By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Cup drivers visit TMS, the 11th stop on the NASCAR circuit and the first of back-to-back 1.5 mile tracks with Kansas Motor Speedway coming up next week.
Complete Qualifying Field
On the Pole: Carson Hocevar
Carson, at every level now that we’ve seen you, you’ve just had this sense of speed where, you know, you’re just naturally fast. Where do you think this raw speed comes from? I mean, is that something that is just innate, like ability, or something you’ve had to work out to find? Where is that?
“I mean, I don’t know. It’s not a fun answer to say I don’t know, but I really don’t. There’s a lot of times where I don’t know why I’m fast or why I’m slow at times, right? You know, I feel like I study different than a lot of them. I don’t know everybody’s sense, but I use SMT a lot less. I use real video a lot more. I look at dirt videos more. I think the most footage I watched was about the 2007 to 2010 Texas races just for fun, but also to kind of just get an idea. Hocevar goes on… “And, you know, I try to live my life as confident and as free will as I can just because I know I’m racing off instinct alone basically out there. If I’m confident myself, I feel like I’ll make confident decisions out there.”
Austin Cindric carries Talladega win over to Texas qualifying
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Qualified 3rd)
“I definitely had a high-commitment lap there. A lot of pressure on one corner, with three and four being wide open. I felt like this would be a good shot for pole for us after practice with the strengths of the Dark Horse Ford Mustang. I don’t know what the margin is, but I feel like I left a pole lap out there. I sent it into Turn 1 and didn’t quite get to the bottom and didn’t quite maximize my exit. I guess I can be happy with where we are at, but I definitely feel like you want to do it all. We are in a great spot for tomorrow and should have a good pit stall, so I feel good about where we are at for tomorrow. We will try to go get another one.”
Josh Berry – No. 21 Wurth Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Qualified 7th)
“It has been a good day. I thought our car was pretty solid in practice. I felt good about the qualifying lap. It is so high-commitment here that it is hard to tell if you left just a little bit out there. It is always so close. All in all, it is going to be a good starting spot for tomorrow so I am excited to get out there and get racing.”
Chris Buescher – TMS is CB’s home track
“Since Texas has been reconfigured, we’ve been a lot better there from a speed standpoint, but haven’t really closed the deal to (finish) better,” Buescher said. “We’ve had really good runs that just haven’t ended well. “All that being said, you want it to be better, being a home track and having so many friends and family come out to that one. It takes a little extra out of you not to be able to seal the deal there.”
Roy J. Akers is the NASCAR reporter for www.skyviewsports.net
