TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Sonoma, Calif. – June 22, 2012
5th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 36th, JOE NEMECHEK 6th, CLINT BOWYER 37th, CHRIS COOK 7th, KYLE BUSCH 38th, JJ YELEY 14th, JOEY LOGANO 39th, TRAVIS KVAPIL 16th, DENNY HAMLIN 42nd, LANDON CASSILL 18th, BOBBY LABONTE DNQ, BRIAN SIMO 21st, BRIAN VICKERS
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 5th How was your qualifying lap? “I feel great. The car’s awesome. It’s been really good all day. I love this place and we’ve had some awesome runs here the past few years. So, looking forward to the rest of the weekend. Good starting spot for us and we can win from there — no doubt.”
Did you always enjoy racing at Sonoma? “Not this place. I’ve always really liked Watkins Glen a lot. But, I’ve always enjoyed road racing in general. The first couple of years I came here, this place was tough on me. But, then I came to MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) and driving these cars and they’ve been awesome since we’ve been coming here.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 6th How was your qualifying lap? “We (Bowyer and teammate Martin Truex Jr.) both ran .66s. Unfortunately, mine had another six behind it. Of course, that one was a loser. The 5-hour ENERGY Toyota was really good. It’s been fun to be out here road racing, and that’s not something that I normally say. But, so far, so good. Really proud of everybody. We tested at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) a couple weeks ago and I knew — the car just felt good. It felt like it had good speed, although it was a complete different race track. It’s stable and comfortable to drive. I think they said this is the very car that Marcos Ambrose almost, should have won the race with when he ran out of gas. So, it’s kind of neat to back that up. The car is really, really fast. It handles good. But, I think he’s (Ambrose) pretty good, too. He was quite a bit faster than I was.”
Do you feel good about Sunday’s race? “I do. Really impressed. This is my first road race with the Toyota bunch. Really impressed so far. I think our cars have good speed. I’m really looking forward to the race. This has become one of my more favorite best race tracks — to be honest with you. Somehow, some way — coming from Kansas — when I would think of good race tracks I would never in a million years put Sonoma in that group. Just proud of everybody’s effort.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 7th How was your qualifying lap? “It was pretty good. The car drove well — it just seemed like maybe I missed a couple corners, but nothing too terrible. A solid effort. Hopefully, it stays top-five, but I think it will be top-10.”
Are you ready for Sunday’s race? “We definitely have some work to do for the race. Just not quite as comfortable as it needs to be going through the ‘esses’ — switching back and forth. Overall, it’s a race car right now. We just got to get it to be a winner”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 14th How was your Camry in qualifying? “I tried to go too fast everywhere and lost all of it. We had a good Home Depot Camry, just went free through the ‘esses’ since we got here, so we’re trying to fix that. It’s just when you go out there to qualify, you try to get a little extra and if it doesn’t quite have it, you actually go slower. It’s hard to judge how fast you really want to go and if you go on a conservative lap and be halfway decent or you can go for it, go for the pole and you’re either up front or you’re mid-pack where we’re going to be in 14th.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 16th How was your qualifying lap? “There wasn’t much to it really. We were conservative on all the corners. Didn’t get a lot of speed out of the car. Think we’ll be somewhere in the teens, or something like that. But, we race in strategy here for the most part anyway.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Clorox Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 18th Do you feel you made up time from practice to qualifying? “We picked up like two-tenths (of a second). Some guys picked up a little bit more and some guys didn’t pick up as much. I think gaining anytime here for qualifying — it’s so hard to do because you can’t get your tires warmed up enough. I don’t know where, but obviously all our guys on our Clorox Toyota did a great job. This is actually Martin Truex Jr.’s car I think from last year, a short track that we had and kind of converted over the last couple weeks. We didn’t get to go test or anything. The first lap on the track for it today was the first lap for us. I feel pretty good and think it will be good for the weekend.”
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 RK Motors Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 21st How was your qualifying lap? “It was pretty good. I’m really proud of the MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) guys. The RK Motors Toyota was good all day. It took me a few laps this morning to get used to a 3,500 lb. car with 900 horsepower again and no traction control. We went through some changes this morning, we made some changes before qualifying. I was pretty happy with the lap. I felt like there were a few times when I left some things out there, just over loaded it a little bit in a couple of turns. But, the track seems like it’s a little bit slower, it’s a little bit slicker. It seemed a little dirty, I don’t know if some guys put some dirt on the track or something before I went out.”
Do you feel like a road course ringer after racing in Le Mans? “We’ll see about that come Sunday. I wouldn’t go as far as a road course ringer, but I’ve really enjoyed my time in Europe racing road courses and having the opportunity to drive so many amazing cars on amazing tracks. The good news is I’ve learned a lot about road racing. The bad news it’s in a very different race car. Some of it is applying and will help me through the weekend, some of it I have to unwind a little bit.”
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 36th
CHRIS COOK, No. 19 Humphrey Smith Racing LLC Toyota Camry, Humphrey Smith Racing Starting Position: 37th
JJ YELEY, No. 49 JPO Absorbents Toyota Camry, America Israel Racing Starting Position: 38th
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: 39th
LANDON CASSILL, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: 42nd
BRIAN SIMO, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Camry, Inception Motorsports Starting Position: DNQ
