Andy Lally qualifying report

Lally Qualifies Interstate Moving Services Ford 38th at Talladega

Talladega, AL, (April 16, 2011) - Andy Lally qualified the TRG Motorsports No. 71 Interstate Moving Services Ford Fusion in 38th for tomorrow's running of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron's 499 to be run at Talladega Superspeedway.

Andy Lally, TRG Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

Lally and new crew chief Doug Richert endured some car issues early in first practice. The rookie only completed two laps in that first practice as the rest of the Friday schedule was rained out. With Talladega being an impound race, the team made the risky call to run as close to a race set-up as possible as opposed to a full qualifying package that would have required the team to come into the garage after the start of the race. With the car ready for qualifying, Lally had to put the Interstate Moving Services Ford Fusion in the race on time and succeeded. Posting a time of 54.611 and a speed of 175 mph will see the Northport, New York native starting from the 19th row.

"We had a little issue getting everything just right before the first practice yesterday and we were only able to get two laps of practice in," Lally said. "Then it rained for practice two and we were going into qualifying kind of blind. Doug and the guys worked hard to get things right. There was a lot of time spent at the shop this week trying to get this car just right. I owe this TRG Motorsports crew a big thank you for making our Interstate Moving Services Ford fast enough to qualify at Talladega.

We are hoping to get an early yellow tomorrow because we qualified without our alternator belt and without our power steering belt. It made for a bit of a heavy wheel and it will make for a little extra work tomorrow as I'll have to start the race like that because of the impound rules. It will also mean I have to start the race without my helmet blower. Those two things are going to make for a pretty tiring run if we have to go a long time without them. I'm going to eat a lot of pasta for breakfast!"

Team owner Kevin Buckler had his team overcoming some early adversity.

"We had some early issues with the car and we weren't able to get Andy very many quality practice laps," Buckler said. "We then had to make a decision on whether to run a full blown qualifying set-up with the special oil and everything else. We decided to run close to our race set-up, put the faith in our driver, crew chief and the new Ford and be ready to race. Andy was able to get the job done and we are solidly in the field. Everyone came together to get the job done and get the Interstate Moving Services Ford Fusion in the field. Anything can happen and probably will tomorrow in the race, we will be ready!"

-source: trg