Author: Official Release

Roush Fenway Racing announced earlier this week that Drew Blickensderfer was joining the team as crew chief for David Ragan and the No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion. Ragan, qualified 30th for tomorrow’s AAA 400, and Blickensderfer spoke about the change prior to Saturday’s practice.

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS CHANGE? “Anything new is exciting. The relationship that Donnie and I have had has been great. I’m glad that he’s here this weekend helping our team out, but we were to a point where week-in and week-out we were working hard, but we just didn’t see much change.

The way that I look at this thing, and maybe Jack and Drew and Donnie look at it a little different, but I see we have nine races left to basically see how our off-season was going to be. To mix things up like this and bring Drew in, he’s got a different background, he’s worked with some different drivers in our company, so just to see what his opinion is on things, his opinion on me as a driver and what I can do to our race cars, to our team, to our pit crew. It’s just a different perspective. Everybody has a different opinion, so, hopefully, he can shine some light on a few things and it’s important for us to end the season with some good runs and that will certainly carry some momentum through the off-season.”

IS COMMUNICATION GOING TO BE THE FIRST THING TO WORK THROUGH? “Yeah, certainly it’s going to be tough for the first couple of practices, even that first race.

Donnie and I had a pretty good system and it took us a little while to get to know our lingo and understand each other and it’s gonna be like that with Drew, but we didn’t do this for one race, we did this for several, so hopefully over five or six races something will flash to the surface. Obviously, the first race for a new crew chief or a new crew is a learning experience, so we wanted to take Dover, which has been a good track for all the Roush Fenway teams, and come up here and see how we can do, and I’m sure we’ll get better as the weekend goes.”

IS YOUR ROUTINE GOING TO CHANGE AS FAR AS FEEDBACK OR RECOMMENDATIONS YOU MAKE ABOUT ADJUSTMENTS INSIDE THE CAR? “It’s not gonna change a great deal. I don’t sit in on all the meeting and understand the different programs we have to work on our race cars from a setup standpoint. I can offer a few suggestions, now whether they listen or not is one thing (laughing), but it’s just the small things that I can do to be more focused on my car. Maybe during practice I can pay more attention after the fifth or sixth lap of a run versus the first or second, so there are several things I can critique myself on to give better feedback to the crew. Ultimately, how we pay attention to our teammates and what we do with our setup is up to our engineer, our crew chief and me as a group, so we’re the triangle that makes it work. I understand what’s in our car, but as far as suggesting many changes, these practices go by so fast that I don’t even get out of the car, so it’s tough for me to have a notebook in front of my face to make suggestions.”

SO FEEDBACK IS YOUR MAIN CONCERN. “Yeah, and that’s what I can work on – just try to give better feedback and try to drive the car harder and harder until it does something that I don’t like and we’ll go to fix it. I’ve got a lot of confidence in our team to make those good decisions and after practice we can sit down and go through everything. I still need to learn more about our cars and why we do certain things to the setups, but by having Drew in he’ll have a different outlook on things.”

IS THIS A TEMPORARY ARRANGEMENT OR PERMANENT? “Time will tell. It’s for the next nine races and that’s what we’re focused on. We’ve got to take care of what’s in front of us right now before we worry about Daytona of next year. Ultimately, Daytona of next year will be here before we know it, but we’re taking it one race at a time and trying to get all we can out of this year. Hopefully, when we leave Homestead we can say that we ended the season on a good note, we were proud of the direction our team was going in, and we’ll have some momentum for the off-season.”

DREW BLICKENSDERFER, Crew Chief – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS OPPORTUNITY? “I view it as an opportunity personally for me to grow and professionally to help Jack and UPS and David hopefully light a spark. It’s not that David can’t do it or the team can’t do it or anything like that. I’ve been inserted to light a spark and maybe look at things that weren’t seen before or look at things through a different set of eyes and turn the corner.”

