35-TIME MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPION – NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
SYLVANIA 300
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE
SEPTEMBER 23, 2012
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TEAM CHEVY IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (NSCS) COMPETITION:
· Chevrolet has won 35 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Manufacturers’ Championships
· Team Chevy drivers have scored 698 wins and 629 poles in NSCS competition
CHEVROLET ON THE TRACK—NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
· Chevrolet drivers have won 18 of 35 races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Wins by active drivers are:
o Jeff Burton, No. 31 Wheaties Chevrolet has gone to Victory Lane four (4) times at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’97, ’98, ’99 & ‘00)
o Kurt Busch, No. 51 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet, has three (3) wins at NHMS (’04 – TWICE &’08)
o Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, has visited Victory Lane at NHMS three times (’95, ’97 & ‘98)
o Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, has three (3) wins at NHMS (’03 – TWICE & ‘10)
o Ryan Newman, No. 39 Aspen Dental Chevrolet, has three (3) trophies from New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’02, ’05 & ’11)
o Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot, has three victories at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’00, ’05 & ’11)
o Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, has gone to Victory Lane once (1) at NHMS (’06)
o Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, has one (1) win at NHMS (’12)
· A Chevrolet driver has won seven (7) of the last 10 races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
· A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole 15 times at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
· Team Chevy drivers have scored 79 top-five and 143 top-10 finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
· A Chevrolet has led 5,228 laps (50.5% of possible 10,348 laps) at Chicagoland Speedway
TEAM CHEVY IN THE GARAGE NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY– ALBA COLON – PROGRAM MANAGER, NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES – CHEVROLET RACING: “This weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series heads for New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which is one of my favorite tracks and places that we visit during the year. There is no other track like it on the circuit. It is fast; and almost a flat one-mile oval. With the long straights and flat tight turns, it is definitely a handling track. It is fun to drive!
“As we enter Round 2 of the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, everybody can see how interesting and challenging it promises to be during the next nine weeks. Excitement is in the air, and this run for the championship will be filled with fun, hard work, and nail biting!
“Our Chevy teams have delivered 11 wins so far this year. Additionally, Chevrolet continues to lead in the Manufacturers’ Cup standings. Achieving those two goals is certainly not easily accomplished. Both require a lot of teamwork from everyone involved; and we continue to strive to accomplish those objectives day after day, and week after week.
“This weekend we are looking to repeat the performance of the July race in Loudon with yet another win. Strong performances will keep the momentum going for our teams. We have had great results at New Hampshire Motor Speedway by capturing 18 wins in the 35 races held here; and we are looking forward to another great Sunday in the Winner’s Circle!”
TEAM CHEVY FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT: JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – 2nd IN STANDINGS: “It’s tough because the balance when you have clean air and the whole race track to yourself you need a race car to drive a certain way. When you get in traffic you need the car to turn a lot stronger to run a tighter radius and inside of someone. It’s tough to blend those two worlds. That is the thing we fight so much is we work in practice running by ourselves. You get in the race you are rarely by yourself then trying to find a way to make your car work in traffic.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/OFFICE DEPOT CHEVROLET – 3rd IN STANDINGS: “It just has long, sweeping corners. The corners in comparison to where we normally race, we’re used to having a lot of banking, but New Hampshire is pretty flat. It’s one of those tracks where you’re either fighting entry-loose, entry-exit and nice in the center, or you’re fighting tight in the center and you’re good on entry and good on exit. It’s a juggling act trying to get the car balanced for all three sections of the corner.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – 5th IN STANDINGS: “It feels really good to go back to New Hampshire during the Chase. The win in July was a big turning point for the team and should give everyone some more confidence this weekend. I think we found a good setup for the car last time, so we should have a good place to start from when we unload.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – 7th IN STANDINGS: “New Hampshire kind of lends itself to the short track mentality and that style of racing. I enjoy racing at short tracks, have a great track record at all the short tracks we run at. I feel like that’s a bit in my wheelhouse, and this place sort of fits toward that.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – 10th IN STANDINGS: “I always look forward to going to New Hampshire. I like that type of track because it’s flat, similar to the tracks out west where I started my racing career. There’s a lot of braking. You have to really work on getting your car through the center of the corner and still have the forward drive you need up off the corner.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET – 12th IN STANDINGS:
“It was a disappointing result (in Chicago), but we had a fast race car. We had a great run from 19th to inside the top five, and I would have liked to have seen if we had anything for them at the end, but we’ll put that event behind us and focus on trying to win Loudon this weekend. There is still a long way to go.”
