NASCAR: Justin Haley tops qualifying for Busch Light Clash

No. 31 Chevrolet driver Justin Haley topped qualifying for Sunday’s Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum.

Saturday qualifying settles lineups for the four Sunday qualifying heats at the Busch Light Clash at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

The fastest driver will be on the pole for Heat No. 1, second will be the pole for Heat No. 2, third on the pole for Heat No. 3 and fourth on the pole for Heat No. 4. Then the fifth fastest driver will start in second for Heat No. 1, sixth will start second in Heat No. 2, and the heats will be filled out that way.

Heat No. 1 Pole Winner: Justin Haley
Heat No. 2 Pole Winner: Kyle Busch
Heat No. 3 Pole Winner: Christopher Bell
Heat No. 4 Pole Winner: William Byron

Qualifying Results To Determine Heat Lineup

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Speed	Behind	Gap
1	31	Justin Haley	Celsius Chevrolet	13.413	67.099	0.000	0.000
2	8	Kyle Busch	BetMGM Chevrolet	13.553	66.406	0.140	0.140
3	20	Christopher Bell	Interstate Batteries Toyota	13.569	66.328	0.156	0.016
4	24	William Byron	RaptorTough.com Chevrolet	13.596	66.196	0.183	0.027
5	10	Aric Almirola	Smithfield Ford	13.600	66.176	0.187	0.004
6	3	Austin Dillon	Get Bioethanol Chevrolet	13.605	66.152	0.192	0.005
7	11	Denny Hamlin	Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota	13.621	66.074	0.208	0.016
8	16	AJ Allmendinger	Action Industries Chevrolet	13.623	66.065	0.210	0.002
9	48	Alex Bowman	Ally Chevrolet	13.624	66.060	0.211	0.001
10	5	Kyle Larson	HendrickCars.com Chevrolet	13.638	65.992	0.225	0.014
11	99	Daniel Suarez	Jockey Chevrolet	13.663	65.871	0.250	0.025
12	1	Ross Chastain	Worldwide Express Chevrolet	13.683	65.775	0.270	0.020
13	21	Harrison Burton	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford	13.714	65.626	0.301	0.031
14	4	Kevin Harvick	Busch Light Ford	13.734	65.531	0.321	0.020
15	14	Chase Briscoe	Mahindra Tractors Ford	13.735	65.526	0.322	0.001
16	23	Bubba Wallace	DoorDash Toyota	13.742	65.493	0.329	0.007
17	22	Joey Logano	Shell Pennzoil Ford	13.749	65.459	0.336	0.007
18	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Food4Less/Velveeta Chevrolet	13.767	65.374	0.354	0.018
19	45	Tyler Reddick	MoneyLion Toyota	13.793	65.250	0.380	0.026
20	43	Erik Jones	Allegiant Chevrolet	13.817	65.137	0.404	0.024
21	42	Noah Gragson #	Sunseeker Resort Chevrolet	13.823	65.109	0.410	0.006
22	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Bass Pro Shops Toyota	13.851	64.977	0.438	0.028
23	6	Brad Keselowski	King’s Hawaiian Ford	13.863	64.921	0.450	0.012
24	41	Ryan Preece	United Rentals Ford	13.870	64.888	0.457	0.007
25	34	Michael McDowell	FR8Auctions.com Ford	13.890	64.795	0.477	0.020
26	2	Austin Cindric	Freightliner Ford	13.910	64.702	0.497	0.020
27	38	Todd Gilliland	gener8tor Skills Ford	13.915	64.678	0.502	0.005
28	7	Corey LaJoie	Animal Control FOX Chevrolet	13.919	64.660	0.506	0.004
29	17	Chris Buescher	Fastenal Ford	13.935	64.586	0.522	0.016
30	9	Chase Elliott	NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet	14.087	63.889	0.674	0.152
31	15	JJ Yeley	CW & Sons Infrastructure Ford	14.254	63.140	0.841	0.167
32	51	Cody Ware	Biohaven Ford	14.316	62.867	0.903	0.062
33	77	Ty Dillon	NASCAR Fan Rewards Chevrolet	14.489	62.116	1.076	0.173
34	78	BJ McLeod	Celsius Chevrolet	15.308	58.793	1.895	0.819
35	12	Ryan Blaney	Menards/Great Lakes Flooring Ford	40.301	22.332	26.888	24.993
36	54	Ty Gibbs #	Monster Energy Toyota	0.000	0.000	—–	—–

*Required to qualify on time, OP – Top 30 in Owner Points, PC – Past Champion,(i)Ineligible for driver points in this series

 

 

Justin Haley, No. 31 Celsius Camaro ZL1, Press Conference Transcript –

You got your first career NASCAR Cup Series pole here. Talk about that advantage heading into tomorrow.

“It’s obviously key. We fired off here last year and we were pretty good. Obviously, we had some trouble during the race.

