Friday

2010 Toyota Motorsports NSCS Teams Post-Shelby American Qualifying Recaps

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 5th, Kyle Busch       31st, Brian Vickers
 6th, Joey Logano      32nd, Marcos Ambrose
15th, Joe Nemechek     33rd, Michael McDowell
17th, David Reutimann  35th, Martin Truex Jr.
21st, Max Papis        36th, Dave Blaney
23rd, Scott Speed      42nd, Robby Gordon
27th, Denny Hamlin

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualified: 5th

How was your car in qualifying? “I thought there was more in that lap than what it showed. That’s all the M&M’s Camry had in it. I was flat-out as hard as I could go — didn’t really mess up that much.” How important is being on the pole here at Las Vegas? “You want to sit on the pole anywhere, but it seems like this is my best shot at getting it every year because I can’t do it anywhere else except for here. We’d rather win the race — the big prize is Sunday.” What do you need to do to get better for Sunday? “We need to get over the bumps a little bit more. The bumps in one seem to be throwing everybody for a loop, but ours isn’t that bad. We’ll see if we can’t get it going.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualified: 6th

You said, ‘I like this’ after your qualifying run — Were you talking about the race car? “No. I’m just talking about the season in general — a lot better than last year with the Home Depot Toyota. They did a good job with this thing. We were struggling a little bit after the last race in California. I didn’t feel like we did a good job in California keeping up with the race track when it came to qualifying. It’s cool to see us improving.”

<strong> “I do think it’s a pretty good lap. I’m pretty happy with that. We were talking about — last week in California — we had a good car in practice and screwed up in qualifying getting our car to keep up with the race track, I guess. To come out here and fix the problem we had last week and keep improving — that’s a big deal to us. I’m pretty excited about that lap. That was the amount I felt I needed to pick up. I think it’s more than most people picked up. It’s not the pole, but it’s a good run. You have to be happy with that.”

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Qualified: 15th

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 TUMS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Qualified: 17th

Were you happy with the way your car handled during qualifying? “We were just tight. We didn’t get a really clean qualifying run (in practice) and that hurt us. You go out there not really knowing what to expect. The car was pretty good. I should have been able to run quicker. It was a little bit too tight and we just really didn’t get that qualifying run in to be able to work on it, and let the car be up to its full potential. Overall, it wasn’t bad — it didn’t drive bad. This place is so fast it doesn’t take much to be off a little bit, as far as speed goes.”

Why didn’t you get a good qualifying run in during practice? “first run we had to abort because we got tied in with another car. The second run was on scuffs — right there towards the end because we did our qualifying run right at the end. Didn’t get a really clean run to find out what the car was going to be. It was a little bit free on scuffs, so we tightened it up a little too much. You’re better off being snug here than free. Overall, the guys did a really good job. We’ve had a good car since we unloaded it. We just missed it a little bit.”

MAX PAPIS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain
Racing Qualified: 21st

How was your qualifying run? “We had a great run. I felt like we’re definitely making a lot of progress one car at a time. Bootie (Barker, crew chief) and the guys are giving me good cars and I really feel that I’m learning every lap that I do. I’m really pleased with the improvements we are doing.”

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Qualified: 23rd

How was your qualifying run? “It’s not the qualifying run we wanted. We’ll have to work on the car for Sunday. We’re trying to get to Martinsville.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualified: 27th

BRIAN VICKERS, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Qualified: 31st

How did your car handle during qualifying? “Better than practice. We were pretty bad this morning in practice. We made a lot of good gains on it in race trim. And we spent most of practice in race trim because of the rain tomorrow, or the expected rain tomorrow. We only got one qualifying run in which was kind of rushed and wasn’t very good. We tried to get out a second time to scuff our tires and didn’t make it out. All of the above, pretty much hurt us — hurt our shot at the pole. Considering everything we went through and where we started in practice, I thought it was a really good qualifying lap for us.”

Did you try to compensate today for possible rain tomorrow? “It looks like there’s a seventy percent chance of rain. We’d love to practice if we can. We kind of need it. We’re still not where we want to be. With a seventy percent chance of rain showing, you got to run a little bit more in race trim today than you normally would.”

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Kingsford Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Qualified: 32nd

MICHAEL McDOWELL, No. 55 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports
Qualified: 33rd

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA Gold Filters Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Qualified: 35th

How was your qualifying run? “The car was pretty good. We really had a good car all day. Just the ignition switch cut off on me coming to the green. So, that pretty much killed my lap. That’s pretty much it.”

DAVE BLANEY, No. 66 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports
Qualified: 36th

ROBBY GORDON, No. 7 Monster Energy Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports
Qualified: 42nd

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release