5th, KYLE BUSCH 6th, JOEY LOGANO 9th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. 17th, DENNY HAMLIN 19th, BRIAN VICKERS 24th, BOBBY LABONTE 25th, DAVID REUTIMANN 27th, CASEY MEARS 30th, KASEY KAHNE 31st, JOE NEMECHEK 36th, LANDON CASSILL 43rd, MICHAEL MCDOWELL
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 5th How is your car after practice and qualifying? “We’ve been a little behind the eight ball so far this weekend with our Snickers Peanut Butter Squared Camry. It’s coming along. The guys made some really good adjustments there and the car drove a lot better. Hopefully we can carry some of those into tomorrow and get a good race practice and get after them on Sunday. It seems to be like a good lap, but it’s all relative until others go out.”
Does the track change as the sun goes down? “It doesn’t tell you a whole lot. It tells you the guys that are going to be fast, for sure. The sun going down and making shade in turns one and two makes a lot of grip. You can really pickup a lot of speed down there. Still, turns three and four are really slick — the sun shining down there and always shines down there. It’s kind of like Charlotte — it’s the treacherous turns three and four. So far, so good. We’ll play it by ear and collect our thoughts to get a game plan for tomorrow.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 6th How was your qualifying lap? “I felt like turns one and two were awesome, I felt really good. I went into three and got down in there good, picked up the gas and started picking up a little bit of a push and didn’t get it down as much as I should have. If I held it wide open, I probably wouldn’t have hit the wall but you never know. It’s still a good day for us. We’ll have a decent start and go from there. I have a good Home Depot Toyota, just could have had a little bit more and that would have been right where we needed to be.”
How was your car? “I felt like my car was pretty good. I gave up a little bit off of turn four, I felt like I picked up a little bit of a push. I probably could have kept the throttle down and may not have hit the wall, but I tried not to lift off the corner, that’s when you kill your speed. I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, but looking back at it I probably would have. We’re talking a couple hundredths of a second. It might not have been much, but it might be enough to beat Kyle (Busch). Either way, a good run for us here. I have a good race car too, so we’ll see how it goes for us.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Starting Position: 9th How was your qualifying run? “It was a good run. We had a good day today in our NAPA Toyota. I was happy with the way we unloaded. The guys have been doing a good job this year. We’ve had fast race cars, we haven’t had great finishes yet, hopefully this will be our week. The guys did a good job today and it was a good run for us. This is by far the best car I’ve ever had here at Vegas, so I’m excited about the weekend.”
How is your second season with this team? “The guys have all worked hard in the offseason. We really started hitting on some things and getting comfortable as a team at the end of the year last year and it’s really showing. We’ve got a lot of confidence and I have a lot of confidence in these guys and the cars they’re able to give me. It’s fun to come to the race track when you know they’re going to give you what you ask for.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 17th
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 19th Can you talk about your qualifying run? “The car was significantly better than practice and I’m happy with that. I think the guys made a huge gain in the car and it was as good as it’s been all day. Unfortunately I probably left a little bit on the table. I was not expecting it to be that good. I was a little bit down on turns one and two, but feel like I got most of it out of turns three and four.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kingsford Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 24th How was your qualifying run? “We picked up from practice and I’m proud of that, I just didn’t think I got the best lap I needed. I got into turn one right, but I didn’t get through the middle and I had to stay off the throttle too long. Then, I got back to the gas and I was frustrated by the time I got to turn three. I think I did okay there, then it seemed like I just didn’t quite have the grip I needed. I didn’t run the line I needed and wanted. I just didn’t get the best lap I should have got. It was so close. Turn one was key with the bumps today. That’s a big factor we fought all day
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Tums Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 25th Are you happy with your qualifying results? “We were okay, we go off in practice. The first qualifying run we made was pretty good. After that, we couldn’t seem to get the car tightened up enough. The car was tighter and we’re going to suffer a little bit here. We went out early and it’s going to get a little bit cooler and the track is going to get faster. In the end, we made the car better. We had a big pickup, we just didn’t pickup as much as we needed too.”
CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 27th
KASEY KAHNE, No. 4 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position: 30th How was your qualifying run? “It just wasn’t very good. We kind of were up out of the track, in front of the car and the back. It just wasn’t as good as what we were looking for. Hopefully we’ll figure it out and be better on Sunday.” Is there a reason you only ran one lap? “Because I was out of the track and it would have only been worse on the second lap.”
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 NEMCO Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 31st
LANDON CASSILL, No. 60 Big Red Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position: 36th
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 66 HP Racing LLC Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Starting Position: 43rd
