KASEY KAHNE LEADS TEAM CHEVY IN QUALIFYING AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
SIX CHEVROLET’S WILL START IN THE TOP-10 FOR THE LENOX INDUSTRIAL TOOLS 301
LOUDON, NH – July 13, 2012 – Kasey Kahne narrowly missed placing his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet in the top spot for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 and collecting his third pole of 2012. Kahne’s lap was a mere one hundredth of a second off of the pole speed of 133.417 mph. The run marks Kahne’s ninth top-five start of the 2012 season.
The No. 39 Army ROTC Chevrolet of Ryan Newman who will roll off sixth. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet will start seventh, followed by his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet and Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet who will start eighth and ninth respectively. Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and last week’s winner, Tony Stewart in the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet will start 10th.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the pole winner, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was third, Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) was fourth and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) was fifth to round out the top five starting spots.
The green flag will wave on the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 on Sunday July 15, 2012 at 1:00 PM EST on TNT.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 2ND
TALK A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN TODAY
“It felt really good. My car, the Farmers Insurance Chevy, has been good in practice and was great right there. I was right on the edge the whole lap of being just a little too free. But I was able to make it work. In the final corner I tried getting one more lap, which it didn’t seem like anybody was going faster the second lap, but I still tried and got too loose there and just pulled it in. It was still a solid lap. It was really close. As far as the times, everybody is really close, but I’m glad my car feels great.”
HOW WOULD YOU HANDICAP THIS WILD CARD RACE RIGHT NOW? AS FRUSTRATING A YEAR AS YOUR TEAMMATE JEFF GORDON HAS HAD, DO YOU STILL THINK HE IS A CONTENDER TO BE IN IT?
“Yeah, I don’t think you can really count out anyone in the top 20 just because right now if you’re able to knock-off two wins, you’d be the guy. So, that’s going to all change over eight weeks. Who knows what will happen. But I feel like our team, we just need to stay consistent. We’ve been doing a pretty good job of that. We just need to keep running as well as we can. And then if we get that chance to win, we need to win another race to really give us a better shot at making the Chase. But even at that, it’s going to be tough. I feel like it’s really close. It’s really competitive. It’s just like qualifying today. Everybody is close. It’s tough to get that win or get a couple more wins. But we’re going to try. We’re going to do the best we can.”
ON YOUR TRIATHLON IN SOUTH CAROLINA, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PERSONAL SATISFACTION YOU GOT OUT OF THAT AND ALSO BEATING JIMMIE JOHNSON?
“It felt really good. I liked it a lot. I would have like to have gotten a little more sleep and not been as dehydrated when it started. I started cramping up on the bike and then had to do the run after that. But still, when I finished it felt really good and I was happy I did it. I had to talk to myself the last mile of the run and I was like just stop; just slow down (laughs) and I had to tell myself do not slow down, just keep going. I was surprised that I beat Jimmie. He’s in great shape and he trained hard for that. But he was under the same circumstance. He was cramping also coming off the race the night before, and he also hit a wall so that probably even made it worse for him. But yeah, it felt good to get it finished. And now it gives me something to shoot for. I liked it enough that I’m going to keep this type of training and finding those every once in a while to do and it gives me a time to try to beat, just personally; so that will be something to shoot for and keep your mind clear once in a while.”
WHAT WAS YOUR OFFICIAL TIME IN THE TRIATHLON THAT YOU BEAT JIMMIE JOHNSON BY?
“My time was 1:11:30 and his was 1:11:57.”
About Chevrolet
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