Atlanta II: Toyota teams qualifying notes, quotes

Denny Hamlin's pole today marks the 50th Sprint Cup Series pole for Joe Gibbs Racing and 22nd for Toyota.

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DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 1st

Did you know your lap was good enough for the pole? "It wasn't perfect, but I knew it was a good lap. My heart was racing going down the backstretch because I knew I hit turn one pretty good. I had to check up a little in three and four to keep it on the bottom. I'm not a qualifier and any of my fans know that. I'm usually in the 20s when I win races. Our car has been good all day long. I've been very, very happy with it. I'm typically a really bad qualifier, but I definitely think we have a heck of a race car this weekend."

How has your season been in recent weeks? "I feel like the last 10 races have definitely been up and down for our team. We went on such a hot streak there and got spoiled a little bit, I guess you could say. Deemed probably the regular season irrelevant from that point on because we knew we were going to get in the Chase. We're going to spend these next two weeks treating these as if they are Chase racing. We found ourselves going for wins so much and going all out trying to get more wins that it probably hurt us in the long run. These next two weeks we're going to points race just as if it's Loudon, New Hampshire."

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KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 3rd

How do you feel about your qualifying lap? "I felt pretty good about it. I liked the way I got through turns one and two. The Pedigree Camry was decent in practice. We felt like we had a good handling race car and just trying to get the speed out of it as much as we could there. We got a really good run through one and two and down the backstretch. I drove it into three a little bit too far and kind of missed the bottom. I couldn't get the car all the way to the bottom of the track and just slid through turn four. Kind of killed some of my speed. Felt like if it was a perfect lap it would have been right there with Denny (Hamlin). We'll take a third. It's a good qualifying effort for us and we knew Denny's car has been a little better than ours. It's really good to have him up there and starting on the pole. Hopefully we can have a good run here tomorrow night for Joe Gibbs Racing and get ourselves locked in the Chase and ready for Richmond."

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MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 6th

Are you pleased with qualifying? "Yeah. Pretty happy with it. Good pick-up from practice. We had a long day -- I'll tell you. Two hours and 45 minutes of practice wasn't quite enough time for us today. The guys did a great job. Made a lot of changes. Really struggled off the trailer with our NAPA Toyota and just continued to work on it all day long, and that was a really good lap for us. At the end of the second practice there I felt good about our race run. We did a long run right at the start of it, and then did two qualifying runs. I felt good about that. This will be a good starting spot for us."

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DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 Aaron's Outdoors Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing
Starting Position: 13th

How is your race car handling? "It was good. It was a lot better than in practice. Probably just didn't get enough out of it. It surprised me a bit. It did a lot of positive stuff and I don't think I was ready for it. Overall, it was good. It's a good car -- I just think I left a little bit out there."

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SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Starting Position: 20th

How was your qualifying lap? "My lap was pretty clean and the car was reasonable. It is going to matter tomorrow. That will put us somewhere reasonable for a starting spot tomorrow. Hopefully the decisions we make tonight will make the car good tomorrow. I don't think we were as quick as we were in the spring, but we'll see tomorrow. How the car runs in race pace is what matters. We just need to make good decisions tonight and run as good as we did here earlier this year."

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JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 31st

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Little Debbie Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing
Starting Position: 32nd

REED SORENSON, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team
Starting Position: 33rd

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports
Starting Position: 34th

MIKE BLISS, No. 55 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports
Starting Position: 39th

KEVIN CONWAY, No. 7 Extenze Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports
Starting Position: 42nd

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing
Starting Position: 43rd

JASON LEFFLER, No. 32 Toyota Camry, Braun Racing
Starting Position: DNQ

SCOTT RIGGS, No. 66 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports
Starting Position: DNQ

TODD BODINE, No. 64 Little Joe's Autos Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports
Starting Position: DNQ

-source: toyota motorsports