NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
OCTOBER 4, 2013
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER:
HOW WAS THE QUALIFYING LAP?: “Everybody on our Budweiser team has done a good job. We made a couple really good runs in practice and a couple of a little sketchy runs in practice, but we knew the conditions would be cooler so we put the car back how we started practice and hoped that the race track came our way. Hopefully, that gets us a good starting spot and we can go from there.”
HOW MUCH DOES THE WEATHER IMPACT THE SETUP AND RACE?: “We don’t really know because this is a new generation tire for us and has kind of thrown us all for a little bit of a curve ball as to what we need in the car and what we’re feeling and how we’re feeling it. I think we have to just kind of wait and see what we get in practice tomorrow and then work from there.”
WHAT PART OF THE LAP WAS SKETCHY?: “Just getting off into turn three has been a little bit sketchy for us. We had two laps where we made it through there in practice and in qualifying. Knew I had got through turn one and two pretty good and just wanted to get through turn three to turn four. Still didn’t get through there very good, but I guess it was okay for now.”
WHAT DOES THIS POLE MEAN TO YOU?: “It’s been forever, I think 2006. Just proud of my Budweiser Chevrolet guys for obviously putting a fast car underneath me and being able to put it all together for our qualifying lap. I think the most exciting thing is just the first pit stall. We know this race is going to have a lot of pit strategy and being able to have that down there is definitely going to be worth qualifying first.”
CAN YOU CONTINUE CLIMBING IN THE CHASE WITH THIS TYPE OF STARTING SPOT?: “We have to have a good day tomorrow, obviously the weather is going to change and make some good decisions tomorrow night. The car obviously has speed and now we have to make the right decisions to put it together for 400 miles.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 14TH
HOW WAS IT OUT THERE?
“It wasn’t bad. I just hate that our Axalta Chevrolet and (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) and the guys did some good adjustments because I think the track conditions were better earlier in practice. And we made some good adjustments to get the car to do what I needed to do. I really got through Turns 1 and 2 good. I didn’t think I got through (Turns) 3 and 4 that well, so there’s certainly some room for improvement. And we’ll just wait and see. We went too early to really know what we’ve got. I’m just happy that we picked up from where we were in practice. For these conditions, that’s a good thing.
“It was a pretty good lap. Going out second, we knew that was going to put us a little bit behind. You just don’t know what the grip level is after the Nationwide practice. But I thought we made some good adjustments from practice. Our Axalta Chevrolet has been really strong and we gave it everything we’ve got. We picked up a little bit after practice, which is always a good thing. We’ll see where it ends up.”
IS DALE JARRETT RIGHT WHEN HE SAYS THIS WILL BE A GOOD WEEKEND FOR JEFF GORDON?: “I certainly hope so. DJ (Dale Jarrett) is usually on it so I hope that I can back up what he said and make him look good.”
YOU’VE HAD SOME FAST RACE CARS, THAT’S FOR SURE
“We have; and so far this weekend based on yesterday and today, we’ve got another fast race car. So, I’m really proud of this team and how they’ve stepped up at the right time here and just bringing great race cars. We’ve been having a lot of fun out there on race day and hope to have a lot of fun here on Sunday.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD:
ON HIS LAP
“That was really good and to pick-up that much with a hotter track and more rubber on it, I feel pretty good about that. You always think that you left a little out there.”
WHAT HAPPENED DURING PRACTICE?
“I just showed up ready to go this morning and my first lap I got loose off of (Turn) 4. I was just trying real hard to get a good qualifying lap out there and spun and luckily kept it off the wall. And then later in the session, we had issue with an oil cooler and radiator in the front of the car that created the smoke. Hopefully we got all of our bad luck out of the way for the weekend and we have good sailing from here.”
WHEN SMOKE COMES OUT OF THE CAR AND YOU ARE SIDEWAYS IN TURN 4, THAT’S GOT TO GET YOUR ATTENTION
“Yeah, both had my blood pressure up; especially the one where I was at fault. You don’t want to hit the wall. That one really had me concerned, but I kept it off the fence.”
WHAT ARE THE TRACK CONDITIONS LIKE?: “The wind blowing like it is, it makes you feel really comfortable and confident in turns one and two and that wind is to your back going into three and makes it interesting getting into three and then you have to turn through that wind and the wind sits on the door on the left side of the car and it really prevents it from rotating as hard as you want.
“It’s an interesting entry to three and transitioning into turn four, but my car drove great through there. We picked up a lot of speed from practice so I’m really encouraged with that. Wish that we were still on top, but I still think that’s going to be a really good qualifying effort.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6TH:
HOW WAS THE CAR ON THE QUALIFYING LAP?: “I felt like I had a pretty good corner in turns three and four. But I messed up and I think the car could have gone through there better. Just got in there too deep or something and had to stop the car. I don’t really know how our lap is going to turn out, but we did the best we could. We have a good piece for Sunday so we’ll work on it tomorrow.”
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