Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds from Michigan:
Stremme 9th
Bowyer 21st
Truex Jr. 25th
Hamlin 29th
Sorenson 37th
Yeley 41st

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 LONESTAR STEAKHOUSE DODGE:

ANY DAMAGE TO THE CAR? “It’s just a Michigan Stripe as high as you run here. The track has lost a lot of grip because it’s getting hotter and it’s going to get worse tomorrow. I think my car is pretty good, though, really. It’s pretty well balanced. We’ve got to tweak on her a little bit more.”

YOU WERE NINTH FASTEST BEFORE THAT HAPPENED. “Our times are pretty good, actually. Overall on long runs I think we’ll be pretty good. Maybe right off the bat it might be as fast as some of them the first couple of laps but I think later on it will be pretty good.”

IS THE GROOVE MOVING AROUND? “I’ve run high since yesterday for the ARCA race. I told them that I was going to run high all day in that and I’ll probably run high all day tomorrow. I was just as fast on the bottom, I just think it’s easier on tires up top. It’s going to move around so much you’re really going to have to stay on top of your car and not screw it up so much.”

YOU HAD A GOOD DAY YESTERDAY IN THE ARCA RACE. “Yeah, not bad. We did pretty good there. It was fun because I got to learn a lot for Sunday, as far as the track and that. We will work on some stuff but it was a good day. We had a pretty good car but there were other guys that had good cars. I think it was experience more than anything. The car was pretty good but I just learned what the track was doing and what we needed on longer runs. That’s about all you can take out of it.”

DID IT HELP YOUR CONFIDENCE? “I’ve felt good the last couple of weeks here, just with our team and stuff. It might have helped a little bit, but the thing is I knew my car was good yesterday. We screwed it up all during practice and it hurt us going into qualifying. But you can see today that we’ve got a pretty good racecar.”

DOES CASEY MEARS MOVING ON CHANGE THE DYNAMIC OF THE TEAM? “Casey’s attitude hasn’t changed any. He’s still all for trying to run well and he helps me out a great deal. We need to focus on getting our cars running better as a team. I think Reed and I get along great and we’re going to be able to fall on each another and along with Casey the rest of this year but next year Reed and myself are still going to be here, along with whoever else comes in.”

DOES THAT GIVE YOU MORE BREATHING ROOM TO GROW AT YOUR OWN SPEED? “Our team has been getting a lot better. I just kind of stay out of that. We just mainly focus on our team and what we’ve got to do.”

YOU ARE RUNNING REED SORENSON’S BUSCH CAR NEXT WEEK AT MILWAUKEE. “I actually feel good going into Milwaukee because I’ve had nothing but top-fives there and should have won the race two years ago. I look forward to getting in the Discount Tire car because I raced against it all last year and wished that I would have been in it [smiles]. It’s going to be a lot of fun next week.”