Toyota NSCS Michigan Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Michigan International Speedway – August 16, 20134th, MARK MARTIN                                                  25th, DAVID REUTIMANN
8th, DENNY HAMLIN                                                 30th, BOBBY LABONTE
10th, KYLE BUSCH                                                  36th, DAVID STREMME
11th, CLINT BOWYER                                                37th, JOE NEMECHEK
12th, MATT KENSETH                                                38th, TRAVIS KVAPIL
17th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.                                            DNQ, SCOTT RIGGS

MARK MARTIN, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:  4th
How was your qualifying lap?
“It’s exciting.  I’m so fired up and wired up — it’s like crazy.  I guess you would say that’s exhilarating.  That’s not the pole, but it sure is fast.  I’m really proud because we were okay in practice, but we weren’t a pole contender at all and I think there was more in the car there.  They found something very last minute, right before it went through tech and made some adjustments on the car.  I drove it kind of like I did in practice, which is a little bit hard.  I could have drove it a little bit harder than that.  Kudos to Rodney Childers (crew chief) and everybody on that Aaron’s team.  Man, it’s fun to drive race cars like that.”

How was your car today at Michigan?
“We’re good today.  The practice speeds were way up as well.  I think we’re figuring out these cars and making them faster.  They were fast at the beginning of the year, but all the teams are really starting to learn how to maximize them and getting more out of them now.”

How do you feel about the speeds on the track at Michigan?
“There’s going to be some more cars that go that fast as well.  What a great run by the Aaron’s Dream Machine.  Gosh, it’s fun to drive race cars like that.  It’s just an amazing privilege to do this.  That was fun.  We’ll go after them on Sunday.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  8th
How was your qualifying run?
“It was a decent lap.  I wish I could have done it again.  I definitely could have got a little bit better time, but overall proud of that run — we definitely didn’t show that kind of speed in practice.  It was a good pickup for us and hopefully it will get us a decent pit stall somewhere in the top-13 or so and we’ll have a good race.”

Do you expect the Truck Series race to help widen the groove?
“Yeah, as long as there’s no rain.  We just hope after there’s a Truck race there’s no rain, because it’s happened pretty much every time.   Since this new surface has gone on, we’ve had a rain storm before the night of the race and it narrows up the groove again.  Hopefully, it’s going to get widened out for us and obviously I can’t wait to watch that Truck show.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  10th

CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 11th
How was your qualifying run?
“It was okay.  Definitely didn’t get it all, but it’s — the guys did a good job fixing my car up.  I was struggling quite a bit there in practice and definitely learned some stuff and made it better.  Just go on to the race.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  12th
How was your qualifying effort?
“It was kind of mediocre, so it was a lot better than practice.  I guess we’ll end up probably 15th or somewhere in there.  Not as good as good as a few months ago, but better than the last weeks.”

How do have a strong car for Sunday?
“The real honest answer is I don’t really know.  We need to get through practice tomorrow and see what we can get our race setup driving like.  We didn’t really get to work on it today, so I really don’t know.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 17th
How was your qualifying run?
“Not as good as we had hoped.  We picked up a little from practice, but not as much as we needed to.  The car was just too tight.  We missed it a little bit today.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 25th

BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Starting Position:  30th

DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Lean1 Toyota Camry, Swan Racing
Starting Position:   36th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position: 37th

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position:  38th

SCOTT RIGGS, No. 19 Plinker Tactical Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Starting Position:  DNQ