CHEVY NSCS AT RICHMOND TWO: EIGHT CHEVROLET DRIVERS MAKE CHASE

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 6, 2014

JEFF GORDON PUTS CHEVROLET SS IN RUNNER-UP POSITION AT RICHMOND
EIGHT TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS EARN SPOTS IN CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP

RICHMOND, Va. – (Sept. 6, 2014) – Jeff Gordon powered his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS to a second-place finish in the 400-lap Federated Auto Parts 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway, the final round of the regular 26-race season. This was Gordon’s 28^th top-10 finish in 44 races at Richmond International Raceway and his 17^th top-10 finish in 2014.

Jamie McMurray, brought his No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet SS home in fourth place, and Kevin Harvick, was fifth in his No. 4 Budweiser Chevy SS to give Team Chevy three of the top five finishing positions.

The race marked the end of the regular NASCAR Sprint Cup season and the upcoming launch of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, which will feature a field of 16 drivers who have earned a berth in the 10-race run for the championship.

It was the final opportunity for Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS to capture a spot in the line-up. The consistency shown by Newman and his team this year paid off with a ninth place finish and a chance to vie for the 2014 title.

“It is great that Ryan Newman and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS team clinched a spot in the Chase,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “We’re proud to have eight Chevrolet teams competing for the championship, and we’re looking forward to the next 10 races.”

Other Team Chevy Chase contenders in addition to Newman are: Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Insurance SS, Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet SS,Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS, Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Bush’s Beans Chevrolet SS.

Rounding out the top five in the finishing order of the Federated Auto Parts 400 were race winner Brad Keselowski (Ford), and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) in third.

The next event on the tour, the first in the 10-race run for the title, will be September 14 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL.

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12^TH

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5^TH

KERRY THARP: Jeff Gordon has joined us. Jeff was tonight’s race runner‑up. He is also the number two seed in the 2014 Chase grid.

Jeff, just talk about your run out there tonight. Certainly another strong performance by the 24 team. Maybe just your thoughts about being seeded second as we embark on the challenger round next week at Chicago.

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, it was a solid night. We really struggled in practice yesterday and we had some concerns. I thought that Alan again just showed what a great crew chief he is by working with his engineers. We go into our debrief with our teammates, share a lot of information. I think the information we gathered, as well as just the communication, we really made our car better.

I think also tonight, you don’t think of Richmond as a track‑position type of race, but as little grip that was in this tire, it seemed like aerodynamics did play a big role. So I was happy we started up front. We were able to stay up front all night. Didn’t have to come up through traffic.

We were good. We just weren’t quite as good as Brad on the short runs. He could really get away from me and stretch it out, then we could pull him back in. We just didn’t have enough laps.

We were closing. Sliding around. Didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, but we were catching him. That’s all that matters.

So another solid effort. Proud of the team. We’re excited to get this thing started. This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time, and it’s because of this race team and the racecars we’ve had.

KERRY THARP: Joining us also us is Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Dale is seeded third heading into the challenger round next week at Chicagoland.

Dale, I heard you out there on pit road talking about now it’s time to get back down to business. But talk about your feelings now as you embark on the Chase.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Well, we’ve been sort of on a vacation for 20 weeks. It’s time to get to it. I’m kind of looking forward to sitting down with Steve, our engineers, getting in the office, sort of listening to how we want to prepare, what our goals are, what their vision is, just for the individual race, the first race, Chicago.

We’ll get some of that stuff done on Tuesday. Just kind of anxious. Steve has some great ideas. Really believe in his direction. We got a great team around us, some awesome engineers. So I’m looking forward to really getting down there in the office with those guys, sort of preparing for what we have in front of us.

But it’s been a fun season, like Jeff said. I’ve had a blast this year. Our company has been doing so many great things. It’s been obviously a lot of fun to be able to drive such good racecars, work with such great people.

Hopefully we can put our best foot forward in the Chase and be one of those teams in the battle going into Homestead. But as a company, I don’t think we could be any more prepared than we are.

KERRY THARP: We’ll take a couple questions for Jeff or Dale.

Is it you guys and the 4 car and the two Penske cars?

