NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
THE MATTHEW & DANIEL HANSEN 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING QUOTES
APRIL 29, 2011
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: HOW ABOUT YOUR LAP? “It was good and I am really happy. We were faster in the second practice and we matched it in qualifying and I am pretty excited about it to be honest.”
IS IT IMPORTANT TO START UP FRONT HERE AT A SHORT TRACK? “It helps. You know last week at the last race we had a great car and with a great car we didn’t get a good finish. So we are just looking to get great points and get my first oval win.”
REGAN SMITH, NO 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: ON HIS EFFORT: “That is the tough part about this new procedure, you always know that there are faster cars coming unless you are one of the last cars to go. It doesn’t take away from the great car we have got. A great job by these guys on the Furniture Row Chevrolet. Qualifying has been great. We really wanted to get a pole. I wanted to get that out of the way and then we can start getting those top-10s and top-fives and all the other stuff.”
CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 BB&T CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: IS THAT ABOUT WHAT YOU EXPECTED FOR QUALIFYING? “Yes, we have a good car and did a good job all day long. It is still a long road to hoe, but starting up front is good. Just real proud of everyone on the BB&T Chevrolet. This is what we have to do week in and week out.”
MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH: YOU SAT FOR A MOMENT ON THE DOOR PANEL. DID YOU LEAVE EVERYTHING OUT THERE ON THE RACETRACK? “Well, like I told these guys, I don’t have a whole lot of time left so you give me one lap and I am going to go as hard as I can the first one and we should have picked up because everybody seems to be picking up on the second lap but I think I got it all the first lap. “Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I don’t have much time left, so I’ve got to go. So if they give me one lap, I’m going to get all I can on the first lap. I didn’t save nothing the first lap. But I want to give a shout out to GoDaddy.com and CARQUEST Auto Parts and Farmer’s Insurance and all of our supporters, Chevrolet and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. It sure is a pleasure to work with these guys. This team worked so hard today on this race car. I’ve never seen a bunch of guys get as much stuff done in such a little time. I’m real proud of them.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: ON HIS LAP: “It’s a cloudy day and its making the conditions pretty even for these guys and we will just have to wait and see now but I am real proud of Alan and all these guys on their pick-ups. “I’m really happy with that lap for this DuPont Chevrolet team. We didn’t make a lot of qualifying runs today and we worked a lot on the race set-up. It felt like we made some gains there and that went over into qualifying. It’s a nice cloudy day making the conditions pretty even for most guys. We’ll just have to wait and see now but so far, so good. I’m really proud of Alan (Gustafson) and those guys on that pick-up.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 17 LIBMAN/MENARDS CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “Pretty happy with that actually. We ran our best lap right off the truck and then we concentrated on qualifying in the second practice and it didn’t go very good, so we changed a few things and I am really looking forward to the race.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP: “I just didn’t do real good right there. I got through three and four there, but I didn’t get through one and two smooth. I was just choppy. I got in there a little low and had to unwind some wheel and then it got up too high in the center on both laps. But, the Budweiser Chevrolet is really good.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 US ARMY MEDICINE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: WAS THAT ABOUT WHAT YOU EXPECTED OUT THERE ON THAT LAP? “Well the car felt good and I didn’t know what to expect in overall speed. We did our qualifying runs but just the good thing was the car felt good and drove good. The bad thing was that it just wasn’t fast enough and I am just not real sure where the speed is at but we did a good job of getting it balanced.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALDS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 17TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “We haven’t been very good today. We’ve had a really bad day. So I didn’t really expect very much. I don’t know where we’ll end up, but we certainly have a lot of work to do.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 30TH: TELL US ABOUT YOUR LAP. WAS IT WHAT YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD BE?”We went a lot faster than we did in practice but I don’t think its going to hold up. We had a great race run at the end of practice and I think we will be good in the race but we will probably take a beating here in qualifying.”
About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .
