KENNY FRANCIS (Crew Chief, No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
"The rain doesn't affect my team a whole lot. If it (qualifying) rains out, we'll start eighth in the race. We would have liked the chance to qualify better, but you're taking your chances when you do that. Historically, we usually do (qualify) pretty well here. We got about an hour of practice in and the car seemed like it was pretty decent. We were in race trim the whole time. We were expecting rain, so we were waiting until the last minute to switch it over, but it rained before the end of practice. We're expecting good weather for practice tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get those practice sessions in. Overall, I don't think the rain will affect the 9 team a whole lot, maybe affect where we pick our pit, but that's about it."
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KEVIN BUSKIRK (Crew Chief, No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger)
"We practiced in qualifying trim just in case we did get to qualify today. We haven't been qualifying like we need to, so we needed to work on that. The weather looks good for tomorrow when we will be practicing in race trim. We wanted to have a run or two in qualifying trim today just in case, by some miracle, we did qualify. We didn't run real fast, but we have an idea what to do."
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MIKE SHIPLETT (Crew Chief, No. 43 Air Force Dodge Charger)
"We were off a little bit when we got here with the Air Force Dodge. We were pretty loose, but worked on it and got it a little bit better. I would like to have the opportunity to qualify. I feel we can qualify better than we're sitting in points right now. I feel we've got a much better team, car and driver than we are in points. We've just had some bad luck the last month or so. We wanted to qualify, but looking at the weather, I don't think that's going to happen. Tomorrow will be real important in race trim, getting the balance on a green track again like it was when we got here. Getting the practice in today, it will give us a better start for practice tomorrow. It was a good run for the 43 Dodge last week at Indianapolis. I was happy with it, but was hoping to get a top 10 out of it. It was really hard to pass. The double-file restart got us there at the end, we were on the outside. Overall, it was good for the company."
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SAMMY JOHNS (Crew Chief, No. 44 Valvoline Dodge Charger)
"We got some practice in which was good. We ran all race trim. We got a pretty bad qualifying draw (first). With the weather moving in, we didn't make any qualifying runs. These days, qualifying is important because track position is so important. We're not in the greatest spot in points. The thing that Ican look back on is we started 30th here in the first race and drove our way up into the top 10. The one fortunate part about Pocono is it's a multi-groove track. You can pass here. If we get the car right in race trim, I feel pretty confident we can get back up through the field like we did in the first race. It's not good, but it's not as bad as it could be at some other places."
(AJ Allmendinger was involved in a spin during the practice session, but the car wasn't damaged and he didn't have to go to a backup car).
Credit: Dodge Motorsports
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