JEFF GORDON: Everybody is in it.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I don’t think you could guess who them four guys are going to be. With the way the structure is, the elimination, you know, everybody’s got an equal shot.

So I don’t think there’s any favorites. I know there’s some strong teams obviously that are running really good right now. With the way this thing is structured, it’s sort of structured to balance the playing field a little more and really give everybody a little bit more guesswork on who these guys are going to be that get eliminated and who are the guys that are going to keep moving forward. It’s going to be tough. You’re going to have to put together some damn good races.

They just showed Jimmie Johnson being taken away with dehydration. What causes that? Long green runs? Do you have any idea?

JEFF GORDON: I’m not really sure. I just saw that. I know there’s a couple times throughout the race when I felt like I was kind of cramping a little bit, as well.

It was hot out there. We were losing a lot of fluids. They were long green‑flag runs. It was hard to keep your fluids going.

I know I run a system that I can drink in the car. On these short tracks…

I’m assuming, if that’s what it is, dehydration, probably just somehow wasn’t able to get the fluids in him throughout the race.

Jeff, you’ve been a champion four times. This 10‑race run, do you think this will be the most intense run you’ve ever had to make to win a championship?

JEFF GORDON: I believe so. You know, just the structure of the points, how it pays winning, how competitive the top teams are right now, how it’s going to come down to just four, then those four going to battle at Homestead.

If you make it to Homestead, you’ve really had to be on top of your game and have things go your way at the right times.

I believe, no matter what the structure is, I still believe the best team wins. I’ve always believed that and I still believe that. If it’s meant to be because you’ve prepared and you have the strong cars, the best team, I think you’re going to make it to Homestead and you’re going to win the championship.

But it’s going to be intense. Oh, yeah, it’s going to be really, really intense. I think you actually have to try to balance out that intensity to try to make it not too intense for yourself.

Certainly the first two rounds, everybody has this focus on you got to win, you got to win. That’s not true. You got to be solid. It would be nice to win. We’re going to be going out there to win. You still don’t want to have a big problem. In the past, the problem has taken you completely out of it and it still can in this format.

Put solid races together, you’re going to move forward. Each segment you go into, the challenger round, all that, if you can make it to that third round, you’re going to have to really start stepping up at that point and maybe pushing a little bit harder because competition’s only going to get tougher.

KERRY THARP: Jeff and Dale, thank you very much. Congratulations on making the Chase. We look forward to seeing you at Chicago.

We’re going to hear from Kevin Harvick. He is our sixth seed on the Chase grid as we head into the challenger round in Chicago.

You certainly gave it a lot tonight. Talk about now, as you focus your attention on getting that first championship and going through these elimination rounds, what your mindset is going to be.

KEVIN HARVICK: Well, you just have to survive, first off. Obviously every three weeks, it resets. You get to start over, start the fight again.

You know, you just have to survive first off. I feel like you need to be consistent, but you need to capitalize on winning races because that guarantees you a trip to the next round.

There’s lots of different ways to do it. You can’t force it. You just have to go out and do the things that you have to do to race every week and try to qualify well, lead laps, run up front. And when you have a chance to win you need to capitalize on it and try to figure it out.

Kevin, what do you have to do to fix these problems you’re having on pit road?

KEVIN HARVICK: I can’t fix them, but it’s probably the biggest thing that we have to fix in order to contend for the championship. I think our cars are as fast as they need to be. The guys do a great job of bringing fast cars every week. It’s just one mistake after another every week on pit road.

Hopefully they have a plan as to what they think they need to do in the shop with the two teams in the Chase, but that’s not my department.

We know that Homestead will be very critical to four drivers. What about Chicagoland? Where will Chicagoland rank in hoping you have the best performance possible there?

KEVIN HARVICK: I’m like him. Obviously there’s a lot of cars in the first round. You just need three decent races and you’ll be fine. For us, we kind of took the approach to take a Chicago test and try to have that carry through the mile‑and‑a‑half stuff as we went there. Hopefully that carries over.

But, yeah, it’s definitely not near as important as Homestead if you’re going to win.

