Raybestos Rookies Happy Hour speeds:
Stremme 10th
Yeley 13th
Sorenson 15th
Truex Jr. 16th
Hamlin 26th
Bowyer 33rd

David Stremme posted the 10th best speed in the final practice session for the Bass Pro Shops 500, best among the Raybestos Rookie class.

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 COORS LIGHT DODGE: “The team is good. They’ve been doing a good job. We’ve been bringing better cars. This is the same car that we had at Charlotte. We just didn’t want to run a lot of laps on the motor because you turn a lot of rpms here. We felt pretty good and called it day.” ARE THE DRIVERS THAT HAD LIMITED TRACK TIME IN THE FINAL PRACTICE AT A DISADVANTAGE IN THE RACE? “I don’t think it hurt like Kasey and Reed because their cars are pretty good. For the most part you should know what you’ve got but they’re getting paid that extra money to go run that Busch race. I think it’s worth it to them, I guess [smiles].” WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD DAY FOR YOU IN THE RACE? “I’d like to get a top-10. I mean that’d be good. I think we can do that. It’s fun running here. It wears out tires and stuff and you get to move around a lot. It’s a long day so you’ve got to make sure that you’re there at the end.” WILL YOU CHANGE FOUR TIRES EVERY STOP? “Yeah, there’s no two-tiring it here. You’ll get four every time, that’s for sure. But like I said, we just wanted to make sure that we took care of our stuff. The car is pretty good. We were actually out quite a bit in a pack of cars. And this place is so much fun because you can move around, run high, low, and pretty much go where they’re not. We got to race in traffic and race by ourselves. We kind of know the balance of our car and we’ll tune it for tomorrow.” IS IT A RELIEF THAT MOST OF THE CHASE GUYS ARE STARTING UP FRONT? “I guess it is but I’m disappointed because I thought we could have qualified really good. Our qualifying efforts have been a lot better. We’ll just have to play it smart and just pick our way through.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: YOU RAN WELL IN BOTH PRACTICE SESSIONS TODAY. “Yeah man, she’s a hotrod [smiles]. I’m really happy with it. I like running the high side in 1 and 2 and the bottom in 3 and 4 and that’s where I’ve been running and it’s really fast. It’s driving really good and it’s fast. It’s the Bass Pro 500 so we’re going to go out for blood.” IS THERE AN EXTRA EMPHASIS ON THIS EVENT BECAUSE THIS IS YOUR SPONSOR’S RACE? “Yeah, a little bit. It’d be a little extra special to do good in front of them. There’s going to be a lot of them here. We’ve got a big party with them tonight. It’d be good to have a good run for them. I think it’s capable of winning the race so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” ALL THE CHASE GUYS ARE STARTING AT THE FRONT. IS THAT A RELIEF? “No, not really. I’ve pretty much minded my own business all year long so I’m not really worried about that. I know my limitations when I’m around those guys. I try not to make stupid decisions and show them the respect they deserve to be in the Chase, obviously. Whether it was the second race or now, I wouldn’t race ‘em any different.” WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD DAY FOR YOU IN THE RACE? “A win [laughs]. A win would be a great day. We’ve been really improving lately. Our cars have been running really good. We’ve had crappy luck the last couple of weeks, but for the past few months the car has been really fast and it’s continuing here. We’ve had a couple of cars capable of winning and this one definitely is too. We’ll see if we can make the best out of the race tomorrow.” SOME OF THE DRIVERS HAD TO LEAVE EARLY TODAY FOR THE BUSCH RACE IN MEMPHIS. IS THAT A DISADVANTAGE FOR SUNDAY’S RACE? “If they’re car is good it’s good. It doesn’t matter how much practice they get. I don’t think so.”

