NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 12, 2015
KASEY KAHNE PUTS CHEVROLET ON THE POLE AT MICHIGAN
Six Team Chevy Drivers Qualify in Top 10
BROOKLYN, Mich. – (June 12, 2015) – With a fast lap of 35.645 seconds, 201.992 mph at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway, Kasey Kahne captured the pole position in his No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS for the Quicken Loans 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race. It was the first pole and ninth top-10 start of the 2015 season for Kahne, and also marked his 27th career Cup pole.
Kahne was slightly faster than defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, Kevin Harvick, who posted a speed of 201.613 mph behind the wheel of his No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevy SS. It notched the 11th top-10 start of the season for Harvick.
Kahne and Harvick will share the front row when Chevrolet leads the 43-car field to the green on Sunday.
Four other Team Chevy drivers qualified in the top-10: Jeff Gordon, a three-time winner at Michigan, was sixth fastest in his No. 24 Panasonic Chevrolet SS, while Austin Dillon qualified seventh in his No. 3 American Ethanol Chevy SS. Six-time Sprint Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson, was eighth in his No. 48 KOBALT Tools Chevrolet SS; and last week’s race winner at Pocono, Martin Truex, Jr., qualified ninth in the No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevy SS.
Rounding out the top five starters, Brad Keselowski (Ford) qualified third, Carl Edwards (Toyota) was fourth, and Ryan Blaney (Ford) qualified fifth.
The 200-lap/400-mile Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday June 14. Live coverage will be available on FoxSports1, MRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
TALK ABOUT THE MINDSET NOW THAT YOU HAVE A FAST RACE CAR, A GREAT RACE TEAM, YOU ARE HUNGRY FOR A WIN, JUST TALK ABOUT HOW ALL THOSE THINGS ARE PLAYING A ROLE RIGHT NOW:
“Definitely a strong car today. The Great Clips Chevrolet was strong in practice this morning and right there all three rounds it felt really good, really comfortable with the car. I made a little mistake there into (Turn) 3 on the final lap and over drove the entry because I felt like I could. I realized I couldn’t so I had to get it back real quick and was still able to run the lap. It just felt like we had a great car all day to this point and tomorrow is a big day to prepare for Sunday. This is a big start to the weekend it has been a long time since I had a pole, like you said, I think 2012. In the past it seemed way easier to win poles. The last three years have been more difficult for some reason to qualify first. But we were able to do that today and hopefully this will propel us into a good Sunday and also more poles and things throughout the season.”
DO YOU EXPECT PASSING TO BE DIFFICULT HERE?
“It’s tough to say at this point. I think tomorrow’s race, today’s race with a different rubber is probably not going to change a lot of the race track. But tomorrow’s race we will learn a lot on how wide the track is. Last year was the first year that I felt we could run the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2 and not be really slow. You actually could make some passes down there, make some gains. In (Turns) 3 and 4 you have been able to do that for the last couple of years. That was a benefit last year. I think tomorrow will be the same and then maybe it will even widen out and get wider towards the top of the race track like it used to be. That is what I’m hoping for. If it’s like that, yeah, we will be able to pass. We will be able to draft up and make moves if you have that momentum. But it’s really tough to say exactly how that is going to go because the off throttle time right now is not very much. It’s going to need to be more and I think as the track gets rubbered in and tires get hot you will see more lifting and at that point hopefully we will pass more.”
YOU HAVE KNOWN KEITH RODDEN FOR A LONG TIME, BUT THIS IS YOUR FIRST POLE TOGETHER. WHAT HAVE BEEN THE GOOD THINGS, THE BAD THINGS AND WHAT HAS THE PROCESS BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH HIM AS CREW CHIEF?
“I think really it’s all been good to this point. Keith (Rodden, crew chief) is a great guy. He puts a lot of time into his racecars. He is really good to his guys. We have enjoyed it. Just taking the picture at the car over there we were laughing with jokes coming from Keith and stuff. He is just a good guy. He is really smart and he puts a lot into his cars and tries to find the speed that we need. He will tell you if you made a mistake, but at the same time he will tell you if he needed to do a better job as well. You can’t be any better than that because I’m the same way. I will tell him when I made a mistake and be like ‘man we needed the car better at the same time.’ I like every part of what Keith has done to this point, working with him and also what he has done with our team and how he works with the guys. It has been good. I think it’s going to pay off as the season goes.”
