Biffle and Kenseth On Front Row For Roush at Michigan

Greg Biffle headlined an all Roush front row at Michigan

BROOKLYN, MICH. (Aug. 19, 2011) – Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle covered the two-mile oval of Michigan International Speedway in 37.83 seconds (109.345 mph) to capture the pole for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 Sprint Cup race. He will be joined on the front row by Roush Fenway teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished runner up in the Cup race earlier this year at MIS. David Ragan qualified seventh for the race and Carl Edwards will roll out 22nd on Sunday.

“I don’t think that could have gone any better,” said Biffle “ I tell you what. This team has needed it. We have great cars and I can’t say enough for (crew chief) Matt Puccia and this 16 team. They work really hard and I am proud of them. All of a sudden Matt (Kenseth) is becoming a hell of a qualifier. He makes fun of himself when he gets up there and says that the throttle sticks. What a great job for the whole Ford camp. I want to thank Ford for all of their support and I know this means a lot to them here in Michigan to have this thing on the front.”

The pole is Roush Fenway’s second in the Cup Series at MIS and its seventh overall in NASCAR action at the track. Biffle will look for his third Sprint Cup win at MIS on Sunday, while Roush Fenway looks for its 12 Cup win at Michigan and its 22nd overall victory at the track.

The pole is Roush Fenway’s sixth in the Sprint Cup Series in 2011.

Ryan Newman (189.573) will start third followed by Denny Hamlin (189.294) and Mark Martin (189.190).

Rounding out the top-ten starting positions will be Brad Keselowski (189.006) who will start from sixth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (188.669) eighth, Jeff Gordon (188.600) ninth and Jamie McMurray (188.462) will start from tenth.

Failing to make the starting lineup were the #7 driven by Johnny Sauter, the #46 driven by Erik Darnell and the #50 driven by TJ Bell.

The teams will return to the track Saturday morning for their 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM (EDT) scheduled final practice session, and then return on Sunday for the 1:20 PM (approximate) start of the Pure Michigan 400.

Pure Michigan 400 Starting Lineup


DRIVER QUOTES FOLLOWING THEIR MICHIGAN QUALIFYING LAP

Kenseth is using his winning Texas car this week (Getty)

MATT KENSETH QUALIFIED 2ND: “I think that I would have had a shot at the pole if I wouldn’t have looked up at the big screen down there and watched Greg’s lap. I saw his lap time and saw that it was really fast. I got loose here in the green and overdrove turn one to make sure I kept the car tight enough and overdrove it a little bit. I was pretty far over my head. I was glad to get a lap that good that had a ton of speed. I want to thank Kroger for sponsoring our car, I am pretty excited about that. It has flames on it so DW should be happy. All Roush front row, so it was a good lap for us and I look forward to Sunday.”

CARL EDWARDS QUALIFIED 22ND: “We were a little bit loose, just a little bit. We leaned on Matt Kenseth quite a bit and that helped us a ton. We picked up a lot of time. I really appreciate his help there. We have to be able to put the throttle down come Sunday and not be so loose. The good part about this race track is that if we are fast we will be able to pass people and we will be good. I am excited about it. I love racing here. Even if we start 30th it is okay because you can still win here if you are fast.”

TREVOR BAYNE QUALIFIED 20TH: “That was a pretty good qualifying run. I think we will sit pretty good and it could be a good weekend for us. I am so excited to be driving this race car designed by seven-year-old Katie. She designed it herself and we got to make her dreams come true by putting it on the real race car and bringing it out to the race. It is an awesome weekend for us. I think we will have something come Sunday. It was better for qualifying this time than last time and I think we can learn for the race trim with that. Our race trim is totally different but we will wait and see about practice tomorrow. I think our car is really fast and it ran good at Charlotte with Stenhouse driving it, so I think it will run good here.”

MARCOS AMBROSE QUALIFIED 16TH: “I did the same thing here in the spring. I got loose getting up to speed coming to the green flag and I just spooked myself and pinched it off into three and I did the same bloody thing this time. I am mad at myself. We had another half a tenth or so in the car. I will take that because it will be a decent spot.”

Ragan looks sharp in quest for win No. 2 to make Chase

DAVID RAGAN QUALIFIED 7TH: “I would give myself probably an A- on that lap. It could have been a little better. It looks like we will wind up in the top five or six. We have a good car here and it is good to see our Roush teammates fast. I can’t wait for the race on Sunday.”

RYAN NEWMAN QUALIFIED 3RD: “Well, I didn’t know what to expect. The guys said the race track was a little bit warmer, and the guys were going a little bit quicker, but that doesn’t always mean everything. Our WIX Filters Chevrolet was good today. I felt like we had a really good balance, and a pretty good lap, good enough for third, obviously. Just proud of the effort, the guys on the team, Tony Gibson and everybody, coming off the truck. Spent the entire qualifying session in qualifying practice. Hopefully, the 14 got a little bit of help from that, and then him, in turn, being in race trim will help us out tomorrow. So, look forward to the rest of the practice session and the race, and it’s nice to have a good starting spot, as well as pit selection.”


NEWMAN ON HOW CLOSE HIS CAR IS TO STEWART'S: “Honestly, today, I have no idea where his car is at compared to mine. He spent 90 percent of qualifying practice in race trim. I think he did one, maybe two runs in qualifying trim. We’ll sit down tonight and look through those things from our end, as well as from his end to make sure that we’re both putting the ideal package under each driver.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON QUALIFIED 19th: “Qualifying has been tough for us and I don’t know where that has gone, but we’re working very hard to get it right. Sundays have been much more productive and better, but it sure helps when you qualify well, so I hope that time holds up.”

“Over the course of the weekend when the car is fast is good, but the truth of the matter is that track position is everything. It doesn’t matter where you are or what track you’re on. Pit road pick has a lot to do with it anymore too, now. So, those two elements are the truth and there is a small mental component, but the other two far outweigh that.”

TONY STEWART QUALIFIED 18th: “That’s the best we’ve been here in a while. I’m pretty happy with it so far. Darian (Grubb) and all the guys on this Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevy have done an awesome job. We struggled with balance here last time but I’m really happy with the way it’s been all day. It’s not been perfect yet, but it’s been a much, much easier car to drive than what we’ve had here. So I’m pretty happy with it. That’s the best balance that we’ve had all weekend so far. But you always want to be better than what you are (laughs).”

Junior looking to snap 115 race winless streak (Getty)

DALE EARNHARDT JR. QUALIFIED 8th, ON RUNNING A DIFFERENT LINE FROM EVERYONE ELSE: “I don’t know; I just like running down there. But it wasn’t a perfect lap. I think there’s another tenth or two out there. I’m sure some of them guys up there will find it. But I’m pretty happy. We’ve struggled in qualifying all year long, so this was definitely better today. The car drove good. It wasn’t the perfect lap. It was a good team effort today. I’m really happy with that.”

“It’s a brand new car. It took a little bit of adjusting, but we have a great team and the guys did a good job.”

MARK MARTIN QUALIFIED 5th: “Well, all it says is that our car is faster than it’s been. It’s a real privilege to drive the CARQUEST Auto Parts/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet and I want to give a shout out to everybody that works so hard at Hendrick Motorsports. They give us big horsepower under the hood and a very nice race car. Lance McGrew and the crew have done a fabulous job making a fast race car. We’ve been making progress at Indy and Pocono and hope to be building on that here.”

DENNY HAMLIN QUALIFIED 4TH, ON HIS HIS NEW TRD ENGINE: “It’s good. It’s so tough to say really until you get into race conditions what differences you can feel. I just can’t say enough for everyone at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) and Joe Gibbs Racing for putting this deal together. This is going to be a long compilation of engineering and things. We’re going to bring a lot to the table to them as well as they’re going to bring it to us. I can’t say enough for them and their efforts to get this in here in such short notice.”

HAMLIN ON HOW HE'S FEELING AFTER THE HARD CRASH AT WATKINS GLEN: “I feel good. I felt better. Today is better than yesterday. Wednesday was the worst, by far. It’s a little tough to sit down right down — my tailbone is hurting me pretty good. But, other than that it’s good to be back at a race track and obviously being competitive.”

DAVID REUTIMANN QUALIFIED 12TH: “Problem is — we still have a lot of fast cars to go. It’s a decent lap. Hopefully, it will hold up good, give us a good starting position and a good pit selection for the Aaron’s Dream Machine. I’m glad to be here and glad to be away from Watkins Glen. It’s a cool race track. It just wasn’t good to me the other day.”

