Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds:
Sorenson 4th
Truex Jr. 19th
Hamlin 21st
Bowyer 24th
Stremme 34th
Yeley 40th
J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: “I was right in the middle of 3 and 4 and saw the 31, I guess he cut a tire down, saw him spin and hit the fence. He hit a ton. I got checked-up and was down near the bottom of the racetrack. It was pretty hard to see, a lot of smoke. I guess the 22 came bulldozing through there and he hit me perfectly square. He hit me a lot faster than I was going and it killed the back of the car. It’s going to take rear clip. It just shoved the whole back of the car down about three inches, which isn’t good. It’s very, very disappointing. This is a different car than I’ve run so far on any of the restrictor plate stuff. The car was awesome. The thing drafted good and it sucked up good. It did everything like it was supposed to and now it’s wrecked. That’s just par for the season so far. It seems like any time we really have something promising going on something seems to happen and it brings it back down. We run bad, nothing happens. We can’t get wrecked when we’re running bad. It’s just whenever things are going good. We’ll keep fighting and see what we can get.” HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS IT GOING TO BE TO QUALIFY AND RACE WITH NO PRACTICE LAPS ON THE BACKUP CAR? “It’s a long race and you’ve got time to work on it. I’d rather something like this happen at Talladega because handling isn’t nearly important as what it is here.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX HOME DELIVERY CHEVROLET: “I wouldn’t disagree with that. It seems like Jimmie and those guys have been dominant all year. If we get in the Chase, the first race of the Chase, to have one bad race and we have a good race. All of a sudden we’re ahead in points. We’re 26th six or seven races in and we’re ahead of him in points when we’ve been behind him all year. I kind of agree with that philosophy, that when you get up there in points you deserve it. Maybe make it a 10, 15-point spread and that’d be fine.” ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR CAR? “It’s decent. I’m decently happy with it. It’s really hard to tell until you get out there in race conditions because you’ve got a lot of guys, including myself, that don’t make moves in practice like we would in the race. The car is going to react different. I’m pretty happy with it now. It definitely drives better than the Busch car.” DOES IT BOIL DOWN TO GETTING DRAFTING HELP HERE IN THE RACE? “That’s going to be a large part of it, getting help and just trying to miss that wreck.” DO YOU FEEL LUCKY YOU WEREN’T INVOLVED IN THE ACCIDENT IN THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION? “Yeah, I was right behind Jeff when he spun out. It definitely snapped around in an instant and I’m glad I wasn’t any closer to him or else I would have hit him. I’m kind of fortunate in that aspect.”
DAVID STREMME, No. 40 COORS LIGHT DODGE (Note: Stremme must qualify for the Pepsi 400 on time): DID YOU MAKE A RUN DURING HAPPY HOUR? “I went out and made one lap. I just did a qualifying run. That’s all we’ve been doing. The car is pretty good. I think we’ll qualify pretty good, actually. It’s just nerve-racking because we’re outside the top-35 to get in. Hopefully pretty soon we’ll be on the inside of the top-35. Our team is making a lot of gains.” DOES THE CAR DRAFT WELL? “Didn’t draft at all, so I’ll go into the race without drafting. It’s the same as my team cars. They’ve been fast and we’re all about the same.”