YOU HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TEST THE PROPOSED AERO PACKAGE THAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT RUNNING AT KENTUCKY. FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT WHAT HAS THAT PACKAGE FELT LIKE?
“Well if you are talking about the Charlotte test I did earlier in the year we spent a little bit of time with that. I really liked it. I ran by myself and felt like it was the first time I could really drive the car, control the car, lift and do things to make the car work, rather than just run super hard all the time like what we are doing. I liked that, but that is how when I came into the sport, that is how it was. You drove more with both feet. You found speed in different spots of the corner and you weren’t wide open. I’ve always kind of had that … that is how I’ve raced. I don’t know the differences. I think as time has changed it has been something for me to try to learn. I want to learn whatever NASCAR has us race, but I look forward to doing something different. I look forward to if that is the direction they go I think it will be great. But we will all need to work on it for a while to make it the best that it can be. Then we will see kind of where that stands with what we have today.”
WHY DO YOU THINK IT’S BECOME SO MUCH HARDER TO WIN A POLE?
“I think the competition is much closer. I think the drivers, the teams are better than what they used to be. A lot of times a tenth separates 15 cars. I don’t remember it being quite like that when I first came into the sport when poles seemed to be easier to win at that time. I just think it is maybe a little bit of a feel in the car. There are times when I’m not finding that feel that I need to find. It shows with (Martin) Truex for example. What he did last year and what he is doing this year. They just found some things that made him more comfortable in the car and he’s flying. He’s doing an awesome job, that whole team is. But they didn’t have that last year. It was something they found together and worked hard to find this year. Different things fit different people at different times. We are working hard to get to that point. We want to race those guys each week and we want to battle to lead laps and try to win races.”
THIS TRACK IS KNOWN FOR TRACK RECORD QUALIFYING SPEEDS. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FACTORS THAT MAY HAVE AFFECTED SPEEDS THIS YEAR?
“Mainly just the power of the car, we have a lot less power. As far as driving and how much 100 percent throttle I was on, I will guarantee that was more today than what it was last year. It was just slower because you don’t have as much horsepower to run the speed around the track. As far as on the throttle 100 percent throttle I ran a lot more today than I’ve ever ran at Michigan.”
WHAT IS YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING THIS WEEKEND?
“This is a great start. Starting up front, having the track position and having a great pit stall throughout the race which will help the pit guys. My pit crew has come a long ways this year and they are doing an awesome job each week so I look forward to coming down pit road and getting tires and adjustments, things like that. Doing a good job on restarts that will be key for me. If I’m getting good restarts and staying in the front, if we are in the first couple of rows staying where I’m at and not losing spots there, staying towards the front that will be key to being there late in the race and having a shot on that final restart or that final long run whatever it may be.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
TALK ABOUT YOUR CAR AND HOW YOU THINK THINGS ARE GOING FOR YOU OUT THERE:
“They are going really good. We had solid practices, solid qualifying run there within a few hundredths of each run. Kasey (Kahne) was right there in the second round and put up a little bit better lap than we did. It’s still a good solid starting spot.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WILL HAVE TO DO A LOT TO THE CAR TOMORROW TO TRY TO FIND WHAT YOU NEED FORSUNDAY?
“I will tell you tomorrow. I have no idea. It’s been in qualifying trim all day.”
DID ANYTHING GO WRONG WITH YOUR RUN IN THE FINAL ROUND OR WERE YOU JUST OUT MUSCLED BY THE NO. 5?
“The No. 5 doesn’t have any muscles, so I didn’t get out muscled (laughs). You know we ran a .77 in the first round and a .71 in the third round and a .64 in the second round. He was right there. I think he ran a .70 or .65 in the second round. He just got a little better lap.”
IS THE TRACK GETTING ANY BETTER OR MORE COMPETITIVE? OR COULD YOU TELL FROM JUST YOUR PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING SESSIONS?
“For the most part it is still the same one groove that we have seen several times. I’m sure that will spread out as you get cars running and racing tomorrow and today. But today everybody was kind of in single car mode to run in the fastest groove. I think after you see the ARCA race… I mean the groove spread out nicely here last time and we were able to run lower, but the preferred groove is still the only groove with rubber on it right now.”
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