HOW DO YOU PROVIDE THAT SPARK? THROUGH MOTIVATION, THROUGH ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM? THROUGH TECHINCAL SETUPS? HOW? “I think every situation is different and being three days on the job right now I’m doing more observing right now than anything else and seeing what it’s going to take to help this team. Is it me getting on David? Is it me getting on the car chief? Is it me helping the engineer? Is it me providing energy to the team and painting a blue sky picture for them and getting them through a funk? It’s all of those things and in different circumstances it’s different things.”

CARL SAID YESTERDAY THAT HE WASN’T LOSING YOU AND YOU WERE GOING TO EITHER BE ON THE 60 NATIONWIDE BOX OR THE 6 CUP BOX. HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS SITUATION?

“The same way. I was told to come over here and see if I can help turn this deal around and when Thanksgiving comes, Jack and myself and David and Carl will all sit down and we’ll all talk about it and either say, ‘No, Drew needs to go back to where he was,’ or, ‘Drew, we want you to stay.’ They’ve been very open and willing to work with me on seeing what I thought was the best fit for me, where can I fit in the best to help Jack, UPS, Copart, Fastenal and the 60 car, and what’s best for Drew and Roush Fenway.”

JACK WAS VERY SUPPORTIVE OF YOU WHEN THE CHANGE WAS MADE ON THE 17 EARLIER THIS YEAR. HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL TO KNOW YOU’RE HELD IN SUCH REGARD BY HIM? “You sleep better at night when you know your boss is supporting you and Jack is one of those guys that a lot of times he puts his finger on you and presses you. When he does things like this, it’s instills in the back of your mind that he has confidence in you and that helps you go out and do your job. Everything Jack has ever told me since I started working for him nine years ago, he’s always made good, so he’s definitely someone that when he says something I believe him and I trust that he doesn’t say it to sugarcoat you or to pacify you. He says it because it’s the truth, so knowing that you’re working for a guy that is always gonna be honest with you makes it a lot easier to come to work everyday.”

YOU OBVIOUSLY WANT TO SEE IMPROVEMENT THESE LAST NINE RACES, BUT WHAT’S THE ULTIMATE GOAL? “I think the ultimate goal is to get this group to where it’s not satisfied with wherever they finish. If they finish 25th, that’s not good enough. We need to finish 20th. If we finish 20th, we need to finish 15th. Hopefully, by the end of the nine weeks we’re running inside the top 10 and that’s not good enough, so you go into the off-season preparing to gain on top-10s and when you gain on top-10s good things happen to you. Hopefully, we’ll prepare ourselves for the next six or seven weeks to where the last few races we’re showing that we’re coming to the race track and we can compete and we can run up front and we can battle and qualify and we can battle in the race and we can be one of those group of guys that are running towards the front edge of the field.”

RESPECT THE CHASERS, BUT NOT TOO MUCH BECAUSE YOU GUYS HAVE TO RACE AS WELL, RIGHT? “That’s exactly right. The chasers are racing for a championship. We’re racing to prove that we belong in that group in the future, so it’s just as important for these guys to go out there and run up front as it is for the chase guys. It’s for different reasons, but it’s just as important.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

AAA 400

DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Jimmie Johnson Wins the Pole at Dover; 15 Team Chevy Drivers to Start AAA 400

Dover, Del. (September 24, 2010) – For the 25th time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) career, four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson will start from the pole. Johnson qualified his No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet in the No. 1  starting position for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

It is his second pole of the 2010 season and his third at Dover. It is the 12th pole for Team Chevy in 28 races this season.

Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, will start fifth with Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet, seventh in the 43-car starting lineup. A total of 15 Team Chevy drivers will start race two of the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

AJ Allmendinger (Ford), Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) complete the top-five qualifiers for the 400-lap/400-mile race on Sunday.