“We were a little bit free. I’m not sure if that is going to be enough to get the job done. Hopefully, it will hold up for a decent starting position and see what it gives us on Sunday. The main deal is getting is a good pit selection. Starting position is one thing — pit selection is something that can help you all day. So, we have to qualify well to get that.”

KASEY KAHNE QUALIFIED 14TH: “Everything felt pretty good there. I missed turn three a little bit. On my entry I screwed up and got loose-in, which I did by myself. But, the car was — I probably should have run a .15 or .20, and I ran a .28. I made a mistake, but it felt better than practice. It’s good changes.”

KAHNE ON KEY TO SUCCESS AT MICHIGAN: “Probably momentum. It’s a big part of it — to keep your momentum up. I just feel like this track is all about momentum. And you slow that down — you get passed from behind by someone who is keeping their momentum up. It’s a cool track to race. But, you have to keep your momentum going.”

Truex Jr had two runner-up finishes while with DEI (Getty)

MARTIN TRUEX JR. QUALIFIED 15TH, ON WHAT JIMMIE JOHNSON ASKED HIM BEFORE QUALIFYING: “He was just getting a few pointers. No, I’m just kidding. He was just wondering if I thought my lap was decent because he thought his was not pretty decent. We beat him by about a tenth. I thought it was okay. I left a little out there. The car wasn’t perfect, but a good lap. We picked up from practice for our NAPA Toyota. These guys are doing an awesome job for me and I love working with them. We’ll see how long it stays up there — hopefully it will be a good starting spot for us.”

TRUEX JR ON WHAT HIS TEAM WILL WORK ON IN PRACTICE SATURDAY: What will you work on in practice tomorrow? “Long runs — it goes green a long time here and got to have a good race car on the long runs. We had a good car here in the spring race. I had a little trouble on pit road towards the end. Started were we were there (in the spring), hopefully get it even better and see if we can’t go out and win one of these things.”

KYLE BUSCH QUALIFIED 17TH: “Our Interstate Batteries Camry wasn’t bad. I got through (turns) one and two perfectly and got a good run down the back. But, when I got to turn three, we were way too tight through that end of the track. Wish we would have had a better lap, but we will work on it tomorrow in race trim and hope we can run like we did here in June and have a shot to win.”

Keselowski is going for third win of the season (Getty)

BRAD KESELOWSKI QUALIFIED 6TH: “A decent lap for sure. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but a pretty good lap. It’s something for a good start. I don’t think I’ve ever had a great qualifying effort here at Michigan, but this car is good. We’ve got a little work to do tomorrow, but we’re not too far off. Sunday, we’ve just got to go fast all day and try to bring home a win.

This car is very fast; I’m proud of the speed we had. This is by far the best race car I’ve ever had here, so I’m excited about Sunday. We’re on the upswing right now, just riding the wave and enjoying it.”

KURT BUSCH QUALIFIED 13TH: “We had to change quite a bit after practice with the hot temperatures, sliding around a lot; the car was tight and we qualified tight. Luckily, we picked up some speed. It’s disappointing when you get the pole here in the first race and barely hang on to a top 15 in the second one.

BUSCH ON WHAT THE TEAM WILL FOCUS ON IN PRACTICE: “We need a lot of practice.”

- From Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota and Roush-Fenway Press Releases

Kyle Busch on Pole at Watkins Glen; Driver Quotes Following Qualifying

First pole of 2011 for Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch, with a qualifying lap speed of 126.421 mph, captured the Coors Light Pole Award at Watkins Glen.

Busch, who set a new track qualifying record (previously 124.580 mph, set by Jeff Gordon in 2003) received his first series pole of the 2011 season, his eighth series career pole and his first series pole at The Glen.

Sharing the front row with Busch on the outside pole, and with a qualifying lap speed of 126.041 mph, will be AJ Allmendinger, and they will be followed by Marcos Ambrose (125.984), Jimmie Johnson (125.663) and Juan Pablo Montoya (125.654).

Rounding out the top-ten starting positions will be Ryan Newman (125.314), Tony Stewart (125.238), Carl Edwards (125.202), Martin Truex Jr. (124.968) and Regan Smith (124.940).

Failing to make the starting lineup were Dave Blaney, Brian Simo and PJ Jones.

Starting Lineup 


DRIVER QUOTES FOLLOWING WATKINS GLEN QUALIFYING

BRAD KESELOWSKI QUALIFIED 12TH: “I thought that is was a really good lap for our Miller Lite Dodge Charger. I probably under-drove the lap just a little bit. It was a really good effort by this No. 2 Miller Lite crew for giving me a fast race car. I’m still new to these road courses and to start 12th is a good effort by our team.

“You have to put yourself in position tomorrow to keep your race car clean and stay out of trouble. We know that fuel mileage will be important. I’ve got a great team with Paul (Wolfe, crew chief) leading the charge. I think that we have a consistent race car in every corner. I need just a little bit more speed in the center of the corner and then I think we’ll be really fast. A great effort.”

KURT BUSCH QUALIFIED 27TH: “I guess we just got a little too aggressive in the run with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger. I felt like I was getting behind and had to push the car too hard. I just missed it through the bus stop and then wild and not very smooth at all through the esses. It looks like we’ll be playing catch-up for the first portion of the race here tomorrow.”

ROBBY GORDON QUALIFIED 31ST: “I think that we have a good race car. When PJ’s (Jones) car had a problem, it kind of took the wind out of my sails. I knew that I had to get our SPEED Energy Dodge in the show. I just ran a conservative lap to make sure we’d race tomorrow. If you’re in the show, you have a shot at winning the race.”

Ragan has 27.8 average finish in four starts at the Glen

DAVID RAGAN QUALIFIED 16TH: “I think I probably hit 80 percent of my marks. It’s real tough for me to get in a rhythm just in one lap. I’d much rather have that two or three lap qualifying like the Nationwide cars do. That would help me a lot, but that was a good pickup from yesterday. This is certainly not my strongest race track up here, so it seems like every time we go out we improve, but so does our competition. I think we’ve made some good strides here. We still have a lot of work to do, but our UPS team is ready to have a smart race on Sunday or Monday, whatever happens. We just need to get out of here with a top 15 or top 20 finish and not lose any points because then we can go be aggressive the next four.”

CARL EDWARDS QUALIFIED 8TH: “I thought I had a pretty good lap going. It felt like a pole lap until I got to the bus stop and then I came to a full stop, I let all the passengers on, I collected the toll, and then I took off again. I did my best. I put in all the effort I could after that, but I’ve just got to thank Ortho for being on board – Ortho, Aflac, Scotts, Ford. I’m excited about this race. Even if we don’t get it in tomorrow, it’s gonna be a good race. It’s one of my favorite race tracks and we’d love to get a win here at a road course.”

Ambrose looked the best on Friday and Saturday combined

MARCOS AMBROSE QUALIFIED 3RD ON HIS LAP AND CAR: “It was OK. It was maybe a little bit too conservative. I would have sort of like to have done a nine-something, but I’m really proud of my Stanley team. It’s been a lot of fun this weekend. We’ve got a great chance to win the race and I’m really happy with our race setup. I just hope it goes our way.”

IT WAS JUST OK? “Yeah, it could have been a little better, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve got the Stanley car up front and I’m just really proud of my opportunity here at Richard Petty Motorsports. I’m looking forward to a really good Sunday. We had a tough Sonoma that didn’t quite go to plan, but this weekend so far has gone great. I’m excited about our chances. I’m just really proud of Stanley for giving me the chance to come here and try to get it done.”

DOES THIS CAR FEEL LIKE PAST YEARS WHEN YOU’VE FINISHED SECOND OR THIRD HERE? “Yeah, it feels really good. I’m confident for tomorrow, I’ve just got to make sure that we keep the fenders on it, look out for the brakes, and the rest will come to us.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER QUALIFIED 2ND ON MAYBE BEING DISAPPOINTED: “Yeah, a little bit, but to be on the front row with the Best Buy Ford here is pretty good. It’s Kyle Busch. He’s pretty good at this. I think when he gets older he might be pretty good at this sport (laughing). At least it wasn’t that close. If he beat my by like a hundredth, I know where I lost a little bit like two-tenths, but I’m proud of everybody on the Best Buy Ford and everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports. I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty cool to beat Marcos. He’s the man, so to be able to put up a lap a little bit better than him is cool. I think he’s still gonna be the guy to beat, but we’ve got a great starting spot and it’s a great day.”

