6th, DAVID REUTIMANN 9th, KASEY KAHNE 17th, KYLE BUSCH 19th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 20th, BRIAN VICKERS 25th, JOEY LOGANO 28th, DENNY HAMLIN 32nd, BOBBY LABONTE 33rd, CASEY MEARS 35th, MICHAEL MCDOWELL 40th, JOE NEMECHEK
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 6th How was your car in qualifying? “It’s good. We were a little bit tight in turn four and it cost us some speed. We fought that a little bit in practice. Overall, it’s a decent lap, just not quite enough for what we wanted to do.”
KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 9th How was your car in qualifying? “It was good. The guys did a good job. We’re just a little bit tight and I missed it a little bit, but we were really close and the car has felt great ever since we got here.”
What were you looking at on your car after your qualifying run? “I was looking all the skirts and kind of the travels and things to see where we were. Everything was really nice, we just needed a little bit more.”
How will you approach practice for Sunday’s race? “We’ll try to be as smart about it as we can when we practice compared to when we race and how we go into the night and how things change. We’re trying to be prepared and have some good adjustments in the car built in so we can keep up with the track on Sunday afternoon.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 17th How was your qualifying lap? “The balance wasn’t bad on our M&M’s Camry. We just lacked a little bit of speed there on our lap. We were pretty happy with the car in race trim in practice earlier today, so we’ll work on it tomorrow morning in practice and hopefully have a good race car for Sunday.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 19th How was your qualifying lap? “We were about like practice, just too loose.”
What do you need to do to get ready for Sunday’s race? “Well, tomorrow will be a whole different story. You know, we take the tape off and have to be good for a tire run and fuel run instead of just one lap. Hopefully that will go better tomorrow in our NAPA Toyota.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 20th How was your qualifying effort? “It was good. I was tight coming back to the line in turn four. I think that’s where I lost most of my time. I felt really good about one and two, just got too tight on three and four. I was hoping for a little bit better lap.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team (continued) Do you like qualifying on Friday and having more practice on Saturday? “I like the schedule we have here. If we’re going to run three-day shows, I think we should do a practice and qualifying and then two more practices on Saturday and then race on Sunday. The two practices, and then qualify on Saturday and race Sunday, we should just do two-day shows. If you really want to save the sport, do two-day shows instead of three-day shows and I think in that scenario I think two practices, qualify and race is good, but this year they started doing some of the racks did two on Friday, qualify on Saturday and race Sunday and Saturday just seems like a waste just to come in for two laps. I’m pretty happy with the Red Bull Toyota. It was good in practice. I liked to have been a little bit better in qualifying trim, but that’s alright.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 25th How was your car in qualifying? “We’re struggling for speed right now. Even race trim, the car just doesn’t have a whole bunch of speed in it right now, so trying to find something. Working on stuff here and there. Going to be practice tomorrow. Hopefully we find something there.” What do you need to do to get ready for Sunday’s race? “Well, tomorrow will be a whole different story. You know, we take the tape off and have to be good for a tire run and fuel run instead of just one lap. Hopefully that will go better tomorrow in our NAPA Toyota.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 28th How was your car in qualifying? “We’re just struggling for speed. We are half-a-second off pretty much all day and just still can’t find where the speed is at. I’m driving the car pretty aggressively — it just doesn’t have any speed at the moment. It’s pretty typical for us in qualifying here.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Wounded Warrior Project Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 32nd How was your qualifying lap? “We just kind of scratch our heads a little bit. It felt like it was going to be faster than that. We only made two qualifying runs during practice and the second one we made felt like it was going to be faster and never was and this one felt like it would be faster, too and wasn’t. I don’t know if we have something just not helping ourselves speed-wise or what. The car felt pretty good. I used a ton of throttle and no brake and free-rolled pretty good. I don’t know. I’m a little confused as to why we didn’t go any faster — at least a .10th or so.”
What do you need to do to prepare for Sunday’s race? “We just have a lot of things that we did this morning. We really concentrated on our race trim package a little bit and then we did our qualifying package. Tried three or four different big things and I think we have some ideas there that will be beneficial for us on Sunday.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 33rd How was your qualifying effort? “It was okay. It’s a new car for us, so it’s been a better weekend in general for us. Ended up a little bit tight right there in qualifying. Ended up just off the bottom, so we lost a good 10th just being off the bottom of the race track. It’s not bad. I’m looking forward to seeing what it has in race trim tomorrow.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing (continued) Did you damage the splitter? “No. I just wanted to see how hard the splitter hit and it didn’t hit that hard. Just too tight in general and we’ll just see where it goes from here.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing, LLC Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Starting Position: 35th How was your qualifying effort? “It’s so fast around here at Texas Motor Speedway. Turn one and two is actually kind of shaded right now, which we weren’t expecting, so a lot of grip in the race track. The HP Racing Toyota Camry is pretty good. Just hit the splitter a little bit in three and four, but I had a pretty good lap going. I was feeling pretty good getting into three and just drove it in a bit too far, but thankful to get in the race and we’ll be out there on Sunday.”
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 40th How do you feel to be locked into the field? “Well, you know the crew chief is on the radio with me and talking and he’s like, ‘I’ll tell you if you’re locked in after your first lap,’ but he never said anything. That’s the time you’re going into turn one, so I just tried to get everything I could. He never said anything and just thank goodness I picked it up just a tick on my second lap and we’re in the show.”
