1st, MATT KENSETH
9th, KYLE BUSCH
13th, BRIAN VICKERS
20th, DENNY HAMLIN
24th, CLINT BOWYER
35th, ALEX BOWMAN
39th, JJ YELEY
40th, COLE WHITT
41st, BRETT MOFFITT
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 1st
How does it feel to start from the pole?
“I’m proud of this whole Dollar General crew. We’ve been getting a hard time for not winning anything this year — so small victories I guess. It’s pole night and that’s the best driving car I’ve had at an intermediate (track) all year by far, hands down. These guys did a great job, good adjustments throughout this qualifying — we got a little better every round and got that last lap just by the smallest of margins. I feel like as a group (JGR) we keep getting better. I thought we had a really good test at Homestead (earlier this week) and really kind of stumbled on a few things at the end of the test I was hoping would help here — and it seemed to so far. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve really got to get her to drive good tomorrow and hope we can get it up there Sunday.”
What was the key to getting the pole?
“Really great adjustments — I thought it was just right the second round. We freed it up a little for that last round and it was all I wanted, but we got everything out of it and did a great job today. I’m surprised and happy we are on the pole.”
How important was it to be first out in qualifying?
“Well, you want as much cool-down time as you could and obviously it’s getting later and the track’s getting better, and Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) knows that I kind of stress out about that group qualifying — when you are going to go and when not to. So, he just tells me and I do what he tells me. He told me ‘there is nobody on the track, good clean air so just go.’ So had a good lap there, obviously the margin wasn’t very much there over Jeff (Gordon). It was a great lap. Glad to be on the pole. Looking forward to getting to work tomorrow and hopefully get it driving good in race trim for Sunday.”
Can you comment on the speed everyone was finding this evening?
“It’s crazy fast so it’s been a while since they paved the track and the asphalt is very worn and abrasive. It just amazes me every time you qualify here how fast you can run, especially when it cools off a little bit and the grip level there — especially being on three-cycle tires. It’s incredibly fast. It’s amazing you can go around there with that much throttle in a Cup car for sure.”
Where important is track position in the race?
“Five-hundred miles is a really long race. It depends on how your car is handling. Obviously, the better your car handles the less important track position is and the easier it is to overcome being in the back. But, it is certainly important everywhere with this aero package and how close all the cars are the same speed. When you look at qualifying speeds it amazes me how close they are to the same speed which gives the front guy an advantage, so it’s nice to get that first pit selection. Of course you always hope to at least try to lead a lap and get that bonus point, so there are a lot of good things about being out front and kind of hopefully maintain that track position. (It’s) easier than where we have been starting most of the year.”
Have you seen recent performance improvements?
“I think that this as an organization — none of us and Toyota — ran as good as we did last year obviously. When that happens, I don’t think you can ever point at just one thing. It’s a little bit of everything — and we’ve been working on everything and trying to get better. I think TRD (Toyota Racing Development) has made some nice progress of getting engines better. I think JGR has been getting the cars better and the bodies better. I think you’re always trying to improve everything.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 9th
BRIAN VICKERS, No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 13th
How was qualifying?
“The guys did a really good job on the Aaron’s Dream Machine Camry. When you’re fast in practice — you always want to back it up. You got to do it not only once in practice — you have to do it three more times (in qualifying). We underestimated how much the track was going to change when we went into qualifying. That got us a little off in the first round. Obviously, made it to the second round and in the second round we had to take a really big swing at it. Any time you’re making big adjustments — qualifying is tough. Just got a little too on the other side of it — just a quick bobble. That’s all it took and missed it by a few hundredths.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 20th
How do you feel about your starting spot?
“We’ll keep fighting. Typically, its way better in race trim than qualifying trim. We got to work and figure out what we need to do to make our car better. We have to do the work to make sure we have a good car for the race.”
How important is tire management here in Texas?
“It’s not as big here as at a place like Martinsville. You still have to think about it. You can’t be holding right fronts as we have in the past. You got to watch out for it and be aware of that throughout the day.”
Is there any concern with your starting position?
“A little concern with the speed — we weren’t that fast today. Race trim is an entirely different beast. We’ll just go to work on that tomorrow. I’m really not concerned unless we have two bad practices tomorrow.”
Did you do any testing here at Texas?
“We didn’t do any testing here. We did some Homestead stuff (testing) this week — that somewhat applies to here. We really haven’t hit the right setup here yet.”
Any Halloween plans this evening?
“I don’t have anything planned for tonight. Sitting in the bus — watching a few basketball games, that’s about it.”
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 24th
How was qualifying?
“We ran pretty much the same three lap times. I don’t know. The car felt fine. I’m not sure what happened. I actually came in that second lap and thought we’d gone a lot faster and I was a tenth slower. We’ve got 500 miles to get this 5-hour ENERGY Toyota up front on Sunday.”
ALEX BOWMAN, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 35th
JJ YELEY, No. 83 Zak Products Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 39th
COLE WHITT, No. 26 Speed Stick Gear Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 40th
BRETT MOFFITT, No. 66 RoyalTeakCollection.com Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position: 41st
