CHEVY NSCS AT MICHIGAN TWO: Post Race Notes and Quotes

YOU STARTED 13TH AND BROUGHT IT HOME SECOND WE THOUGHT MAYBE YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE A RUN ON JOEY LOGANO THERE AT THE END. DID YOU HAVE A SHOT AT HIM?

“You know, we never really got out in front by ourselves today, but our Rheem Chevrolet was really good. I’ve got to thank everybody who is a part of this car. I just mistimed that last restart there. I was rolling pretty good on the No. 55 (Mark Martin) and going to beat him to the start/finish line, so I had to check up and that allowed the No. 22 (Logano) to kind of make it three-wide and get under me and then we had to fight back from there. But all in all it was a good day and we tried a lot of different stuff today and it seemed to run pretty good.”

ALL IN ALL, IT’S ABOUT GETTING READY FOR THAT 10-RACE CHASE. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A TEAM AND A CAR AND A GROUP THAT’S CAPABLE OF WINNING THIS CHAMPIONSHIP?

“Well, they did a great job today and I think everybody was on their game. So, I think as long as we run like that every week and finish in the top five every week, we’ll have a shot.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/SERTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE DAY?

“A good day. At the end of the day, we have our weaknesses and pit road and restarts are one of them. It’s just like our Achilles Heel, but to be in position to win at the end, we had it, we just didn’t have the speed. So we can’t blame those items as a result of our third place. But here we are talking third place and that’s what’s awesome about our effort today to bounce back from where we were at the first Michigan and what we’ve learned since June to be where we are now. Teams have to move quick to find technology and this little team keeps continuing to do that. Call these guys a big team, Furniture Row Racing. This is awesome. Thanks to them and everybody that keeps putting their hand on this car to put us in Chase position.”

HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL TO KNOW YOU CLIMBED TWO SPOTS TODAY AND YOU’RE IN NINTH NOW; INSIDE CHASE CONTENTION

“I was all fired up. We were running 14th. (Martin) Truex was ahead of us, (Brad) Keselowski was ahead of us, (Greg) Biffle was ahead of us (Kasey) Kahne was ahead of us. You can’t run 14th and gain on guys. And I had a restart where the seas parted and I went to the high side and we got a lot of positions on that one restart. So, we’ll just keep plugging away. We’ve got three (races) to go (before the Chase) and we’re in the mix.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 NIBCO/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FOURTH

FUEL MILEAGE, STRATEGY, BUT A FAST RACE CAR, WHAT ADDED UP FOR YOUR FINISH HERE TODAY?
“We had a good car all weekend.  We didn’t qualify very good and I knew that the car had some speed in it, but it mostly just drove really good all weekend.  Lacked a little bit of speed to run with Joey (Logano) and even Kevin (Harvick) was too fast at the end.  Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) made some good calls to get some track position when to take two (tires), when to take four (tires).  Matt Krueter (gasman) filled up the car with plenty of gas at the end and everybody at RCR I’m just really proud of them.  We needed a good run and we’ve got four RCR built cars in the top 10.”

FIRST TOP FIVE OF THE SEASON, HOW DID YOU DO IT?

“We really needed a good run.  We started off the season strong and just fell off the last couple of months.  We have had good cars we just haven’t been able to put together a race and we have been crashing a lot and we just don’t do that.   Really proud of everybody at RCR with three cars in the top ten and the 78 being the fourth car.  Also just proud of RCR and everybody on my team.  Slugger made great calls about when to take two tires, when to take four, and made great adjustments all day long.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CHEERIOS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED EIGHTH

SOLID TOP 10 FINISH TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“It’s good to be disappointed with eighth that is a good thing.  We had a lot of speed at times we had the best car on the track.  We just struggled with tires more than other people did.  When we put tires on it seemed like it hurt us more than others.  When we had our sequence of tires that we wanted our car was really happy.  That next to last caution was not what we needed.  Pitting under green and being able to put four (tires) on right there would have been a hundred percent for us.  We were about five laps from pitting and that caution came out.  That kind of sealed us.  Just because of what we had going on with our car, but it’s a good day.  That’s a step in the right direction, no drama, got what we deserved and we will go on.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH

ON HIS RUN:
“It was up and down.  Definitely scared myself at the beginning it was too early to be wrecking out there.  I apologize to the No. 36 team and JJ Yeley.  I didn’t mean to get into them like that at all.  I just grabbed the brakes and locked them down in the rear, couldn’t steer out of it.  Luckily we had saved enough car where we could work on it, get some track position.  Steve (Addington, crew chief) made some great calls on track position and can’t say enough about them guys.  They did a great job.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS – SIDELINED WITH RIGHT-FRONT TIRE ISSUE ON LAP 135 – FINISHED 36TH:

ALL THE FANS WERE ON THEIR FEET AS YOU LED THIS RACE, AND THEN YOU WERE IN THE WALL AND BACK IN THE GARAGE:

“It’s just the tire; we’ve had a lot of problems with. I think this is the same tire we struggled with the last race. But, I don’t know, you know. It’s just kind of frustrating. It’s just bad luck. If we keep running like we’re supposed to run and like we’ve been running, we’ll get on into the Chase and not have to worry about it. But this bad luck, we need to shake that. We just can’t keep having this every week. It’s been biting us every week. So we’ll just have to see what happens.”

YOU ARE SEVENTH IN POINTS RIGHT NOW. LOOKING AT THE WAY YOU GUYS CAN RUN AND LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE WITH THREE RACES TO GO BEFORE THE CUTOFF, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CHASE?

“There are guys in worst positions than us. We ain’t got to outrun just one guy; there’s a lot of guys. And all of them have got to have clean races, just like we do. I think we’ll be all right. We’re not an 11th place team. We’re a Top 5 team. We’re consistent. We’re more consistent than most. We’ve just got to shake this luck, whatever is going on; it’s something different every time. We’ve got good speed and we’ve just got to keep our head up and keep working hard and things will be all right.”

YOU ARE NOW 20 POINTS INSIDE THE TOP 10 IS THAT A CONCERN FOR YOU OR DO YOU STILL FEEL SOME WHAT COMFORTABLE?
“I feel pretty good.  I’ve been in tighter situations.  I think if we just run as good as we can we will be fine.  We are not an 11th place team.  If we just run as good as we can we should be alright.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING OR DID THE TIRE JUST BLOW?
“Yeah, it was down on the splitter getting into the corner.  I got it slowed down pretty good and then started getting close to the wall and put a little brake in it and it blew the tire out.  It had a slow leak and I don’t know.  We have had a lot of problems with this particular tire and it’s getting frustrating.”

IS THE FACT THAT YOU ARE EVEN IN THIS SITUATION, YOU’VE HAD SUCH A GOOD SEASON THAT YOU WOULDN’T EVEN THINK THAT YOU WOULD HAVE HAD TO WORRY ABOUT RICHMOND IS IT DISAPPOINTING EVEN TO BE IN THIS POSITION?
“No not really.  It’s a competitive sport and we’ve got some good teams behind us.  We are not sitting here with everybody in the distance.  It’s just a little closer than we would like it to be, but it’s still 20 points is 20 points.  That is half a race a little more than that so we got three to go we should be alright.  If we keep having bad luck we can’t do nothing about that.”

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