8th, BRIAN VICKERS 9th, KYLE BUSCH 10th, JOEY LOGANO 11th, BOBBY LABONTE 20th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 24th, KASEY KAHNE 27th, DENNY HAMLIN 29th, DAVID REUTIMANN 33rd, MICHAEL MCDOWELL 36th, JOE NEMECHEK 41st, CASEY MEARS
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 8th Are you happy with your qualifying run? “Yeah. The track is really slick right now. It’s hard to say where we are going to stack up. I felt pretty good about my lap. Like I said, the tracks just so slick. Yesterday, we ran a .30. It would have been nice to do that again, but the conditions were drastically different (from yesterday). It was all but raining — cloudy, cold — very fast.”
Can you feel the changes in the track? “You definitely feel it. The track is slick. The wind changes a little bit. It changes where you have down force and where you don’t. We adjusted the car a little bit extra kind of thinking it was going to be a little slicker. I think we did a good job on the car. I was pretty happy with the car.”
Was being fastest in yesterday’s last practice session a good indication of how good your car will be tomorrow? “I think so. We’ll know more here in a bit. We’ll see how everyone stacks up here in qualifying. Like I said, the track was so different yesterday. Clouds like this are not helping us. We want the sun to stay out. It was all but raining yesterday. The track was very cold — very fast — and we ran a .30. We just ran a .58. I’d like to get a little closer to that. I was hoping to get in the .40s. But, maybe the track is just that slow, or we missed it. I guess we’ll find out in a bit.”
Is there more pressure on you to perform now? “No, not at all. Every day I show up at the race track my job is to win. I just don’t believe those situations change anything. If Red Bull was staying for three more years — then I was planning on being in the car — I’d still want to come here and win the race. That would still be my job, whether they were staying or not. At this level in this sport, there’s always pressure to perform, mostly what we but on ourselves. I put pressure on myself to perform when I race go-karts. It’s just part of the nature of the beast and how you deal with it. I love what I do. I’m having a lot of fun. My job tomorrow and my job with this team is to go out there and win this race. And, that’s the best thing we can do for all of our situations.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Doublemint Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 9th What did you think of your qualifying run? “We were just a little too tight, but overall it wasn’t a bad lap for our Doublemint Camry. That’s a good solid starting spot towards the front. We ran a lot of laps in final practice yesterday and felt pretty good about our car during longer runs. Looking forward to going out there tomorrow and just having a solid start to the Chase.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 10th Are you happy with your qualifying run? “I got a pretty good car here. Pretty good run. We’re second right now. We held off some pretty good cars so far. Lot of good cars left to go, obviously. The car drove a lot better than it did yesterday when we made our qualifying run. The guys made some good changes with this thing. I feel like we got about all of it we could out of it. So, I felt good about my lap. Hopefully, it hangs in there for the top-10. That would be a pretty good starting spot for us. Track position is going to be huge here. I know the 83 (Brian Vickers) was really fast yesterday and we weren’t that far off of him. It gives me a little bit of hope.”
Are you pleased with your lap time? “I didn’t really know what to expect because I made one qualifying run yesterday and we didn’t focus on it at all. The weather changed and all that. So, we stayed in race trim the whole time (in practice). It’s kind of a guessing game when we went out there. The guys did a good job and gave me a good car.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kleenex Cool Touch/Clorox Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 11th How was your Camry in qualifying? “It wasn’t too bad, it was a little free there coming to the green. It was a pretty good lap. We ran like a .75 yesterday, so I think today to pick up a little bit for us is pretty good. Qualifying is not my strong point and this track is not my strong point. For a 1.5-mile track, that was pretty good. The car was pretty respectable for a qualifying lap.”
Were you surprised to pick up time in today’s warmer weather? “A little bit, there’s going to be some guys who probably picked up .2 as well as we did, but I definitely feel encouraged that we were able to pick up a little bit being it is and the car drove really good. Our race package yesterday wasn’t as spiffy, but hopefully we can get it dialed in. A good start to start with would be awesome.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 20th
KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 24th
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 27th How was your qualifying lap? It’s not that good of a lap. It’s good right now. I don’t think it will be inside the top-20. Our cars have not been really fast on the short go all weekend. So, we got to figure out what we have to do to get a little bit more of the speed that we need.” Is qualifying important here? “It is. Especially here the tires are not wearing out like they should and it’s going to be a real track position race. It’s something that’s not great for us. We typically do well on hotter, warmer surfaces where tires fall off. This one — the tires run the same speed throughout the entire run.”
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 TUMS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 29th
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP RACING Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Starting Position: 33rd
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 36th
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 41st
