Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds:
Truex Jr. 2nd
Stremme 4th
Hamlin 10th
Sorenson 12th
Bowyer 22nd
Yeley 35th
MARTIN TRUEX JR. IN THE No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET WAS THE TOP RAYBESTOS ROOKIE IN TODAY’S FINAL PRACTICE SESSION AT PHOENIX.
Notes:
Truex posted the second-best overall speed in final practice for the Checker Auto Parts 500.
Other Raybestos Rookies to post speeds among the top-10 in the session: David Stremme (fourth) and Denny Hamlin (10th).
TRUEX JR.: YOU WERE SECOND IN HAPPY HOUR. HOW GOOD IS YOUR CAR? “Well, it’s hard to say. We feel like it’s pretty good. It was driving okay. We never put tires on. A lot of guys did so it was hard to see exactly where we were as far as times went but we feel like they were pretty good. The only concern I had was it kept getting tighter and tighter which usually happens here. We worked on it to free it up some and I wished could have had a little bit more time to put a set of tires on and see where we were. I feel like it’s pretty good. I think it’s better than it was here in the spring and we ran in the top-10. It’s going to be tough to pass. I ran a lot on the apron so I could set up to pass guys and hopefully that will work out for us because we’ve got a ways to go.” IS THE SECOND PRACTICE HERE A BETTER INDICATION OF HOW GOOD THE CAR IS? “As a whole, for the whole field, I think it is. Usually that Happy Hour is the closest you get to race time. Usually the track slows down and it gets slicker and all that, especially here with the sun coming out and stuff. The first one we started on scuffs so we could save our good tires for the second practice so we could really see what we had so we weren’t that good on the sheet but we were still pretty good, I thought. You just have to see. You never really can tell until the race starts but I feel like we’re pretty decent.” DOES THE OVERCAST CONDITIONS CHANGE THE TRACK CONDITIONS? “Yeah, if the sun comes out tomorrow and it gets really hot
it’ll be a good bit different. This place gets really slippery. The pavement is old and it’s actually getting a little bit rough now, too. But it was pretty slick in Happy Hour and I don’t see it getting all that much worse. Hopefully we’ll be close when the race starts and we can work on it.” YOU HAVE RUN WELL IN RECENT WEEKS. HAS THAT GIVEN YOU A BOOST OF CONFIDENCE AS A DRIVER? “I’ve never really lost it. There’s just times when I questioned it. There are times when you question what are you doing wrong. Is there anything you’re doing wrong, or what’s going on. We’ve answered it. I’ve had it for a while now. It’s just a matter of proving to everybody that we can do it because we know we can and we’ve shown that. We just haven’t finished the deal so it will be nice to do that, finally.