Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds:
Truex Jr. 10th
Bowyer 11th
Hamlin 15th
Yeley 16th
Sorenson 31st
Stremme 32nd

Martin Truex Jr. was the top Raybestos Rookie in the final practice session for the USG Sheetrock 400. He posted the 10th-best overall speed, just ahead of fellow freshman driver Clint Bowyer (11th).

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: “The car is driving good and it’s good on the long runs and that’s what the key is. I’m pretty happy. The guys are doing a good job. It feels like what I had at Texas. This place kind of feels like Texas to me and that’s how my car is kind of driving and we ran really, really good there. Hopefully we’ll have the same result.” DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE A LOT OF PASSING IN THE RACE? “I’d say so. The track has weathered, it’s wore down a little bit and there’s a high groove. A lot of guys are running up high, especially in turns 1 and 2 and that will make for some good racing. I think to win you still need to be on the bottom but it will make for some good racing in the pack there.” WHAT IS THE MAIN THING THAT YOU’VE LEARNED IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON? “I’ve learned a lot of lessons. The biggest one, I’m not sure. You just need to be around at the end of these things. It seems like we learn a new lesson just about every week. None is more important that the others. We need to put them all together and find some consistency and get some finishes that we deserve.” IS IT JUST A MATTER OF TIME TO GET THE TEAM TO WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE? “I think so. I think we’re getting close to where we need to be. Our cars are running good. We just keep making mistakes and we keep throwing good races out. The past 10 races we’ve had five or six of them where we probably had top-10 cars and we have zero top-10 finishes in all those races so that’s bad, that’s not good. It makes us look bad and we’re better than that. We just need to get to where we’re consistent every week, we don’t any more mistakes, and we can get the finishes that we deserve and we’ll be fine.” HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT FOR YOU NOT TO GET FRUSTRATED? “It’s been really hard. I’ve got frustrated at times; I’m not going to lie. It’s frustrating when you’re out there driving your guts out all day to run 12th or 15th and you think you should at least finish there and you end up a lap down in 29th for no reason. There’s been countless races in the past couple months that we’ve ran in the lead pack, five or six cars, but been a lap down because of a mistake we made sometime during the race and could never make up. That’s the most frustrating thing. But the thing that we have to look forward to and the thing that I’m really excited about is the way that we’ve been running. And once we get all this stuff out of the way, all the mistakes and all the misfortune, we should be a top-10 car each week.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: YOU SEEM TO HAVE A PRETTY GOOD CAR IN RACE TRIM. “Yeah we do. I just owe it to the guys to make sure that we’ve got a good car. I screwed up there in qualifying and just didn’t go. No explanation other than just flat out didn’t have it but I think we’ve got a really good car in race trim and we’re excited. Stewart is starting back there with me so hopefully we can move on up there. He’ll make a hole and I’ll go with him.” HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO NOT GET FRUSTRATED THIS SEASON? “Oh yeah. It’s crunch time right now. We’ve got some momentum going off of Daytona and want to keep it going. We’re going to have us a good day tomorrow.”