Hamlin defined his car as evil during practice but fortunately his quick work onto pit road paired with a fast pit crew he was able to pick up a 3rd place starting spot.

How was your qualifying run?
“Well, it was a struggling day for us, as you know if you were around me earlier — you reaped the wrath of it. We’re going to start better than we ever have for this race. We usually race pretty well. So, excited about our day and how it turned out. It didn’t always start that great. Still. I feel like I gave up a little bit here and there, but overall decent and solid lap for us.”

Did you leave a little out on the track?
“We had to wholesale our car with our setup. I was very apprehensive of running it in the corner at 205 (mph) — not knowing what I had. I did my best to try to give it all it had, but the pit crew definitely held us up on this one.”

What will you do for a million dollars to win a race?
“I’ll do everything I can — that’s for sure. This race is always so much fun to participate in because there’s really no down side from a driver’s standpoint.”