The Joe Gibbs Racing Qualifying Report Presented by Interstate Batteries
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Toyota/Save Mart 350k
Date: June 20, 2008
Event: Toyota/Save Mart 350k (Round 16 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Infineon Raceway (12-turn, 1.99-mile road course)
Pole Winner: Kasey Kahne of Gillett Evernham Motorsports (77.740 seconds at 92.153 mph)
JGR Lineup: Denny Hamlin (13th, 78.547 seconds at 91.207 mph)
Kyle Busch (30th, 78.904 seconds at 90.794 mph)
Tony Stewart (39th, 79.337 seconds at 90.298 mph)
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing contingent in time trials at the Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma, Calif., by qualifying 13th for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Hamlin turned a lap of 78.547 seconds at 91.207 mph on the 12-turn, 1.99-mile circuit.
“It was a good lap,” said Hamlin, who finished second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart last August in the Sprint Cup race at the Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International road course. “Definitely a lot better than what we practiced. We made a lot of changes. The balance is pretty good.”
Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota and Stewart in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota – qualified 30th and 39th, respectively. Busch turned a lap of 78.904 seconds at 90.794 mph, while Stewart stopped the clocks in 79.337 seconds at 90.298 mph.
“The tape on the cowl didn’t get air through the carburetor, and we stunk all day. That’s the way it ended up,” said Busch, who scored his first career road course victory earlier this year when he won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – the legendary former Formula 1 road course in downtown Mexico City.
“NASCAR covers the cowl to the carburetor with tape and you roll out on pit road, and two cars before you roll out they pull the tape off. Well, they didn’t pull the tape off, so it just didn’t have any horsepower” explained No. 18 team crew chief Steve Addington. “Actually, it sucked the air box down on top of the carburetor and killed the air filter. They were nice enough to let us qualify again. They just told us to put tires on it and put fuel in it and go back out. So, that’s what we did and we didn’t get it cooled down. Plus, the air filter was crushed in the air box. It wasn’t a good run.”
“Obviously, qualifying sucked,” said Stewart, who has high expectations whenever the series visits the road courses, as he has six wins in 18 career Sprint Cup road course races, with two of those victories coming at Sonoma in 2001 and 2005. “I was fairly happy with race practice this morning in race trim. The track just felt slicker to me. There are guys that went faster than what they did in practice, and we weren’t one of them. If I had the answer to why that happened, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in. We definitely don’t want to start deep in the field like that because it makes for a long day. We just have to get the car driving as good as we can. We’re going to have a long way to go, but we’ll just do it like we’ve done before.”
Kasey Kahne captured his 16th career pole, his second of the season and his first on a road course with a time of 77.740 seconds at 92.153 mph. Jimmie Johnson will start alongside Kahne on the outside of row one, as he timed in at 77.836 seconds at 92.040 mph. Kurt Busch (77.865 seconds at 92.005 mph) was third, while Bobby Labonte (77.918 seconds at 91.943 mph) and Jeff Gordon (77.935 seconds at 91.923 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify for the Toyota/Save Mart 350k. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were J.J. Yeley, Scott Riggs, Dari Franchitti and Brandon Ash.
As far as manufacturers went, Dodge took the top spot via the pole run made by Kahne. Chevrolet was next best at the hands of Johnson. Ford was the third-fastest make thanks to seventh-quick Marcos Ambrose (78.023 seconds at 91.819 mph). And carrying the flag for Toyota was Hamlin.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350k gets underway at 5 p.m. EDT on Sunday with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 3:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