SCOTT SPEED QUALIFIED 29TH: “Our strategy for the race tomorrow is to save our stuff as much as we can in the first half of the race and hopefully get a caution halfway through and then start to attack. For us, qualifying isn’t super-critical and the bottom line is we’ve got to make the race, so we have to put in conservative qualifying efforts at the moment. It is what it is, but the car should be good for tomorrow and hopefully all things go well and we have a good showing.”

Kyle Busch won at Watkins Glen in 2008, Sonoma as well.

KYLE BUSCH QUALIFIED 1ST, ON HOW HE FEELS FOR RACE DAY: “We were confident going in before. Certainly we knew we had a great race car this weekend. The M&M’s boys brought a great race car to the race track here, so I can’t say enough about all the guys at Toyota and JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and everybody in the engine shop and the chassis shop. It’s cool to come out here and get a pole. Joey (Logano) got it in Sonoma. We got it here. So JGR swept the poles this year at the road courses. Hopefully we can get a win here Sunday and see if we can’t try to get another one. We’ve won here before. We certainly want to win here again.”

“I was actually surprised there with my lap time (differences between q and race trim). I came to the checkered and I’m like, ‘Eh, it was okay. It wasn’t great.’ I felt like I screwed up a little bit here, a little bit there maybe. But maybe those were good screw ups. I don’t know. Overall, it was a fast lap time for what I expected it to be. I thought maybe it would be about a 15 or a 20 or something like that, but not a 70. Race trim is faster this year too. It’s really quick out there, as a matter of fact. Getting into the braking zones, kind of crucial and being able to make sure that you can just make sure you get the throttle down off the corners and get turned. The Bus Stop has obviously been a crucial area here today with everybody qualifying. We seemed to hit it right, so great job by the team.”

“Certainly, the M&M’s guys brought a great race car today (Saturday for qualifying). Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing. The chassis shop, the body shop, engine guys. I felt like we were pretty good unloading off the truck and we’ve just kind of kept that pace up this weekend. A lot has to do with how you unload and how you feel and everything and coming to this race weekend prepared and felt like I was ready to do battle with these guys knowing that it’s a tough race track. It’s certainly a road course event, which throws a lot of characteristics into the racing that we don’t typically see at an oval. All in all the lap was pretty good. It seemed to be a clean lap. There was a couple moments in which I slipped and didn’t think I did that great at, but we were able to get the throttle down and accelerate out of the turns as we needed and I think that’s where a lot of the time was made up.”

“No, I’m not surprised (on being first pole of season). I’m not a pole go-getter. I count the Kentucky pole, but others may not. I earned it. I was fastest in practice there. Certainly it pays dividends to win it on your own, especially at a road course. I’ve never won a road course pole before so this feels really good. I’ve won races at road courses, but have yet to be the fastest guy for one lap. Today we did that. Joey Logano did it in Sonoma so JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) sweeps the road course poles, which is great. Hopefully we can get a win. We felt like we had a strong run going until late in the going in Sonoma. We got in somebody else’s mess, but hopefully here this weekend we can keep that clean and set our own pace and hopefully try to win.”

“The advantages of starting upfront is certainly you can set the pace in the beginning if nobody wants to pass you, but if there’s guys that are behind you that are pressing you you can let them go. You keep your track position. If you’re running top-three, top-five all day you’ll be pretty good. Last year we had a problem before the start of the race and had to start in the back and then it took us all day to work our way up through the field and we ended up eighth. The highest we got was eighth and that’s where we finished. Even though it’s a long race, it’s not long enough. But, starting upfront like we are if we just keep our track position, set your own pace, keep the brakes at the temperature that you want to keep them at — don’t overheat them and don’t over push them — then you can certainly feel better about how your day will progress. When it comes down to the end of the race when you’ve really got to push and push hard you’ll have something left in the car in order to do that with.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR. QUALIFIED 9TH: “Just was real slick through there (inner loop) for some reason compared to yesterday. The car was solid everywhere else. I felt like it was a decent lap, just the inner loop was real slick and I lost a lot of time there. I’m disappointed in that, but the guys did a great job with our NAPA Toyota. All weekend it’s been fast. I’m excited to race, whenever we get to do it — hopefully tomorrow, but we’ll see.”

BOBBY LABONTE QUALIFIED 11TH, ON IF HIS LAP COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER: “Well, I don’t know. I hit turn one — I nailed turn one really good. Through the esses was really pretty close and I got to the inner loop and I saw the dust and dirt there from when I went up there to stop. I went through there and I didn’t run through there like — I already knew it was there so I had to take it a little bit easy I think. The rest of the corners were pretty good. I probably over slowed a little bit in six. All in all a good job by all these guys. We picked up a lot from yesterday. We made one qualifying run in the second practice and we made some changes this morning again on our gear ratio. That helped out. The guys did a good job. We’re not quite where we want to be on it, but hopefully it will be a good lap by the end of the day.”

“Really, it was about like what we had in one qualifying run we made yesterday afternoon so I felt pretty much like that. Obviously, my mind was already distraught when I knew the inner loop was already dirty. I wish they’d have cleaned it up a little bit before I got there. I’m not sure it would’ve helped a lot, but in my mind it would have. I can’t say without looking at video or whatever to say my lap time would’ve been better because of that. Hey, we did a good job. I’m not blaming it on anything like that. Everybody did a good job. We got a lot better performance out of it today and speed out of it today. That’s about as fast as I could go today.”

Logano has finished 16th and 33rd in two starts at the Glen

JOEY LOGANO QUALIFIED 13TH: “Not the lap we were really looking for there for sure. It seemed like I got through the bus stop and the car broke a little bit too loose there and I felt like it gave up a lot of the speed there. We’ll be decent. We’ve still got a good race trim car so we’ll be fine. We’re not way in the back so we’ll be fine. We’ll definitely work our way through it.”

“There was some garbage on the race track — grass or something when someone went through there before. I’m sure it helped me get a little bit loose there. I didn’t feel like I overdrove it. I just got in there and then it busted loose. I’ll have to take a look back at the tape.”

KASEY KAHNE QUALIFIED 18TH, ON HIS LAP: “I felt like we made a decent lap, just not a lot of speed. I didn’t really go that fast, but the lap seemed alright. It just feels like we have a pretty decent car, but I’m not really that quick so I guess we’ve just got to pick it up for tomorrow’s race.”

CASEY MEARS QUALIFIED 26TH: “We had an issue with the brake pedal. It’s pretty standard that after practice we’ll put on a brand new set of rotors and pads for the race, but for some reason it took them a real long time to seed in right. The pedal was traveling almost three quarters of the way down before it was working. I could pump it up and kind of get it there and then if I was off of it for a little bit, I’d go to get to it and it’d almost travel three quarters of the way down. When I went into the Bus Stop it traveled all the way down and the rears locked up getting in and we lost a lot of time through there. The guys have done a real good job. It’s been a lot of hard work this weekend already with the engine, but a decent spot. We’ve got to go the back because we did change the motor, but I was just hoping for better than that.”

DENNY HAMLIN QUALIFIED 42ND ON WHAT HAPPENED ON HIS LAP: “I committed to not giving up. It’s just our car was super, super fast. We wrote down in our notes the last two years that I wasn’t nearly aggressive enough in qualifying. I was more content on hitting my marks and making sure it was a smooth lap and we always qualify about 25th — wasn’t going to do that this time. I was aggressive and obviously we got a little loose and you see what happened, but I’m excited about how fast our car was to be honest with you.”

Do you need to go to a backup car? “No. We’re going to keep this car. It barely touched the wall and really the wheel wasn’t out of alignment at all. It just looked like some minor body stuff and we’ll get them tomorrow.”

Johnson has a 14.9 average finish in nine starts at the Glen

JIMMIE JOHNSON QUALIFIED 4th: “It is hard for me to say that I did (leave anything on the table). I didn’t beat the pace that some guys did yesterday, so I think there might be some speed out there. But the changes that we made really calmed down my car, I knew that was the fasted lap I had made and the most put together I’ve made. Very proud of the effort Chad (Knaus, crew chief) and the guys have put into this thing and hope it gets us close to the front.

