Las Vegas: GM teams qualifying notes, quotes

Team Chevy Captures Three of Top-Five and Six of Top-10 Starting Positions at Las Vegas

Las Vegas -- Team Chevy driver Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/Pepsi Max Impala, leads a contingent of six Impala drivers in the top-10 starting positions for the SHELBY American for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The four-time series champion posted the second fastest qualifying time for Sunday's race, just 0.011 seconds off the top spot.

Ryan Newman put the No. 39 Tornados Impala in the third starting position followed by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Impala in fourth place on the grid.

Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Impala, will start eighth in the 267-lap/400.5-mile race. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Impala will roll of ninth in the starting order with Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Impala alongside in the 10th starting position.

Kurt Busch (Dodge) won the pole and his brother Kyle Busch (Toyota) rounded out the top-five qualifiers for the 43-car field.

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DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP IMPALA:

"That was a good lap, we worked really hard in practice to get the National Guard/Amp Energy Chevy as good as we could and it paid off. Lance (McGrew, crew chief) and the guys did a great job."

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JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET IMPALA:

"It is crazy. Somebody is always there. It is good. This Target Chevy is incredible. This week is special for Target with the big shopping cart here that I am going to be driving tonight for TV. It is exciting. It is cool. I can't complain. Do I want to be first? Of course I want to be first but, hey we are there every week. That is important to see."

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MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM IMPALA:

"This car was great. I was a little bit worried about it because I bounced the last run I made in one. I was afraid I would be conservative, but I took it down in there pretty good and I just slammed it to the floor and away we went. It was a good run. This team can win this race, what a great race team. I am loving the GoDaddy.com colors. I just have to be the luckiest guy, I feel like the luckiest guy to strap in this thing and drive it. I feel like I am dreaming."

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JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT/PEPSI MAX IMPALA:

"That was an all or nothing type of a lap. We are really excited about having this DuPont/Pepsi Max Chevrolet. It is a great looking car. But, it is fast as well. The guys have done a great job with it all day. Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and all the guys...real proud of them. I feel like we really broke down practice well in the way we prepared for it and the way we ran through it. We were going through our notes afterwards to make good adjustments. Right there at the end of practice I felt like we got a good lap but not our best lap. I felt like I got both ends really good. I chose to go to the outside through one and two, I felt like it was a risk but the last time we were here, the bumps really got me upset going to qualify it cost us a lot of time. We went for it not knowing if it was going to work but so far it has but the track is cool and fast. This has been a good race track for us. I really love it. I am liking this Goodyear tire that they brought. The car feels great, Pepsi Max on board. Things are looking good. We did some race runs this morning and there were good. I'm hoping we get on the track tomorrow, there is some rain predicted, but hopefully we can get on the track and find out what we really have for Sunday. This team has been performing really well. Unfortunately the results haven't shown it the first two races but the car and the team have been awesome. We hope we can show we are capable of this weekend."

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RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 TORNADOS IMPALA:

"The Tornados Chevrolet has been good since we unloaded off the truck. Tony Gibson (crew chief) and the guys, everybody at the shop have done a great job. This is a brand new race car. I'm sure a lot of guys have good race cars and new race cars but this one we look forward to the rest of the weekend. We were pretty good in race trim in practice. That was a good lap.

"This is my kind of race track; I like the ones that have hills on them."

-source: gm racing