Colin Braun – No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion – “I have a great crew chief in Eddie Pardue. He makes this No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion run really fast. We had a fast truck last night. We had a fast car in practice here. It just paid off in qualifying. All these guys have been working so hard. We’ve had some ups and downs lately, but at least we’ve been qualifying strong and we have fast cars.” DID YOUR LAPS FEEL THAT FAST? “I really didn’t think the first lap was that good. We got pretty free off of four, but I guess that was good enough for the pole. I figured we got the pole by doing that second lap. My crew chief Eddie Pardue said, ‘That was the pole.’ But I wanted to make sure we got it in the books there, so we ran that second lap. These guys have done a great job with the car here. They certainly got it tuned up and I’m excited.” YOU HAVE A LANE CHOICE. WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO START? “Yeah, we have lane choice and we’re going for the outside just like my teammate Bobby East did in the truck race. It is the preferred groove. Kyle [Busch] has always raced me real smart and fair and I hope he will tonight, too.” WHAT DOES THIS POLE MEAN TO YOU? “This pole really means a lot, not only to me but the entire team. Wayne Kanter, our motor tuner, isn’t here with us this weekend. His son Shawn passed away. He’s been a big part of this team since the beginning of the year. It’s just too bad he isn’t here. He was in Mexico City when we got the pole. All of us are thinking about him and wishing he was here.”
EDDIE PARDUE – No. 16 Crew Chief – COLIN CREDITS THIS POLE TO YOU AND THE TEAM’S HARD WORK. “I don’t know about that. It’s fun working with Colin. He’s a huge talent. He’s inexperienced as everybody knows but he’s awfully fast. It’s fun to work with him. It’s new.” FROM YOUR POINT OF VIEW DURING THE RACE, WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL HERE? “Strategy plays into it a little bit, but the biggest thing for us tonight is for him to have a good, clean race to get some experience to get to the end. I’m sure he’s excited and he wants to go and he wants to lead every lap, and we do it. But, the important thing is to get it to the end. It races a little bit like the old Darlington when you’ve got to put a bubble around the car to protect it. You can get tore up pretty easily with a good car. He needs to protect his car.” ON LANE AND PIT STALL CHOICE. “Well, pit stall was chosen from last week’s qualifying, so we don’t get the benefit of that. He’s going to choose the outside, which is a good choice. They did that last night in the truck race. That will work out for him. The biggest thing for him is to protect his car and have a good run here tonight. If we’re there at the end, we can go win it.”
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