“We made some changes going into today’s qualifying session. We found some speed in the car and made it a lot more comfortable to drive. So I’m pleased with the lap; I’m not sure where that will kind of stack up there in the end. But it was a respectable and solid lap for us.”

TONY STEWART QUALIFIED 7TH: “We had a good qualifying run there. We struggled a little bit yesterday in the practices, but we’re still making change on it and we’ll take what we learned here in qualifying and hopefully make a couple more before the race tomorrow and get a little bit better. But I’m really proud of (crew chief) Darian Grubb and all the guys on the Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy. They’ve don’t a great job as always.”

Stewart was roughed up at Sonoma by Brian Vickers (Getty)

YOU GOT TO DRIVE A CAR THROUGH THE BOOT A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO. DID YOU ALMOST DRIVE DOWN THERE TODAY? “No, I knew where I was going. It was fun; it was an honor to drive a McLaren Formula 1 car here and do a seat-swap with Lewis Hamilton. It was a lot of fun; we had a really good time. I enjoyed it. The problem is when we come back here after running that car, I told Darian I’m going to want this thing to stick like glue like that thing did. It’s made for a fun weekend. But it was really cool to do that. It was neat to run the boot. Hopefully one of these days we’ll get to run the Cup Series down there too.”

GOOD QUALIFYING EFFORT: “Yeah, I’m definitely happy with that. It was a good run for us, for sure. We struggled this weekend so hopefully this is a sign that we’re getting things turned around. I’m proud of Darian Grubb and all the guys on this Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy; they really worked hard yesterday. We threw a lot of things at this car. We just can’t seem to find the balance of what it’s wanting. But it was much better in qualifying here, so hopefully we’ll be good tomorrow.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR LAP AROUND THE GLEN: “It was pretty uneventful. I just made sure I didn’t over-drive any of the corners. We’ve been watching qualifying today and watching guys that are forcing themselves into mistakes. So I just tried to not make that mistake and to have just a nice clean solid lap.”

Montoya won last years race at the Glen

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA QUALIFIED 5TH: “We made a lot of changes in the second practice so I wasn’t really sure how the car was going to handle during that qualifying lap. It was a little loose and there was a lot of dirt in some of the corners on the track so I don’t think I pushed it as hard as I should of. Overall, I’m still happy with what the guys have put together and I think the set-up will work for us come race time.”

RYAN NEWMAN QUALIFIED 6TH: “It was a good lap. I had more speed in the car; I felt that afterwards, but I was really proud of the effort. We spent some time in qualifying trim yesterday in first practice and I think that was a definite gain for us as far as just knowing what we had speed-wise. I don’t know if Kyle (Busch) is going to beat us but a top six qualifying effort here is probably our best I think, at least in my memory.”

Not better than I expected. I gave up what I thought could have been a pole run in hindsight; I had more in the car. But I’m happy getting the top-10 run that we did.”

REGAN SMITH QUALIFIED 10th: “We struggled yesterday really bad. These guys have been working hard on this car. I honestly think that most of our struggles are with the universal joint between the pedals and the steering wheel…that would be me. But we are getting there. We are making gains on it. Hopefully that will be a good starting spot for this Furniture Row Chevy. We can work on our race trim from there.”

KEVIN HARVICK QUALIFIED 23RD, ON HIS LAP: “It was just way too conservative. I went through Turn 1 just a little bit hot and it didn’t really hurt me that bad there but I was just watching everything else that everybody was doing and got in the bus stop just way too easy”

DALE EARNHARDT JR.QUALIFIED 25TH: “I just made some mistakes there but the car was driving really good and it was just not enough time to get the heat in the brakes; and wheel-hopped down into (Turn) 1. I need to be able to try to do a better job of getting more heat in the rear brakes.”

JEFF BURTON QUALIFIED 41st: “We’ve been struggling this weekend. We really haven’t been very good. Last night we decided to make a lot of changes, which was the right thing to do. We thought we would qualify 25th the way we were, and then we made a lot of changes and it just didn’t work out for us. But it was the right strategy. What we figured is that we would either get better or we won’t and if we don’t get better, that puts us in a position to play some different strategies that some other people can’t play, and as you know, that means as much here as anything. Its bad to qualify bad, but on the other hand you can make it work here. It just puts you in a different strategy position than everybody else. Disappointing because that certainly not what we wanted but it is what it is and we are going to try and make it work.”

- All quotes from Toyota, Ford, Dodge and Chevy Press Releases

Final Watkins Glen Driver Ratings Following All Practice and Qualifying Sessions

Micah Roberts Top 10 Driver Ratings
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen
Watkins Glen International
Sunday, August 14, 2011 - 10:16 am (PDT)

Rating    Driver     Odds     Practice 1   Practice 2   Qualified   Sonoma*

 1. Juan Pablo Montoya 7/1    2nd             15th            5th           22nd     
2010 winner finished sixth or better last three seasons; using winning chassis from last year.      
 2. Marcos Ambrose 7/2        13th              1st             3rd            5th
No finish worse than third in three career starts on track; had best practices overall.
 3. Kyle Busch 8/1                   1st              16th            1st           11th
2008 winner with five straight top 10 finishes; using 11th-place chassis from Sonoma.
 4. Kurt Busch 8/1                  17th              2nd           27th           1st
2010 runner-up was his best career finish; using winning Sonoma chassis from June.
 5. Jeff Gordon 8/1                  7th              23rd          17th           2nd
Four-time winner, the last coming in 2001. Holds NASCAR record with nine road course wins
 6. Tony Stewart 7/1               18th             32nd           7th           39th
Five-time winner, the first in 2002 and the last coming in 2009; finished seventh in 2010.
 7. Carl Edwards 18/1             16th              3rd            8th            3rd
Best finish of third in 2009; on streak of five straight top-10s. Using Sonoma chassis this week.
 8. Clint Bowyer 40/1               20th             7th             19th          4th
Best finish of ninth in 2009; had a good practice and is using fourth-place Sonoma chassis.
 9. Jimmie Johnson 10/1         23rd             8th             4th            7th     
One of only five tracks to not win at during Cup career; using car that last ran at Sonoma.
10. Brad Keselowski 75/1        5th               4th            12th          10th  
One of the best in practice and looks to have same equipment as Kurt Busch; new car this week.

* Results from the June 26, 2011 race at Infineon Raceway, the only other road course race of season in the Sprint Cup series.
            
Odds courtesy of the Las Vegas Hilton Super Book.

Micah Roberts, a former race and sports Director, has been setting NASCAR lines in Las Vegas since 1995. For more Roberts insights and post-practice analysis on the race, go to VegasInsider.com or follow MicahRoberts7 on Twitter.


Sunday's Starting Lineup

Final Pocono Driver Ratings Following All Practice & Qualifying Sessions

Micah Roberts Top 10 Driver Ratings
Good Sam RV Insurance 500
Pocono Raceway
Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 10:16 am (PDT)

Rating    Driver     Odds     Practice 1   Practice 2   Qualified   Pocono 1*

 1. Carl Edwards 8/1              4th               10th            4th           37th                       
Two-time winner; using winning Las Vegas and Darlington runner-up chassis this week.
 2. Jimmie Johnson 5/1         6th               17th            18th           4th                      
Two-time winner with 9.3 average finish; had best 10-consecutive lap average in practice.
 3. Jeff Gordon 5/1                25th              18th           31st           1st      
Five-time winner with 10.3 average finish in 37 starts; finished runner-up at Indy last week.                      
 4. Kurt Busch 10/1                2nd               15th            5th            2nd
Two-time winner and five time runner-up in 21 career starts; using new chassis this week.                           
 5. Denny Hamlin 4/1            39th               24th           6th            19th                          
Four-time winner; fastest in average lap times during final practice despite slow single laps.
 6. Kyle Busch 10/1                9th               11th           11th            3rd   
Three top-five finishes in 13 starts, including two of last three; using new chassis this week.                       
 7. Ryan Newman 30/1           1st                7th            12th           9th  
2003 winner with 13.1 average finish in 19 starts; using car that raced at Pocono and Kentucky.
 8. Kasey Kahne 30/1            15th               1st             2nd           12th                           
2008 winner with 16.3 average finish in 15 starts; last top-10 Pocono finish came in 2009
 9. Kevin Harvick 12/1            26th              3rd            10th            5th  
Has current streak of three straight top-five finishes at Pocono; using 11th-place Kansas chassis.
10. Matt Kenseth 15/1            11th              27th           20th           8th                             
Average finish of 14.1 in 23 starts; using car that finished sixth at Kansas and won at Dover.

