1st, DENNY HAMLIN
6th, KYLE BUSCH
9th, BRIAN VICKERS
19th, CLINT BOWYER
26th, MATT KENSETH
34th, ALEX BOWMAN
39th, TIMMY HILL (for JOE NEMECHEK)
40th, COLE WHITT
41st, RYAN TRUEX
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 1st
How were you able to get the top qualifying position for Sunday’s race?
“It’s a tough balance, but we really just made the car a lot better. Each session our balance got a little bit better and we were able to get a little bit more speed out of it. That’s kind of what you want to do, play it enough in the first few rounds to get to the final round where you go all out. Good job by our FedEx Ground Toyota team. We didn’t test up here, we’re one of the only teams that didn’t test, but it’s good to at least have a good Friday.”
Do you feel good so far this weekend about racing at Pocono given your previous success?
“The race track is just so different, you might as well just rename the race track — it’s just not the same as it used to be. Really the setups are completely different, the way you drive it, the technique is similar, it’s just you use so much more throttle than you used to. It’s good to get a track record and have that number one pit stall — that will pay dividends on Sunday. I have the best pit crew on pit road. Hopefully this lends itself to a great win on Sunday.”
Will a driver who starts deep in the field on Sunday be a factor for the race win?
“Yeah, maybe not at the beginning for the first half, but certainly after. Pit strategy really gets jumbled around here a lot to where it causes people to play strategies and it allows you to pass cars on pit road, not necessarily as much on the race track. I think where a lot of the race winners they’ve had great and fast cars and I remember each one of those too, (Jeff) Gordon and (Kasey) Kahne, they had very, very fast cars. When you have some pit strategy that can leap frog you past all those cars it makes things a lot easier. You definitely can’t count anyone out. As long as they have a fast car, and get it right on Saturday, typically it makes your job a little harder on Sunday and they need cautions to fall their way here and there to find strategy that will put them up front at some point.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Peanut Butter Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 6th
How was your qualifying run?
“Qualifying was okay, not 100 percent what we were looking for, but better than we expected. Not too bad. Good to see the 11 (Denny Hamlin) on the pole, we just need to figure out what they did to find some speed there the last session.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 9th
How was your Camry in practice and qualifying at Pocono?
“The first (qualifying) round we started out really good, I was really happy with our Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry. The second two rounds we just got beat, unfortunately. We’ve got a great car, the guys have done a great job. I don’t know exactly where we lost speed relative to some of the other guys, we’ll have to take a look at that. We just got a little tight and that’s that. Obviously we were happy with the car and in practice you always want to sit on the pole, but it’s a new qualifying format — a little different with the three round process. We’ve been really strong in the first round, but just can’t figure out how to keep that in the next two rounds.”
Did you work on qualifying or race runs in practice?
“No, it was qualifying, but so was everyone else. Everyone’s fast time in practice was mock qualifying.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 RK Motors Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 19th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 26th
ALEX BOWMAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 34th
TIMMY HILL (for JOE NEMECHEK), No. 66 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position: 39th
COLE WHITT, No. 26 Swan Energy Gear Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 40th
RYAN TRUEX, No. 83 Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 41st
