TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES
CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE 200
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
JANUARY 28, 2011
JOEY ATTERBURY, NO. 62 MITCHUM MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GS.R, FINISHED 7TH IN CLASS AND OVERALL: TALK ABOUT THE START OF THE RACE AND YOUR AMAZING RUN TO THE FRONT OF THE FIELD: “It was good. The key was to stay consistent out there and move our way forward. The Camaro was great out there. Put power down extremely well. We were able to go from 21st to first. It was fantastic.
“In the middle of the race, everyone settles in a little bit. I had a good fight with Matt Bell in the No. 9 Stevenson Camaro. We were just a little bit more consistent out there. He drove the tires a little hard so we were able to get by him. Then it was just kind of smooth sailing the rest of the time. There were a few more yellows but that just played into our favor with fuel strategy. It is all ended up nicely.”
LAWSON ASCHENACH, NO. 62 MITCHUM MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GS.R, FINISHED 7TH IN CLASS AND OVERALL: TALK ABOUT THE END OF THE RACE AND THE STRONG TOP-10 FINISH: “We’ll take it. We are very happy considering the work we had to get accomplished yesterday. Everyone did a really good job. The team did awesome and obviously the Chevy Camaro was just awesome. I can’t thank Chevrolet and Mitchum enough for the opportunity.
“Right at the end there, we just couldn’t get it. We had a great car. We couldn’t ask for anything better. The setup was great, the power was great, everything was good, we just had nothing for the BMWs. Hopefully some changes will be made and we will be back on top here real soon.”
ROBERT STOUT, NO. 6 MITCHUM MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GS.R, FINISHED 10TH IN CLASS AND OVERALL: TALK ABOUT THE START OF THE RACE TODAY: “It my first time here with Mitchum Motorsports; first time in the Camaro here this weekend. A lot different than anything I have ever driven before. It was a lot of fun. Very good good horse-powered car. We went out there with expectations to get into the top-10 and I have personally never run in GRAND-AM and have only had a handful of laps here at Daytona. My qualifying was basically my first full session out on track so I came in here pretty green.
“But overall, it was really good. I had a really good co-driver (Jeff Bucknum) with me. It ended up with a good result. We came out with a top-10. I am really happy and looking forward to Miami.”
JEFF BUCKNUM, NO. 6 MITCHUM MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GS.R, FINISHED 10TH IN CLASS AND OVERALL: TALK ABOUT YOUR FINISH OUT THERE TODAY: “The race was a very good finish to a rough weekend. I am very pleased with that. We struggled with getting Robert (Stout), the new driver up to speed. I mean he is good, he is talented. We just didn’t get him enough laps to get comfortable. He did a great job just bringing the car back to me in whatever position on the lead lap.
“We weren’t sure what the balance was going to be on the car, it was actually really good. We had a little clutch problem that made sometimes when we shifted, I would miss a shift, but other than that I think we could have easily contended for, if we had the chance to be up front early on, we had a car that could win a race.
“The yellows, in my situation, because we were coming from the back, I welcomed every yellow we could get because it would close the field back up which we gave me new opportunities to catch and pass people. When it gets all stretched out, of course, you just really can’t catch people, it is too spread out.”
CHRIS MITCHUM, TEAM OWNER, MITCHUM MOTORSPORTS NO. 6 AND NO. 62 CAMARO GS.R: EARLIER TODAY, YOU SAID YOUR TEAMS WOULD BE BETTER IN THE RACE THAN THEY WERE IN QUALIFYING YESTERDAY. SO, OBVIOUSLY, YOU’RE NOT SURPRISED BY TODAY. “No, I’m not surprised. I’m actually quite happy. I’m a little surprised by the pace of some of our competitors, not surprised by our pace. I think we did a very excellent job. Joey (Atterbury) was able to come up from his difficult qualifying spot, all the way up to the lead at one point, so once he got to the lead that’s when we decided to start our strategy and get the car in. We pitted as soon as we could to make the race on fuel, and it worked out perfect. That part of it, and I couldn’t be happier with my driver lineup in both cars, as well as how well they performed. Lawson (Aschenbach) did a great job of bringing it home for us, on that last lap picking up two spots, on the white-flag finish. And Robert Stout, being a rookie, having to start in the back of the GS field, keeping the car clean, keeping it happy, and then we were able to get Jeff Bucknum into the car, and Jeff just kept his head down, we were fighting a little bit of a clutch problem on the 6 car and he was actually able to turn fast-enough times to get up to the tail of the 62, and both of those cars actually drafted their way inside the top 10 and Lawson made a big move at the end. So, I’m not surprised at all by the pace of the cars. Very happy with the teams. It was definitely a recovery for us, but we did exactly what we desire to do: We wanted to finish inside the top 10 and start our championship out with some points, and that’s what we got.”
