TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 24, 2012
5th, CLINT BOWYER 35th, DAVID STREMME 6th, MARK MARTIN 37th, TRAVIS KVAPIL 8th, DENNY HAMLIN 43rd, JOE NEMECHEK 15th, MARTIN TRUEX JR. DNQ, MIKE BLISS 17th, KYLE BUSCH DNQ, DAVID REUTIMANN 18th, LANDON CASSILL DNQ, JJ YELEY 19th, JOEY LOGANO 26th, BOBBY LABONTE
CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 5th Are you pleased with your qualifying run? “Yeah, I am. Got through (turns) one and two really good and then gave up too much in (turns) three and four. It’s just one of those things. It’s always so much fun to qualify here. It’s so challenging to figure out how much you can push it — how much you can get away with. Like I said, I felt like we got it all in (turns) one and two, and didn’t get much in (turns) three and four.”
MARK MARTIN, No. 55 Aaron’s Armed Forces Foundation Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 6th How was your qualifying run? “I’m real satisfied with that. That was a good run for us. The car is fast. That was a pretty sweet lap. I have a rocket ship and got a way above average lap for a qualifying lap.”
What will be the key for Sunday’s race? “That’s a whole different thing. Adjustability through the night. Being on target the last 100 miles. We’ll try to figure that out on Saturday, so we got it where we can do that. I think we got more speed than we did have for the All-Star race. The guys looked at what we did in the All-Star race and decided that we did some things wrong. It shows that we have better speed now.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 8th How was your qualifying lap? “That was a pretty good lap for us. We made a couple of mock runs in the heat during practice today and the car was good in the slick conditions. We tweaked a few things knowing the track was going to tighten up a bit. I think I could’ve gotten a little more out of it, but we have a good starting spot for Sunday’s race.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Starting Position: 15th How did your car handle in qualifying? “I’m not real happy with it. We were off a little bit today in practice and struggled. We hit the splitter most of the day and because of that we really missed the balance there. Finally got it off the ground and then it was too loose. Just a rough day for us. We’ll come back on Saturday and work hard for Sunday.”
Is it difficult to adjust for a race that starts in the day and ends after dark? “It’s difficult anywhere you go, but especially here. This place changes a lot. It’s never been a great track for me anyway. It’s a little bit of a guessing game for sure.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Red-White-Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 17th How was your qualifying lap? “It wasn’t the lap we had hoped for with our Red, White & Blue M&M’s Camry tonight. The good news is that we have 400 laps on Sunday to work on our car and get it dialed in just right. I’m confident in Dave Rogers (crew chief), that we’ll make the right adjustments and that our guys on pit road will have solid stops to get us up front and in contention for a win.”
LANDON CASSILL, No. 83 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: 18th
JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Starting Position: 19th What did you fight with your car in qualifying? “It was tight –lack of turning. We’re alright though, we’ll be fine. We didn’t adjust enough to the track today for qualifying to be at night. I wish there was time in the schedule for a night practice session for this race since we have a night qualifying session. It’s just a challenge, but it’s the same for everyone.”
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kingsford Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Starting Position: 26th
DAVID STREMME, No. 30 Inception Motorsports Toyota Camry, Inception Motorsports Starting Position: 35th
TRAVIS KVAPIL, No. 93 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: 37th
JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Starting Position: 43rd
MIKE BLISS, No. 19 Humphrey Smith Racing LLC Toyota Camry, Humphrey Smith Racing Starting Position: DNQ
DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 73 Burger King Toyota Camry, BK Racing Starting Position: DNQ
JJ YELEY, No. 49 JPO Absorbents Toyota Camry, America Israel Racing Starting Position: DNQ
