Toyota NSCS Chicagoland Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes

TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes
Chicagoland Speedway – September 13, 2013

10th, MATT KENSETH                                                25th, BRIAN VICKERS
12th, KYLE BUSCH                                                  28th, COLE WHITT
13th, AJ ALLMENDINGER                                             33rd, DAVID REUTIMANN
14th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.                                            37th, TRAVIS KVAPIL
22nd, DENNY HAMLIN                                                42nd, JOE NEMECHEK
24th, CLINT BOWYER

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  10th
How was your car in qualifying?
“The car was better than the driver.  It had good speed, drove a lot better in practice, so I was encouraged by it.  Just didn’t get the best lap.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Doublemint Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  12th
How do you like this track?
“I typically tend to like them a little more than the repaves.  You know, Chicago here — it’s been fun over the years. Certainly today I feel like our Doublemint Camry’s been right on par with where we need to be.  Excited about race trim from earlier today, and qualifying right there I think that will hold true to be pretty good.  Looking forward to it Sunday.”

How important is starting at the front of the grid?
“Well, any time you can qualify up front, it’s certainly beneficial to your race on Sunday.  I’m not so sure the winner in this race winning the championship is coincidence.  I think just being able to get a good start to the Chase is obviously more beneficial.  A solid day on Sunday — if we win — sure I’ll take it.  I’m not saying we don’t want to — just need a solid day to get started here and get rolling.”

How do you feel about a 13th driver in the Chase?
“Yeah, just hoping that that doesn’t matter and us come Homestead are number one and the champions.  Doesn’t matter how many there are.  Glad to be in it and going for a championship myself.  Again, I hope I’m the winner when it’s all said and done in Homestead.”

Are you surprised by anything that happened this week?
“Nothing seems to surprise me this week.”

What’s going to happen in tomorrow’s meeting with NASCAR?
“It’s going to be interesting.  I have no clue.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Starting Position:  13th

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:  14th
How was your qualifying run?
“It was good.  We struggled a little bit in practice.  It was a big pick-up for us, so that was good.  Just lost a little bit down there in (turns) one and two.  Felt pretty good about the car.  The guys did good adjusting on it and we were on the wrong end of the .60s, I think a .60 was fourth and we were .68 and we were 14th, lot of close times in there.”

What do you think of Jeff Gordon being added to the Chase?
“I’m not even sure what to say at this point to be honest with you.  I’m kind of at a loss for words.  How they make a spot for somebody.  They kick me out to make a spot for somebody and then they don’t do the same for the other guys.  It’s just unfair and nothing I can do about it.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position:  22nd

CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 Peak Antifreeze Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:   24th

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position:  25th
How was your car handling during qualifying?
“Well, the bad news is — not good.  The good news is a lot better than practice.  These guys — they did a great job going from practice to racing.  Everyone on this Aaron’s team done such a good job.  And Scott (Miller, acting crew chief) and Billy (Scott, engineer) really the last few weeks have done such a good job with these cars and showing up good. Unfortunately, this week was not one of them.  We’ve just really fought an ill-handling car, particularly out of the front.  It’s very darty and I feel like the car is kind of almost driving me at times instead of the other way around.  Our teammate came here and tested and somehow we just didn’t get what we needed out of it or didn’t come back with what we needed.  We’re working through that now.  I think we’ve made big gains since the beginning of practice to now, but we still have a lot of work to do before the race.  I’m confident these guys will get it figured out.”

How do you and your team move forward after this week?
“I think it’s really up to — my perspective of the whole situation is I think that the team is going to move forward just fine.  I think how things have been handled are wrong.  We acted in accordance to the rules.  We played by the same standards that everyone else has played by since the day I entered the sport.  We did nothing different than what I’ve done with other teams or what I’ve been asked to do with other teams in my past, or when I started my career with Hendrick.  I feel fine.  I think it’s a shame how MWR has been made out to be the ‘bad guy’ in the situation.  And then the other teams involved got away ‘scott free.’  I hate it for the employees.  I hate it for everyone at MWR.  There’s a lot of great people at this company and I said that in my article — the column that I wrote (for USA Today).  I stand by these guys.  They’re a great group of guys.  If someone doesn’t like the results — that’s fine.  They’re entitled to their opinion.  But, we don’t race opinion — we race the rule book. And to my knowledge, there’s no rule in the rule book that said we couldn’t pit for the reason we’re choosing.  We don’t race public opinion.  If public opinion wants the rules changed — then they should change the rules and we’ll race by those rules. Until then, I’ll say it again and I said it in the column, I’m proud to be a part of this team.  I’m proud of how hard they work. I’m proud of their efforts and the way they work and I stand by that.  I’m proud of our partners for sticking with us and I just really hate it for this team.  Unfortunatelty, they got the raw end of the stick and it seems like no one else did.”

COLE WHITT, No. 30 Lean1 Toyota Camry, Swan Racing
Starting Position:   28th

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 33rd

TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position:  37th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position: 42nd