IN TERMS OF THE CAMARO, HOW DID THE DAY TURN OUT AS FAR AS YOUR EXPECTATIONS? DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THE CAR? “We learned a lot about the car. We had a whole development last year, solely focused to be ready for this year, to try different things. We did learn even more today. There’s obviously all of the development that we had that was in the car, we’ve still got a couple of areas to work on. Right now, it’s a lot of small improvements. We don’t have any big swipes to take. We’re not at the end of the development curve, by any means, but what it takes to be competitive in this series is a whole bunch of small fixes, that are very minor and will add up to something in the end. We think we have something for them in Homestead. I think both cars will be really strong in Homestead.”
JOEY ATTERBURY MADE UP A LOT OF GROUND EARLY. HOW DID HE DO IT? “Joey, actually, was just very good today. Sometimes, when you look at the beginning stints of these races, it depends how hard you’re willing to push and how clean you can do it. And Joey pushed a little harder than everybody else around him. He was able to pass the number 9 Stevenson car – they had a great race going, I’m not sure what they’re failure was – but they are actually instrumental in our finish by helping us with the parts we needed. The biggest highlight, next to our finish, is knowing we have competitors in the field that we’re all looking for the same result.”
MATT BELL, NO. 9 STEVENSON CAMARO GS.R, FINISHED 28TH IN CLASS, 54TH OVERALL AS A RESULT OF BROKEN CV AXLE: WHAT HAPPENED TO PUT THE CAR BACK IN THE GARAGE? “It looks like we’ve got a broken CV, so basically the axle seized up, and eventually it just started slipping. So, John (Edwards) was out there and just couldn’t put any power to the ground.”
YOU RAN UP FRONT WHEN YOU WERE IN THE CAR. “It’s good. The thing about this class, it is very close racing between all of the makes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get by Joe Foster in the Mustang. Having some issues there. A lot of rough racing, but my job is to bring the car back in one piece. But, unfortunately, an axle broke. I don’t know if it was me or just fate, but it’s unfortunate.”
DID YOU LEARN A LOT ABOUT THE CAMARO TODAY? “We ran the car last year, and it is wholesomely different than it was before. We’ve got a new differential, we’ve got new dampers on the car. We’ve moved weight around a little bit. Also, we do have less fuel and so it sort throws a lot of what we learned last year out the window. We have learned a lot and every weekend we’re learning more.
“This Stevenson crew is amazing, and they’re just taking volumes of information from all of our experiences that we’re learning here – even down to the unfortunate things like a broken CV axle or even some damage to the front end, how that affects our aero. Maybe how we can make a quicker fix, something we can do something like that. I’m excited to go to Homestead and finish out the rest of the year, and see how high up we can go, and I’m sure a win is in the cards for this thing.”
OTHER TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS:
ASHLEY MCCALMONT/ERIC CURRAN, NO. 00 CKS AUTOSPORT CAMARO GS.R, FINISHED 14TH IN CLASS AND OVERALL
DAVE MUNDY/TONY RIVERA, NO. 01 CKS AUTOSPORT CAMARO GS.R FINISHED 20TH IN CLASS AND OVERALL
Note: Team Chevy press releases, high-resolution images, and media kit can be downloaded from the Team Chevy media website:
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