Raybestos Rookie Denny Hamlin posted the fourth-best time in the final practice session for the Aaron’s 499, best of any first-year driver.

The rest of the class: Reed Sorenson (seventh), Martin Truex Jr. (20th), Clint Bowyer (21st), J.J. Yeley (31st), David Stremme (43rd) and Brent Sherman (48th).

DAVID STREMME, No. 40 LONESTAR STEAKHOUSE DODGE: THE SPEED CHART IS NOT KIND TO YOU. “You don’t know what’s going on [laughs]. I saw guys out there drafting. You don’t know until they go through that room and then they roll out but I feel pretty confident in our Lonestar team that we’re legit. I pulled out one time and we were going to get some help and we just pulled right in. We don’t need to fudge any numbers. I think there is some things that we can do and pick up some speed. The main thing is just getting in and I think we can do that.” HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO MAKE A QUALIFYING RUN WHEN MOST OTHER TEAMS ARE WORKING ON RACE RUNS? “Talladega is not really handling a lot. I mean, it is a little but the main thing is getting your car to suck up. I’ve got my teammates working on that so we’re just going to do whatever they’re doing. If we were at Daytona I’d be a little worried. I just want to make sure that we have legit runs knowing where we’re at and go from there.”

REED SORENSON, No. 41 TARGET/BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION DODGE: YOU POSTED A TIME IN THE TOP-10 DURING THE FINAL PRACTICE SESSION. “At Talladega it doesn’t matter, practice times don’t matter [laughs]. It was a good time. We got to go out there and mess around in the draft a little bit and had a good feel for the car. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good car so we’ll get ready for Sunday and hope we’ve got enough. The car is driving good. It feels good but I’m sure a lot of people are saying that. Once you get a good pull from somebody and suck up to them good that’s really all you can ask for. It’s tough to race here as a Raybestos Rookie I think. I found out a lot of times in practice a lot people wouldn’t go with me when I got a run. When I got a run a lot of people wouldn’t go with me. That’s a good thing to learn though before the race starts, just to know that it’s going to kind of be like Daytona where I feel like I’ve got a good car, just didn’t have much help. Just got to be cautious of that.” WHAT WAS DRAFTING PRACTICE LIKE TODAY? “It’s a little bit different than the race. I think the pack I was in, there were probably about 20 cars in it and obviously it’s a little bit different. You’ve got to be smart out there because one person makes a mistake and it could take out all of us. There were a couple of close calls there a couple of times. It’s good to get out there and do that before the race starts because we’ve been running at tracks since Daytona that you don’t have to run side-by-side like that. It’s good to get out there and practice and get as close as you can to race conditions and know that’s the way it’s going to be in the race.” DID YOU TRY TO DO ANY QUALIFYING STUFF? “We tried to do one at the end of the first practice and there was a car in front of us so I ran a little bit faster than what I think it really will run. We got it as good as we could in race trim and it felt good in race trim and wherever we qualify, that’s where it is and you can’t do anything about it.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET: “I don’t think it’s as good as my car in Daytona but the guys are working hard on it. This is a car that we actually tested down there and it’s kind of doing the same thing. It runs real good down the straightaway, it gets runs real well in the draft, it gets down in the corner and it just slows down. It loses speed through the corner and doesn’t hold its speed. I’m not real sure why that is or what’s going on with it, but it still runs pretty good. You get a run and you get to a guy and it’s hard to stay with them. It seems like it’s getting to them and pushing them down into the corner and then I’m slowing down and they’re getting away from me. It’s creating a hole between us for somebody to get in and that’s what I’m fighting right now. We changed the gear and it helped a little bit. We were a little bit tight so we freed it up some more and that seemed to help a little too but it still needs a little help.” DID YOU HAVE ANY LUCK WITH GETTING DRAFTING HELP? “Yeah and no. Practice is weird. Guys just move around a lot, kind of trying to find what their car is doing or what they can do with it. Usually guys won’t stay in line too long in practice. They’ll see a hole and go for it and see what their car does so it’s kind of hard to tell. It is what it is, you can’t change it, so hopefully we’ll get some on Sunday [smiles].”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FEDEX FREIGHT CHEVROLET: “We think we’re pretty good. Who knows where we’re going to be in qualifying trim. We probably won’t be that good. In race trim, it seems to be pretty good. We could definitely get to the front of the pack and that was a pretty important thing. This is the Shootout car. The one we had in the 500 we felt like wasn’t as good. There was nothing wrong with it where we couldn’t bring it back. It had a little more speed in qualifying but it definitely was slower as far as race trim’s concerned so we brought back the Shootout car. We know what it could do.” YOU ARE THE ONE RAYBESTOS ROOKIE THAT MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET SOME DRAFTING HELP IN THE RACE. “It’s hard to tell. I’m feeling like I had a little more today than what I had at Daytona. But when it comes around to the race, you’ve got to deal with the cards that are dealt. I just try to go out there and draft with a few guys like Biffle and Gordon and hopefully get some trust from them.”