* Results from the first Pocono race this season held on June 12, 2011.

Note: Last week’s Brickyard 400 can also be helpful because of the similar long straightaways and flat banking.
               
Odds courtesy of the Las Vegas Hilton Super Book.

Micah Roberts, a former race and sports Director, has been setting NASCAR lines in Las Vegas since 1995. For more Roberts insights and post-practice analysis on the race, go to VegasInsider.com or follow MicahRoberts7 on Twitter.

Pocono Driver Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes

Ragan's best finish at Pocono was fifth-place in 2008 (Getty)

DAVID RAGAN – QUALIFIED 15TH: “Hopefully that will end up in the top 15. We thought we had a legitimate shot of a pole run or top-five run, and I think the track is a little bit warmer now than it was maybe 20 minutes ago, but I missed my marks a little bit through the tunnel turn. The car got a little bit tight, but, other than that, it was a pretty solid lap. I think our race car is gonna be close for Sunday. We’ve got some little adjustments to make to try and make it better. It’s an OK lap. You’re never completely satisfied unless you’re on the pole, but I think that will give us certainly something to race with. It’s a lot better than 25th.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – QUALIFIED 27TH: “That’s not what we wanted. When you’ve only got one lap it’s hard to really know what you’ve got out there. I tried, but I just got a little loose off of one and lost a lot of momentum.”

GREG BIFFLE – QUALIFIED 16TH: “That’s a relief. It was really good and it’s really good to see it brightening up out here. I was a little unsure of the grip level, so I probably didn’t take full advantage of what was out there. I got about seven-eighths of it. In one and two I probably could have got the gas down a little bit sooner and could have carried a little more speed through the tunnel, but in three I think I was right on the money.”

CARL EDWARDS – QUALIFIED 4TH: “I went down in turn one and Bob said, ‘Man, that was a little scary,’ so there’s a lot of grip out there. I’ve got to give Ryan Newman some trouble. I actually beat Ryan Newman in qualifying here at Pocono, so that’s huge. I’m proud of my lap. I’ve got to say that Joey Logano’s lap was a very, very fast lap. Mine felt amazing, so he did a really good job and now we’ll go race. It’s gonna be great. We’ve got Ortho, Aflac, Ford, hopefully we’ll get them a win.”

Kahne and Busch both look to be strong

KURT BUSCH - QUALIFIED FIFTH: “It was a decent qualifying effort. I told Steve (Addington, crew chief) we could really be scratching our heads if we were back 25th or so. To be fifth, that’s a great start. We’ll get a good pit box selection. In race trim, we’ve been struggling. This car has been tight with us all weekend. We’re going to jump out of our setup and go to Brad Keselowski’s (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) setup. He went through a rough wreck earlier this week; it’s great to see him in the car, pushing hard. These young kids, they’re made like rubber bands, they can bounce back from anything. So we’re going to have to go to his setup to get our car freed up enough to try and win this bad boy on Sunday.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI - QUALIFIED 13TH: “We had a really good Turn 3, a decent Turn 2, but the car bottomed out too much in Turn 1. We were really good yesterday in race trim, so we feel pretty good about that. We’ll have to fight through some traffic tomorrow. We’ll do what we can.”

PAUL MENARD - QUALIFIED 7TH: “It was a pretty good lap for the CertainTeed/Menards team. That gives us a good starting spot for tomorrow’s race. It’s good to get that behind us and now we can focus on continuing the momentum from last week’s (Brickyard 400) win.”

JEFF BURTON - QUALIFIED 8TH: “We are happy with that lap. The track is getting faster and faster. We feel good about that lap. We were a little behind in qualifying trim yesterday, we were really happy in race trim but weren’t where we wanted to be in Q trim. We made a lot of changes this morning and that got us a lot closer. The car drove good and that is ok.”

3 straight Pocono Top-5's for Harvick

KEVIN HARVICK – QUALIFIED 10th: “The last couple of years we’ve had our cars handling really good and as you get into the race there is a lot of fall-off in the tires. But our Budweiser Chevrolet has been really good in race trim. We only made one qualifying run at the end of the second practice yesterday. Qualifying has been a struggle for me. The cars are like this pretty much every week but it’s few and far between that I get all of it out of it. But still, a lot left out there; but a good lap for us.”

CLINT BOWYER - QUALIFIED 14th: “Hopefully that will get us near the top-15. Starting position and track position on a track this side is key. Hopefully we an keep it there.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY - QUALIFIED 16th: “It felt like it was a really good lap. This is one of the tracks that you come to that when the sun goes away or cools off, you pick up so much grip. For me, it was right between needing to shift and not needing to shift. I did two qualifying runs in practice and shifted in one and didn’t shift in the other and I felt much better about downshifting. I did that all three corners there and the engine certainly is over-reved when you come out of the corners, but it seems like the car accelerates really well. This has been a really tough track for me. Turn three has been really hard and I had the goofiest line of all time coming through there because I want to run low and everyone else runs high. The more worn out that pavement gets on the outside; the better it is for me because I just haven’t been able to figure it out. But, it was a good run for our Bass Pro Chevy.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA – QUALIFIED 22nd: “I think our Target Chevy is pretty good here. We’ve done a lot of work. We unloaded a little bit off from where we needed to be and we did a lot of changes. I think the biggest road course thing is downshifting now you know, with the gear they allow you to run now. There is a big benefit if you know how to use it and myself being a road racer, it always helps.”

Newman and Stewart Sit on New Hampshire Front Row; Driver Post-Qualifying Quotes

Ryan Newman captured the pole for Sunday's New Hampshire Cup race with a qualifying lap speed of 135.232 mph which was good enough to set a new track record.

This was Newman’s first Cup pole of the 2011 season, his 47th series career pole and his fifth series pole at the one-mile Loudon track.

Sharing the outside pole with a qualifying lap speed of 135.064 mph, will be Newman’s boss and teammate, Tony Stewart, and they will be followed by David Reutimann (134.763) starting third, Kurt Busch (134.340) fourth and Brad Keselowski (134.150) will start from fifth.

Rounding out the top-ten starting positions will be Jeff Burton (134.122) starting sixth, Jeff Gordon (134.075) seventh, Juan Pablo Montoya (133.788) eighth, Paul Menard (133.778) ninth and Kasey Kahne (133.755) starts tenth.

The teams will return to the track on Saturday for two more practice sessions (9:30 AM – 10:20 AM & “Happy Hour – 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM – EDT) before Sunday’s race, which is scheduled to get underway a little after 1:00 PM (EDT).

Starting Lineup

Driver Quotes following Friday's Qualifying Session:

Newman and Stewart are on the front row at New Hampshire (Getty)

RYAN NEWMAN – POLE WINNER
“Well, it was really good. The car felt really good. It wasn’t a perfect, perfect lap, but the car has a lot of speed. And I’m just really proud of the U.S. Army Chevrolet guys and Stewart-Haas Racing and hopefully if Clint (Bowyer) doesn’t get a good lap, we can be on the front row here, which would be really cool. But we’ll see. We’ve got our fingers crossed.”

TONY STEWART – QUALIFIED 2ND:
ON STEWART-HAAS RACING SWEEPING THE FRONT ROW: “It’s awesome. We have a great group of guys at SHR. We’ve got great engines and great chassis from Henricks and I’m just really proud of our organization. We’ve been fighting hard here and we’re in the middle of making some changes internally and it’s definitely not an easy time for us at the shop. But we’ve got a group of guys there that are racers and they don’t care how bad it gets. They don’t care how much of a struggle it is. They keep focused and keep working. This is for all of our guys at the fab shop and prep shop and the job that they do to get us here. Plus, I’ve got a pretty good driver over there (Ryan Newman, pole winner); he’s gotten two poles in two nights here. So he’s doing a pretty good job.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA – QUALIFIED 8TH:
“It was good. We had a really good practice. Our Target Chevy is pretty competitive. And in qualifying, it got really loose on the second lap; it was the fastest lap, but I got really loose out of (Turn) 4 and lost a ton of time there. But we have a good race car so I’m pretty positive.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY – QUALIFIED 25TH
“We qualified right about where we practiced today. We worked a lot on race set up this afternoon before qualifying so there really wasn’t any surprise because the track temperatures stayed pretty consistent with earlier in the day. We have a few things that we want to try tomorrow during our two practice sessions, so hopefully we will have our Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet ready to be competitive on Sunday.”

