NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BRICKYARD 400
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 26, 2014
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT AND SETTING A NEW TRACK RECORD:
“After the first lap I was probably more nervous than I have been in a while for qualifying. I wasn’t really expecting to have the car run that fast. From there they are all looking at you ‘alright if you screw this up it’s on you buddy’. It’s great to have fast cars they do a great job preparing the cars and just being able to come to the race track and know the cars are going to be fast takes a huge burden off of everybody’s shoulders just to get the balance right. It’s been a unique few hours of practice with the race track being green this morning. We concentrated on qualifying and felt our race stuff was in the ball park yesterday and still kind of up in the air, but we made a lot of good decisions today to get the car right and hopefully tonight we can talk through it and see where this Nationwide Race goes and go from there. It’s been an interesting weekend so far, but everybody has done a good job in scrambling to get the balance right.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
“First it starts with the preparation of an awesome race car. That is what we have this weekend. We didn’t have anything for Kevin (Harvick) today, but what an incredible Axalta Chevy SS that we have this weekend. I’m excited about that first and foremost. With that rain shortened practice we had a slight so we had to do some things and run through it. To have that off of a day and be back this close, I got a little bit tight off to Turn 4 or we would have been a little bit closer to Kevin, but I’m still really proud of this effort. Qualifying second, qualifying is so huge here. To be on that front row and 20 years after that first Brickyard 400 I get excited about that.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT AND IF HE CAN WIN THIS WEEKEND:
“You don’t know until we get going. We had an awesome day today the guys on the Mobil 1 team did a great job. Kevin with his team and all three of us had good runs. Danica had a good run too she just missed it by a little bit to get in that final round. The entire Stewart-Haas organization did a good job. This is a big motor track so the Hendrick engines did a good job.”
THREE STEWART-HAAS RACING CARS IN THE TOP 12 TODAY:
“Yeah it doesn’t surprise me. Kurt (Busch) with all the laps he got in here I knew he would be good here. Kevin has been good all year so not a surprise.”
DOES IT CHANGE A LOT FROM GROUP 1 TO 2 TO 3?
“Just the cloud cover I think the track just kept cooling off, but every lap that you run it’s harder on the tires and they are not as good as they were the time before. They fact that we were able to just kept picking up speed was pretty good of how much the track cooled down.”
STRATEGY IN QUALIFYING:
“Knowing when to go and you know what the time intervals are so you know how much time you have to cool the tires and the motors are. It’s not really cat and mouse with each other as much as it is going when you know it’s the optimum time. If you are a mid-pack car you try to pull out things to try to get you to the next round maybe that you wouldn’t do if you are a car that is capable of running for the pole.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7TH
“That was a thrilling experience to have to make three runs at Indianapolis in a stock car. All be it one lap at a time it’s pretty nerve racking with a car that drops off pace so much with the tires compared to an Indianapolis 500 run you are out there to do 4 laps at a time and this year was the first year for that knew knockout qualifying and you had to go out and repeat. Indianapolis is getting to be one of the toughest places to qualify. It’s a thrilling experience to be a part of it. We made the final group into that top 12 and we made some good changes we made big changes going into that last run almost like an all or nothing. Came home seventh and real proud of the effort of the Haas Automation guys it was fun to be in that final group with the fast guys.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 11TH
“We had a solid day, but in that last session, you could just tell in the first corner that it just wouldn’t turn in the center like I needed it to. It is the first time we went three laps on qualifying tires. We didn’t have much time to practice this morning to work on that kind of stuff. But I’m sure we definitely learned a lot in today’s qualifying session. Decent performance. Of course we want to be better, and I can see the front from there. We were late getting in (the technical inspection) line due to the condensed schedule. Then along with 11 other cars, we had an issue with the skew. We were the last car in that group, so it made us look…No big deal especially with the first segment being as long as it is.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15TH
NOT QUITE WHAT YOU WANTED IN YOUR FIRST QUALIFYING HERE AT INDY IN THE SPRINT CUP SERIES:
“Disappointing because I thought we were pretty good and we weren’t as good as I thought we were obviously. I think we have a good race car so we just need to make the right adjustments overnight. This place is really aero-dependent so it’s going to be a long race through traffic. So we will make some adjustments and we’ll be good.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 22ND
“This morning we went out and practice perfect. The car ran some good laps. When we ran on the track like we have now, we are just not as fast as we were he car slowed down. It is just real tight, and slows down. I haven’t been real happy here all weekend. Qualifying has been a real problem here lately, especially the last couple of months for us. Just frustrated. We have to run better than this. We have to figure out what’s going on. I’m just really frustrated. The car is not turning. Some of the characteristics the car has during qualifying, it has during the race. I feel like we aren’t going to be good in traffic. The car doesn’t turn off in the corner very good. Hell, it’s doing it by itself. When I get behind people, I have real trouble trying to get up alongside people. With these big spoilers on them, you have to be able to get turned in the corner behind people. Otherwise we get stuck behind people. Everybody is going to fight this tomorrow. I just feel like we are in a bit of a situation where it is going to hurt us a little worse. Our car is just not very good balance wise. I like this track. I’d like to run good here, and the guys are working hard. The car is just not been very responsive.
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MOEN/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 29TH
“We didn’t do any qualifying runs in practice. But we thought our car was pretty good, but I got impatient and we had to go early with the track kind of heating up like it is. I thought we were going to be okay, but I got in a little traffic. The No. 66 was going a little slow; caught him and killed our lap. We spent a lot of time in race trim during practice today. I think our Moen/Menards Chevy will be a lot better for the race tomorrow. But I’m glad we did that. We are going to start 29th. I think we could have qualified better if we hadn’t had traffic. I am definitely looking forward to the race.”
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