Catchfence

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 1st

How loose were you on a scale of one to 10?

“It was pretty edgy. Coming to the green, it’s about an eight, and then the car settled in and drove really well. I had a great Aaron’s Dream Machine. Coming to the green, you try to come through there wide open as you can. When the thing’s a little free, you automatically think it’s going to be like that on the exit of (turn) two, and I lost a little bit of time there and probably a little bit of time off (turn) four. Overall, a great effort for my guys. Rodney Childers (crew chief) and everybody doing a great job. We had a good Aaron’s Dream Machine since we unloaded, and hopefully we can carry that on to Sunday.”

What is it like to qualify at Texas?

“When you leave pit road here for qualifying, you better be up on the wheel as hard as you can go. The only thing you have to worry about is biting your tongue in two because you’re chewing on that thing so much.”

Is there still value in earning the pole?

“Yeah, it does because it means you’ve actually won something at the end of the day. It may not be a race but you’ve beat everybody else out there for that particular moment. Everything is a race, if you’re in practice you want to be at the top of the heet at the end of the day. As drivers we’re a little goofy like that where we just want to win everything all the time. inning the pole is important not only for the obvious stuff like track position, pit selection and all those things, I think for morale for your guys and to show them all the flashing and the hoops you make them jump through week in and week out with the changes they do actually do pay off. It comes down to the guys that are working on your car and they’re doing a tremendous job. At the end of the day it’s more for the guys at the shop and the guys on the road that make your life a lot easier I think. That’s why it’s important to me.”

Can you compare missing this race in 2007 to now sitting on the pole at Texas?

“I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a miserable time in my life and we actually had a very good car but the weather was bad and we didn’t get to qualify so I feel like we might have made it – I can say that now. It’s one of those things where I think people tend to forget that it wasn’t that long ago when we were struggling to absolutely make races. You work so hard to try to get your organization to where you don’t have to worry about just making races to get yourself in the top-35. Going out there and getting poles shows that you’re doing what you’re supposed to do and I think about those times often. I’ll think about it again tonight how things have changed in a short amount of time and I’m very grateful for those changes.”

Is this the type of exposure you want for your sponsor compared to the accident with the 00 last year?

“I guess that puts an exclamation mark on just how things have changed. Again that was the 00 car last year got in a bad situation and got really, really tore up. On the positive side it got Aaron’s a lot of exposure so that was a plus. In the end, this is the kind of exposure you’re trying to get for Aaron’s and everybody involved at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota. I keep saying the same things over and over, I think. Three years is not that long of time to have a race team and I don’t think people can fully appreciate how hard this business is to keep your head above water sometimes. Sometimes when you’re treading water trying to get to the next race you appreciate times when things are going well. You appreciate them that much more and the people that were around you and there when things were bad and now things are a lot better. You like to share that with people still.”

Are you starting to see success coming easier?

“I don’t know if it’s easier, but I do feel like, ‘Man, don’t enjoy it too much, because it can go the other way really quickly.’ You don’t want to get too comfortable in your situation. There’s always somebody that’s going to come along that maybe can do it better and maybe can do it faster and maybe do a better job. That’s kind of what drives me. Don’t ever let your guard down, and you just keep going as hard as you can all the time. It’s just like there’s a bulldozer or something behind you and if you slow down or stop a little bit it’s just going to run over you. Never let your guard down, even know sometimes you want to. You just want to sit back and look around and enjoy it a little bit because you know how hard it is to do. At the same time, my mentality is, I can’t do this because something else could go wrong or something could do this or something could mess up.

Maybe one day I can do that, but as it is right now, that’s just kind of my make, I guess. Hard to change.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 8th

How was your car in qualifying?

“Our Interstate Batteries Toyota was good, not bad. I felt like it stuck really well, better than practice. We ran a better lap time than what we did in practice but it just wasn’t fast enough.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 10th

How was your qualifying lap?

“It’s a little bit too tight. I wasn’t sure where, I know it was tight and it’s going to be at least two or three tenths off the pole, at least that. We probably needed to be a little bit freer than what we had. We’ll just go back and look at it and see what we could have done.”

Was your qualifying run what you expected?

“It went better than I thought it would. I thought we were going to go backwards pretty quick after our qualifying run. I think we were third out of four of the first ones out. I was actually surprised how good it stood. It’s a little bit too tight getting back to the gas and it pushed up a little bit. Overall it was a pretty good Home Depot Toyota.”

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Clorox Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Starting Position: 11th

How was your qualifying run?

“It was a good run. I didn’t quite get enough out of it. We unloaded too good to start practice today and it hurt us doing too many changes and then the track caught up with us. We have a good starting spot for Sunday so I feel good about it.”

What adjustments will you make tomorrow to prepare for Sunday?

“We just need to work through a lot of different set-ups. Try to make the car good on long run. I feel like I race better than I qualify right now for some reason so I need to work on my qualifying. I just want to put myself in a good position on Sunday and hopefully get another top-15.”

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Starting Position: 18th

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 22nd

“We just didn’t qualify the FedEx Ground Toyota as well as we should have. Last year we qualified 14th in the April race and 17th in the November race so we know we can work our way through traffic. But, we are not starting in a very good spot. We have struggled with qualifying most of the season and we need to find a way to improve. We have two practice sessions to sort things out tomorrow. Mike Ford (crew chief) and the crew have done an amazing job the last few weeks so I hope we can do it again and get to the front on Sunday. The 334 laps at Texas is a long race and lots can happen.”

ROBBY GORDON, No. 7 Jim Beam Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports
Starting Position: 29th

MICHAEL WALTRIP, No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 34th

How’s your car?

“I wasn’t really happy with it all day. We struggled for some reason. The team did a great job. That’s the best it’s been and I just had too much to make up. I had to run a fifty and the best I’d run was a flat. I thought I gave it a lot of gas but it was a little loose and came up with an eighty. We needed to be better than that when we got here and we know that. We put our car just like David’s (Reutimann) because they tire tested and obviously it works for him but it just didn’t feel right for me so we had to bail off that plan and get on a new one and got behind a little bit. It’s just tough.”

MAX PAPIS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing
Starting Position: 39th

How was your car?

“I think we did a pretty descent qualifying effort. Grip level came up a lot in qualifying and I was not expecting it. I drove it like I did in practice and I left something on the table for sure. I accomplished goal number one and that was making the show.

You always want to do better but at the same we’ll take the satisfaction of knowing we’re in the show because that’s what we’re here for.”

DAVE BLANEY, No. 66 Toyota Camry, Prism Motorsports
Starting Position: 43rd

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position: DNQ

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Starting Position: DNQ

JEREMY MAYFIELD, No. 41 All Sport Toyota Camry, Jeremy Mayfield Motorsports
Starting Position: DNQ

TODD BODINE, No. 64 Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports
Starting Position: DNQ

SCOTT RIGGS, No. 36 Toyota Camry, Tommy Baldwin Racing
Starting Position: DNQ

 

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release