5th, CARL EDWARDS
12th, ERIK JONES
13th, DENNY HAMLIN
18th, MATT KENSETH
21st, CLINT BOWYER
23rd, DAVID RAGAN
33rd, JEB BURTON
35th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
37th, JJ YELEY
CARL EDWARDS, No. 19 Stanley Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 5th
What would it mean to win the Sprint Cup race at Kansas?
“In 2004 I won the Truck race here and it was the only time I was ever able to hear the crowd over the engine. It was awesome. I’m here doing interviews with my local television stations and I know for me and Clint (Bowyer) – this place is really special and it would mean a lot to win.”
How much confidence do you have for tomorrow night’s race?
“We’ve really tried to focus all of our efforts. We’ve had bad luck and some problems and it’s time to really get going here. Everybody has really stepped up and our Stanley Toyota is great. If we can just have a good, solid race tomorrow and perform the way we know we can then it’s going to be great. And Erik Jones has helped a ton today too so everybody is coming together and hopefully it yields a good result.”
ERIK JONES, No. 18 M&M’s Red Nose Day Camry Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 12th
Were you pleased to make it to the final round of your first Sprint Cup qualifying effort?
“It was a little disappointing because we’d run better laps in our first two rounds, but we just tried to make an adjustment there to take a stab at trying to go faster. It just didn’t work out. We have a good race car – the M&M’s Camry should be good for the race. Just the adjustment we tried to make didn’t work out right there.”
How was the car in practice?
“It was good and it was really consistent. We could knock off laps back and forth that were pretty good and that was nice. Definitely confident in the race. I’m just excited to get going tomorrow.”
Has it been difficult jumping between the Tundra and the Camry today?
“It’s definitely about the farthest apart you can get in two race cars, but it was just two good race cars – we’ve got a good Tundra for the race tonight and we have a good Camry for the race tomorrow. That helped out a lot. Knowing the differences between the two cars and knowing what you have to do different as a driver, jumping back and forth and keeping that in mind when you do it and we were able to go back and forth and keep good speed in each one of them.”
Have you talked to Kyle Busch today?
“I talked to him after Cup final practice he texted me and was happy to see that we were happy in the Cup car and also happy to see that we were fast in the truck too yesterday. I’m sure he’s excited to watch the race tonight, he wants to see one of his trucks get a win here this year and hopefully we can be the ones to kick it off.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 13th
MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 18th
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 21st
How was the car in qualifying?
“I just got way too tight. It’s weird, the thing either really sticks and hauls ass or it chews the front tires and takes off up the race track. If it loses point whatsoever, it’s just a slow lap. It was the same way in race trim and then we switched over to qualifying trim and really kept digging almost wide open and you’d roll out of it about half-throttle and right back to it. Just too tight.”
DAVID RAGAN, No. 55 SpongeBob SquarePants/Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 23rd
How was the car in qualifying trim?
“We ran a little quicker than what we did in practice, but we just didn’t pick up quite enough. Our SpongeBob/Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota has some decent speed, but we just can’t seem to hit it just right with our balance. Here in qualifying it’s all about staying throttled up and really hitting a good lap. We were able to pick up some from practice, which is encouraging. We made a couple good adjustments, but probably just didn’t go enough. We’d like to be a few spots better, but confident that we can make some adjustments and have some fun on Saturday night – 400 miles is a long race. We came here to run well at the checkered flag and qualifying is always fun to go fast, but it’s not the end of the day.”
Have you been able to bring some experience from your time at JGR over to MWR?
“We’ve only run a couple mile-and-a-half tracks this year, but there’s a few things that are certainly different and there are some things that are the same. It’s always a moving target in the Sprint Cup Series – everybody is working extremely hard every week to bring a better race car to the track and hopefully I can be part of that process at Michael Waltrip Racing. Working with their crews and engineers and Clint (Bowyer) to try to keep making these Toyotas faster and faster. I’m optimistic that we’ve got some good things in front of us. Just trying to enjoy my time with these guys and learn as much as I can. Try to give as much as I can and we’ll see how the race shakes out.”
JEB BURTON, No. 26 Maxim Fantasy Sports Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 33rd
MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 83 Dustless Blasting Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 35th
JJ YELEY, No. 23 Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry, BK Racing
Starting Position: 37th