Kevin, after the last caution flag, were there any technicalities that allowed the distance, the gap kept opening up after that? You fell back about eight seconds. Was it just traffic?

KEVIN HARVICK: My car was slower than the leader (smiling). I don’t know. He was faster. I got further behind.

Did you see the guy on the fence?

KEVIN HARVICK: Those Virginia folks.

KEVIN HARVICK: It used to be okay. I remember the first race I won, the whole backstretch grandstand was hanging on the fence. They never threw a caution then.

KERRY THARP: Kevin, congratulations on making the Chase grid and we’ll see you in Chicagoland.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH

Luke Lambert making his first Chase appearance, so we’ll looking forward to seeing what you have. What do you have for the Chase?

RYAN NEWMAN: We’ve shown a lot of consistency and I think that can pay off at times with the exception of Homestead, so if we make it that far, we’ll hopefully have some improvements and a little bit of everything. The guys are doing a good job of having better pit stops. ECR is doing a much better job on the engine side. Everybody has stepped up, and it’s time to step up even more now. I’d like to thank Caterpillar, Quicken Loans, Wix Filters and Kwikset, Chevrolet, Sprint, everybody for this opportunity, Richard Childress for giving me this opportunity to drive this race car and we’ll go see if we can make the best of it. Luke has done a great job. All these guys have done a great job, and again, as I’ve said before, this will be some of our first time going back to the racetrack for the second time, and that can mean some good news for us.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND

How confident are you that this is the year it’s going to happen?

JEFF GORDON: Well, I’m very confident because we’ve got such a great race team. I’m so proud of Alan and all of our engineers and everybody on this 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet team. Tonight was another one of those efforts, I didn’t feel like we had a car that could compete with Brad at certain portions of the night, but we just never gave up on it, great pit stops, great adjustments, and there at the end we were closing on him. It wasn’t a win, but still great momentum to carry into the Chase. This team is on fire, and we just can’t wait to get it all started. It’s been a heck of a year. Our fans and the way that they’ve embraced this season has been extremely motivating, and I know how proud they are, and we’re proud of the effort and the results that we’re getting this year.

Ten more weeks that we’ve got to get it done, and this team is ready to do that.

You say it takes teamwork to win a championship. You and Alan have gotten close this year in terms of everything you’ve been able to do together. Is that the key for you guys the next 10 races?

JEFF GORDON: You know, sometimes it takes time for you to really build your chemistry, and I’ve always enjoyed Alan as a person and as a crew chief, and we have clicked. I felt like right from the beginning. But I don’t know if we’ve really ever had the chemistry or been in sync like we are right now. The communication is really solid. I believe 100 percent in him, he believes 100 percent in me, and that’s just trickling down through the whole team. That’s why we can go through a tough practice like we did yesterday and rebound and come back and have a solid night. We can go through blowing that front tire like we had last weekend in Atlanta and get back on the lead lap. This is the team I want to go to battle with for the next 10 weeks, and it’s because of how in sync and the chemistry that we have. It’s a team that really believes in one another, and you can’t ask for more than that. Well, fast race cars, and we have that, too.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12^TH:

Based on your run tonight how do you feel about the strength of your race team right now?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Man, I wouldn’t want to base it on tonight’s running. I was pretty disappointed. Man, we ran hard, just sitting there behind these guys in front of me with 20 laps to go, and they were junk, fighting over 11th spot, and it was frustrating not to be able to get up there and do anything with them. We were off, too. Just couldn’t get any power down. I don’t think it’s reflective of how strong our team is. I think we are a real good team going into Chicago, a completely different racetrack. Got a lot of confidence. We’re going to spend this whole week in meetings with engineers and crew chiefs and everything and try to prepare as good as we can and try to get our minds right and ready for this Chase. It’s going to be a completely different atmosphere than what we’ve done in the regular season. We’ve been locked in and really on a holiday for 20 weeks or so since we’ve been locked in, so it’s time to get serious and get down to business, and we’ve got to get our heads straight and get ready.

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5^TH:

People are saying that if there’s going to be a team, maybe a driver to unseat the Hendrick guys this year, it could be you. How strong do you think this team could be as the Chase begins?

