AJ Qualifies Eighth at Dover

Dover 14 May 2010-It's a pretty special weekend as AJ runs some cool colors (although he did tweet that he kind of misses his Insignia Green…) on the 43 in honor of the King and his most recent accolade--being named a member of the charter class in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

AJ is looking to honor those colors with a strong run in the Autisim Speaks 400 presented by Hershey's Milk, and he got a strong start to the weekend has he took eighth on the Dover grid with a fast lap time of 156.706 mph.

Dover's concrete canyon is one that has seen AJ flourish on, as he qualified 7th for the race last spring and finished 7th in the second race of the season at Dover last year.

Showing how much progress the Best Buy/Insignia 43 has been making was the fact that a strong top-10 qualifying position was still not enough for AJ as he looked back on the lap that set him up on the fourth row:

"Honestly, I'm a little disappointed with 8th today. Our car was really good and I felt we had a real shot to put the #43 on the pole for The King's Hall of Fame induction. It got just a little tight in Turn 3 and 4, and that's where we lost the pole time. If I can take a solid run on Sunday instead, I'll be happy."

It's been a hectic week for AJ with some early wake up calls and tons of media appearances as everyone celebrates the King's induction, but he's hoping to cap the week off with a strong run on Sunday and move up from 27th in the points.