MARK MARTIN – QUALIFIED 24TH

Martin won at Loudon in fall of 2009

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN. “Pretty good, pretty good second lap there. Work in progress and it was pretty good.”

YOU’VE BEEN AROUND THIS TRACK A FEW TIMES, ANYTHING DIFFERENT? “Nah, it’s the same old thing as it is every week. Trying to make the car go through the corners faster than everybody else. That’s the challenge.”

IT’S SUPER HOT HERE THIS WEEKEND, USUALLY NOT THIS HOT, DOES THAT CHANGE ANYTHING? “No, it’s all good.”

ANYTHING YOU’VE NOTICED ABOUT THE NEW TIRE? “It seems like it really hooks up a lot better than the tire we’ve had in the past. That’s well for racing but we’ll have to still wait and see but certainly seems like a great addition, it should race quite a bit better than what we’ve had for restarts and all.”

HOW ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF THIS TRACK AND HOW SCRAPY IT GETS, IT NARROWS AND THAT SORT OF THING? “It’s a tough race track especially with the multi-angle banking, crossing those it always has been. It’s kind of what it is.”

DO YOU LIKE RACING IT? “No, not really.”

JEFF BURTON QUALIFIED 6TH:
WHAT ABOUT THAT LAP, NOT BAD YOU CAN USE SOME GOOD STUFF HAPPENING. “Yeah we need some good stuff. It’s been a hard year but everybody is still working hard, everybody is really focused. We’ve had a good weekend, I mean its only one day but it’s been a good weekend. Every time we’ve been on the track the car is running good. We’ve made some changes to the car that have made it better. If we can qualify in the top 10 I’ll be happy with that, but we need a good weekend.”

WHAT ABOUT THIS RACE TRACK AND THIS RACE? “It’s always a crazy race. These restarts are really, really tough here. This track is really slick on restarts and that’s our big deal. It’s really hard to have your car good late in a run and also early in a run but you have to be able to do both here.”

KURT BUSCH - QUALIFIED 4TH:
“It was a good lap. We picked up speed from practice which is what you always want. We were confused if we needed to try and get it (fastest lap) on the first lap or stick to our game plan and get it on our second lap like we had been doing. It will be interesting to see how the overall stats line up, if guys did it on the first lap or second. We were just caught in between. We didn’t know which one to go for. A top-five starting spot is great. It keeps us up front in the mix and gives us a good pit selection.

“We were tight coming off of Turn 2 on our first lap and that’s just low air pressures. We were trying to decide which lap was going to be quicker for us because we had seen guys quicker on their first lap and we had seen consistency on our second lap. But overall, a great lap for our Shell-Pennzoil/AAA Dodge. AAA has a lot of support up here and it’s great to have them on board. It’s a flat one-mile track and I like it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI - QUALIFIED 5TH:
“I don’t think that will hold up at the top (provisional pole). That should end up in the top 10. I expected to run better on the second lap (his qualifying time came on the first lap). My teammate Kurt Busch will be tough, he should be right up there at the top. We got a good lap in; it’s a respectable place to start. You always want more. We started practice very strong, but fell off at the end. This was a good pickup from where we ended up in practice. It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. This track has a short-track feel to it which I think is good; it serves the sport well. It’s a lot of fun to watch. I like this place.”

MATT KENSETH - QUALIFIED 30TH:
“That will probably put us 25-30th, not too good. We have been way far off all day today for some reason. We are definitely working on it and we have the two practices to work on it tomorrow, so that is good.”

MARCOS AMBROSE - QUALIFIED 22ND:
“I am hoping the sun will come back out. That was okay. We have been struggling and we are getting better every time we go out, so that is a good thing. I just want a decent spot for the race. If we can be in the front half of the field I will be happy. We haven’t done much yet in race trim, but I feel good that our team is committed to get the car better. It has been a little bit of a tough day so I am looking forward to having a sleep on it and coming back tomorrow fresh.”

CARL EDWARDS - QUALIFIED 15TH:
“That was a pretty good lap. It is better than practice by a tenth-and-a-half. It is not the pole but I think it might be a top-10 starting spot. That is what we are hoping for and we will just have to wait and see what happens. There are a lot of fast cars coming up, so we will have to wait and see.”

GREG BIFFLE - QUALIFIED 20TH:
“I was hoping for better. I don’t think that is bad but I think we have a good car and the facts are we were just a little too tight. We haven’t been tight since we got here. We had been struggling with rear grip. That run there was really tight. I had to come out of the gas and really lay down on it the second lap to pick up. I am a little disappointed. I think our car is faster than that. That will be good in the race I guess to be starting where we are at and having a faster car.”

YOU’VE HAD A LOT OF CHANGES THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS WITH THE NEW BABY AND NEW CREW CHIEF. HOW ARE YOU HANDLING ALL THIS NEW STUFF? “Really good. Really good. Everything is running good and everything. The car is good. I am really looking forward to the race.”

DAVID REUTIMANN - QUALIFIED 3RD:

Great lap for David Reutimann Friday

Are you surprised with your qualifying lap? "It didn't feel that good at all, but thankfully the Aaron's Dream Machine has been pretty good since we unloaded. It ended up being okay there, but the clouds are coming now and it's not going to do us any favors. The track is going to cool down some. Hopefully this will hold up for a good starting position on Sunday."

How important is qualifying at New Hampshire? "It's important everywhere we go. It's so hard to pass anymore, but we unloaded pretty good and had a good Aaron's Dream Machine. The lap itself didn't feel all that good, but in the end it was good enough for third."

What do you attribute to the recent roll you've been on? "Finally running like we're supposed to. I don't know if you call it a roll, but it's certainly been better than it has been. Just because you qualify upfront, it doesn't mean you're going to stay there, but it certainly does get your weekend off to a good start. Just all due to the improvements we made on our cars and things we were missing and felt like some areas we were struggling in as far as our cars were performing. It's not that we had bad cars, it's just that we were behind a little bit. Hopefully starting to close the gap a little bit. Last week was the first time we've run our new generation-type car and that was a big improvement over what we've had. It's just qualifying here, but we'll see how it stacks up in race trim before we know if there is any kind of roll or not."

KASEY KAHNE - QUALIFIED 10TH:
How was your car in qualifying? "It was pretty decent. We picked up a little from practice. I was just a little bit loose getting into the corners. I didn't really get into the corners as good as I would have liked. It's still alright and still a decent lap."

How tough is this race track? "It just depends - sometimes it can be. The tires are what gets you a lot. People will put on two and zero and track position will really kill you at times here. Just trying to keep up with that. Overall, it's a pretty cool track to race."

DENNY HAMLIN - QUALIFIED 14TH:
Were you pleased with your qualifying lap? "We were going to end up better than what we have the last couple times, but still we're not blazing fast in frontend speed. Got to get a little faster on the short run it seems like. That kind of rolls over into qualifying where we're going to end up somewhere around 15th or so. It's just one of those things where we just have to keep working on the short run and I think we'll get better overall."

What is the key to success at this race track? "It's tough - it's just a tough race track. I think this tire we have here this weekend is a little bit better so it's going to be a little bit more controlled I feel like on restarts. It's still going to be a tough one to get a hold of."

JOEY LOGANO - QUALIFIED 16TH
Was your qualifying lap better than what you expected after practice? "Definitely better. They did a good job. Zip (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) and the boys put their heads together. I told them this was the first time I've come here and I feel like I know what I'm looking for in a race car and for race trim, but for qualifying trim I was kind of up in the air after practice there. I think we had a good direction to go. The guys did a good job with it and we'll have a decent starting spot with that. That's definitely an improvement for us. We're happy about it. Starting position here is pretty big."

How did your car handle in qualifying? "The guys did a good job improving my car for sure. The Home Depot Toyota has been good in race trim. Qualifying trim is what I was nervous about and I didn't feel like I had a really good car. Just kept telling myself before I went out there that I needed to get back in the Cup mode - I just ran Nationwide practice for the last hour and a half. I just kept trying to re-run what I had before and really focused in and I felt like I did everything I was supposed to do. I think I wish I had one more lap - the car seemed like it was getting better as I kept going there. I think one more lap would have been faster, but I bet 90 percent of the guys out here say the same thing. I think we know what to work on the next time we come here to make speed in qualifying so that should help."