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: YOU PUT SCOTT WIMMER IN THE CAR FOR HAPPY HOUR BECAUSE CLINT BOWYER HAD TO LEAVE FOR THE BUSCH RACE IN MEMPHIS. “He left to go to Memphis and we just kind of hung out for a little while to hear what Burton was saying about the track and how much it changed with the sun coming out. We kind of made some adjustments for that and Scott went out and ran it for us for about eight laps and did what we asked him to do and got good feedback from him. I think it’s going to work out fine.” IS IT A DISADVANTAGE TO MISS TRACK TIME IN HAPPY HOUR? “It’s not because of the fact that conditions will be so much different tomorrow with 43 cars out there. We were pretty good in the first session. Clint was really happy with the car when he left. He wasn’t panicking because he wasn’t going to get to run this second one. Basically, we needed a plug check and some things done for us or we wouldn’t have even gone back out. If the car is pretty good right here, if you’re not struggling one way or the other, conditions will be so much different tomorrow that whatever you tune to today is probably not going to be what you need tomorrow anyway so as long as you’ve got adjustability, and we do, I think we’ll be fine.” HOW MUCH WILL THE TRACK CHANGE FROM THE START OF THE RACE TO THE FINISH? “I think a lot. I think it’s really going to because I think it’s supposed to be around 70 tomorrow, which is quite a bit of difference from how we were this morning. The track’s going to rubber-up a lot. I’m sure the line is going to move all the way up to the wall like it always does. The bottom may actually come back into play as the sun goes down. I hope so because we’re setup for the bottom.” WILL YOU CHANGE FOUR TIRES ON EVERY PIT STOP? “I think you’re going to do four tires every time here. There might be the rare instance under green if you’re in a bad situation where you need to do two for track position but four tires are going to be the answer here.”

MIKE FORD, CREW CHIEF, No. 11 FEDEX CUP CHEVROLET: IS IT A BIG DEAL TO MISS TRACK TIME IN THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION? “I’ll have to let you know that one tomorrow [laughs]. We’re playing a little bit of a guessing game with where the track went and talking to Tony and Zippy, what they learned in that practice, just trying to juggle that and make the best changes that we can for tomorrow. The biggest thing with having Denny as a Raybestos Rookie is you’ve got limited laps here and this racetrack is tough. We’ve got a very small notebook and you want to grow that and paint a clear picture for what you need to change for tomorrow and where you need to be. We’ve got teammates to rely on and we’ll try to make the car adjustable. It is a long race and you do have time to work on the cars. Hopefully we get a big window and narrow it down as the race goes on.” DO YOU FEEL THE PRESSURE OF THE CHASE? “Pretty much the majority of the guys on this team have been in this situation before and being the guys that aren’t supposed to be in the Chase, we’re not really, I won’t say not feeling the pressure, but because you are you put that on yourself but you’ll handle it pretty well. It’s a little different to be here and not be expected to be here than it is if you have the pressure of being expected to make the Chase. We’re enjoying it. At times it’s a little bit frustrating but you have to come back and say ‘Okay, this is a Raybestos Rookie driver and a second year team.’ You have to put things in perspective at times but that’s good because that shows that everyone is a competitor and wants more out of this season and what we’ve already gotten to this point. We’re looking forward to it. We tried to not put the pressure on but it is there at times when you have a day like today even that your practice gets cut short. You feel like you’re got one arm behind your back a little bit but sometimes that works out for the better because it makes you think even more and be more precise with your changes and your thought processes. Hopefully we can turn it around and make a positive out of it.” WHAT ABOUT DENNY HAS SURPRISED YOU THIS YEAR? “I think the thing that’s surprised me is the longevity that he’s shown. He came in at the end of last year and we had some good runs and it’s a lot easier to run good races than it is to run a good season. He’s been very patient. He doesn’t act like a rookie so I don’t treat him like he hasn’t been here before. I treat him like a race car driver. I don’t view him as a rookie, per se, because he doesn’t make the stupid mistakes that rookies are stereotyped with. The longevity of the season has been very consistent. From the driver’s standpoint, he’s kept himself in decent shape running both series and figured that it would be more of a physical demand on him than what it’s been. But he’s handled that well and we’re as competitive now as what we were at the beginning of the season and midpoint in the season. That is probably the number one thing that surprised me.” IF YOU DON’T WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP, ARE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS SEASON ENOUGH TO KEEP EVERYONE ON THE TEAM MOTOVATED AS THEY PREPARE FOR THE 2007 SEASON? “Yeah, absolutely. You’re in it so you don’t ever look backwards when you are in the fight. But to put things in perspective, sitting here in January, if we were to look back and we weren’t the ones to win the championship, you’d look back because you’d have a smile on your face because you accomplished something. There’s more on the table and we know what is possible and the competitor in you wants to get everything. Right now, that’s what we’re looking at. Looking back at it, you’d say yeah, we did what we had to. There have been some things that we dropped the ball on and mistakes that we’ve made over the course of the year but everyone can say that. It’s a very, very tough series. It seems like each year it multiplies three-fold but we’re very pleased to this point with this season. I think that’s what can keep smiles on our faces right now and not let the pressure gets to us right now.”