ESPN TV, MRN Radio and Sirius NASCAR Satellite Radio Channel 128 will provide live coverage of the race scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER:

YOU MADE A COUPLE OF ADJUSTMENTS ON THE CAR AND HERE YOU ARE ON THE POLE

“I have a lot of faith in this race team. We worked on some things. I knew the car was going to be more comfortable for me and help some of the loose. I didn’t know how much. As I heard on the telecast earlier, some of the other drivers we speaking about the commitment it takes. As a Sprint Cup driver you’ve got to climb in the car and hope for the best. Every time you go into Turn 1 you’ve got to anticipate that grip is there and fortunately for me today it was. If it wasn’t, I would have been backwards and in the fence, and I had a big issue off of (Turn) 4 but (Turns) 1 and 2 gave me a good feel for what (Turns) 3 and 4 had and I got a good end down there. I’m just proud of these guys and this whole Lowe’s /KOBALT Tools team. We’ve got a good starting spot, obviously, and hopefully we can make some good of it on Sunday.”

ON HIS START TO THE CHASE

“It certainly isn’t the way we wanted to start the Chase. We ran better than where we finished (at Loudon). We were in the eye of the storm a few times and had some issues and lost track position and then we had an issue with the right front tire. When I watched the comments through the week and heard what Tony Stewart had to say, and I really parallel his thoughts. It’s not what you want but there are still nine races left and no time to panic. We don’t need to change what we’re doing. We know we’re a great race team. We’ve just got to go race for this thing and I think this year’s Chase, every guy in the Chase is ready to race. We know that we are.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE FIRST PIT STALL? “Dover is such a tough track to pass on. Especially early in the race and the short run side of it. The most important thing is pit road and it is a very dangerous pit road. Even for the crew guys in a certain respect, but just from the car standpoint, you can get hit in the left front; you can get smashed in the wall. All kinds of damage can take place. You can get pinned in your pit box so to have that first pit box is everything. From where we were in practice, we were just hoping for a top-10 and I got a really good lap because of some great adjustments. We are very pleased to have that first pit stall.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON’S POLE WINNER POST QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPT:

ON RACING AT DOVER:

“I do like the race track. It’s always been a very fun race track for me. Practice was in the not-so-fun category and we made some changes to get a good lap. I wasn’t sure if it was enough for the pole, but I knew I’d be far better than I was in practice. It was a fun challenge for me today; especially the way things turned out. And there are a lot of times where you change the race car around and you’re not sure what to expect with the balance and you go out and you run a lap and things happen. Today, to really go into qualifying blind and go off of past notes for qualifying and the rhythm and mindset that I thought I needed to drive here and just blindly go into it in the first turn and just lay the car in there as I would hope, it could handle the speed and the car stuck and made the transition through (Turns) 1 and 2 and was strong. It’s cool to have that come full circle. And I guess a lot of that boils down to the confidence I have in my race team and the faith I have in them and the trust I have in them to give me a car that I need to feel. So today was a neat challenge the way it all turned out.”

IS THIS THE BEST MEDICINE AFTER LAST WEEK? HOW IMPORTANT IS TRACK POSITION AT THIS TRACK?

“This is certainly a step in the right direction for momentum. Last weekend we ran much better than where we finished. It stinks that we finished where we did but there is nothing we can really do about it and to come out this weekend and qualify on the pole just starts the weekend off on the right foot. And it really creates a good situation for us in the race having that first pit stall. Track position is very, very important here. It seems to be more important as each weekend and each year goes by. We just learn more about the cars and make them more equal and the aero deficit that you’re in being one position back; just one position back is enough to keep you from running the lap times you need to. So, it’s all small little steps now and track position is one of the few big steps left in our sport. And the best way to get that track position is by qualifying on the front row or up front, and we did that. Hopefully we can maintain that track position throughout the race and have a good finish.”

ON THE ADJUSTMENT FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING THAT ALLOWED HIM TO WIN THE POLE. WHAT WILL YOU WORK ON IN TOMORROW’S PRACTICE?

“We just worked on qualifying trim today. So we can learn some trends from what we saw today and carry that into race practice tomorrow. But the track, to be honest with you, it was a little different than what we expected today. The grip level was a little off. The balance of the car wasn’t as we anticipated. So hopefully what we learned today we can lay that into our race set-up and transition into a smoother day tomorrow.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE LAP, WAS IT THE PERFECT LAP FOR THIS TRACK? DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD A SHOT AT THE POLE?

