NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AXALTA ‘WE PAINT WINNERS’ 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 7, 2015
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
TELL US THE EMOTIONS AND THE FEELINGS RIGHT NOW. IT HAS BEEN 69 RACES BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY SO DOMINATE SO MANY TIMES THIS YEAR – NOW IN VICTORY LANE:
“Well we finally got it. That is all I can say we finally got it. We have had a good run. We have had a great season. We have had everything it has taken to win races we just hadn’t got it done yet. I felt like we had the best car a few times today. I’m not sure we were. The No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) was really good at times and we were really good. It just takes a lot of things to go your way to pull these things together. Just can’t thank all my guys enough, Barney Visser, everybody at Furniture Row, everybody back in Denver for working so hard. This is a brand new racecar and they have been working really hard lately. Just proud of them and thankful to drive great racecars.”
YOU GAVE THE TEAM A LOT OF CREDIT, BUT THOSE RESTARTS THEY ARE SO CRITICAL WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE THOSE LAST COUPLE OF RESTARTS THAT PULLED YOU AWAY SO MUCH?
“Yeah, the difference was just the one real good one Joey (Logano) was behind me and gave me a good shot. I just tried to mix it up. I think we picked the right gear ratio for restarts here and that is critical. That was a bit of an advantage and then just having the right guys behind us. Just mixing it up so they weren’t sure what I was going to do next.”
THE ROLLER COASTER THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ON SINCE THAT LAST VICTORY IN 2013 HAS BEEN WELL DOCUMENTED WITH LEAVING MWR, WHAT YOUR GIRLFRIEND SHERRY (POLLEX) HAS BEEN THROUGH. I KNOW YOU GUYS HAVE HAD TIME TO THINK ABOUT THE EMOTIONS OF THIS MOMENT. ARE THEY AS GOOD AS YOU DREAMED?
“It never gets any better than this. It takes time to heal things especially with what Sherry and I went through. This just kind of makes you forget all about it. Tomorrow we are still going back to normal life and we always try to remember that and be ourselves and remember why we are here. And how thankful we are to be here and how lucky we are to be doing this. I just feel super blessed to be with this group of guys. They are super impressive and just proud to drive cars for them and proud Sherry is here healthy. She is as excited as I am and everything is going well for her.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE HANDLING IN THE CLOSING LAPS?
“The handling was great. Our Budweiser Chevy was really fast, but we were just terrible on the restarts getting going. We would go into defense mode there trying to just keep from going from fifth to sixth or something like that and try to minimize the damage. All-in-all great fast car we just have to do something different for the restarts.”
ON RESTARTS, THAT’S WHERE THE NO. 78 GOT AWAY
“Yeah, we just couldn’t go on restarts. We would lug really bad in third gear and just had to go into defense mode. We struggled in Turn 1 with the splitter on the ground. But, all in all, just a good job by my Budweiser team. Things aren’t lining-up to win races right now; the all in all everybody is doing a great job. I’m really happy for Martin (Truex, Jr, race winner). I know he went through a lot. And for him, and (girlfriend) Sherry (Pollex). If you’re going to lose to somebody today, that’s a great person to lose to.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/JIMMIE JOHNSON FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
YOU HAVE A BUSTED UP RACECAR TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“She is beat up and missing a left-front splitter too from the contact we had with the outside wall off of Turn 3 there. Just a long day for us. We overcame a lot and still got a third place finish out of it. Just really happy with my Hendrick race team, the support we get from Lowe’s and the fact that they let me put the Jimmie Johnson foundation on the side of the car. A fun day. Wish we had a little bit more, but not a bad finish.”
WHAT AN EVENTFUL DAY. ONCE AGAIN YOU HAD DAMAGE. YOU BLEW A TIRE AND GOT INTO THE WALL LATER. BUT YOU BOUGHT IT HOME IN THIRD. HOW DID YOU MAKE THAT HAPPEN?
“I’ve never given up, I guess. This is a great race team and a great race car. I think the No. 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) had more pace than anyone else. But, to be leading that next group of cars with a car with its right-side knocked off and splitter missing up front, it was a good result. There were plenty of challenges today for our Lowe’s team. I also want to say thank you to Lowe’s for allowing me to put the Jimmie Johnson Foundation on the side of the race car. We gave it a great run. Our Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope had a lot of success with the five charities on it. Third is not the end of the world and so, we’ll take it and go on to the next one.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
DESCRIBE YOUR RUN HERE:
“It was a good battle. I’m real proud of the team and our effort. We unloaded and it wasn’t all that good. We got a pole and then we ran top five. We weren’t a winning car, but this Haas Automation Chevy did its job we gather points. The restarts this is getting pretty wild out there. We raced 350 miles one way and then the last 50 it’s game on. It is every man for himself and you just root and gouge and move and go 10 wide going into Turn 1. I bet it is a good show.”
WERE THE RESTARTS THE BIGGEST HINDRANCE FOR YOU TODAY?
“I think we did everything fairly well. We just didn’t do anything exceptionally well. The car was a little bit of a handful on cold tires. It took until about lap five and then we were pretty good. Restarts, yeah, we didn’t quite get the transmission right. And it’s a matter of teamwork and finding out everything we can do better at this point to be stronger when we come back here in August. But I thank Stewart-Haas Racing and everybody that chips-in to make this car what it is. It’s fun to drive and we’ve had a great journeyman-type day (with) a fifth-place finish. Thanks to Haas Automation and Chevrolet with the in-car camera, Monster Energy, State Water Heaters. We’ve got a lot of great partners and a lot to be proud of.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS RUN:
“It was a good race a nice top 10. I thought that was probably about the speed we had maybe eighth to 11th or so. So to get an eighth place is alright. We still have to get better in traffic. It’s just hard. I think everybody struggles with that. If we could just get a little edge on that then we would probably be a lot better.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 11TH
YOUR GOOD FRIEND MARTIN TRUEX JR. FINALLY GETS IT DONE TODAY. WHAT’S THE EMOTION FOR YOU?
“I’m just happy for him. I know he’s been through a lot of stuff both inside the car and outside the car the last several years. He’s been able to get into a good opportunity with good people. He’s got a team that believes in him. They’ve come along way over the last several years working with Kurt (Busch) and building that program up and they continue to get better. And I was in the stall next to those guys during qualifying and how they are as a team and how they interact with each other really impressed me. So, Martin’s in a good situation. So, it’s real refreshing. I look forward to going over there (Victory Lane) and saying hey to him. The Nationwide Chevrolet was fast today. We had a lot of fun out there passing a lot of cars. I made a mistake or, I don’t know what really happened on the back straightaway. The No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) came off the wall like he almost hit it. I yanked it to the left and I run into him and hit the No. 5 (Kasey Kahne). Just racing hard. You’ve got to get everything you can get. You can’t give up anything. I had a lot of race car and I was trying to use it.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 GRAINGER CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track accident on lap 142
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE ON THE TRACK?
“It’s pretty obvious what happened. The No. 47 (AJ Allmendinger) just ran out of talent. He has got one coming now.”
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