NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
July 6, 2012
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 2nd, then time was disallowed by NASCAR. STEWART WILL START 42ND:
WHAT DID THEY DO TO THE CAR THIS TIME? “You asked me if I did anything different, I said ‘I held it wide open.’ You asked if they did anything special I said ‘yeah, they gave me full throttle this time.’ So my reward is I get a Coke Zero for this. That is well worth holding it wide open for.”
TELL ME ABOUT THAT NUMBER ONE TIME UP THERE DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO BE GOOD ENOUGH WHEN WE ARE ALL DONE? “There are a lot of faster cars behind us. We will see, I’m proud of our guys it’s been a long month we’ve had a lot of stuff going on. They have been doing a great job. Days like today as far as you are up on the board is a reflection of how good a job your guys do at the shop, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing is doing an awesome job. Everybody at Hendrick the motor and chassis shop are doing an awesome job so we appreciate that.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 16TH TALKING A LOT ABOUT YOUR FIRST TRIATHLON ON SUNDAY, SO THINGS MUST BE GOING PRETTY GOOD IN THE CAR THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, well there is only so much we can do here. Decent lap we are not really sure what to expect speed wise here we really don’t work on speed for the pole, but we are going to have a great race car come race time. I’m excited about Sunday it’s going to be fun there is a big group of guys going to go and see what we can do in our first try and until then we will go fast in this Lowe’s Chevrolet.”
ARE YOU READY ARE YOU ORGANIZED FOR THIS TRIATHLON? “It’s going to be interesting. I feel like we are organized, but for a group of rookies there is bound to be a few mistakes along the way. I’m sure the transition areas will be quite entertaining watching our group come in and out trying to change from one discipline to the next. It should be pretty entertaining.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 PHOENIX CONSTRUCTION CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 35TH
ON HIS LAP:
“I thought we’d show a little bit more strength being that this is Finch’s forte. Phoenix Racing puts a lot of racing into their restrictor-plate program. But it’s where it is though. The draft is the great equalizer.”
KEVIN HARVICK, N0. 29 BUDWEISER FOLDS OF HONOR CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 11TH:
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
‘These laps are obviously pretty uneventful. I think we made an improvement from the last restrictor plate race. I know that Shane and all these guys on the Budweiser Chevrolet have been working to fine tune it and get some things going better. I think they did a good job and we’ll just go racing.”
ARE THE TRACK CONDITIONS HERE DIFFERENT THAN IN FEBRUARY:
“They repave pretty much ruined the track condition. Handling is at zero.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 24TH:
“There wasn’t much to it. Just run around the bottom. Held it on the track. It’s pretty simple.”
WERE THE TRACK CONDITIONS DIFFERENT THAN IN FEBRUARY:
“No, not that I could really tell. Not a whole lot has changed about the race track but it will. It takes some time.”
WERE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR LAP?
“No, it’s slow, actually. I think we need to get a little better than that.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 14TH:
“I think we were okay. We felt pretty good yesterday in the draft and Daytona has a lot of luck involved so I hope we get some luck on our side this time.”
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 WHEATIES CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 20TH:
“That was a big improvement from Talladega and Daytona here in the spring. I felt like we made some serious gains. We didn’t have enough speed here in the spring or at Talladega but I felt like we made a lot of gains. It’s not 100 percent what we want but it’s a step in the right direction. So, that’s a good thing.”
WERE YOU EXPECTING BETTER THAN WHAT YOU RAN:
“You really don’t know because everyone doesn’t make a Q-run. That’s about what we ran yesterday when we made our Q-run. So, I figured that’s about what we had. Today, there’s not a whole lot you can do other than what you have so that’s about what I thought we had.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSIMAX CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 5TH:
“It’s typical qualifying . I’m really excited about the race tomorrow. We’ve worked really hard on our race setup. The track has changed and has a lot of grip in the tires and they don’t fall off like they used to. I still think that here in July, you’re going to need the car to drive really good. So, we’ll see where we end up but the Pepsi Max Chevrolet is looking good and driving good and I’m very excited for tomorrow. The guys did an awesome job.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 2ND:
“We were decent and we were fourth when in practice. Just have to thank Aspen Dental for jumping on board. This is our main race with them so hopefully we’ll have a good outing with them here in Daytona. We need it from a team standpoint and points perspective. I think our car is good but we need to make it to the end. That’s the bottom line.”
IT’S BEEN A COUPLE OF TOUGH WEEKS. WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE SHOP?
“Just a lot of hard work. The guys are working really hard. We had a couple of engine problems but the Hendrick guys have been working really hard on that part of it, making sure we don’t have those issues again and we’ll keep working forward. I have to thank everyone at Stewart-Haas for doing a great job. Obviously, today we were close. This is the closest I’ve been to a restrictor-plate pole. So, just proud of the team effort.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 QUAKER STATE/MENARDS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 13TH:
“We were a bit slower than what we ran yesterday. I don’t know if the winds were a bit different but we did run the same RPM. I’m a little disappointed in that but it’s better than what we have been at these plate tracks. The car is really good in the draft. It doesn’t really matter where you start.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 3RD:
“We had a good lap. That’s a pretty solid lap. Car feels really good. Felt good yesterday in drafting so hopefully tomorrow night it will be an exciting race and we’ll be able to move around. I’m a little nervous with the water temperature and things that NASCAR has all of us set so it may be difficult but hopefully we’ll be able to race and pass and things that we could do a year ago when it was really fun to race at this track.”
YOU TALK ABOUT MOVING AROUND BUT NO ONE REALLY KNOWS, DO THEY?
“No, I don’t think you’ll know until tomorrow. I know my car was just about overheating by itself let alone around other cars. It seems like it’s going to be really difficult to get pushes and be in big packs and be tight on cars to get those runs and actually pass the car in front of you with the way the rules are. Hopefully, we are all surprised tomorrow night and you can actually do it.
WERE YOU SURPRISED BY WHAT YOU JUST DID NOW?
“No, I was actually pretty close. I was thinking maybe first because they just prepare really good restrictor-plate cars at Hendrick Motorsports and the engines are awesome so it makes it kind of fun to qualify even though the drivers, there’s not a lot you can do qualifying here except hold the wheel and try not to move your hands much. It’s fun to know that you have a chance to win the pole here and be really close, which I haven’t in the past. It’s nice to have that with Hendrick Motorsports.”
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