“No, I wasn’t sure it was a pole lap. Our practice session was really, really loose. And it was the first time I wasn’t crashing loose so I felt like I was going to be better than 18^th or wherever I was in practice and I was prepared to run a second lap and was carrying my speed into Turn 1 and committed to running my lap when (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) with great surprise said on the radio, ‘Whoa, whoa, stop, stop…pole! You’re good, you’re good!’ And I’m like what’? I didn’t know the lap would turn out to be that fast.  It was cool to see it all come together for us.”

DID YOU FEEL THE LAP WOULD HOLD UP?

“I was the last of the guaranteed starters, I’m not even sure what the heck we’re called, but I was the last of those guys. And I didn’t feel like a go or go-homer had a shot to win the pole from what I saw in practice. I didn’t count them out, but I felt pretty good about things.

 

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Qualified 30th) –  “I think we pretty much ran what we did in practice.  I wish we could have picked up a little bit, but the car just seemed to slide around a little bit more than it did in practice.  I think our car is gonna be pretty good for the race.  I was happy with hit when we unloaded, so we just needed a little bit more speed there in qualifying.” 

HOW HAS YOUR FIRST DAY WITH DREW GONE?  “So far, so good.  Drew and I have worked together a little bit in the past.  He knows the Roush system very well.  We’ve still got some time to learn and some things to do, but, overall it’s been good.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings and hopefully he’ll have a few different opinions of what we’ve got here.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Qualified 7th) – “Can I do it one more time?  It was really good, but the track was hotter and slicker than I expected it to be.  I probably drove it in three and four a little bit too far and it went up the track.  I had to wait forever and that cost me at least a tenth and that’s the top of the board.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Qualified 11th) –  “I just missed my mark a little bit in three and four, but it’s just a blink of an eye – you don’t want to mess that up.  I needed one more lap and I could probably run another tenth faster, but we’ve got a fast race car.  It’s nice to be disappointed not being on the pole.  We’ve got a car that can win the pole and it’s been like that the last few weeks.

That’s been cool.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Insignia/Best Buy Ford Fusion (Qualified 2nd) – “It’s tough here because the lap times at this place are so close.

You just watch everybody go and some guys would speed up, but a lot of guys were slowing down.  You just never know, but I’m just proud of everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports and the Roush Yates engine shop.  We’ve got great horsepower and everybody has just been doing a great job over the last month.  It’s been a pleasure to feel like we’re building again and getting better.  It’s a great effort from everybody and I’m just proud.”

KASEY KAHNE – No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion (Qualified 17th) – “I think we went a little too far.  We just got a little bit loose, but the car actually drove really good and did everything I wanted it to.  I just wasn’t able to give it enough gas all the time.  We have a lot of time to work on the car tomorrow and keep getting it better, but I think it’ll be strong on Sunday.”

PAUL M ENARD – No. 98 Menards Ford Fusion (Qualified 10th) – “That was a nice pickup from practice.  I butchered turn one a little bit and I thought I hurt the lap quite a bit.  There was more there, for sure, but it was a nice pickup.  We made a few changes and kind of guessed at a few things that worked out pretty good.  We were decent in race trim earlier.  We just did a couple of runs and we’ve got all day tomorrow to improve, as does everybody else, but I think we have a good car.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER PRESS CONFERENCE – “For us it was just another solid day.  Over the last month I’ve felt like everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports, but especially the 43, my team has been really strong.

We unload strong.  We have good Fridays and good Saturdays and the races have been going really well, so today was just another portion of that.  We went out there and were really fast in race trim, I felt.