“I really enjoy racing here. It’s not an easy place to get around, though, with the long straightaways, flat corners and hard braking. Recently, we have led laps, run well and been in position to win. We just need to put ourselves in that position again and capitalize on it.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET – 14th IN STANDINGS: “I think the track is the key when it comes to being aggressive and patient all at the same time. There is a different style of driving that you have to have there. You can’t really be overaggressive at that racetrack. It’s kind of a combination of patience and aggressiveness. You want to take what the car will give you because the track is flat. With banking, the faster you go, the more it pushes the car down into the racetrack. We don’t have that there, so it’s just a matter of feeling that razor-blade-edge of grip and getting everything you can and I’ve been successful at it there. It’s kind of clicked with me since the beginning. I really like the racetrack and obviously know how to drive it, which is a big part of it. It’s a good place to start up front because it’s a short race, and it’s not the easiest place to pass.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS/SYLVANIA CHEVROLET – 16th IN STANDINGS: “We had our best race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when we were there in July of this year, and we still weren’t where we needed to be. At New Hampshire you need to find the right package. You’re hard on the brakes there. The track is flat with tight corners and long straightaways. You need to have the right setup on the car in order to get down the straightaways and through the corners.”
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 WHEATIES CHEVROLET – 19th IN STANDINGS: “New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a very challenging track. It’s one of those places where if you are off a little bit, it shows a lot on the leaderboard. There is a fine line between being really good and not very good. It’s definitely a tough race track. The car must turn in the middle of the corners at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Rear grip has become less of an issue since we first started racing there. When we first started going there, rear grip was everything. If you could accelerate off the corner before your competitor, you were in good shape. Throughout the years, that has really changed. You must rotate in the middle of the corners. If it doesn’t rotate, your lap times will suffer. To me, rotation in the middle of the corners is the most important key to being strong.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 LIFTMASTER CHEVROLET – 20th IN STANDINGS: “New Hampshire will be an exciting weekend for us. We will have LiftMaster on board as the primary sponsor for the No. 1 car this weekend. It seems like forever ago that we announced in January at media day that LiftMaster would be on the car for this race. We will look to improve on our 20th-place finish from the race in July. We had a decent car, but with some long green-flag runs in that first race it made it difficult to make any major adjustments without losing too much time on pit road. I enjoy racing on flat tracks like New Hampshire, so hopefully we can have a good result for LiftMaster and all our partners.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 ENERGIZER CHEVROLET – 21st IN STANDINGS: “To tell you the truth, New Hampshire was terrible for the Target team earlier this year. It was a tough race; we never had a decent car to balance. If you have a good car to start out with you’ll have a good car all weekend. It’s a matter of how well prepared you are when you get there. We’ve done a little bit of testing before we go there so hopefully we found some new things to help us run better this time around.”
REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET – 23rd IN STANDINGS: “I always like going to New Hampshire. This is a type of race track where most of us cut our teeth on. We had a pretty good run at New Hampshire last year with a top-10 finish. We need to instill some fire into our team after mediocre outings the past two weeks at Richmond and Chicago. I think we should be in good shape at New Hampshire, but we especially need to have a good starting position. While our race results weren’t that stout the last two weeks, we did have strong qualifying efforts of third in Richmond and seventh at Chicagoland.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 PHOENIX CONSTRUCTION CHEVROLET – 26th IN STANDINGS: “New Hampshire is a track that has been pretty good to me since I started racing in the top series of this sport. I raced there for the first time in the Truck Series and won that race. Then it’s a track where I have three wins in the Cup cars and, when you’re able to go to a track where you’ve had that kind of success, it just gives you that confidence. Because of the wins and everything, it’s a place we go to where I feel like I especially know what it takes from the car and the driver to be successful.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships
Total (1949 – 2011): 35
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 9 twice (1983 – 1991) (2003-2011)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
Drivers Championships
Total (1949 – 2011): 28
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005 – ’11)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
Event Victories
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 – (in 2007)
2012 STATISTICS:
Wins: 11
Poles: 9
Laps led: 2994
Top-five finishes: 59
Top-10 finishes: 117
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 698 (1949 – to date); (2,341 possible = 29.8%)
Poles Won to Date: 629
Laps Lead to Date: 208,096
Top-Five Finishes to Date: 3,506
Top-10 Finishes to Date: 7,167
Total NASCAR Cup wins by Corporation, 1949 – To-Date
GM: 1,033
Chevrolet: 698
Pontiac: 155
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 710
Ford: 610
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Chrysler: 465
Dodge: 216
Plymouth: 190
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 47
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.
