3rd, KYLE BUSCH 4th, BRIAN VICKERS 5th, JOEY LOGANO 8th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 15th, DENNY HAMLIN 17th, KASEY KAHNE 20th, BOBBY LABONTE 23rd, DAVID REUTIMANN 33rd, CASEY MEARS 34th, JOE NEMECHEK 37th, MICHEL MCDOWELL 43rd, MIKE SKINNER DNQ, TJ BELL
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 3rd Was your qualifying run what you expected? “A lot better than we expected. The M&M’s Camry — the guys did a good job with it and gave me a good piece to run a good lap. That’s all we can ask for. We’ve been having sort of a struggle this weekend so far, and trying to make something out of nothing here. So far, the guys did a great job going back and working through their notes and giving me something that was good to qualify. Hopefully, this will translate into something better tomorrow.”
How bad is the heat? “For one lap it’s not that bad. When you got to run 15 (laps) at a time and the oil temperature comes up — and it sits right behind your seat — it gets pretty warm. Overall, the car felt pretty decent. There are some fine tune adjustments that we need to work on to get ready for tomorrow.”
How was your qualifying lap? “It was a really good lap for us today. We were kind of thrown a little bit off balance yesterday with as much changes that we were doing and the practice schedule the way it was. We kind of got lost for a little while. But, Dave (Rogers, crew chief) and the guys did a really good job overnight looking at their notes and getting us to where we had a comfortable car there in qualifying. We laid a nice lap down even considering the draw. It seemed like it was better for the guys to go out early like that and we didn’t quite play the game as smart as we should have, but if we would’ve had the car even that much better and we would’ve had a better draw we could’ve been on the pole today. We’ll take a third for sure considering how our day was yesterday.”
Will the way the late qualifying draw affected you today impact the way you approach Pocono next week? “It depends on when the qualifying draw is. I think teams are getting smarter now and they’re figuring out ways to utilize lap times a little bit differently so we’ll probably see that in effect here the next few weeks. Like, next week I guess it’s just the first practice that counts and it’s Saturday qualifying. Guys are going to get smart and they are going to start manipulating the times — sand bagging is what we call it — in order to get an early draw. From rumors that I heard, at least they changed Indy’s qualifying for us. Maybe we need to do that everywhere but then our other races would start late. It’s going to be interesting.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 4th How is your race car handling? “This weekend has been good. We started off slow in practice, but we made some major adjustments going into the second practice. I’m really happy with the car. Hopefully, we’ll stay up there in the top five and have a good race.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 5th Are you pleased with your race car? “Our run was pretty good. I think the track has given up grip since the beginning of qualifying here. You see a lot of cars that weren’t really fast in practice that are up there. I think the track has a little bit to do with it. Our Home Depot Camry was really fast and it’s really good. I feel like we’re really good in race trim too. They made some good changes yesterday that I feel like is going to give us a bigger window to adjust on our car during the race. I’m excited about that.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing (continued) What are you doing to help out in Joplin, Missouri? “We got the Joplin, Missouri store on our car this weekend. Our team is going up there on June 14. I’m going up there to help rebuild the store. Home Depot actually donated a million dollars to the American Red Cross — the Homer Fund has done a lot to help a lot of store associates there. So, if you want to donate go to HomeDepotFoundation.org and help them out. They are doing a lot up there to try to rebuild that city. It’s really cool to see all of that going on and we want to do the best we can while we have the stickers on our car to represent them the best we can.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 8th How was your qualifying lap? “We’re happy about that. How hot is the track getting? Keep getting hotter. A good lap for the NAPA Toyota. I missed it just a little bit in one and two. It’s hard to figure out just how hard you can drive it. You know that it’s going to pick up a second or so. Guys have been a second and a half faster than yesterday. It’s hard to know exactly how hard you need to go. I thought I hit my marks pretty good, maybe overdrove turn one a little bit. Overall, I was happy with the lap and happy with the car. I’m getting ready to do some sliding around tomorrow.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 15th What do you need to do to tighten up your race car? “I don’t know. We didn’t make a qualifying run — it doesn’t really equate to race runs that much. It’s a total different beast.” Are you happy with your race car? “Yeah. I was pretty happy with it by the end of practice yesterday. We need to fine tune it a little bit. But, not making a qualifying run makes it a little tough to predict what it’s going to do in these conditions.”
Do you enjoy racing at Kansas Speedway? “Yeah, it’s good. The track is wearing out quite a bit which should make passing a little easier. So, that part of it is encouraging.”
KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 17th How did your car handle during practice? “We were kind of on the loose side yesterday into the corner and off the corner. Made some gains during practice. I think the track is going to slippery tomorrow. It should be an interesting race. I look forward to it.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Clorox-Kleenex Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 20th
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 TUMS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 23rd
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 33rd
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 34th
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 Victory Junction Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Starting Position: 37th
MIKE SKINNER, No. 60 Big Red Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 43rd
TJ BELL, No. 50 Green Smoke Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Starting Position: DNQ
