NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 1, 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 yesterdayand 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. SECOND 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.”
JUST SEEMED TO GET BETTER AS THE RACE WENT ON:
“Jimmie ran great today. It was a lot of fun racing with him. It was a good race there as we got to the middle part of the race. I just got behind on one restart there. Then I got stuck behind the No. 55 (Brett Moffitt) on the restart when I stayed out. Then never really made it back up through there. All-in-all it was a good day for our Jimmy John’s/Budweiser team and we’ll go to the next one.”
ON THE FINAL RESTART IT LOOKED LIKE YOU MIGHT HAVE A SHOT AT HIM:
“Jimmie just had the clean air there and was able to get going on the restart there. I struggled on the restarts all day under caution there my car was really loose and then under green my car was really tight. So I never knew what you were going to get. But all-in-all it was a good day and I had a lot of fun out there.
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 KELLEY BLUE BOOK 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.”
YOU WEREN’T ABLE TO MISS A BIG PIECE OF TAPE THAT WAS ON THE TRACK LATE IN THE RACE:
“It knocked the whole grill out of the car. Just destroyed the aerodynamics of the car and it cost me a spot to the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick). But I have got to tell you that my guys did a great job on pit road. They were fast all day on pit road – real consistent. We have got some new guys over the wall. Greg Ives (crew chief) did a good job setting up the Kelly Blue Book Chevrolet. We struggled a little bit Thursday but we got better and better each day. Our communication is really, really good. He is doing a great job cheerleading this whole team. I am real proud of the effort the whole crew did, man. To start off like this and get some traction and have a couple of good runs is giving us some confidence and it is helping Greg out a ton.”
WHAT ABOUT THE NEW RULES PACKAGE?
“This car is the same ole car, man. They didn’t….the rules changed a little bit, but they drive the same and actually qualified faster than we did last year. These things…it is a good race car. The rules aren’t going to be that big of a deal.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR. NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
GREAT WAY TO START OFF THE SEASON:
“Yeah it was good, another good weekend. That is two for two on good weekends. I just really wanted a top-five there. I just wasn’t really quite as good as those guys on the short run. And in dirty air I needed a little bit longer runs and to be able to kind of pick and choose my lanes where I needed to be. All in all what can I say? All the guys at Furniture Row are doing a great job. This beats where we were last year by about 35 spots at this time of the year. Excited about what everybody is doing and really pumped up to get the rest of the year going.”
FIRST RACE WITH THE ADJUSTABLE TRACK BAR WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT NEW TOOL?
“I thought it was great. I used it all day. I thought it was something neat to play with. We made a decision last night to drop ours a little bit for the start of the race. Had we not had that adjustment we would have been in big trouble. It helped us a lot today just having that. We were up and down, back and forth with it. It depended on what we were doing with tires and stuff. I thought it was a great little tool. It wasn’t like you were going to go from a 10th-place car to winning the race with it. But it was something there that you could tune on to make your car more comfortable on shorter and longer runs.”
ON HIS RACE:
“It was a good day for us. Really proud of everybody at Furniture Row back in Denver and here at the race track. Good run. We definitely needed that to start off the year. It felt good. Really good car on the long runs and every restart it just seemed like we kept getting in the wrong lane. We had guys wrecking in front of us and getting loose in front of us and spinning their tires. We had to pass a lot of cars all day. It seemed like it was the same guys all day long. In the end we ended up in a good position. it was a good run for us. Hopefully we can continue to build on the momentum and build on this team and keep getting better.”
DOES THIS BODE WELL FOR THIS TEAM?
“I think it does. I think we have a good group of guys working really hard. We had a good plan going into the off-season of knowing what we had to do to turn the program around. Hats off to Cole Pearn and Joe Garone and everybody that been pushing all the buttons and making the right decision over the winter, It is fun to drive race cars that are fast and be running good again.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BETTER THAN BOUILLON CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
HOW IS THIS NEW PACKAGE? IS IT RACY?
“It’s racy for sure. You have to keep the momentum up. A place like this if you get loose and stuff it kills you. There is a lot to learn for me.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THAT YOU CAN TAKE TO LAS VEGAS NEXT WEEK?
“There were a couple of things. We will take more of the Goodyear tire test when we went there and learn from that. This place is a lot different than Vegas. Just momentum that is the big key.”
GREAT TOP 10 FOR YOU GUYS TODAY TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“Solid, seventh is probably just a tick better than we deserved. I thought we were a 10th – 13th place car. Just fought a little bit too loose all day, but we were on the lead lap. The guys did a great job. My pit crew, Michael Klein, the jack man that leads this pit crew, he really got on these guys last year. The pit stops were awesome. To be able to come to Atlanta, which is the home of south eastern mills and have Better Than Bouillon on the car, Kingsford, Clorox, Scotts Products, Hungry Jack, all the sponsors that we have, Shore Lunch, Bush’s Baked Beans for sure. To be able to get a top 10 this early it’s pretty good.”
TALK ABOUT HAVING THE NEW ADJUSTABLE TRACK BAR TOOL:
“It was awesome. My crew chief Brian Burns says I’m not smart enough to have one in there right now. We never had one all weekend. We were letting everybody get the bugs worked out of it. I don’t like having it in there because it gives me one less excuse to yell at my crew chief about why my car is not very good (laughs). We will work on that. We will keep tuning that with RCR and the whole alliance. ECR the motors were awesome today. We will keep digging on it and just build momentum going into Vegas.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
YOU WERE ABLE TO DODGE A BULLET AS FAR AS CRASH DAMAGE:
“It could have been a whole lot worse. I’m proud of our guys. They didn’t quit, and we fought back. That’s what makes the difference. We did it all last year and we’ll keep doing it this year. We just got a bad restart and the 11 (Denny Hamlin) lost control and made a mess. It wasn’t the biggest mess of the day but we were part of it.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
AFTER THE EARLY-RACE COCKPIT FIRE, HOW DID THINGS GO?
