Texas II Qualifying Quotes

KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Budweiser Dodge Charger)
Starting 2nd
“It was a really good lap. We made some gains from practice in our Budweiser Dodge. Everything was perfect there. I felt like I was really quick in (Turns) 1 and 2, and might have given up just a touch in Turns 3 and 4. It was still a great lap. It should be a top-five, hopefully a pole. It was quick in practice. We just needed a touch more and Kenny Francis (crew chief) and the team gave it to me. The engine is running awesome. It just felt really good. I was on the track. I could feel the race track around the whole corner and down the straightaways. It was really about all I had.”

ARE YOU RUNNING THE DODGE R6 ENGINE THIS WEEKEND? “Yes. We’re running the R6. They had the latest version at Charlotte and that’s when I started to run well again. We ran the R5 for a little bit. We ran the R6 back in Charlotte; it was awesome in Charlotte and good again today. I’m looking forward to this weekend. We’ve made some really nice gains in our engine shop here the last few months.”

TODAY WAS THE SECOND-FASTEST QUALIFYING SPEED THAT WE’VE HAD THIS YEAR IN CUP. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THOSE SPEEDS AND HOW MUCH WILL THE SPEEDS FALL OFF IN RACE TRIM? “They’ll fall off a lot. The weather looks good for Sunday and we’re going to be racing when it’s warm out, so the speeds will fall off a lot. You won’t see anything near what we just ran in qualifying trim.

“For qualifying, I enjoy going as fast as we can go. We qualified pretty good in Charlotte for the night race and good again today. We weren’t first, but we’re definitely up there. Hopefully we can figure out our car tomorrow and have a great chance shot at winning on Sunday.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER (No. 44 Ford Drive One Ford Fusion)
Starting 17th
“I got a little loose coming to the green which killed our momentum. Unfortunately that hurt our qualifying time pretty bad. We have a good car and the Ford Drive One retro scheme looks amazing. We’ll work on it more tomorrow and we should be good once the race starts.”

REED SORENSON (No. 43 Valvoline Dodge Charger)
Starting 18th
“I think the draw is going to hurt us pretty bad because the sun is going down and the track will be faster. We picked up time from practice and that’s all you can ask for. Hopefully, the draw doesn’t hurt as bad as we think it’s going too. The track is gaining a lot of grip and the sun is going down fast. Hopefully, that won’t hurt us too bad. We made some improvements from our last qualifying run. We spent the first 40 minutes in race trim this morning and felt like it was pretty good so we’re excited about tomorrow.”

ELLIOTT SADLER (No. 19 Stanley Dodge Charger)
Starting 33rd
“I think going out early is going to hurt us. I would like to have it back and run it again. I got too aggressive in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and got to pushing off 2. I probably lost a lot of my speed there. We’ll see where that puts us. We’ve got 500 miles on Sunday. The car is pretty comfortable to drive. I think we can adjust on it and make it better as the weekend goes.”