NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
WONDERFUL PISTACHIOS 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10th: ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT: “As bad as we were in practice, we were really good. For not having driving the car with this setup, yea, I’m happy with that. I mean, I knew a little bit more about what had been done to the car, what to expect out of the car, I would have been a little better. But, you know, I’m pretty happy. Our Target Chevy and everybody, all the boys, have been doing a really good job. They’ve been working really hard at this. We struggled today, all morning. This was the first time the car feels pretty good. Pretty pumped for the race.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7th: HAS THE TRACK TEMPERATURE AFFECTED THE TRACK A LOT? “It has affected it a lot. For us it was a good thing with the things we were fighting in practice. I don’t feel like I got everything I could have gotten out of our Budweiser Chevrolet. But we such needed a solid lap. Qualifying is not our strongest effort. But we did get the car turned around and took a good guess at what we needed for qualifying so it worked out ok.
“Our Budweiser Chevy didn’t feel too bad. We just needed a solid lap is what we needed. The team does a great job. Feel like we have a good race car for the race and hopefully we get a decent starting spot.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 22nd: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “I don’t remember what it’s like to qualify in the top-four here. It’s definitely a lot harder. In the spring race here we qualified in the back and got a lap down early and never could recover from it. But I think we’ve got a car that runs well. It seems like after about 10 laps our car is as good as anybody else’s and maybe a tick better after 20 laps on. Hopefully, we’ll get a lot of long, green-flag runs. tomorrow night.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 18th: ON QUALIFYING HIS CAR WITH THE SPECIAL PAINT SCHEME: “It is just special to represent the Army in the first place. To have the 75 members of the Pentagon that died on in the 9/11 attack is special. It is bittersweet. We are honoring them 10 years later. I’ve always said it is an honor to represent the soldiers and an honor to represent the people that give us this free country to be able to come out and play on a race day or a race afternoon or a race night. We’ll do our best for them tomorrow night with where ever we end up in the order.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “Our Bass Pro Shops Chevy, we struggled a little bit in the first practice. We actually put in what we ran in the spring for the second practice and the car was really good. We all wanted to do that same setup for qualifying. I feel really good about it. We had just a really good day. Bono (Kevin Manion, crew chief) said on the radio after our qualifying lap it was just one of those days everything just went the way it should. We started off having a really tough year. But honestly, this last month has been really good. Even tracks that we struggled at last year, we’ve run better at and this has been one of those tracks. I feel pretty good about it. That was a good lap for us. This has just not been a good track for me in the past and we didn’t run great here in the spring but I think we’ve got a really good car for tomorrow night.”
MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 QUAKER STATE/GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 4TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “That was a great run. I really want to thank everybody on the Quaker State Chevrolet and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Lance McGrew and all the guys on the No. 5 car. They make sure we have good stuff. Really hit the setup nice there and it was a very good lap and I was pleased.”
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It was good. We needed to be a little better in a few areas, but the car drove really good. That’s pretty much back up what we did in practice and that’s always good. That will give us a good starting spot.”
CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEERIOS/HAMBURGER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It was a good qualifying lap. The car is really good. Excited about the race. This is a fun place. It is one of my favorite race tracks. It’s kind of a nice breath of fresh air to be able to race without all the worry and the headache that has been going on so hopefully we can go out and win this thing.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 17TH: I KNOW THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU WANTED IN QUALIFYING, BUT HOW’S YOUR CAR FOR TOMORROW’S RACE?”Our race car has been awesome. You have to try to guess from the day practice to what the conditions are going to be and the car turned a lot better than I expected. So we got pretty loose right there. But I know the car is fast and we’re excited to have Chase Card Services on board this weekend with our Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet helping us out and all the support. We appreciate them and all the fans. I can’t wait for tomorrow because if you text Hunger to 50555 I’m going to match every donation that gets made here tomorrow. So it’s a big weekend for us and still the momentum is with this race team and even though we didn’t qualify too good right there, we had a great race car in practice.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S POWER OF PRIDE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 3RD: ON HIS LAP “It was a great effort. Being third is great. But that first lap; there was more in the car. I just didn’t know what effort level to commit to. The first lap, I knew I was a little under it. And the second lap, I think I exceeded it going into Turn 3. I got it right down in (Turns) 1 and 2; but I was a little too fast into (Turn) 3 and missed my mark. So still with a miss on my behalf, it was a great team effort on this Lowe’s Chevrolet. This track has been awfully tough on us in year’s past, but today has gone very well and I think we’ll really have something for these guys tomorrow night.”
SINCE TUESDAY, FANS HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE FABULOUS RACING BETWEEN YOU AND JEFF GORDON AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY. COULD WE SEE ANOTHER ONE-TWO BATTLE FROM YOU GUYS HERE IN RICHMOND? “Man, I hope so. I hope it’s 1-2-3-4 for us. Selfishly, I want to be the winner! But last week speaks to the type of grip level needed for our Cup cars to put on a good show. When you get sideways there, you’re already lacking grip; so when you get sideways, the tire can slide more and doesn’t just come out from under you and put you in the fence. At Charlotte and some of these new repaves that we go to, when you lean on the tire that hard and there’s that much grip; when it’s gone, you wreck. At Atlanta, we don’t have that for some reason. And I’m so happy to hear the fans enjoyed the race. I had a blast driving it. Losing isn’t the best thing in the world, but everybody knows I left it all out there. And if I’m not going to win, I want a teammate to. So it was a great day for Hendrick Motorsports. And there’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes in our engine shops and chassis shops; and I’ll take this moment to thank them for all the hard work too. Hendrick Motorsports is looking awfully good as we get closer to the Chase.”
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 120 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 .
