NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 14, 2015
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
IT TAKES A TEAM TO GO TO VICTORY LANE. BUT, DOES RICK CARELLI, YOUR SPOTTER, GET THE BONUS AWARD TODAY FOR HOW HE HELPED YOU WORK THROUGH TRAFFIC?
“Absolutely. It’s amazing when you have team chemistry at the level we do. I grew-up watching Rick Carelli and Ron Hornaday, the legends of the Southwest Tour run; and to have Carelli as my spotter, I have so much respect for him. And he has so much wisdom to gain. And he’s a good mentor. He teaches me so many things. It’s a team combination all the way around. Tony Gibson (crew chief) led these guys through a back-up car. And the pit crew was there, giving their best. It’s an unbelievable feeling to know what we went through, paced ourselves, and found the lead toward the latter part of the race when the rain came in.
“You know what’s more special about this? Winning in Chevrolet’s back yard. That’s what’s most important about winning in Michigan, so thanks to Chevrolet.”
IS THIS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF YOU GUYS, ON THIS NO. 41 TEAM, ALL OLD-SCHOOL RACERS, A GREAT EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU GUYS ARE REALLY SCRAPPERS?
“Yeah, you have to get down and dirty. You have to really roll-up your sleeves, get your elbows dirty, and put the work into it. And Tony Gibson makes these guys work a little extra hard. I always say thanks. I’m always there early with them. And it’s a great team chemistry feel. Thanks to Monster Energy, Chevrolet, Haas Automation and everybody at Stewart-Haas. This is a fantastic series to race in and it’s a pleasure to be able to drive into Victory Lane.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
“We had a real good car that was really fast on the long runs. The No. 41 (Kurt Busch) and a couple of guys were faster than us the first 10 or 15 laps of a run. But then I could get my car really fast and I could work my trackbar and pass a lot of cars. I was able to work that trackbar and pass a lot of cars and go forward instead of being just kind of stuck where I was.”
DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE WON WERE THIS NOT RAIN SHORTENED?
“Well the No. 41 was pretty fast on new tires, so we needed a long run and I would have liked to have had the outside on the restart and never really had that. It was kind of the preferred line on restarts. I never really had that advantage.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
“Yeah, just honestly a good weekend for us. Didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked to, and right at the start of the race we kind of drove up there and got through traffic pretty good, got to the front and felt like we were in good shape. I think the biggest thing that hurt us today was the first pit stop. We had to wait on fuel, and we came out ‑‑ I think we came out 7th or something and I had to restart on the bottom and the bottom was tough to restart on today. Lost a lot of track position and fought the rest of the day trying to get it back, and ultimately lost spots to the 41 and Dale in traffic there with ‑‑ I don’t know, 40 or so to go, I got inside the 41, had him passed, and he got back to my outside corner on the front straightaway in traffic and then he brought the 88 around the outside with me, and once they got me by I couldn’t get close enough to get back by them.
“The race for us was really ‑‑ that was really the turning point for us, but awesome race car and another great job by the team. Just missed it a little bit today, but really proud of our season, really proud to have obviously my name mentioned next to Richard Petty, The King, is pretty special, so thankful for my team and what they’ve done this year, and hopefully we’ll keep this thing rolling.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH
YOU ALMOST HAD THE WINNING STRATEGY HAD THE RAINS COME JUST A FEW MINUTES EARLIER:
“Yeah, we could see weather coming there off of (Turn) 4 and just praying that it would get here in time for me to stay out and be in the lead when the rain did hit. Hey, I applaud my guys for trying. We are pretty deep in points so we have to take risks like that to make the Chase. I’m happy with the call, just wish the rain would have come three laps sooner.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PANASONIC CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 21ST
(WHILE IT WAS RAINING BEFORE THE RACE WAS CALLED) IF THIS IS THE END OF THINGS WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON TODAY?
“Well that is going to be really unfortunate for us. We have not had the best of days. Our car was pretty good, but we had an issue on that green flag stop and went down a lap. Things didn’t go very well on that restart. We need this thing to go all the way.”
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