1st, KYLE BUSCH
7th, MATT KENSETH
8th, CARL EDWARDS
11th, DENNY HAMLIN
19th, CLINT BOWYER
24th, DAVID RAGAN
35th, JJ YELEY
36th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
38th, JEB BURTON
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 1st
Did you think you had a pole-winning race car today?
“I told you I had a fast car I just wasn’t sure we could get the balance of it right. There right at the end that last run was the best it’s been all day. Adam Stevens (crew chief) and these guys they did it again. Great M&M’s Crispy Camry. Like I said, I knew it had some speed, we just had to be able to fine-tune it and put it in the right perspective for these three corners of this race track. And, that was pretty good right there. So, not too shabby starting spot for us Sunday. I like to see the clean air upfront and we’ll hopefully race them from there.”
Has there ever been a point in your career where things have gone this good for you?
“I’ve had plenty of times where they’ve all gone in the wrong direction so this is a sweet change from that and sometimes it happens for you and you’re not exactly sure why. Man, if you look back at the past few years especially through the summer months we couldn’t hit anything right – last year especially. I think I finished outside the top-30 in five races in a row. It’s like this year, we’ve got four out of five wins. You just take it when you can get it man. Like my dad told me this week, just ride it as long as you can. It’s something right – just keep doing what you’re doing and hopefully it will all work out.”
Can you talk about the role you are on right now?
“They’re sorting out really really well. Why are they sorting out that way I don’t know. But, it certainly is nice to – man, I don’t know how to explain it but it’s just nice to feel and I certainly have been some down times that’s for sure. I just remember last summer and I think maybe even the summer before it just seemed like I couldn’t hit a stretch, I couldn’t do anything right. It was just really really bumming me out, but this year certainly the tides are 180 degrees different. Obviously, being able to do everything right means a heck of a lot more in this business and we’re just trying to ride that wave as long as it will carry us. Hopefully it’s got 16 weeks left in it. It’s just amazing what we’re on. Can’t say enough about Adam Stevens (crew chief) and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. All of these guys on this No. 18 M&M’s Crispy Camry just continue week in and week out to do the right things and make the right adjustments. Adam and I there through the qualifying rounds we kept talking about things the whole time and we just kept making adjustments to it and didn’t get complacent in what we had. Felt like we could make it better and certainly I feel like we did that obviously and we were able to run a really fast lap there at the end to put ourselves on the Coors Light Pole today. Just an awesome opportunity and blessed to be in it.”
When did you sense after you came back from your injury that you could do something special?
“I don’t know. I don’t think we ever really sensed it. Obviously we went from Michigan finishing 43rd and having a crash there to the next week out in Sonoma and just all the pieces were put in the right place there and we were able to win that race at Sonoma. Even then I’m not sure that we all said to each other, ‘Man, we’re going to go somewhere special here. We’re going to go on a tear.’ I don’t know that you can ever say that. It just sort of has seemed to happen. Last week was certainly another vindicating win just being able to get three in a row. To win the Brickyard 400, one of the big races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, just means so much to me and what I’ve done in my career but also to this team and what some of my crew guys have done in their career. It was their biggest win. So, we’re just going to try to keep piling on here and certainly Pocono Raceway gives away an amazing looking trophy so we’d love to take that thing home too.”
What does it mean for you to earn today’s pole after everything you’ve gone through?
“I wasn’t sure we had a shot for the pole. I told TV before our qualifying runs I just thought we had good speed but just couldn’t get the balance right. I knew if we could get the balance right that we’d have some more speed but I wasn’t sure we’d be able to do it in a qualifying session just with three opportunities to work on it. But, we did and to get a pole here today I mean obviously it’s cool for me. I enjoy getting poles, wins, anything but to me it just sort of is if I look back at old school NASCAR you had win a pole to be in the Busch Clash down at Daytona – the Sprint Unlimited now. I still look at it the same way. I feel like you’re not really in that race unless you have a pole, so cool we’re in the Sprint Unlimited. That’s just what is cool about being able to get poles obviously. Once you get one then all you want to do is get more but one is all you need.”
How confident were you that you were going to get the pole today after practice?
“I wasn’t confident we were going to win the pole. We did have good speed and just for how the car was driving it was kind of erratic a little bit but we seemed to have gotten things kind of calmed down a little bit. The car seems to be settling in and maybe I’m settling in and getting used to it but things are really looking good for our No. 18 car. Hopefully tomorrow again, we just work on it a little bit more and get it fine-tuned and ready for Sunday.”
How has the attitude of your team changed with the current win streak you are on?
“I hope that they haven’t gotten too confident in their abilities and now we start making simple little mistakes, but obviously the guys have just done a great job. They need to continue to do that. They just need to continue to do their job and that’s one of the best things you can do as a team and as an organization is just not take the highs too high. You’ve got to be able to stay level headed with it and my group has always kind of been able to do that. There’s a few new guys on our team this year. Obviously they’re pumped up, they’re excited but when the car gets back to the garage area and they get back there it seems like they can really focus and put their heads down and get down to what they need to do. Thankfully there’s checklists, but these guys have been around my cars for a while now whether it’s been XFINITY or Sprint Cup Series and they know what they’re doing.”
Have you bought a Power Ball ticket with the role you’ve recently been on?
“No, that’s next. You’re right. I certainly need to look into that for sure. Everything is just – man, I don’t know how to explain it. I really don’t. Maybe that’s what it was – the last couple of years I did buy Power Ball tickets and now I’m not. I’ll keep my luck to the race track, I don’t need to have good luck to win the lottery. I feel like I already have with the job I’ve got.”
Do you feel that your team really is that good or that it’s more of luck?
“Yeah, no doubt. I would’ve said it’s good to be lucky and it certainly is. You’ve got to have some luck on your side. There has been good fortune for us that’s come out of these last six weeks or so. We got really lucky at Sonoma with the way the cautions flew and got us up front and won the race there. We got lucky not tearing up our car worse than what we did at Daytona and being able to finish 17th instead of 30th. We went to Kentucky and I would say that we had speed there. We won that one outright and then Loudon I felt like we had speed but we did get really lucky on coming to pit road and not having a flat tire and being able to work our way back up to the lead lap before that caution flew. So, that was some luck on our side too. And, then last week we were good. We were fast. So, you’ve got to have both. Sometimes, Bill Janitz (public relations representative) will tell you we’ve had some times where it’s like man, what can you do to try to change your bad luck into no luck you know, and it just doesn’t seem to work. Thank God for what’s going on right now. That’s all I can do.”
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 7th
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 8th
How was your qualifying run?
“Qualifying went really well. Toyota’s are fast and I was real happy with our effort. We struggled just a little bit in practice with speed and then we stepped it up. We got all of our JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars in the top-11 or something so that’s pretty good. We’re rolling, we’ve got fast cars and it’s fun.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 11th
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 Maxwell House Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 19th
DAVID RAGAN, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 24th
How was your qualifying run?
“We just missed our setup on a few changes the first run and so that puts you in a bad spot when you have to make multiple runs in the first round so we had an extra lap and a half on our tires and so that was unfortunate. I felt like we could’ve got a few more spots there on the second round. I don’t think we had a pole-sitter today but we had a top-20 I think. We’ll learn from it. I think we’ve got a better race car than what we had here in the spring. That’s about where we qualified, but we can pass them on some of these restarts and 400 miles is a long race so I’m optimistic for Saturday and certainly Sunday.”
JJ YELEY, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 35th
MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 36th
JEB BURTON, No. 26 Maxim Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 38th
