AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 2nd (***Note: This is Allmendinger's career best NSCS qualifying effort***) How exciting is this qualifying result for you? "I thought we won something for how excited everybody is. It was a great run. I knew the .91 lap that Jimmie (Johnson) put down was a pretty solid lap. Everybody at Red Bull builds solid cars. This whole 84 crew is coming together. We've had a few tough couple of weeks but we've been running strong at least when we're doing it. This is a good way to start the weekend and hopefully we can finish it off the same way."

What is your team going to do tomorrow to get ready for Sunday's race? "It's one of those things that you don't ever want to be over confident. I was pretty confident that we were going to have a good car, but still when you're in that situation being out of the top 35, you don't want to go in there trying to go for the pole and do something stupid and not make the race. I just wanted to be kind of cautious and I was cautiously optimistic and put a good lap in. That felt good. Sunday is a long race so we have to be smooth and work a little for the day time but work more on what the car's going to do at night. I'm looking forward to it."

How was your lap? "It was pretty good. I knew Jimmie (Johnson) had put down a pretty fast lap so I didn't know if we could run a .91 but I felt like we could at least run a .20 and the car was pretty good. There wasn't much more that I could get out of that lap. It was as smooth as I could be. I might have been able to get half a tenth more, but that was a solid lap. It's always tough when you're in that situation of going home or just trying to make the race because you're always just a little bit nervous to try to get a little bit extra out of the race. I'm happy with it and it's our best start we've ever had for the No. 84 team and it's a good place to start for Sunday."

How important is track position? "I think with these cars especially, it seems like every place we've gone starting up front is really key. It's hard to pass as the cars are really aero dependant. It seems like whether we're at Martinsville or Bristol or even at Daytona or Talladega, it's important to be out front and have a good clean race. Hopefully we'll have a good enough car on Sunday that we can stay there. I'm going to talk to Jimmie (Johnson), I think he said he's going to let me lead the first lap for the five points - I need them - he doesn't. We have a lot of work to do still. Our focus is to have a good solid day like we've been trying for the last two months and get back into the top-35. We had a taste of it but the last two weeks of it have been disappointing and hopefully this is a good kick start to Sunday. The car has been good all day."

Did you clip the wall on your qualifying lap? "That's easy compared to Bristol last week. You have to hang it all out. It didn't scare me so it must have not been that close."

DAVE BLANEY, No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Camry, Bill Davis Racing Starting Position: 8th How is your Toyota handling this weekend? "We've been pleased with it all day. We started on race trim this morning and it felt like it was pretty good and really we didn't make a good mock qualifying lap at all. That was a huge improvement from practice. The car has been solid all day so I thought we could kind of hit it right. I also think temperature helped us out here at the end."

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M's Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 11th How was your qualifying run? "It wasn't too bad. The car acted real well and responded good to the changes that we made. I kind of under drove the M&M's Camry just a little bit not knowing exactly how much to push out of it. The car stuck really well so I probably left some out there. Plenty enough to where someone will find it and they will beat us out and probably the 19 (Elliott Sadler) for the pole. It wasn't as fast as I wanted to run, but it was good for where we are at now." - more -

Toyota NSCS California Qualifying Notes and Quotes - August 29, 2008 - Page 2

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M's Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (cont.) How did your car handle on the track during your qualifying run? "The car stuck pretty good, actually. The M&M's Toyota was pretty good. I under drove it a little bit and left some out there. That will be a good solid run for us something that should hopefully stay in the top-10 and we'll see. There are plenty of other guys that are good enough to beat the 19 (Elliott Sadler) and us. All in all, I guess I can just go on and practice tomorrow and race Sunday."

Will you try anything different with your setup on Sunday since you are already locked into the Chase? "We've been a good amount of testing sessions that we've been to the past few weeks. We've been testing a little bit. We tried a little bit at Pocono just because we were so terrible there and at Indy we tried a little bit there too. Here, we weren't bad in the spring so we really didn't have to try too much. We just come out here sort of like what we ran at Michigan and sort of like what we ran here in the spring and try to come up with something better."

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 44 Toys for Tots/UPS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 12th Are you happy with your qualifying run? "It was good we just were a little bit loose and slid around a little bit. Over all it was much, much better than what we'd practiced by a long shot. I'm happy with the lap. I'm not sure where we'll end up because if it gets cooler obviously times will get a lot faster and we went out kind of early. In all it was a good pick up and I'm proud of my guys."

