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[/media-credit]TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes Dover International Speedway – June 2, 2012
1st, MARK MARTIN 4th, CLINT BOWYER 8th, KYLE BUSCH 10th, DENNY HAMLIN 11th, JOEY LOGANO 18th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 22nd, BOBBY LABONTE 27th, LANDON CASSILL 32nd, DAVID STREMME 35th, JOE NEMECHEK 36th, MIKE BLISS 42nd, TRAVIS KVAPIL
MARK MARTIN, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 1st How was your pole winning-qualifying run? “It is so much fun to work with Rodney Childers (crew chief). He puts together such incredible race cars and the whole team along with everybody at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing). Rodney is a race car driver and he relates to things a little bit different than the crew chiefs that I’ve worked with in the past and it’s a fun experience. It’s something different and it’s just a blast — he’s doing such a great job. Of course Michael (Waltrip, owner) being a driver as well, having a driver for an owner, it’s different because they see things a little bit differently and it’s unique experience in something that I’ve had an opportunity to do in my career. Of all the years that I raced, I never really had a chance to work with an owner and a driver that were both race car drivers themselves.”
How was your lap? “I would never try that again (laughter). I anticipated the car being loose, but I didn’t ask Rodney (Childers, crew chief) if he tightened it up. I knew the conditions were looser than they were in our mock qualifying run yesterday and I didn’t want to ask him because I didn’t want to get concerned. I knew that I only had to make it one mile without wrecking and I was going to drive to the limit and slightly beyond and I felt like I did that. Certainly wouldn’t cheat it again that far. I wouldn’t want to have to do that again. I can’t sit on these poles without the fastest race car and MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) and Rodney Childers in particular and the guys on our team are doing that. We won one little challenge today and that was to sit on the pole and that gives us a good starting position and a good pit stall, but the whole race is completely dictated by how your car handles in race setup. We will put our heads together and come up with what we’re going to put in the car for tomorrow because we never really hit the nail on the head yesterday, although we were good, I didn’t feel like we hit the nail on the head. We continue to work together collectively to try to find exactly what that needs to be for me to have 400 or 500 miles worth of good, solid, consistent speed — enough to really be able to win. We really had a good run in Texas, that seems to be one time and some of the next races that we’ve run, we haven’t been able to hit the nail quite on the head. We’ll continue to work collectively. I’m learning and they’re learning about me and I’m learning about them and I’m learning the cars and I’m having a blast.”
Do you like racing at Dover? “I love this place. It hasn’t been pointed out by anyone, but I’m sure it’s true, it just dawned on me this weekend — I got my first NASCAR win here in 1987 in the Nationwide race. I was running third and Tommy Ellis and Brett Bodine tangled right in front of me and kind of handed me my first win. I remember that. This place has always been awesome for me to race on and although we’ve only won four Cup races here, we could have, should have many, many others as well. I had an epic battle with Dale Earnhardt Sr. here in 1989 I think it was where we raced side-by-side lap after lap and I came up short. Had lots of great races here and I just feel like a lucky guy to be strapping in that No. 55.”
Do drivers become better after they hit 40? “In the past, not so much now as it was back when I got started, back when I got started there were no engineers in the sport and the driver himself had to be the data acquisition so to speak and help the crew chief in many ways and guide the crew chief much like the simulation does and our engineers do today. The sport continues to lean toward, it’s not a problem to be Joey Logano’s age and come out here and win big. You couldn’t get a ride when you were Joey Logano’s age when I was coming in. You had to wait for Bobby Allison or Richard Petty or Cale Yarborough or somebody to step aside because there were only seven, eight, nine or 10 good cars. You had to race for 15 years before you got a chance in a car you could really win in anyway. All those things are different now. You get fairly equal equipment when you first step into this thing because you get a team car, so you get much better equipment at younger (ages) and you have the engineers and the computers and those things so the driver only has to say what the car is doing and what it feels like and they can take it from there. Back in the day, you had to tell the crew chief more.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 4th How was your qualifying lap? “It wasn’t bad. I got through (turns) one and two and I was really tight off of four. I was trying to get it to turn, definitely got a lot tighter as I ran.”
Do you feel like you could have gone faster in qualifying? “Well, I was just a little frustrated. I got to the gas, I got through (turns) one and two so good that I got to the gas pretty early and three and four and just drove it pushing into it and kind of killed my lap.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 8th
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Autism Speaks Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 10th
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 11th Are you happy with your qualifying run? “I think our car is okay. I think we made some good progress from yesterday. We were a little bit too tight there for qualifying and the driver didn’t have the best lap either. We probably gave up a little bit there.”
Did the track change after the rain on Friday evening? “Not as much as I thought, but it did change some.”
How was your qualifying lap? “Our car was okay. Just didn’t run as pretty as a line of where I wanted to on the race track or as well as I needed to and the car wasn’t exactly the way I needed it. We were close. I felt like overall we left a tenth or so, maybe a little bit more out there between myself and the car. I am taking 50 percent of the blame, so we’re going 50-50 on this one. I think we’re going to be okay.”
Is Dover a difficult track to qualify on? “Dover is a hard race track, it’s hard to get everything you can out of it. It’s kind of like Darlington, that’s a real tough place to qualify. It’s one of those places you get out and you’re shaking, you’re just trying to get everything you can. Intense laps, for sure.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 18th How was your qualifying run? “It wasn’t very good. I’m not sure what happened there. The car just never would hook up. We had a good car in practice yesterday in qualifying trim and I’m not real sure what to think about it.”
How do you think you’ll race on Sunday? “The car was really good yesterday and we had a lot of speed in it. It’s really fast on old tires. We’ll be okay. We’ll be fine — just go out there and race hard. It’s a long race and track position is going to be important, strategy is going to be different than what we’ve seen in the past, so we’ll have plenty of chances to get to the front.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Scott Products Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 22nd
LANDON CASSILL, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: 27th
DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Toyota Camry, Inception Motorsports Starting Position: 32nd
JJ YELEY, No. 49 JPO Absorbents Toyota Camry, America Israel Racing Starting Position: 34th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 35th
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Humphrey Smith Racing LLC Toyota Camry, Humphrey Smith Racing Starting Position: 36th
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: 42nd