KEVIN HARVICK: I think we definitely have the race cars to do it. We still have some hiccups on pit road that aren’t very good at this point of the year that you have to address in order to beat those guys week in and week out. I don’t know what our plans are for that as we move into the next 10 weeks, but our race cars are as fast as they need to be, and everybody is doing a great job and bringing fast cars to the racetrack. If it all comes together, I feel like we can do what we have to do on the racetrack to win a championship, and I know those guys can do it on pit road, but we have to be more consistent to make that happen.

We’ll see, just got to thank everybody from Jimmy John’s and Budweiser and Outback and everybody who makes it possible to put this race car on the racetrack and really everybody at SHR for building a brand new team this year and making it possible to do what we need to do to even talk about racing for a championship. We’re excited and looking forward to 10 weeks.

How do you fix the problem you’re talking about on pit road? What would you do?

KEVIN HARVICK: Well, you know, you’ve got to have faster pit stops. I don’t really know where that problem lies. I know we have a lot of people that work on those things in the shop, and I know the guys building the race cars and everybody at the racetrack is doing what they have to do, and they’ve got to figure it out.

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 23^RD:

One of the underdogs of the Chase, AJ Allmendinger, I know it was a tough night but you have to get excited to look back at your win. What are your expectations looking forward to the Chase?

AJ ALLMENDINGER: We’re just, right now, it’s the nature of our race team. We’re trying to take big steps, but at times you take one step back and you take two steps forward. Our last two weeks have been a little bit difficult, but at the same point we kind of knew they were going to be, just the mere fact that we don’t have many cars in the race shop, so we had to get our three best bullets ready for the first three races in the Chase. Tough night tonight, but Watkins Glen is a great memory, and I feel like if we’re at our best, we have a shot at getting through the first three races and having a shot to move on. We did a test at Charlotte, RCR has helped us get a new car ready for next week, so we’ve got to be ready to go. We’re at least in it, so we’ve got a shot at it.

KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7^TH:

Looking forward to the Chase, what are your expectations?

KURT BUSCH: We wanted to run tonight like we were running in the Chase. What I mean by that is the chaos of win and get in, we’re going to have that a lot throughout the Chase this year, but yet consistency is still going to play a key role. We ran our own race tonight, finished 7th. If you can finish 7th the first three weeks of the Chase you’re going to advance. I think you can do that again in the next round of the Chase. Tonight was a nice feel for us to run our own race, and our team has developed over the year. We won a race earlier this year at Martinsville, and it surprised us all, to make that happen because the team was not ready, honestly. I’m glad we had the summer months to run through, and once we got to the first Pocono, it seemed like we were rolling after that, great, strong top 5s. I wrecked the car at Michigan going for the win a few weeks back, but if we would’ve run that race out, finished top 5, that would’ve been four top 5s in a row. That’s what it takes to be a championship‑contending team, and this Haas Automation team is ready. We’re ready. We have a nice 10 weeks ahead of us where we’ve prepared for it. We’ve built better cars. We’ve tested Chicago, we’ve tested Loudon, going to test Miami, we’re going to test Charlotte. We’ve got a great teammate with Kevin Harvick to lean on, so congratulations to Stewart‑Haas for putting two cars in the Chase, thanks to Chevrolet and Monster Energy, Mobil 1, Rush Truck Centers, it has been a great ride and most of all, thanks to Gene Haas for believing in me, and we’re here, we’re a Chase contender. It’s my job to get the car championship eligible, and here we are, so let’s go for it.

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMER’S INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17^TH:

Kasey, a lot of those Chase races are on mile‑and‑a‑half racetracks. That’s right in your wheelhouse. Feel pretty good about your chances coming up?

KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, I felt really good last week at Atlanta, especially at the end of that race, and look forward to Chicago next week. It’ll be a great track for us to get started. Tonight wasn’t what we wanted, but it was tough just with the tire combination. I feel like it made the aero so bad, so it made it pretty difficult to do anything except in open track you could make ground but not pass a car.

But yeah, hopefully some of these other tracks will be better for us, and we’ll be able to compete.

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