Kyle Busch starts 19th, won at NHMS in 2006 (Getty)

KYLE BUSCH - QUALIFIED 19TH:
How was your car in qualifying? "Our Interstate Batteries Camry was just too snug to the center and a little edgy back to the gas. I think we've got a good car for the race and we've got two sessions tomorrow to work on it and make it better."

BRIAN VICKERS - QUALIFIED 23RD:
How was your qualifying lap? "We ran short on time there at the end of practice and we didn't get to scuff our tires like we wanted and didn't get to make some of the changes like we wanted, but we took a big swing at it after qualifying. The guys did a good job. There's a couple areas I thought we could've improved upon, but considering where we were I liked it."

What do you think of this race track? "I like it. It's unique to our circuit. A flat one mile like this, progressive-banked - it's easy to get beside someone and hard to complete the pass, which makes for a lot of side-by-side racing."

- From Chevy, Ford, Toyota and Dodge Motorsports Press Releases

Driver Post-Qualifying Notes & Quotes From Sonoma

 McMurray's best Sonoma finish was runner-up in 2004, his only top-10

JAMIE MCMURRAY – QUALIFIED 2ND: “We’ve got a really good McDonald’s Chevrolet. I was happy with the way that we unloaded today. We’ve really had a tough season; especially after all the success that we had last year. So, it was nice to come here and unload and have a really good car. I think we’ll be in the Top 10 in qualifying and if we can just have the right strategy; the hardest part about Sonoma is not getting collected in someone else’s issue. Turn 7 is always really tough on restarts because guys will dive bomb in there and it might be three rows behind you but if they start wheel-hopping they can’t get stopped. So, it’s a really frustrating track. But I love coming out here. So I’m really happy with our run there.”

‘Honestly last year after our qualifying run I told Bono (crew chief) that I just didn’t drive hard enough. So I drove as hard as I could there. And the car had a lot of grip. I’m really happy for our McDonald’s Chevrolet. We’ve had a really tough year and it’s a lot of fun to come out here. It’s one of my favorite tracks. We’ve got a really good car this weekend. So I hope that we can get a good qualifying run and then capitalize on it in the race.”

PAUL MENARD – QUALIFIED 3RD: “You’ve got to be so smooth. Goodyear brought a different tire and it’s very slippery and everybody is kind of fighting that. So you just have to have a lot of discipline with the throttle. We made a few changes after practice. We made a couple of adjustments and kind of made a swing at it. The car drove really good right there. We still fought some forward-bite issues, but hopefully it holds on for a good starting spot. We had a pretty good lap; uneventful, which is good in qualifying on road courses. It seems like the slower you’re going, the faster you’re really going and when you start hustling too much, and then you go slower. I’m looking forward to practice tomorrow to work on some more stuff.”

MARK MARTIN – QUALIFIED 16TH: ON GETTING A RE-DO, FOR YOU IT WORKED OUT PRETTY GOOD:
“Yeah, it did. It did distract me. I got a blue flag. I saw the debris. If they had left it alone and not flagged nothing, I’d have been fine. But with the blue flag and a black flag; I know how this stuff works. You’d better get your time. I don’t care what flag is out there! So, I got my time, but I was distracted a little. So it was nice of them to give us another crack at it. It’s better. I thought we should have run a .30 or .40; but we ran a .50, so that’s pretty close to what I was hoping for. I was real disappointed when they told me the first lap was a .90.”

JEFF GORDON – QUALIFIED 13TH: THAT WAS A PRETTY GOOD PICK-UP FOR YOU AFTER PRACTICE:
“Yeah, a lot of guys are picking up. I’m pretty happy that we picked up. I’ve been here before where we haven’t. So it was a clean lap. There are definitely some areas where we still need to make some improvements, but I’m certainly encouraged by that as well as encouraged about how good our car is when we made our race runs. So we’ll know more tomorrow. But yeah, that’s pretty good for the DuPont Chevrolet. I’m happy with it.”

RYAN NEWMAN – QUALIFIED 5TH: “Yeah, it was a god lap. It was a little bit freer than I expected it to be but the track picked up grip and we picked up time. I didn’t get a really good practice lap; just had some traffic and I’m sure other guys did too. But we’ll see where that shakes us out with the Haas Chevrolet. I feel like we’re more competitive this year than we have been the last two years here. So we’ll see if we can improve it tomorrow and shake it and bake it on Sunday.”

JPM using winning Watkins Glen car

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA – QUALIFIED 17TH : “As bad as we were in practice in this Cottonelle Chevy, I think we gained a lot and I think we have a very good direction for tomorrow and for the race. Our qualifying normally has been terrible here, so it’s not a surprise. I think we’re actually better than expected. I think that’s positive. I think we’ll be okay; it’s just a little bit of time and patience.”

BORIS SAID – QUALIFIED 30th: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING. “It was the best lap we’ve run all day but I don’t know where I’m missing the speed this year. So hopefully we can find a good race set up tomorrow and be good in the race.”

I KNOW THAT THE HENDRICK GUYS ARE RELYING ON A LOT ON YOUR EXPERTISE FOR THIS, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU CAN ALL SHARE AND ALL BE BETTER?
“I don’t think I’ve done the best job yet. We’re going back to the drawing board for sure because we’re not where we need to be yet. But that’s racing. You’ve got to learn faster than your competition. You can’t give up and you’ve got to keep learning. I’m just missing something right now. There are a few things I don’t like about the car and I don’t know if it’s because the track has changed a lot or the tire is different or what or if I’m just older I’m not sure but we’re going to keep working on it.”

NOT HAPPY WITH THE QUALIFYING, ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE K&N WEST RUBBER ON THE RACE TRACK?
“Yeah, I mean for sure. We found that in the first practice right in the beginning the track was actually slippery and hard to get forward bite. I mean we are trying to hook up 900 horsepower so it definitely hurt. We didn’t get a good practice qualifying time and to go this early is a disadvantage but we’re working on our car, we’re getting it better. Hopefully we’ll get the Security Benefit/Thank A Teacher Chevrolet better tomorrow in race practice.”

JEFF BURTON – QUALIFIED 25TH: WATCHED THAT LAP AND THE CAR LOOKED PRETTY GOOD.
“Yeah I didn’t do a very good job there in our mock qualifying run and over drove all the corners so we had to kind of take a stab at what we had to do with the car and my guys did a good job with making some changes without a whole lot of information. We could have bee a little better if i had hit my marks in qualifying practice. Nonetheless it has been a hard year for us and hopefully we can turn things around this week. I believe in this team. i believe in what we are doing. We keep fighting and we’ll be okay.”

Johnson is using winning 2010 Sonoma car

JIMMIE JOHNSON – QUALIFIED 12TH: THIS IS THE CAR YOU WON IN LAST YEAR. CAN YOU DUPLICATE THAT ON SUNDAY?
“We’re getting closer. We had a rough practice session. Made some adjustments to the car and I think that will allow the car to be in the top 10. There’s still some speed out there to have. This new tire is just throwing us for a loop. A couple of guys had it under control early in practice; we’re playing a bit of catch up and certainly on the right track now. Excited to have the Jimmie Johnson Foundation on the car. We had a big week of fundraising and looking forward to a good race on Sunday.”

IS SIDEWAYS LOOSE REALLY FAST BECAUSE YOU PICKED UP A FULL SECOND FROM YOUR PRACTICE RUN?
“Yeah, I definitely had the effort level at eleven out there on that qualifying run and gave up some time in the process but we’ve been fighting this new tire really bad in practice and it was kind of a situation where I was learning my grip level. i went through each corner and made it back with a much better time than what we had in practice. So excited about the direction we’re going. I don’t think this will stand up for the pole but hopefully it will have us close to the front for a good pit road pick, good track position and all that kind of things. More than anything I’m glad we found a little traction with the car so we can apply that for tomorrow’s race practice.”

JOEY LOGANO - QUALIFIED 1st: Did you expect to get a qualifying result like this? “No, no, no. I was surprised it was as fast as it was. I felt like the car had a lot more grip in it, and I felt like we fixed the car, but personally I felt like I screwed up about three times in one lap. I didn’t feel too good about myself after it and I thought I screwed that one up. It was good, car was fast. We’ll work on our stuff in race trim a little bit more tomorrow and see if we can get our Home Depot car fast. This is place is so — you can have a fast race car here and it doesn’t mean a whole bunch here. Obviously your strategy is going to be a big deal and I think the real big deal is staying out of trouble, which is where I need to work on the most than anywhere else.”