“It’s obviously super cold out and it’s kind of humid at the same time. I’d have to say one of our biggest problems today – aside from getting going on the start and getting the car tuned in – was that the tape kept coming off the front. The tape was making me handle. I needed all of it. It wasn’t only running pretty cool but the tape helps front downforce. It was pretty noticeable when the tape came off. That happened at the end and also happened in the middle of the race when I went that lap down. By all means, I was very tight in that run. That was our biggest problem today as far as a better result goes. I believe we wouldn’t have been a lap down if we had kept that tape on. It happened and we all kept our wits about ourselves and kept digging. We didn’t get our lap back but got a solid result and it’s been a decent start to the year.”
REGAN SMITH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH
“It was a battle all day. We kind of struggled with the handling on the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS. Finally when we got it where I was happy with it, we were a lap down already. It was kind of too late at that point. Right after we got it where I was happy, we got damage on the nose. I don’t know… somebody up there wrecked and everybody stopped. Tony (Gibson, crew chief) made some great pit calls to somehow get us back to one lap down. I still don’t know how that happened. It was a good job by him to salvage the day for the team.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in multi-car accident on lap 256
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I saw the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) going sideways. I had him cleared. I stood on the gas and went by him; but I guess he might have clipped the No. 1 (Jamie McMurray) and it turned the No. 1 back into me. After that I was just along for the ride. It looks like maybe the No. 31 (Ryan Newman) came down in trying to avoid the No. 11 and got into the No. 1 and then he clipped me in the left rear and sent me down the back straightaway. It wouldn’t have been too bad except that I found that one spot where there’s no SAFER barrier. I can’t believe it. That’s amazing to me. Anyway, hopefully soon that will get fixed. It was a pretty big impact. I hate it for this team. We were struggling. We didn’t have the 3M Chevrolet that I thought we were going to have, but we weren’t giving up on it. We were going to make gains and we finally got ourselves in the top 10 and I think we had a shot of getting into the top five. But obviously it’s not the way we want to start our season.”
WAS IT THE INTENSITY OF THE RACE YOU THINK THAT CAUSED THAT INCIDENT?
“He (Denny Hamlin) was loose before that. He looked like he struggled on the restarts. He would go up the race track. I think he was just real loose in the beginning of a run. Guys, yeah, they are getting aggressive. I don’t know if somebody got into the back of him, but they may have. He went around and at that point everybody is just trying to avoid him. You know how on those restarts it gets pretty wild down there in (turns) one and two. The later you get in the race like everywhere it gets more intense and guys start pushing harder and giving a lot less.”
IS IT TIME FOR DRIVERS TO DO MORE TO MAKE SURE SAFER BARRIERS ARE ALL OVER EVERY TRACK?
“I am very frustrated with the fact there are no SAFER barriers down there. I knew it was a hard hit. I was like ‘man I can’t believe…’ I didn’t expect it to be that hard. Then I got out and I looked and I saw ‘oh wow big surprise I found the one wall here on the back straightaway that doesn’t have a SAFER barrier. I don’t think we can say any more after Kyle’s (Busch) incident at Daytona. Everybody knows we have to do something and it should have been done a long time ago. All we can do now is hope they do it as fast as they possibly can.”
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“I saw the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) get loose and come around. He was just trying to save it, and guys were trying to avoid him, and got collected. I went by the No.11 on the outside and cleared him. I thought I was in good shape then I saw the No. 1 (Jamie McMurray) coming fast. I tried to get by him and he clipped me in the left rear and spun us around and sent us into the wall on the back straightaway. We weren’t having a great day, I thought we would be better than that. We were struggling but I’m proud of the way we were fighting through. We had gotten ourselves into the top-10 right there. We might have had a shot at a top-five but we won’t know now. It’s unfortunate way to start the season. We just have to dig ourselves out of this hole.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in multi-car accident on lap 256
WHAT HAPPENED?
“So, the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) just got loose. It’s pretty hard to pass. And you run wide-open so long that you take what you can get when you can get it. And the restarts are the best place to pass on the track; especially if you’re on the bottom. That’s a pretty big advantage here. You’re just racing as hard as you can and unfortunately we just had an accident there. Our McDonald’s Chevy was really good today. I was really proud of our whole team. The track bar adjuster was really interesting if you got to play with that and there were times you’d get your car back. I don’t know that it necessarily created passing, but it saved you at times if the car got a longs way off. So yeah, interesting day.”
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“I didn’t see the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) spin out there. I was trying to pass the No. 31 (Ryan Newman) on the bottom and I honestly thought I got hit by the No. 31. I had to watch the replay to see that the No. 11 had lost it on top and came down. I don’t know if he clipped the No. 31 or if he clipped me. I didn’t see any of that coming. That was kind of out of the blue. You just try to get all you can on the restarts and he just got loose.”
ON HOW HE WAS RUNNING BEFORE THE INCIDENT:
“Atlanta hasn’t been very good for me, and it hasn’t been very good for our group. So to run as good as we did today I think that is going to be really good for Las Vegas and some of the other tracks with a lot of grip.”
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