Dodge Charger 500 - Rookie Qualifying Quotes

Where the Raybestos Rookies qualified at Darlington:
Bowyer 3rd
Stremme 4th
Hamlin 5th
Sorenson 16th
Yeley 26th
Truex Jr. 39th

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 LONESTAR STEAKHOUSE DODGE: “It was pretty good. The guys on the Lonestar Dodge have been working pretty hard in the shop and this is actually a borrowed car from the 41 team so I’ve got to thank them for that. I felt like I could have got more through 1 and 2 but we’re just trying to be conservative. We’ve got to qualify in on time. I love this place. It’s fun coming here. We’ll just have a blast this weekend.” RAYBESTOS ROOKIES AREN’T SUPPOSED TO RUN FAST HERE. “There’s still a lot of other cars to go. We just want a solid starting spot. I think that our program is turning around. I talked to Chip earlier this week and I told him that from here on out is where we’ve got to change things and I feel like we can do that. I love coming to Darlington. It’s fun. This is a driver’s track here.” YOU UNLOADED FAST. “I wasn’t good here in the Busch car last year and we ended up with a pretty good effort and we put that in here. I just like this place. Our program is turning around and we’ve got a lot to do.” THIS IS A GOOD RUN FOR YOUR TEAM. “It’s good. I actually told them I could have got some more. I didn’t get back to the throttle like I wanted to down in turn 1. If I don’t get it one of my teammates will. Again, I’m real proud of all my guys. They’ve been working hard. We had this car at Charlotte and ran three laps on it because we devoted it to running here and we’ve got a brand new car for Charlotte. We’re trying to turn some things around here and get going in the right direction.” YOU PICKED UP A GOOD BIT FROM PRACTICE. “We were going to make another run in practice and we just said no. You always take that chance of getting into a wall. I felt like I could pick it up a little bit more but this will be a good starting spot.”

CLINT BOWYER IN THE No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET WAS TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT DARLINGTON. ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED THAT YOU DIDN’T WIN THE POLE? “No, no, that’s a good lap for us. I don’t know how close it was, but it was a good effort for the Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet. This was a place where we were worried about coming to, or at least I was anyway [smiles]. That’s a good step in the right direction and a confidence booster for the race tomorrow night.” DO YOU THINK IT MADE ANY DIFFERNCE WHEN YOU WENT OUT TODAY? “Probably a little bit. Definitely the sun keeps going down but for nothing more just a little bit of confidence watching these other guys run and get some pointers from them and watch how deep they were getting into the corner and things like that. It’s a good lap for us and a good way to start the weekend.” BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO TEST HERE, IS THE BUSCH RACE TONIGHT VERY IMPORTANT? “Yeah, definitely, especially just getting laps on this track, getting acclimated and letting her hang out, slide up next to that wall and get used to flat-out running up there the whole time. It’s going to be a benefit to me, anyway. I’m glad I’m running it.” WHY DO MOST DRIVERS LOVE THIS PLACE? “It’s a very challenging racetrack. You’ve got to let it hangout. You go up there next to the wall and it’s just a cool track to get around. But don’t kid yourself: you have to respect it and if you don’t, it will bit you quick.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX EXPRESS CHEVROLET: “It was pretty good. We got into the wall so it was a pretty good lap, considering. I’m definitely pretty happy. We scrubbed off a lot of speed coming to the green hitting the wall off of 4. It was a good lap considering that and the FedEx Chevrolet is going to be pretty good in race trim.” BUT ISN’T HITTING THE WALL PART OF RACING AT DARLINGTON? “When I came here and tested for the first time, it was my first time testing ever in a Busch car and they threw me here. I think I hit the wall every run for 25 runs. When I came back I never touched it during the race. I got it over with, I didn’t touch it during practice but I got it during qualifying. It’s still a good run. We weren’t going to run a .10. We may have qualified second or third but we’re still happy with fifth.” YOU RAN WELL HERE IN A TRUCK RACE A FEW YEARS AGO. IS THIS A TRACK WHERE YOU JUST NATURALLY RUN WELL? “It’s just a racetrack that just fits me really well. I think the driver can make up for what the car doesn’t have here. You can slow down and not have to race other people, just take your time. I’ve always run top-10 here and it’s been a great track for me.” WHY DOES EVERY DRIVER LIKE THIS TRACK? “It’s just old school racing and it’s racing the way it used to be. It’s slipping and sliding, back when the cars didn’t handle very good and you didn’t have to worry about aero and everything like that. It’s back to the old times.” BECAUSE THE CAR SLIDES AROUND SO MUCH, HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR YOU TO KNOW WHAT CHANGES TO MAKE? “I think you can figure out what to adjust better on this racetrack because whatever is wrong will show up dramatically in your car and how it’s handling. It’s easier on Raybestos Rookies because they can tell what the car is doing a whole lot easier.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 BONIVA CHEVROLET: “I guess it’s a little better than I thought. It was a mediocre run. I think the car was really good this week. For some reason I tend to over-slow the car through 3 and 4. I’ve only been here once. Turns 1 and 2 are easy. You run in there and put the thing on the fence, stay on the gas. I’m used to staying on the fence in 3 and 4 and I’ve heard that’s not the fastest way. I’m a little leery of the wall down there. I just think I scrubbed too much speed over there in turns 3 and 4.” BECAUSE YOU HAVE LIMITED EXPERIENCE HERE, HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT BUSCH RACE TONIGHT? “It’s going to be tremendous. I ran here last year in the Busch race. We qualified okay and I had a decent run going in the race and then got in the wall and knocked the toe out and just killed our effort for the entire night. The main thing is to learn as much about the racetrack and how it’s going to change, anything that I can learn that I can apply to tomorrow’s race in the Cup car so we can get a good finish out of it.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: “We were okay in practice. We were decent. I was a little loose in practice and I thought we’d tighten it up but it was way looser than it was in practice. We’ll go run happy hour tonight and get it good for the race. It’s pretty disappointing, really. We were decent in practice. It is what it is. We were real loose and we’ll work on it tonight. It was pretty good in race trim so I’m still optimistic about the race. I’m not really sure what happened there.” DID YOU WAVE OFF THE SECOND LAP TO SAVE THE TIRES? “The second lap would have been slower anyhow. There’s no sense in running it. As bad as I was, I would have probably wrecked [smiles].”