Joey Logano may be helped from extra time on the track running K&N race

What have you done to prepare for this weekend’s race? “We’ve done a lot of things. These road courses for me have been a struggle in trying to get in the corners is probably the biggest thing. So, we went to Road Atlanta and tested with Max Papis. We had a little two-seater car and he gave me a ride and I was like, ‘Wow, you can get in the corner a lot harder.’ It’s cool to see that and learn — think that is definitely paying off right now. Thanks to Max on that one. My Home Depot car is fast. I was really surprised about the speed in it. I didn’t feel like our car was that good in practice at all. The car was a lot better. I’ll take it for sure.”

Are you excited to get your second career pole award? “It’s really awesome, for sure. This is the last place that I figured we’d get a pole. I think obviously if you’re looking at — I’ve never had a top-10 start here and I’ve never finished that good here either. After practice, I felt like we needed a lot more forward drive and a lot more side-bite in our car. Man, they made it happen. I said, ‘Geeze, should have asked for that a long time ago.’ They definitely did a good job of making our Home Depot car fast. I was surprised, I felt like my lap was okay, didn’t feel like it was stellar by no means. Man, a hell of a lap. The last three cars were Kasey (Kahne) who got the pole last year, and Denny (Hamlin), our teammate is really good here, and Kurt (Busch) that was four-tenths faster than everyone else in practice and has gotten the last three poles. Man, I didn’t know — I didn’t think it was going to hold up — I don’t think of my guys thought it was going to hold up. We were pretty pumped up right now, we needed a momentum change with our Home Depot team right now. We’ve been going through a little bit of a drought. This is definitely going to help us a lot.”

Will racing the K&N Pro Series West race tomorrow set you up for a good race on Sunday? “It is an advantage for sure. I run a lot of Nationwide races the day before because I think it helps. I think here is a bit bigger help just because there’s so many more turns and getting used to it. The cars drive so different, you can’t compare the two. You’re looking at a lot lighter car over there. Lower, a lot less horsepower — all that stuff makes a huge different. The tire over there — that’s probably the biggest difference. That car there is a lot of fun to drive. All that makes it cool. I have a lot of fun doing that. I do think it helps. The first time I came out here, I ran the West race and I ran pretty good in the Cup race. Last year I didn’t run so good in the Cup race and this year I am and I got the pole. Hopefully it’s all good and working out for me. Hey, if that’s what it takes, I’ll run that thing every weekend — they’re fun to race anyway. Last time I ran here I got dumped in turn 11 for the win on the last lap, so I need to redeem myself.”

How will being out front benefit you in Sunday’s race? “I don’t know, I’ve never been up front here before. That’s a question I’m going to answer Sunday. I think right now I need to figure out where I’m going to start — on the inside or the outside and kind of think about that. Watching the previous race here, just looking at where those guys started and stuff like that — I’ll try to make the best decision I can. It’s a long race, hopefully we do get out front by the end of turn two there and try to put some distance on them and lead some laps. Right now we’re focused on tomorrow and getting our car the best we can so we can do that.”

DENNY HAMLIN - QUALIFIED 4th: Are you happy to be starting the race from near the front of the field? “That’s a good starting spot for us. We definitely made some big strides in our road course program. Obviously, it showed up there at the end. We’re looking forward to it. Obviously, starting this far in the front we should have a shot at it.”


BRIAN VICKERS - QUALIFIED 10th: Did you run the speeds in qualifying you thought you were going to? “It’s pretty close. We had a 17.30 in practice coming into 11 and then I tried to get a little more out of the brake and I wheel hopped, so we didn’t have a good time in practice. We felt really good about the car, we made some adjustments. The adjustments were a plus. We picked up a little bit.”

How was your qualifying lap? “I felt pretty good about it. We made some changes from practice to race and they were good changes, probably even better than I anticipated. I probably could have gotten a little bit more out of the slow corners, but you never know. If you push it too much and you wash the front out, then you’re done and you miss the curb. In practice, coming to turn 11 we had a 17.30 and then I wheel hoped getting into turn 11. We were trying something and it didn’t work and it made my braking zones worse. We felt like we had at least that in the car. I felt like we at least had a 17.30 in the car. Clearly thought we were better than what our practice speeds showed because of that wheel hop situation as long as that didn’t happen again. We were able to best that. I felt like it was a pretty decent lap, we were on the pole there for a bit.”

Truex jr. had a great Sonoma run in 2010 until Gordon......

MARTIN TRUEX JR. - QUALIFIED 14th: How was your qualifying lap? “It was okay. We had a good practice today. We were fighting a few issues that we didn’t really straighten out. We had them again at the beginning of qualifying so we had to straighten those out, so that was disappointing. We picked up a 10th from practice which is always a good thing here. It’s difficult when you only have one shot at it, one lap to back it up. So, we did that. We just need a little more speed but our car was pretty good today in practice. I’m looking forward to it.”

BOBBY LABONTE - QUALIFIED 21st: How was your qualifying lap? “It was okay, the biggest struggle that we had for whatever reason that time was it just never got cleared out. It was — the carburetor just doesn’t get cleared out, I don’t know why. It just didn’t run right. But the lap itself, car wise was better than we were in practice. For whatever reason we fight that and we fought it all day. We went back and forth on it and never could get it right. I hate it for the guys because I think we could have been faster if we would have had something — nothing we could do about it, just to go faster down the straightaway would have been better.”

CASEY MEARS - QUALIFIED 27th: How did your car feel during your qualifying run? “It wasn’t bad, really. I really tried to keep the thing in shape, I didn’t want to get too out of control. It was a clean lap, we just had a real hard time with forward bite. I wasn’t sideways, but I was half throttle and I needed to be wide open off of turn 11 and out of turn seven. A little loose in the high-speed corners. I’m pretty happy with it. Our GEICO Toyota, these guys have done a really good job, we’ve made a lot of progress as a team. It’s fun to come back to a road course — I really enjoy shifting gears and having a little change of pace. The weather is beautiful, we’re ready to have a good day on Sunday.”

CARL EDWARDS - QUALIFIED 23rd: “That was a pretty good lap. I know it won’t probably be top 10 but if it’s top 15 that would be good for us. We focused on race trim in practice because I was going to go to Road America tomorrow and have no practice. We finished practice and didn’t get any qualifying in and it was very frustrating. Billy Johnson is fastest in the Fastenal Mustang at Road America. I don’t think Billy Johnson knows he is driving that car there tomorrow but we made the change. Fastenal is amazing. I called Will Overton the CEO after practice and he said it was cool and they were part of the team and wanted to do whatever they could to help us be fastest. So that is the plan now. We have changed it. I want to win this race bad.”

 Ragan's paint scheme for Indy as a tribute to HOF inductee Ned Jarrett

DAVID RAGAN - QUALIFIED 34th: “I smoked the right front tire a little getting into 11 and probably over drove it a little getting to the checkered. Sometimes that smoke can get under the hood and make it appear like it’s something. We will change a gear and change a few things from qualifying. I never felt like I was in a rhythm out there. The track lost a little grip and I was a little aggressive which slowed me down a little bit. Last year I wrecked so it’s not bad to bring it back in one piece.”

GREG BIFFLE - QUALIFIED 22nd: “It wasn’t bad. I left a little out there. I didn’t get the right turn into the corners and there was more grip out there than I thought in a few spots. You know, it is give and take and I wish I would have taken a little more in some spots and been a little easier in some other spots.”

MARCOS AMBROSE - QUALIFIED 8th: “That was good. We were struggling in practice a little bit but we got a gain there so I feel better about it. We are going to get a good race car out of it we just have to keep working away. This new tire they brought here has thrown us for a loop a little bit. We just aren’t quite prepared for it. We will get it right by Sunday.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER - QUALIFIED 7th: “That was a lot better than I usually qualify here. I will take it. I think my best ever was 17th here, so that was okay. The lap was solid. I felt like I could have gotten a little bit more but overall I hit my marks fairly decent. I am pleased with it. It is a lot better than we have ever started here and I think the car is pretty decent so we will keep working on it tomorrow and keep working on forward drive. I will take it.”

- From Chevy, Toyota and Ford Motorsports Press Releases