a devastating time for us. It really put a hurtin' on us being a small team. When a third of your team decides to leave at one time it makes it tough, but everybody responded. Jeff Stek and everybody at Peak Fitness has been very supportive. We've got a long-term vision for this team and we're not gonna let three people dictate what that future is."