Are you getting stronger at qualifying these Cup cars after your efforts in Bristol and then here in California? "We just keep thrashing on the thing and keep trying to do better and thought I'd do my job for a change so hopefully that will continue on."

Is an early draw in qualifying a viable concern for you? "Obviously you'd like to go out a little later but we have some cloud cover coming in and it will be cooler than it was in practice and it's a little breezy out there right now. All in all I think we had a pretty good pick up for this UPS Toyota with the Toys for Tot literacy program on it. It's a pretty key program that UPS participates and we hope to give them a good run on Sunday."

TONY STEWART, No. 20 Subway/Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 14th Are you happy with your qualifying run? "It's better than we normally are here so if I can stay there that will be a decent starting spot for us."

Is there anything you anticipate working on tomorrow in practice? "Just the normal stuff that we do here. I don't know what time the practice sessions are tomorrow, but I'm sure you're going to have to have your car free to be good when the evening comes on Sunday night. You still have to be able to have decent speeds so you're not too far behind by the time it cools off and everybody gets their cars good. Still got to do a lot of work."

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 19th How do you feel about your qualifying effort here in Southern California? "Honestly the guys and I are disappointed in it. We felt like we had a car to go for the pole. I think we're all scratching our heads right now. I can assure you I didn't mean to be six grooves up going into turn one. The splitter was just hitting the race track by the time I pulled out and was going down the backstretch on the bumps, we were hitting the track. I went down to turn one and as soon as I lifted it just landed on the splitter and just took off up the race track. We're really surprised we ran that time to be honest with you. Six grooves up the race track. I'm proud of the guys because we had a good car in practice and had a shot at the pole. I'm sure whatever happened we'll figure it out and get it fixed for the race."

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 21st How was your qualifying run? "It wasn't bad. It was solid. We didn't expect too much in qualifying. We really don't have a good package in qualifying yet, but we're starting ahead of the guys that really matter so it was a good run."

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Toyota NSCS California Qualifying Notes and Quotes - August 29, 2008 - Page 3

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (cont.) What will you work on tomorrow in practice? "Long runs. We've got to really focus on corner exit in (turn) three where you can really make passes here. So if we can get our car better there we should be in good shape."

KEN SCHRADER, No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry, Hall of Fame Racing Starting Position: 28th How was your qualifying run? "We made it back and we're in the race. We made big changes from practice obviously. Last week we were like 42nd and wound up seventh and now we're 28th or something. They're making good changes and just looking forward to the race. When you're in the position that we're in right now you've got to make it back regardless so it's not like you can throw everything at it. I'm just happy with the changes that they've been able to make."

What will you work on in practice tomorrow? "Just racing -- getting it to turn good, the car to stay under you and able to get back in that throttle."

MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 55 NAPA Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 30th Was your car where you wanted it to qualify for Sunday's race? "It juts wasn't a real good lap by me. The car drove better and we should have gone faster. I got into turn three and turned in quicker than I thought and I got down on the apron and messed my lap up for me. I'm real proud of the guys because the car is way better than that. I've been qualifying poorly over the last couple of weeks and I wanted to straighten that out and I didn't. I'm real proud of the team and the cars, Sunday should be good."

What do you think of the new Budweiser Shootout format? "It's great. Just leave it to NASCAR to come up with something else that no one else really thought of. It's a great concept to pit the manufacturers against one another and everyone has an equal chance at it. It'll be fun and I'm glad they thought of that."

MIKE SKINNER, No. 00 Affliction Day of Reckoning Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 35th Did the handling on your Camry change between practice and qualifying? "It's a shame. These Toyota motors run good and I know the cars are good. We had a car that was sideways all day in qualifying and could never build up some air to the right front and when we went out to qualify we had to let off at both ends of the race track coming off the corner because it was tight. The good news is we have something to tune on tomorrow (Saturday), so we'll do that and hopefully they won't change anything from where it's at right now and we can work on it from there."

Can you evaluate your role at Michael Waltrip Racing having been in this race car for your third race? "It's kind of a consulting type position. I came over here and we've learned a lot and I think that I've given them some areas to work. I think they are areas they already knew they needed to work but might have juts needed somebody else to get in the car for two or three weeks to prove that. I think they'll get better as the No. 84 (AJ Allmendinger) did. They went on and changed some personnel on the 84 and now it's a top 10 car. We know the equipment's good, it's just a matter of getting the people to communicate with the equipment and the driver to make it go fast."