I felt like we had a pretty good No. 31 Celsius Chevy in practice. I just felt like I wasn’t getting the full potential out of the race car, and then obviously in qualifying, our lap was just dominant.

I feel pretty confident about where we are. It’s a good place to start the season. I’m not sure why we’re so good here. I wish I had this much talent at all of the races, but I’m pretty thankful. It’s pretty cool to get Kaulig Racing their first NASCAR Cup Series pole; my first pole as a driver in my second year here; and get Celsius their first pole.”

Any difference in the track? How it handled, characteristics?

“No, it’s the same. It probably doesn’t look fast, but yeah it’s pretty similar. I wouldn’t say anything is noticeably different.”

Did you come with the same setup that you started with here last year?

“No idea. They do not let me know any details on setups. I couldn’t tell you a single air pressure or a single spring. That comes from Chris Rice. He just wants me to drive the race car. I have no idea if I have four tires on the race car or three.

I would assume we’re close. We’re obviously pretty good. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I honestly don’t know details like that.”

What do you think suits you about this track?

“I don’t know. I’m terrible at Martinsville (Speedway). Martinsville might be my worst race track.

I just feel like we’ve been good. Obviously, the car is a lot of it. It’s cool that we’re good here. We just have to figure that out everywhere else.”

Did you ever end up having a conversation with (Kyle) Larson?

“Yeah, I did right after the race.

Right after the race, I went up to him when he was getting out of the car. I was pretty calm and I was just like, ‘hey, what was that’. We just had a conversation, he said he messed up. I said ‘cool’ and that was it. No reason to hold a grudge or anything. Obviously, he’s an excellent race car driver and we’ve been good ever since. Today at our seminar we had, I asked him what kind of jeans he bought because we’re pretty similar in fit and leg length in jeans. Yeah, we’re good friends.”

I was talking to Chris (Rice) earlier today about the amount of coverage you get, or lack thereof. How important was it for you to beat out a lot of more high profile drivers during qualifying?

“Yeah, that’s a tricky line to say. Obviously the better we run, the more coverage we’re going to get. There was a race last year in the Playoffs at the (Charlotte) ROVAL where we ran in the top-five all day and didn’t get an interview afterwards. I think that he’s always been pretty upset about that. We weren’t a playoff car and we have to run better week in and week out to get talked about.

We’re also a young team. Matt Kaulig is building this thing from the ground up. He didn’t buy a race team that was already pre-built. He’s done it all from the ground up and you have to respect that about him. We have to earn our name in the sport, earn my name in the sport. I have to feel like I belong, which has been tough for me. It was a very humbling year last year trying to figure out if I belong at the top or not. Yeah, it’s been hard, but having moments like this solidifies it a little bit more.”

You said no grudges held with Larson, but is there still payback owed?

“No, it’s terrible to intentionally wreck another race car driver.”

Is there a chip on your shoulder with the strong showing you had here last year?

“I feel like I have to prove myself every week and we have to prove ourselves as a race team. We have to go out there every week and prove that we’re a team worthy of being here, and that I’m a driver worthy of being in this field.

I think the biggest thing last year was just respect. I think towards the end of the year, I gained a lot of respect from other drivers. I started talking with a lot of them a lot more. It’s hard being a new driver in a top series. It’s tough, but I kind of feel like I’ve earned that respect now and I’m pretty good friends with a lot of the other drivers.”

Talk to us about how the track changed between practice and qualifying, and what does that tell you about tomorrow between the heat races and the main event?

“I think it was pretty similar. The tough part is obviously just getting heat in the tires. You see us all playing all kinds of weird games to do so. Honestly, I felt like we were better on the long runs. I thought we were going to struggle in qualifying and I told AJ (Allmendinger) that. I thought we were going to qualify around the 20’s.

But I don’t think the track really changed. It being new asphalt, it definitely had some oils and grease in it. But I honestly can’t say that I felt like it was any different.”

Talk about your crew chief and your team.

“I have the exact same team as I did last year, with Trent Owens as my crew chief. Darren is my car chief and Garrett is my engineer. The only change we had this year was an interior guy.

The No. 16 team helps a lot. We all go to the simulator together and we all share very similar setups at Kaulig Racing. We usually go to the race track identical. It’s very important to have AJ (Allmendinger) on full-time this year. He was professionally racing when I was born, so just to have his expertise, all of his knowledge and everything he’s been through.

I feel like we’re pretty strong. We’re still a very little team. Our pit crews are still leased out from Trackhouse, so we don’t have that in-house, and we have an alliance with RCR.”

How important is it to just focus on what is at hand, focus on driving?

“Usually the cool part about this race is that there’s nothing to lose. We’re just out here not points racing or anything, and just putting it all out on the line. That’s definitely a different mentality going into it. I think the heat race format is cool. Still haven’t lost a heat race. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I won both of them last year. So we’ll try to keep that streak going. Tomorrow is going to be a long day and I’m excited for it.”