ON HIS LAP:
“I didn’t know exactly what to expect. They said the track temperature was up and Reutimann was fast there and clipped off a lap that I didn’t really think that could be beat. But I’m just proud of the U.S. Army team and everybody at Stewart-Haas to get our first front row together first of all, but for us to be the winning car of that and have a good start for the entire weekend (was great). The car felt good in practice. The lap itself was nice and smooth. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it was good enough and if we can make that a little bit better for Sunday, we’ll be in really good shape.”
ARE THERE ANY GOOD VIBES YOU HAVE AT THIS TRACK? YOU’VE DONE REALLY WELL HERE
“You’re right and I don’t know. I’ve always said I’ve been blessed with really good cars here. I’ve got to thank the Hendrick group for their support and their horsepower. But it works (laughs). It’s like making good macaroni and cheese sometimes. It just tastes good (laughter). I don’t know what the entire chemistry is, but I like it.”
WHAT WERE THE FACTORS THAT ALLOWED FOR SO MUCH SPEED TODAY?
“It’s a new tire. That’s one part of it. We’ve continuously, it seems like most race tracks even though the tires do change, we’ve made the cars better. When you look at the history of all the things that we’ve done since the inception of this car. I think it’s a combination of things with the tire being a big part of it. We come back a little bit better race cars and a little bit better engineering and a little bit better strategies and a little bit more knowledge and more notes where to start. The race track hasn’t changed a whole lot so we have better ideas of what to expect. I’ve always said the only thing touching the race track are the tires, so when they change it it’s a big change.”
DO YOU REALLY LIKE THE FLATTER TRACKS AS OPPOSED TO THE OTHERS?
“That’s the thing. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I don’t (laughter). I’ve always liked the banked race tracks the most. It’s not that I dislike this race track; I do like it. I enjoy it. But if you ask me to go out in my backyard and build a race track, it would have 20 degrees of banking on it. That’s just what I like. I like feeling myself pushed down in the seat and the more banking the race track has, the less emphasis there is on aerodynamics. So it’s nice to be able to get up behind somebody and use your race car instead of using the air. So, go ahead.”
IS THERE A HUG DIFFERENCE IN SPRINT AND MODIFIEDS?
“The Modifieds do drive quite a bit different. They have different characteristics in clean air and dirty air. They actually create lift when they’re out front or in clean air. So when you get behind somebody it’s kind of like the old school stock cars; I should say the old, old, old-school stock cars, where they created lift and they got single file. And when they got behind somebody it wasn’t downforce, it just wasn’t lift so the car actually stuck better. So I like the way those cars race, for sure. This is a lot of fun here to do the drafting that we do with the Modifieds. Obviously when you come here and are as consistently good as we are with the Modified, it helps on Fridays as well with the Sprint Cup car.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE IN TURN 2 TODAY?
“My car felt pretty good and pretty symmetric at both ends of the race track. There’s a 25 percent chance you’re going to have a problem on Turn 2 from the get-go (laughs). I can’t really speak on their behalf (other drivers) but I will say it is much harder here as it is most short tracks, to get the power down than it is to get on the brakes. So, you’re going to see more problems with exit typically than you are on the braking.”
TIRES, THIS IS THE RICHMOND/PHOENIX TIRE. WHAT ABOUT DROP-OFF? WHAT DO YOU EXPECT OVER A RUN?
“Just in what we did in race trim, they will fall off a little bit and it’s the typical falloff that we’ve seen. I would say in general, from what I’ve seen that Goodyear has brought just an overall better tire. I wouldn’t expect any failures or any issues like that. It’s hard to say on the two-tire, four-tire thing; what’s going to pay off. It all depends. Just because of the way the tires are here and the fuel window that we have, you can see guys doing two tires with 20 (laps) or you might see guys doing two tires with 60 laps on their tires. So, who knows? We’ll see that a little bit more and what to expect in tomorrow’s practices. But Sunday, depending on your race car and what you need for track position; as I’ve always said I think this is the birth place of track position, that we’ll see what strategy really unfolds.”
HOW DOES WHAT YOU JUST DID CHANGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY?
“Without a doubt I have higher expectations; when you have the fastest race car you have no excuse. It’s just a matter of making it the fastest car or the best race car on the last lap, given you have the right position and the right strategy and do the things that are needed to put yourself in that position. So, yeah, I felt really confident in practice today that we would have a shot at the pole, just on the way the car felt. Fortunately that came through and we were able to capitalize.”
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