Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour practice speeds
Bowyer 4th (first practice)
Truex Jr. 9th
Sorenson 23rd
Hamlin 28th
Yeley 34th

Raybestos Rookie Clint Bowyer posted the fourth-best overall speed during the first practice session Saturday at Infineon Raceway. Bowyer left the track after the session to compete in tonight’s Busch Series race in Milwaukee.

CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: “It really is a good car. Gil [Martin, crew chief] and all the guys, we put our heads together there after practice yesterday and got it a lot better and so far so good.”

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, No. 07 JACK DANIEL’S CHEVROLET: “The car is good, it was really good this morning. We made a lot of changes from yesterday. I think Clint learned a lot from just having a day at the track and then have a chance to go think about it a little bit. He did an exceptionally good job this morning, not only in the Raybestos Rookie class did he do a good job but he did a good job overall against the whole field. I know tomorrow will be different in traffic so we’ll just have to play a little pit strategy and hopefully we can end up in the top-10. We need to get this thing turned around.” IS IT EASIER OR MORE DIFFICULT FOR A CREW CHIEF TO CALL A RACE ON A ROAD COURSE? “I think it’s easier because there’s only a few basic strategies that you can do. I think it’s maybe a little more nerve racking because you have a strategy going into and sometimes it’s hard to stick to it. You’ve just got to have a plan and stick to it and it will play out like it plays out.” IS THIS A DIFFICULT PIT ROAD HERE? “Not really. They’ve made a big deal about changing the pit road some and stuff but as far as pit roads go, it’s no more difficult than anyplace else we go.”

J.J. YELEY, No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET: “The car is real good. I guess I’m driving better today than what I was yesterday. I don’t think we changed a whole lot on the car. I wish I had ran a qualifying lap like I’ve been running all day today. I think my bad lap was still better than my qualifying lap yesterday. I guess it just comes down to laps. I’m more comfortable. I changed some things, the way I was shifting, after talking to Tony and that seems to have been an improvement. I actually tried doing that in qualifying and it probably screwed me up because I did something all day long and changed my rhythm to qualify. Other than that, the Interstate Batteries Chevrolet is pretty good. The main thing is the same ol’ thing all weekend: stay on course. I got a little bit off course once by two wheels. Hopefully that’s the worse for today. It’s just going to take laps. These guys have been coming here for a long time. I studied a bunch of pictures and shift points and as soon as you’re on the racetrack it’s a totally different beast. It’s unlike anything else you’ve ever seen. This racetrack is very narrow and the elevation change throws you for a little bit of a loop. I’m just trying to not over slow the car too much. I think that was something I struggled with yesterday, just not carrying enough momentum.”

Raybestos Rookie Martin Truex Jr. posted the ninth-best overall speed in the final practice session for the Dodge/Save Mart 350. He was the only first-year driver to post a time in the top 20.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: “We’re doing all right. We got the car driving pretty good. We’re minimizing mistakes and learning a little bit more about the track so it’s going good.” HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO RACE PEOPLE IN PRACTICE TODAY? “I passed a few cars. My car is really good getting into 11 on the brakes, which is about the best spot to pass. It seems like I out brake almost anybody I’m with so that’s a good thing.” DOES EVERYTHING GET BETTER HERE WITH MORE LAPS ON THE TRACK? “Yeah. Pit strategy is big here so passing is not that big of an issue. You’ve just got to get out of sequence and have the right pit strategy so you don’t have to pass all those cars. We are obviously starting way in the back and we’ve got a good car. I think we’ve got a top-10 car. On our fast lap it was fast enough to be in the top-10 but it stayed real consistent which was really good, I thought. That’s what you usually need here. You need to get off the pit sequence and be able to run really fast laps by yourself and then hope that it works out in your favor.” IS IT DIFFICULT TO HAVE PATIENCE HERE? “Well, the thing is here is that you’ve got to stay on the track and when you get behind somebody, you can’t see the curves and you can’t see the edge of the road and you’re trying to go faster than the guy in front of you and that’s when you mess up and make mistakes. It’s hard to be patient but you need to just concentrate on just staying on the track and just pit strategy, hopefully.” IS THERE SUCH A THING AS GETTING OFF THE COURSE BUT NOT DESTROYING THE CAR? “If you drop a wheel off just a little bit and let off the gas, but if you just slide off, then you are in pretty bad shape.” HOW CHALLENGING IS THE PIT ROAD HERE? “Well, obviously, we’ve got to come in there every time we come into the pits so it was good for practice. We were getting times before turn 11 so we could get a time and come into the pits so that was good practice getting in there and it seems to be pretty easy.”