KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger) Qualified 2nd
“It was a really good lap. We made some gains from practice in our Budweiser Dodge. Everything was perfect there. I felt like I was really quick in (Turns) 1 and 2, and might have given up just a touch in Turns 3 and 4. It was still a great lap. It should be a top-five, hopefully a pole. It was quick in practice. We just needed a touch more and Kenny Francis (crew chief) and the team gave it to me. The engine is running awesome. It just felt really good. I was on the track. I could feel the race track around the whole corner and down the straightaways. It was really about all I had.”

ARE YOU RUNNING THE DODGE R6 ENGINE THIS WEEKEND? “Yes. We’re running the R6. They had the latest version at Charlotte and that’s when I started to run well again. We ran the R5 for a little bit. We ran the R6 back in Charlotte; it was awesome in Charlotte and good again today. I’m looking forward to this weekend. We’ve made some really nice gains in our engine shop here the last few months.”

TODAY WAS THE SECOND-FASTEST QUALIFYING SPEED THAT WE’VE HAD THIS YEAR IN CUP. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THOSE SPEEDWAS AND HOW MUCH WILL THE SPEEDS FALL OFF IN RACE TRIM? “They’ll fall off a lot. The weather looks good for Sunday and we’re going to be racing when it’s warm out, so the speeds will fall off a lot. You won’t see anything near what we just ran in qualifying trim.

“For qualifying, I enjoy going as fast as we can go. We qualified pretty good in Charlotte for the night race and good again today. We weren’t first, but we’re definitely up there. Hopefully we can figure out our car tomorrow and have a great chance shot at winning on Sunday.”

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Qualified 3rd
YOU QUALIFIED THIRD, TELL US ABOUT YOUR LAP? “It was an excellent lap. We thought we could do OK, but we exceeded our expectations by running third. To be three-hundredths of a second from getting the pole, it makes you scratch your head and think maybe if I tried a little harder, I would have got it. But then there are times when you try too hard and you overstep the line and end up 15th to 20th. It’s a really, really good lap for us. This car is brand new. We wanted to bring it to Charlotte, but I thought we should take a step back with the car that we brought to Charlotte and use this one here at Texas. A little bit of R & D work going on. Right now, I would say the engineering department is winning over the driver and that’s the way it always should be. The lap was nice surprise for us today.”
WITH YOU AND KASEY SECOND AND THIRD IN DODGES, IS THIS A NEW TREND THAT THE DODGES HAVE CAUGHT UP WITH THE CHEVROLETS AND TOYOTAS? “Yes and no. It really doesn’t mean too much. Kasey is a great qualifier. He’s shown that over the years. Jeff Gordon is on the gas no matter where we go. For us, it was a nice good lap. It’s great that the Dodges are represented well in the top five. We always hope the best for our Dodge Chargers. We want Dodge to be up there all the time. Next year, there’s only going to be three of us driving Dodges. So we definitely have our work cut out for us. If you’re going to Vegas, the odds are not in our favor. Hopefully, we’ll carry the banner strong and give them the representation that they want to receive out of NASCAR racing. “
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 77 AAA Dodge Charger) Qualified 11th
“We were just a little too tight. It felt a lot better than 10th, 11th quickest. The car handled well. I feel like we have a great starting point for our AAA Dodge Charger.
I’m real happy with all the work that the guys put in on the AAA Dodge Charger. We were fast right off the trailer and in practice. I think that we have a great shot at getting a top 10 here this weekend.”

REED SORENSON (Valvoline Dodge Charger) Qualified 18th
“I think the draw is going to hurt us pretty bad because the sun is going down and the track will be faster. We picked up time from practice and that’s all you can ask for. Hopefully, the draw doesn’t hurt as bad as we think it’s going too. The track is gaining a lot of grip and the sun is going down fast. Hopefully, that won’t hurt us too bad. We made some improvements from our last qualifying run. We spent the first 40 minutes in race trim this morning and felt like it was pretty good so we’re excited about tomorrow.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Stanley Tools Dodge Charger) Qualified 33rd
“I think going out early is going to hurt us. I would like to have it back and run it again. I got too aggressive in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and got to pushing off 2. I probably lost a lot of my speed there. We’ll see where that puts us. We’ve got 500 miles on Sunday. The car is pretty comfortable to drive. I think we can adjust on it and make it better as the weekend goes.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge Charger) Qualified 35th
“The run felt awesome. I thought I did a good job and thought I had a good lap. I’m surprised the speed wasn’t better than that. That’s OK. Its part of the learning process of what we’re trying to do. We’ll just keep working on it. We only did one run in race trim today. The track hasn’t rubbered up yet. Tomorrow, we’ll go to work and see what we’ve got.”