Toyota NSCS Richmond Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Richmond International Raceway – September 6, 20134th, CLINT BOWYER                                                 29th, DAVID STREMME
5th, MATT KENSETH                                                 31st, JOE NEMECHEK
6th, DENNY HAMLIN                                                 33rd, TRAVIS KVAPIL
11th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.                                            34th, AJ ALLMENDINGER
13th, KYLE BUSCH                                                  35th, DAVID REUTIMANN
20th, BRIAN VICKERS                                               40th, MIKE BLISS

CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:  4th
How was the qualifying lap?
“It wasn’t bad.  We need to get to drawing better if we’re going to have any kind of shot at the pole.  It just seems like we’ve been in the first 15 cars all season long and certainly in this qualifying session it hurt us a little bit.  It was good lap. We were a little bit off in qualifying trim in practice there.  Good pick-up there for us, but unfortunately the track picked up at the end.  All in all, we’ll be just fine.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Home Depot Husky Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  5th
How was the qualifying lap?
“It was a good lap.  I thought there was a little more speed in it, but still a good lap.  My second lap, I thought we should have picked up a little bit.  I probably under drove it.  Anyway, got to be happy qualifying that well here both races. Typically, this is a bad track for me and we’re going to start in the top-10 both races so that’s good.”

How important is it to get another win and more bonus points?
“Every point is important, especially once you get to the Chase.  I think it’s important to win every weekend if we could obviously.  We will race hard and just business as usual.  Had a really good car here in the spring and just got off a little bit and drew the wrong lane on that last restart.  Hopefully we can be at least as competitive as we were last time and maybe a little bit better to be in the mix somewhere then.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  6th
How was your qualifying lap?
“My lap was okay.  Obviously going out first is kind of the hardest, but still we had a decent car in practice.  Definitely not the feel that I was looking for, but I haven’t driven this car at this track yet so we’ll see how we all stack up.  Hopefully the sun starts to come through here pretty soon.  If that’s the case then it should be alright.”

Is it strange to be here and not be in contention for the Chase?
“I’ve known we’ve been out of contention for a while so it doesn’t catch us off-guard.  Kind of prepared for this moment, but it’s still obviously tough knowing that we don’t have much to race for during the rest of the season except to try to build momentum for next year.  Really, that’s all we can do.”

How much would it mean to finish well at your home track?
“It would be good.  That’s all we can do is try to end the season on a good note.  We work hard and all of these guys work hard to try to give me race-winning cars and we’ve kind of fallen off the map a little bit as this year has gone on.  You’re nothing in this sport unless you’re relevant and you’re only relevant if you are winning.  At this point we’ve just got to get back to being as competitive as we were and try to close out the year on a good note, because you don’t want to go into next year running as bad as what we have here lately.”

Are you happy to be back racing at Richmond International Raceway?
“It’s definitely good to be back here for sure.  I love this race track.  I hate that I missed it the first time around, but still it’s always good to be short track racing.  A lot of race tracks can model their racing after what Richmond has here.  It’s my first time here with the Generation 6 car and I learned a lot from the pit box watching here in the spring and things that we can learn to get better at, so I’m just glad to be back here and glad to come back home to one of my favorite race tracks.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:  11th
How was the qualifying lap?
“Not what we were hoping for — we were really fast in practice in qualifying trim and just missed it a little there.  I don’t know how much the sun had to do with it, but when the really fast guys went they had a cloud.  It’s hard to say.  We were hoping to start up front and that’s not going to happen.  A little disappointed.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s American Heritage Chocolate Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  13th

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:  20th
How was your qualifying lap?
“Not the lap we wanted, but I thought it was going to be a lot better than that.  Not really sure where we lost it — will have to look at it and see.  The guys did a good job — the balance was pretty decent.  I don’t know.  I was happy with the car in race trim when we ended — we got a handle on it.  We were pretty decent there at the end.”

DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Swan Energy/Lean 1 Toyota Camry, Swan Racing
Starting Position:  29th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AMFMEnergy.com Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position:  31st

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position:  33rd

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 47 Bush’s Beans Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Starting Position:  34th

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position:  35th

MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Plinker Tactical Toyota Camry, TriStar Motorsports
Starting Position:  DNQ