 We did a couple of runs there and went right into qualifying trim and went really fast.  I would have liked to have had the pole.  When you’ve got the 48 behind you it’s tough to hold on, but, more importantly, the confidence that my race team and I are building together is the most important thing.  I’m excited about tomorrow with getting some practice in.  The track is gonna change a lot and that’s what we’ve got to focus on, but I’m really excited about my car on Sunday.”  YOU GUYS ARE COMING AROUND NOW.  DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE CAR?  “For me, it’s my first full year working with all the 43 guys and this is Richard Petty Motorsports’ first year working with Ford.  We have the alliance with Roush Fenway and the beginning of the year was tough.  We were trying to learn a lot of new things.  Everybody was trying to find their place inside the company and where that belonged.  I felt like we kind of got on a good path in the middle of the season.  We were having a lot of solid top-10,

top-15 runs and then the last six weeks or so we kind of got off track and were struggling.  We had a good run at Watkins Glen, but that was about it.  And then over the last month, just inside the team we made a couple of changes engineering-wise helping all of us out and I feel like that’s really got us back on path.  Over the last three weeks, and counting today now, we’ve just been getting better.  We’ve had good races.  We need to minimize our mistakes during the races, but, overall, I feel like our cars are really strong.  We’re really fast and they’re really consistent, which is the biggest deal.  For the chasers, to me, you never want to be the guy that goes out there and gets into the side of one of them and possibly cost them a championship or anything like that, but, to be honest with you, I could really care less about if they’re out there racing for a championship.  They’ve got a lot more to lose than I do.  I’m not gonna go and intentionally get in anybody’s way, but I’m out there to win.  I’m out there to get Insignia/Best Buy a victory and the way I look at it, they’ve got a lot more to lose than I do, so they’ve got to be more cautious than me.”  COMING FROM OPEN WHEEL, WHAT DO YOU LIKE AT DOVER NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO GET USED TO COMING HERE?

 “I think ultimately, Mark said it the best, it’s a cool place.  It’s fast, there’s a lot of banking in it.  To me, the corners narrow up so much on the exit and you’re going so fast that you’re almost on edge every lap.  You don’t ever feel like you can relax because when you do relax it’ll jump out and bite you, so, as a race car driver and me especially, I think it puts you on your A-game every lap that you run.

 It’s a really fun place.  I can’t really say much more than Mark said.  It’s just an awesome place.  I’ve really enjoyed it.  Even the first year I came here.  I remember I showed up and I was running the truck race and the Cup race.  We had a truck practice on Thursday and my crew chief wouldn’t let me out for the first 20 minutes.  He wanted me to just watch.  He said, ‘Kind of watch the straightaways, but watch off of turn four.’  I’m like, ‘What do you mean, and watch off of turn four?  I have to.  That’s what I’m supposed to do.  I’m supposed to learn.’  And I think Hornaday came off of four the first lap and the wheels didn’t look like they were touching the ground and I was like, ‘I retire.  Screw that (laughter).  I’m not doing that.

That’s unfair.  I’m not doing that.’  It’s an amazing place when you get on it.  You feel like the bottom drops out from under you when you get in the corners and then come back and they try to bite you on the exit.  It’s just an awesome place to race and just drive in general.”

4th, Martin Truex Jr. 5th, Denny Hamlin 12th, Kyle Busch 13th, Reed Sorenson 18th, David Reutimann 20th, Joey Logano 21st, Scott Speed 24th, Marcos Ambrose 27th, Casey Mears 29th, Joe Nemechek 39th, Mike Bliss 41st, Kevin Conway DNQ, Josh Wise DNQ, Ted Musgrave

MARTIN TRUEX JR Starting Position:  4th Are you happy with your qualifying lap? “Yeah, it was okay.  You can always do a little better, you know.  You can always find things about your lap that weren’t quite right.  We had a decent practice today.  We made constant improvements on the car and we ended up our last run there was the best that we had been, but it wasn’t quite good enough so we made a few more changes and it was a good pickup for us.  That’s probably one of the biggest pickups all day as far as making some adjustments and going back out and running.  It was a good pickup, it wasn’t perfect.  I probably could’ve made it better yet, but it was a good lap for our NAPA Toyota and I’ve just got to thank all of the guys for their hard work.” How did everything go at the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation golf tournament on Wednesday? “The golf event Wednesday was awesome.  We had a great turnout.  It was sold out.  And the dinner that night was great.  We had an auction and everything went really well.  We had a lot of support and raised $200,000 so it was pretty good.  We’re real proud of that and I’ve just got to thank everyone for helping us.  NAPA and all of our sponsors and of course Toyota — everybody helping us put it on and of course all of the people that made it all possible by coming out and supporting us.”

