JGR Qualifying Report Presented by Interstate Batteries
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Goody’s Cool Orange 500
Date: March 28, 2008
Event: Goody’s Cool Orange 500 (Round 6 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. (.526-mile oval)
Pole Winner: Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports (19.666 seconds at 96.288 mph)
JGR Lineup: Denny Hamlin (2nd, 19.775 seconds at 95.757 mph)
Kyle Busch (8th, 19.860 seconds at 95.347 mph)
Tony Stewart (9th, 19.876 seconds at 95.271 mph)
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing contingent in time trials at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway by qualifying second for Sunday’s Goody’s Cool Orange 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Hamlin turned a lap of 19.775 seconds at 95.757 mph on the .526-mile oval.
“It was a good lap for us,” said Hamlin, who won the pole for last year’s Goody’s Cool Orange 500.
“We were really good in practice, but we felt like we had some room for adjustment there. I missed my marks on my first lap, and that’s typically about one-tenth faster than what our second laps were. I felt like we were good. It was just a little driver error and we had to kind of regroup in that second lap and kind of pull something at least salvageable together. It was good enough for where we ended up. It just tells us we have a car that is versatile and is going to be good for us on Sunday.”
Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – Kyle Busch in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota and Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota – qualified eighth and ninth, respectively. Busch turned a lap of 19.860 seconds at 95.347 mph while Stewart stopped the clocks in 19.876 seconds at 95.271 mph.
“It was a fine lap – just steady,” said Busch, who finished fourth in his two visits to Martinsville last year. “We’ve been fighting brakes and been fighting how the car turns all day. I just tried to go out there and put in a solid effort, and that’s what we did.”
“The car was still a little tight in the center (of the corner), but we’re within a tenth of our teammate right in front of us,” said Stewart, who still holds the track qualifying record at Martinsville with a lap of 19.306 seconds at 98.083 mph – a mark set in October 2005. “We picked up a bunch on the second lap. That’s going to put us a lot better than we ended up in practice. I don’t normally gain time from practice to qualifying, but here we gained almost two-tenths. Track position is usually important here, so it will be nice to start toward the front on Sunday.”
Jeff Gordon captured his 65th career Sprint Cup pole, his second of the season and his seventh at Martinsville with a time of 19.666 seconds at 96.288 mph. Hamlin will start alongside Gordon on the outside of row one, while former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Aric Almirola was a career-best third (19.780 seconds at 95.733 mph). David Ragan (19.814 seconds at 95.569 mph) and Jamie McMurray (19.830 seconds at 95.492 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify for the Goody’s Cool Orange 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Kyle Petty, Joe Nemechek, John Andretti and Tony Raines.
As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took the top spot thanks to Gordon’s pole. Toyota was next best at the hands of Hamlin. Ford posted the fourth-quickest time via Ragan. And carrying the flag for Dodge was sixth-quick Kasey Kahne (19.831 seconds at 95.487 mph).
The Goody’s Cool Orange 500 gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 30 with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 1:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
Additional quotes from Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd
How would it make you feel if Martinsville were to lose a race date? Would you join with the other racers to fight to keep it?
"Yeah, I definitely like coming here to Martinsville. It always has a great crowd here. It always promotes really great racing, even in the past years. There have really just never been any runaway races. It's just a tough race track. When we come here we know the racing is tough. It is a track that most everyone looks forward to. You got to kind of go with the economy and see how things are going, but you always want to keep to your roots and this is where it all pretty much started."
When you come here do you measure how good you are by the 24 (Jeff Gordon) and the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) because of the success they've had at this track?
"I'm usually the guy that runs right behind them it seems like. When those guys were on and winning races here I was always in the mix. It was the 24 (Jeff Gordon), 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and the 11 (Denny Hamlin). Those are the kind of the cars that have run good here in the past. I feel like there is really not going to be much difference when it comes around this time. I think maybe we're a little bit more prepared for those guys this year, though. I think our cars are working a little bit better and maybe theirs aren't working as well as they were last year at this time. So maybe we have something for them this time around. Definitely, when we come here we know we've got to pay attention to the 48, 24 and you're always going to kind of have a wild card in there -- a couple cars that kind of pop in there and run good. Typically, we know when we come here we can run top-three and usually those two cars are the cars you are going to have to beat. I don't see it really being any exception this time around."
