NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PENNSYLVANIA 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
August 4, 2012
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER GREAT LAP, TELL US ABOUT IT: “It’s okay. Our Target Chevy has been pretty good this week. We have done a lot of work on the cars lately. I don’t think it’s going to hold up for anywhere. I don’t know we are a work in progress.”
THIS HAS BEEN YOUR BEST OVAL TRACK, YOU HAD A SECOND-PLACE FINISH A FEW YEARS AGO HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT THIS IS THE WEEKEND THAT YOU GUYS TURN IT AROUND? “I don’t think this is one of my better tracks to be honest with you. I actually talked to Chip (Ganassi, team owner) yesterday and I said ‘you know part of the problem is me here.’ I’m not very good here (laughs).”
WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF LOOSE RACE CARS OUT THERE
“We actually tightened the car up from yesterday. We ran a 51.18 yesterday so it’s not too bad. To tell you the truth, I don’t think it’s going to hold for a pole. But it really shows that the team is going in the right direction. We’ve been working really hard the last few weeks.”
YOU AND YOUR RACE TEAM JUST NEED A LITTLE BIT OF MOMENTUM, DON’T YOU?
“Yeah, it’s not so much momentum, but its work. We’ve really got to keep working; keep working on the cars and keep understanding what we need to do. You’ve got to remember that my crew chief (Chris Heroy) is new at this. He’s a really smart guy and he’s got a lot of really smart people there, but it’s how do you put everything together; and we’ve been doing a really good job at it. So, we’ll see.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS/SERTA CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED THIRD ON HIS LAP: “It was a little bit looser than yesterday. It didn’t feel like the track had, it just didn’t feel grippy. I’m sure the track was cooler and had more grip. The car felt a little more out of the track than yesterday. I don’t know it will be decent for everything that the guys went through they busted their butts and got the back-up car ready. I think we will be okay.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FOURTH
ON HIS LAP: “It was pretty good. The Farmers Insurance Chevy was balanced really well. I was bouncing a little bit through the tunnel turn I got a little tight because of that. I had good grip around the whole track and it was a fairly easy lap. The car had a lot of grip hopefully it will be the same tomorrow.”
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE DEFINITELY GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AS WE GET CLOSE TO THE CHASE
“Yeah, it’s good. That’s when we need to pick-up the performance and the team has done an awesome job of that. The cars are really fast; the engines are running great and the pit crew is doing an awesome job. So it’s just a matter of keep gaining and keep getting better as we go here. We have six races to really put it all together and if we can do that, we’ll make the Chase. And from there, it’s anybody’s race.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 PHOENIX CONSTRUCTION INC. CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SIXTH
ON HIS LAP:
“Pocono is the kind of place where drivers either love it or hate it. You have to compromise a lot here. You just can’t be dialed-in for one corner; you’ve got to keep all three in mind. It’s kind of like a Phoenix or a Darlington.”
TALK ABOUT HEADING TO IOWA LATER TODAY FOR THE NATIONWIDE RACE
“I was hoping to post the best lap that I could with our Phoenix Racing Chevy. I think it was a solid lap, but just missed one out of the three corners. And from year, I’m waiting on a couple of other racers. They’re going to do their qualifying laps and then we’re headed to Iowa. We have plenty of time today. We’re going to drive to the airport and then fly into Newton and we’re going to qualify the car and give it a great race tonight. And today, it doesn’t matter how good or how bad we do. Today’s my birthday, so it’s going to be just fine.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW/AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED EIGHTH ON HIS LAP: “It was good. Our car was a little bit snug, but pretty happy with the effort. I don’t know really how going out this late helped us or hurt us, but it just depends. I don’t know, it was good, I was pretty happy.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION /QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED NINTH ON HIS LAP: “I had a good lap. They said I gave up a little bit in turn three, but the car felt pretty good. It’s going to be off just a little bit in speed, but we will see if we can’t have a little bit better race here than the first race. We got a bad restart the first race and lost a bunch of spots and didn’t get to get them back. We will see.”
HOW MUCH OF AN IMPACT IS THE SUN HAVING WITH HOW FAST EVERYONE IS GOING? “I think the track cooled off from the first car to when we went out. I don’t know what it is going to do now. It seems like the breeze picked up a little bit too which can be tricky here because the track is pretty flat.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED TENTH ON HIS LAP:
“The car was awesome. I made a huge mistake so I’m pretty disappointed in myself for being so aggressive and I cost us a shot at the pole. Still with one huge mistake and then a second mistake trying to make up for what I lost, I still ended up tenth. We have a very fast race car and I’m just disappointed in myself for driving too hard.”
REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 11TH ON HIS LAP: “It was good until turn three. I just got too loose in turn three and didn’t have the grip that I anticipated out of the rear in the car. We have a fast race car and that is the important thing. I think the Furniture Row Chevy is going to be good tomorrow.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT BACK TO SCHOOL CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 28TH ON HIS LAP:
“Obviously, that was not the lap that we were looking for today with our Office Depot/Mobil 1 ‘Back-to-School’ Chevy,” said Stewart, who won at Pocono in June 2003 and 2009. “We’ve been loose all weekend and we were loose again in qualifying. We’ve got some homework to do tonight because we’ve got to find some grip so that we can do that tomorrow.”
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