NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FORD ECOBOOST 400
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 14, 2014
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
“We had a great Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet but the bottom just wasn’t the perfect place for us to run. I could feel the tires going away and then we needed to move up. So when we saw some of those guys running fast laps a little bit higher up, I was looking forward to making that last lap. The guys made some great adjustments. We unfortunately had a tire going down on the left front, so I don’t know if that helped us or hurt us, but it was pretty nice to get that pole. That’s awesome.”
WHICH LANE WORKED THE BEST IN THE FINAL SEGMENT?
“Certainly the top lane worked in the final segment. What we see with this tire, with this track, with this car is that you can run around the bottom for a lap or two when the tires have good grip in them, but you’ve got to move up the race track and I almost made a mistake in the second round by not moving up top and we got knocked back to seventh. But that run I was fully committed to it and it stuck really good.
“And that’s 200 poles for Hendrick Motorsports. That’s amazing. And it’s great to be able to do that for them.”
IS THIS A STATEMENT RACE FOR YOUR TEAM?
“Yes and no. I don’t think that is how we are approaching this weekend or looking at this weekend. I’m really excited about that pole with our Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. I don’t know if I’ve ever been on the pole here before, and to be the 200th pole for Hendrick Motorsports is really cool. I think the way we are looking at this weekend is we want to close out the season the absolute best we can. It has been a tremendous season. The No. 24 team has been incredible this year. We are disappointed that we aren’t in this thing for the championship, but that’s not going to stop us from trying to go out to win the pole and win the race.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“It was great to get a read off of Tony Gibson (crew chief) and all of the guys on this No. 41 Haas Automation Chevy. That was our third attempt together and almost got the pole. We have got a really good read on one another. Now it’s those little things within the car that you try to find and squeak out of it and Jeff Gordon laid down a really great lap to beat my lap. I felt like I got everything I could out of it and really happy with that effort.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO WORK ON FOR SUNDAY?
“Well, I think just drivability. This is going to be a race that you are going to go through some changing conditions. Today was really about trying to get a solid starting spot. And we were able to do that with my Budweiser team. Just really proud of my guys. We had a really good day today. Just got to keep doing what we have to do and see where it all falls on Sunday.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 21ST
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“We were just a little bit tight getting in (to the corner) mostly. A buddy of mine once said it isn’t where you start, it is where you stop. We have got half of them beat to start; we’ll keep digging with the Caterpillar Chevrolet. We just struggled there a little bit. My first run was pretty good. The on the re-fires we weren’t where we needed to be. The second run wasn’t what we needed it to be. Our first run was where we were in practice. In the second run, we just weren’t where we needed to be. We missed it just a little bit on the balance. Then after than the tires fall off so much that your next run is just a hope and a prayer. It’s not where we want to be, but we do better fighting back.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 27TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“The car handled fine. I thought our car was pretty good in race trim. We did quite a few laps in race trim and it didn’t fall of that much. We’ll be okay. We just have a lot of work to do on pit road now.”
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