5th, BRIAN VICKERS
12th, KYLE BUSCH
13th, MATT KENSETH
16th, CLINT BOWYER
27th, DENNY HAMLIN
32nd, RYAN TRUEX
35th, ALEX BOWMAN
39th, COLE WHITT
DNQ, BRETT MOFFITT
DNQ, MATT CRAFTON
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 5th
Were you pleased with your qualifying effort?
“Yeah, but not satisfied. Obviously we would have loved to sit on the pole, but I think I’m pleased from the standpoint that I feel like everyone on this Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry team — we maximized our opportunity in qualifying today and that’s always a good feeling. I feel like we got the most out of our potential of what we showed up with in the car and the speed and everything. The guys did a great job. They made the car better each run, and the fact we ran our fastest on our third run on tires is good. That’s what we really need to keep building on as a team and these qualifying sessions, is being able to get better each run and we haven’t always been doing that, so be able to accomplish that regardless of where we qualify is something I really liked. The fact that we felt good about all three runs and we kept getting better. Not only for ourselves, but relative to the competition. A top-five starting spot is never a bad thing. Track position is going to mean a lot here and it’s good to see this Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry up front.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Snickers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 12th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 13th
Is it all about horsepower here?
“I don’t know about that. I felt like, up to that lap I thought the weekend has been encouraging. Had pretty good speed. My car has been driving pretty good. The sticker run felt pretty good. It’s just a little bit off and I thought we had more speed left in the car. I think we ended up fifth and just a totally different car the second time out. I don’t know why. So, it was that one lap — it wasn’t as good as we hoped. The rest of the weekend so far has been encouraging. My car has been driving good and we’ve had good speed.”
Did track conditions play any role in qualifying?
“Well, it’s the same for everybody now with qualifying. When the track is open — it’s open for everybody. That really didn’t have anything to do with us.”
Did you miss anything with practice being cut short?
“Well, again the same for everybody, except for the guys that got to do the tire test. I thought we got through a lot of stuff yesterday. Thought it was a real productive day. Today, we just did a couple qualifying runs. Like I said, the same for everybody. You always wish you had more practice time in a way, in another way I felt like we were pretty close yesterday. So, I was okay with it being shorter today.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 RK Motors Charlotte Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 16th
How was your qualifying effort?
“I was loose. Just couldn’t put the throttle down off of (turn) two and four and if you’re struggling off of those two corners, you aren’t going to post a very good lap. We’ve got a little work to do. The good news is our RK Motors Camry was good in race trim. We worked most of that last practice in traffic, so we’ve got a good gauge of what we are going to have tomorrow. Wish we could have qualified better but we’ll be fine tomorrow.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 27th
What did you experience during qualifying?
“We don’t have enough time — ESPN doesn’t have enough air time for me to break it all down. Really we’ve been over a second off most of the weekend. Don’t know, just slow — can’t enter the corner with any speed. If I do, I’m off the white line and then you’re not making up any speed by not being in the throttle on exit. It’s just a tough position for us right now because our car is handling so bad, we can’t get anything to go right. In race trim we were okay after five laps. I felt like we could break even with some good cars, but the front line speed of our car is just really, really struggling and that’s what you need to have good track position for those restarts at the end.”
RYAN TRUEX, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 32nd
ALEX BOWMAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 35th
COLE WHITT, No. 26 TapOut Muscle Recovery Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 39th
BRETT MOFFITT, No. 66 Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: DNQ
MATT CRAFTON, No. 29 Toyota Care Toyota Camry, RAB Racing
Starting Position: DNQ
