NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE NOTES
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Winner
WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT YOUR TEAM?
“It says a lot of good things. I’m just so excited that the guys could understand. We have new guys. So, this new team could understand what I was complaining about and things I didn’t like about my race car. We thought we were a top 10 car last night. And I’m sorry to tell you earlier today that we weren’t going to be that good, because we certainly were. We had some troubles on pit road. Once we kind of got through and I got by the No. 19 (Carl Edwards), which allowed us to keep track position and we didn’t get tripped-up on our pit stops. This thing was just bad fast. I had a blast racing with the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick). He was awfully strong today. I think track position there at the end just kind of set things in place. We had the restart we needed to and cleared the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and off we went.”
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY: “We had a great race car, and unfortunately the way qualifying went yesterday, we didn’t have a didn’t have a good pit stall pick and it took us a long time to get in front of the No. 19 (Carl Edwards). Once we did that we were able to utilize our awesome pit crew; get the stops done and race for the win and get the job done today. Just very, very thankful. They surprised me today. We weren’t that good yesterday and they really dug deep and figured out what I needed in this race car and gave me an awesome Lowe’s Chevrolet.”
YOU ARE THE ONLY DRIVER WHO HAS NEVER MISSED THE CHASE. 2ND RACE OF THE YEAR AND YOU ARE IN: “I think it is pretty much a lock as long as we have a smooth season. I think if we win a second one, it is definitely a lock. But this takes a ton of pressure off. I want to give a big shout-out to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports especially the 48/88 shop-we had such a strong run today. I noticed a lot of people going nuts today.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – Finished 2nd:
IN THAT SECOND HALF OF THE RACE, DID YOU JUST LOSE THE BALANCE A LITTLE BIT?
“No, I had one bad restart there where I spun the tires on the outside and we just never recovered from that one and then we got behind the No. 55 (Brett Moffitt) when he was kind of shooting for the moon there to go on the restart and he just didn’t go. And then we got passed again. But all in all, it was a great day. I’ve got to thank everybody on this car for everything they do.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd
“It was frustrating Thursday. The car wasn’t doing what we wanted. We improved and got better and better. I thought we might be able to keep up with Jimmie (Johnson, race winner). I don’t know if we could have been able to make a run on him. But we ran over something on the race track and knocked the whole grill out of it and it plowed after that and the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) got to us. We had a great car, though. The Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet was good. We qualified well. We haven’t been good here in a long, long time. Several years, so (crew chief) Greg (Ives) and the guys worked really hard. The communication is great and he’s actually a pretty good cheerleader to be honest with you. Who knew? I think he’s going to be awesome to work with and he’s got a hell of a future and I’m glad to be able to have a few years with him here while he’s sort of learning the ropes. I’ve got an awesome team. The guys were great on pit road. We’ve got a lot of new guys on the over the wall crew and they did an awesome job. They were steady and consistent and gained a few spots here and there. It was a great day. I’m just really happy to run good here. I love this race track. I just haven’t run that good here in a long time, so it feels good to run well. Congratulations to Jimmie and Lowe’s and the whole 48/88 shop. I’m proud of how these cars run.”
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