Raybestos Rookie Happy Hour speeds:
Hornish Jr. 21st
Smith 24th
Carpentier 39th
Franchitti 40th

SAM HORNISH, JR., No. 77 MOBIL 1 DODGE: “We were really good in the first session but that second one needed a little bit more of a handle on the car. We felt pretty good ever since qualifying yesterday so we just kind of keep trying to move forward and learn as much as I can. It’s a shame that I wrecked the Nationwide car this morning but I feel like the practice time I got yesterday is helping me out. I know that the race time today would have been a big help to us but that’s part of the learning process, I guess. I feel pretty good about this car and hopefully we’ll just have a good smooth day tomorrow, stay out of trouble and have good pit stops.” A LOT OF EXPERIENCED DRIVERS HAVE HAD PROBLEMS HERE THIS WEEKEND. WHAT MAKES THIS PLACE SO DIFFICULT? “I think the track surface has a bunch of grip. They brought a really hard tire and I think that early on in the runs and getting the car to not push so bad at the end of the run you have to start pretty free. I’ve seen a lot of guys have problems with it and I think it’s just a method of the new car versus the tire and everybody trying to figure out where they need to be over the long run. I saw Kyle Busch do the same thing that I did in the Nationwide qualifying this morning but he done it on the second lap so he gets to start the race. I’ll watch that with some enthusiasm, try to figure out the guys that I was running with yesterday how they do and hopefully at least watching that will give me a little bit of an idea of things we might want to change for this car.” YOU MUST BE PATIENT TOMORROW. “Oh, definitely got to be patient after last week being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We just need to go out there and get a good finish. Nothing to big, just run all day and I think if we can do that, with the way the car’s been handling, we should be able to be in the top-20 pretty easy. It’s a good feeling going into tomorrow; just need to make sure we keep our head on.”

REGAN SMITH, No. 01 COORS LIGHT CHEVROLET: HOW IS YOUR CAR? “Pretty good. We’re not a first-place race car but if things go our way I feel like we’re a 15th to 20th-place car and if we get better overnight then maybe we could be a 10th to 15th-place car and that’s what we need right now. We’re making gains on it from last week. Had a good day, communication back and forth really good today and Doug [Richert, crew chief] made a lot of really good changes. I’m excited to get into tomorrow and see what we’ve got compared to last week with the Coors Light Chevy.” A LOT OF EXPERIENCED DRIVERS HAVE HAD PROBLEMS HERE THIS WEEKEND. WHAT MAKES THIS PLACE SO DIFFICULT? “It’s just moody. The asphalt, it goes through such a change from the heat and the sun to clouds and cool temperatures. We tested here and I’ll bet ya the track temps were 40 degrees cooler than what they’ve been all weekend this weekend and the grip just totally changes. If you look at our lap times compared to what we were in testing out here, it’s way slower, a second slower. I think it just caught everybody a little bit off guard and you need a little something different in your setups because of it and just have to tune for it.” CAN YOU RACE HARD IN TRAFFIC ACROSS THE BUMPS HERE? “I think you’re going to be able to two-wide. Three-wide is going to be tough because when you go across the bumps, if you don’t hit ‘em just right, you’re all over the place. That’s to be seen what’s going to happen there. I think you’re going to see more racing here than what you saw at California, for sure, more two-wide racing because both lanes are worked in. I saw cars in the middle of the track and on the bottom of the track. Everybody is in their own little different spots.”