MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: “I guess it was okay. I just didn’t have much grip out there. We’ve been kind of fighting that all day in race trim and qualifying trim. It didn’t drive all that bad. The balance was pretty good but without any grip it’s not real fast. We’ll keep working on it and hopefully we’ll get some practice tomorrow for the race.” THE WEATHER CONDITIONS WERE A LOT WARMER AT THE TEST HERE IN JANUARY. DID THAT THROW YOU OFF ON THE SETUP? “Well, we brought at different car back because we weren’t very good at the test. I feel like we gained from there but we still need to get better yet.” IS IT DIFFICULT TO QUALIFY HERE? “No, it’s just hard to get your car driving good here. It’s real slick and the tires fall off fast. It’s been a place where we can’t seem to figure out what we need to go fast. Hopefully we’ll get that practice tomorrow so we can get dialed in for the race better. If we had to race right now, I’d be a little afraid that we’d be in trouble.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 07 HBO SOPRANOS CHEVROLET: “We’ve got a little work to do on qualifying yet. The cars just drive a little bit different in qualifying than those Busch cars. A little of it is me and the car is a little bit tight but we’ll keep working on it here and get it good in a race run. For me, learning how to qualify these Cup cars is a challenge. There’s a sweet spot in both cars and I haven’t quite found it in that Cup car yet.” DO YOU TRY TO NOT OVER-DRIVE THE CAR? “That’s the biggest thing. It’s just so wide open out there in a Busch car with that small carburetor. A Cup car, you get off into the corner quite a bit faster. Like I say, a lot to learned but we’re gaining on it.”

BRENT SHERMAN, No. 49 SERTA DODGE: “We did all race runs today and ran what we did this afternoon. I asked my team to tighten up the car and they tightened it up and we were too tight. We’re still learning what we need to go faster. I think the car will be okay tomorrow. We’re not going to set any records, unfortunately, but we’re still growing as a team and just trying to get better. We really need to step it up in qualifying in case we get out of the top-35 but one week we’re here and one week we’re there. Pretty soon we’re going to dial it in to where we need to be.” HOW IMPORTANT ARE THOSE TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS GOING TO BE ON SATURDAY? “I think we have a general idea of where we need to be so I don’t think it’s going to be too bad. I’ll just learn in the race. For us, I think we’re going to learn more doing long runs in race conditions than in an hour practice. Practice to me is always good, obviously, but I think we’re in the general ballpark on the car, enough to where I can get out there and get some laps in and hopefully be somewhat competitive.”

J.J. YELEY IN THE No. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE QUALIFIER AT LAS VEGAS. “It’s a lot of fun driving this Interstate Batteries car. The guys work real hard and have a lot of fun and that’s the most important thing. The car was fun to drive in practice. We had a real good lap. We didn’t change much. We only made one run. We feel it’s more important to save our extra set of tires for practice than this qualifying thing. We didn’t change anything. We went out and went a little bit faster. I might have pushed the throttle a little too hard in 1 and 2 and got the car tight and it hurt me just a little bit. I definitely didn’t have anything that was nowhere close to being on the pole so there was no need of pushing any extra hard trying to do something silly. Right now we’re tenth and if we end up 12th or something like that, that would be fine by me, just as long as we have a good racecar.” THIS IS THE SAME CAR THAT YOU RAN AT CALIFORNIA. “This was a brand new body when this car went to California. This car has some pretty good history with Bobby [Labonte] from last year. They ran second with it at Charlotte [Coca-Cola 600]. With the newest of the new generation bodies we had enough time to turn it around there. I doubt we take this one to Atlanta but so far it’s a good car.” IS THIS YOUR FAVORITE CAR OR HAVE YOU RUN ENOUGH DIFFERENT CARS TO TELL? “I haven’t driven enough to know. I’ve had this car twice and the Daytona car and it wasn’t exactly good to me. I know that sometimes cars are a little bit better than others but I don’t prefer one over anything else. Sometimes it just takes a little bit different setup to make them go.” THIS TEAM HAS STRUGGLED OVER THE PAST TWO SEASONS. HOW MUCH OF A CONFIDENCE BOOST IS IT TO YOU TO COME ON BOARD AND RUN WELL? “It means a lot [smiles]. I had a scapegoat coming here because a lot of people have written this team off and if I came here and didn’t know any better then they could blame shift and put it on the team. But we’ve been very tough. We come out here and run good. Coming here to these guys is just a good fit for me and a good fit for them and hopefully we can continue to run up front for the rest of the year.” WAS IT A BIG OF AN ADVANTAGE TO MAKE YOUR QUALIFYING RUN SO LATE? “I don’t think it is. The racetrack was cool all day long. I think it started at 78 degrees and was down to 50-something when I went out. No one went any faster there at the end. I think the fastest guy is on the pole regardless of where we went out.” IF THE PRACTICE SESSIONS ARE RAINED OUT TOMMOROW, DOES THAT PUT YOU AT A DISADVANTAGE? “No, not at all. We had an awesome car in race trim. I think we easily had a top-five racecar the way we finished practice. Like I said, we only made one qualifying run so qualifying wasn’t really way up on the agenda. If we didn’t get any practice tomorrow in the Cup car I’d feel very comfortable going into Sunday.” WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD DAY FOR YOU ON SUNDAY? “We had an eighth last week, a top-five would be spectacular. We just keep clicking off top-10s. That’s an important thing to do. This is a tough series. There are a lot of drivers out there that would like to do that. I’m not going to get too greedy shooting for the stars. I’m here to win races but we’ve got to be realistic at the same time.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX FREIGHT CHEVROLET: “We lost a couple of tenths from practice. We should have gained. We just freed the car up a little too much there and lost it. I feel like we had a shot at the pole but hopefully, maybe get us in the top-15, and that wouldn’t be too bad.” YOU HAD A LATE DRAW WHEN THE WEATHER CONDITIONS WERE MUCH COOLER. IT APPEARED THAT CIRCUMSTANCES WERE WORKING IN YOUR FAVOR TO HAVE A SHOT AT THE POLE. “We thought so, but we decided to make some last-minute changes there that didn’t work out. We went the wrong way. It is what it is.” IF THE PRACTICE SESSIONS ARE RAINED OUT TOMMOROW, IS THAT A BIG DISADVANTAGE TO YOU? “No. We concentrated a lot on race trim. We know what we’ve got there and we’ve got a great car. I’m not too concerned about missing practice.”

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 LONESTAR STEAKHOUSE DODGE: “That’s not what we’re looking for. It’s just a starting position. We’ve just got to run better and I think in race trim we will. We unloaded and I thought we were fairly good. I don’t know if it’s me or what we’ve got going on, but the qualifying deal is tough. The cars are real loose and everything else. I don’t know. We’ll just keep working on it.” YOU WENT OUT LATE IN THE QUALIFYING SESSION. DID THAT WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE? “It doesn’t matter here because it’s so cold here today [smiles].”

REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET DODGE: “We were loose. I’ve been loose in everything I drove today [smiles].” YOU WENT OUT LATE IN THE QUALIFYING ORDER. WAS THAT AN ADVANTAGE? “It seemed like everybody stayed about the same. We were just loose.”