DENNY HAMLIN Starting Position:  5th What are your goals for the weekend? “Just try to keep our nose clean.   I think this has been a tough track for us.  We’ve gotten in accidents, we’ve had mechanical failures at this track.  Even when we do seem to run well.  It’s all about conserving.  Really, I hate to say that but for us it’s been a track that’s really bitten us and put us really far behind in the Chase.  So, we’re going to come here and hopefully take some of the momentum that we’ve had over the last few weeks and try to capitalize on that.”

KYLE BUSCH, Starting Position:  12th How did your car handle on the qualifying lap? “Real tight in turn one.  Dave’s (Rogers, crew chief) been doing a good job – all the guys have.  We had a pretty good car in the practice and felt like the Interstate Batteries Camry was capable of qualifying top-five.  We just got tight there in turn two, but everything else was really good so I was kind of pleased with it.  I knew it felt a little slow and evidently it was.”

REED SORENSON Starting Position:  13th How was your qualifying lap? “I thought we had a pretty good balance in practice and we seemed to be a little bit freer in qualifying, but it was still pretty good for as loose as we were.  It was really loose.  That’s okay, though.  We’ve had more speed in the car this weekend so that’s a good thing and I think we’ve got a decent start of the weekend in race trim.  We started out in race trim and it was decent so I think we’ve got a decent car for this weekend.” – more – Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.   · 19001 South Western Avenue   · Torrance, CA 90501 , No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing TeamNo. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position:  18th How did you feel about your qualifying lap? “We really missed it today.  We kept tightening up the Aaron’s Dream Machine and when I went out to qualify it felt like it was plowing in the center.  We just went too far in trying to tighten it up.  It’s disappointing – we normally qualify pretty well here and we ran well here in the spring.  We’ll just keep working on it tomorrow and try to get it better before the race on Sunday.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position:  20th How was your qualifying lap? “We freed it up too much.  We got loose and as soon as I landed the back end just broke out and I just over-slowed the car and forced me to get to the gas too soon and missed my corner pretty much.  It seems like once the first thing goes wrong it all kind of goes wrong together after that.”

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Starting Position:  21st How do you feel about your qualifying lap? “We were able to put a pretty good lap down.  It was a lot better than in practice.  We were able to make some good changes in between practice and qualifying so that will certainly be a lot better than we would have been.  Other than that, we just have to see how the car will be tomorrow in practice.  I like this race track and I used to really like it a lot.  I’ve been real successful here in a truck and a Nationwide car, but I’ve always seemed to struggle here in the Cup car.  It’s a very unique track and I like it because it’s something different that we get to go to.”

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Bush’s Baked Beans/Scott Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position:  24th How was your car during qualifying? “We were loose late off during our qualifying run.  During first practice, we were fighting being tight in the middle with our Bush’s Baked  Beans Toyota and it was snapping loose off.  We just have to work on it a little more to get it dialed in.  We’ve got a pretty good piece.  I was really comfortable with it at the start of practice.  I really didn’t have any issues with it.  We’ve just got to get back there.  If we can do that, we’ll be pretty good.”

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Starting Position:  27th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Heat Redefined.com Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position:  29th

MIKE BLISS, No. 55 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Starting Position:  39th

KEVIN CONWAY, No. 7 Extenze Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports Starting Position:  41st

JOSH WISE, No. 64 Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Starting Position:  DNQ

TED MUSGRAVE, No. 66 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Starting Position:  DNQ