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| Logano fastest during happy hour |
Jeff Gordon was second fastest with a lap speed of 170.122 mph, and was followed by Brian Vickers (170.084) who was third fastest, Mark Martin (169.614) fourth fastest and Paul Menard (169.502) was fifth fastest.
Rounding out the top-ten fastest in “Happy Hour” were Landon Cassill (169.321) who was sixth fastest, Kyle Busch (169.252) seventh, Carl Edwards (169.205) eighth, David Stremme (168.713) ninth and David Ragan (168.503) was tenth.
The teams will return Saturday afternoon for their 12:10 PM (EDT) scheduled qualifying session to determine the lineup for Sunday’s race (which is scheduled to get underway a little after 1:00 PM – EDT).
Happy Hour practice:
#20-Logano 170.175
#24-Gordon 170.122
#83-Vickers 170.084
#5-Martin 169.614
#27-Menard 169.502
slowest: #32-Carpentier 162.148 & #7-Sauter 160.275.
notes: #22-Kurt Busch spun off turn 4 and slid into the infield grass. He didn't damage the car.
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| Set fast time with Q-trim on |
Biffle’s fellow Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Carl Edwards, with a lap speed of 168.692 mph, was second fastest, followed by Kasey Kahne (168.361) who was third fastest, Tony Stewart (167.989) fourth fastest and Jeff Gordon (167.874) was fifth fastest.
Rounding out the top-ten fastest in practice were Dale Earnhardt Jr. (167.785) who was sixth fastest, Bobby Labonte (167.645) seventh, Martin Truex Jr. (167.561) eighth, Brad Keselowski (167.489) ninth and Regan Smith (167.416) was tenth.
First Friday practice:
#16-Biffle 169.189
#99-Edwards 168.692
#4-Kahne 168.361
#14-Stewart 167.989
#24-Gordon 167.874
slowest: #7-Sauter 161.662 & #32-Carpentier 161.011.
Kansas Practice Speeds
Driver Quotes Following First Practice Session
MATT KENSETH ON NO CAUTION COMING OUT LAST WEEK AT CHARLOTTE DURING THE START OF THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED LAST WEEKEND: “I am not in the business of calling races, so I don’t know if there should have been one of not. I expected a caution just because from where I was there was a lot of smoke. I actually slowed down. I probably could have made up five spots but I thought there was going to be a caution. I had just gotten the lucky dog and I didn’t want to run into something trying to get up there and hurt somebody. I slowed up and by the time I realized there wasn’t going to be a caution I was all the way down through one and two and probably could have made some spots up. I will have to be more aware of that next time.”
KEVIN HARVICK ON HIS TWITTER EXCHANGES WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON REGARDING THE LUCKY HORSESHOE: “I hope so. I hope we get to keep it. It is fun to be able to have performance in your race cars. I’ve said this about the No. 48 for a long time. They have had performance in their race cars and when they get in those situations where things are going their way, they are able to capitalize and finally, we’re able to capitalize when we have some breaks on pit road and we have fuel mileage, whatever the case may be. You car still has to be still running decent. When you get in those positions and you are able to capitalize on it, it makes it that much better. I hope we get to keep it until November 21st.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON ON HIS TWEETS TO HARVICK: “Yeah, we’ve had some fun with it especially on the Twitter space with the whole horseshoe thing. It was something that Kevin said at California and we had some luck come our way. It started then and I couldn’t let it not come back after his good fortune the last couple of weeks. When I was in the situation having things going my way, sometimes things just go your way and other times they don’t and you’ve got to be running well and you have to be in that top-five window to take advantage of good luck. Last week things turned out well for him and I’m on the joking side of it all. I want my horseshoe back and I know he wants to keep it until after Homestead. Through Twitter there has been a ton of other fans, drivers and even crew members lobbying for their need for the horseshoe. So it’s been a fun week messing around with all of it to say the least.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR. ON WHETHER ANYTHING FROM LAST WEEK AT CHARLOTTE TRANSFERS OVER TO KANSAS: “I really don’t know. The setups are all real similar that you run at all the mile-and-a-halves. We might tweak on them a little but here and there, but the direction and the ideas and the theories are all kind of the same. It’s been working pretty good for us. We’re still working real hard to find out where some speed is for qualifying and we made some — went a totally new direction in qualifying for Dover and Charlotte. Although we didn’t get the qualify Dover and we didn’t really qualify well at Charlotte, the difference in how the car drove and how comfortable I was with the car and being able to jump out there and run fast for one lap — I think we made some real good gains there. I think we’re going to start seeing some improvement in that department and make the races easier for us. We’ll just have to see what this place is like. It looks like there’s some more tar strips, seams and stuff and cracks that have been sealed up than what I recall last time we were here. Seems like all the track owners love putting that tar in them cracks man. It’s like all they have to do for like a year before we come back. We’ll see how that’s going to make the cars drive and hopefully we can get around here pretty good.”
GREG BIFFLE ON HIS FIRST PRACTICE SESSION: “The first part of the session we were in qualifying trim and we were very unhappy with our race car in qualifying trim. We were a lot happier with it in race trim. The track is hot and slick. It is 92 degrees outside and the track temperature is probably in the mid 140’s. This place has gotten a little bumpier every year. It has lost a little grip. Naturally that is what race tracks do. It is hot, slick and hard to get a hold of. That typically produces pretty good racing. Everyone is kind of complaining but you look at your lap time and it isn’t that bad. It feels slow inside the car though. You feel like you are going turtle pace and that gives you the sensation, especially coming off last week where it was pretty fast, that you are a lot slower.”
TONY STEWART ON HIS FIRST PRACTICE SESSION: “It’s hot and slick out there right now, but that’s the way I like it. It’s a challenge for sure to get your balance right and guys are already using the whole race track. It’s definitely going to be a hot, slick day for the race on Sunday too.
"I don’t think anybody — you can have the best car out there right now and you’re still not going to be happy with it. We’re sliding around a lot, which is good. I like that side of it. It makes you never happy with it until you think you have it fixed all the way. It’s just a constant challenge right now.”
CARL EDWARDS ON HAVING AN ADVANTAGE OVER THE REST OF THE DRIVERS: “I don’t think we have an advantage. We might have a slight advantage at these mile-and-a-half tracks. I feel like we are very competitive. The competition is really close and nobody is better than us right now. That is probably the best way to put it.”
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