1st, KASEY KAHNE 3rd, DENNY HAMLIN 8th, BRIAN VICKERS 14th, KYLE BUSCH 15th, BOBBY LABONTE 17th, JOEY LOGANO 29th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 32nd, CASEY MEARS 33rd, T.J. BELL 34th, MIKE SKINNER 36th, DAVID REUTIMANN 39th, MICHAEL MCDOWELL 43rd, JOE NEMECHEK
KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 1st How is the track different now than when you won the Truck race? “It’s a little bit different, but it’s the same tire so some of the things are similar. You just have so much more power with these Toyota engines on the Cup side. These cars just run so well and they have a lot of power. Other than that, there are some similarities for sure.”
Did your Truck Series win in March help you in today’s qualifying session? “I don’t think that hurts at all. We had a great truck that night and that whole day. It was a lot of fun driving for Kyle (Busch) and being able to win that race. I think anytime you make laps at this track it just builds on your confidence and builds on what you’re looking for in your car. Just trying to always go faster. The Red Bull team did an awesome job today. We made one run right at the end of practice and we got one lap right before the rain came. We were really on the loose side and ended up fifth and made the right adjustments from there to get the pole today. It felt great. The car’s been awesome all week long. The Toyota engine is running great. We just have to keep working on it for tomorrow afternoon. We had a good practice and we did all race stuff until the end. Hopefully, we’ll have a good shot tomorrow night.”
Will the speeds continue to climb at Darlington? “The teams keep getting the cars a little bit better and the engines keep getting a little bit better so we’re picking up speed. The track, as it loses grip, we’re going to slow back down. It’s already started to lose some of that time and throughout a race run we see that. On the one laps, just one clean lap, it’s still really fast. I think the cars are just getting a little bit better. I don’t know how much faster we’re going to go, but I think that was a pretty solid lap. This track at some point is going to start wearing out and kind of going the other direction. Then we’ll start slowing down a little bit.”
Why is this your first pole at Darlington since the introduction of the new car? “We’ve came pretty close a few times with this car, but we just haven’t been quite as fast. I think the first three times we qualified here we were on the pole when I first came into this series. I guess I’ve always just taken to qualifying at this place. I like running right against the wall and carrying the speed and the momentum. We hadn’t been quite as fast in a couple years and today we were really fast. It was great. The lap felt awesome. I knew we definitely had a good chance at the pole when I made the lap.”
Has it taken you some time to get used to the new pavement at Darlington? “I feel like it’s taken me a little bit because you definitely look for something different and I think that goes back to the question about not having a pole in a while here too. The cars handle a little different, but we’ll keep working on it. It’s a great track still and I really enjoy it. Can’t wait to race tonight in the Nationwide car — it was fast in practice and we start fourth tonight in that and tomorrow night in the Red Bull car. I think we have a chance in both of them. Definitely have a chance to run up front and be one of the top cars.”
Were you able to figure out in practice how good your car will be in the race? “Well, it’s kind of tough because of the rain. We didn’t get as much as we wanted and I didn’t feel like we were good enough to win tomorrow night, so we’re going to have to make a couple more adjustments and hope that it’s the right direction and then work on it throughout the race. Try to keep that track position. But, we were pretty good in practice – I really felt like we were in race trim. We were pretty good. We were great in qualifying too. I look forward to it, but as the track changes you just
