NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 28, 2015
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
WAS THIS A STATEMENT CHAMPIONSHIP-TYPE RUN FOR YOU TODAY?
“Well, yeah you could say that. Gene Haas has given everything to me and I wanted to deliver a win for him. It was an incredible drive all day. The car was fast. I thought we had the right sequence. Kyle (Busch) got a lucky break when that yellow came out and he got onto pit road and there were just too many cars between me and him on some of those restarts. I just didn’t quite get the restarts I needed. But it was a great Haas Automation Chevy. It was fast. We led laps. We qualified second and finished second. But I think we made a statement, yes. The car was great. Tony Gibson (crew chief) and all the guys back at the shop built me a beautiful road course car. I just came up a little shy in qualifying and in the race. Congratulations to my little brother (Kyle). I know this is huge. He still has a long way to go to get him in that Top 30. He’s an incredible driver. I don’t know how many times we’ve finished 1-2, but we’ll see the other Busch brother win today.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 FOLDS OF HONOR/OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Just a lot of things went wrong. We had probably the fastest car on the racetrack it just took us all day to overcome all the stuff we had going on. Just want to thank Budweiser, Outback, Folds of Honor, everybody from Jimmy John’s and Chevrolet for everything they do for our team.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PRO SERVICES CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
YOU STUCK WITH THAT 2-STOP STRATEGY. EVERYBODY CAME TO PIT LANE THERE AT THE END. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU SAW CLINT BOWYER PULL OVER?
“Initially, a little concerned. Then as we made that next lap, I saw there were a bunch of cars between myself and the first guy on (new) tires. I felt pretty good about things. And then after about a lap and a half, I wasn’t feeling so good about things (laughs); they were there quickly. But if we came back tomorrow, we’d still run the same strategy. We played it perfectly. We were one caution away from it working out just right. So, this situation we’re in with the wins and being locked in the Chase, we wanted to come out and be aggressive with our strategy in the Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet.”
HOW BAD DID YOU NOT WANT TO SEE THAT LAST CAUTION? DID YOU THINK YOU WERE A SITTING DUCK WHEN MOST EVERYONE PITTED?
“I kind of thought so. It looked like so many guys came to pit road, but then there were more that stayed out. I was just surprised how fast they got through traffic and got to my bumper. Tires were definitely the call, but we had a strategy that we were going to stick to. We were one caution away from it working out just right.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MICROSOFT WINDOWS 10 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
A LOT OF PEOPLE PITTED FOR TIRES FOR YOU WAS IT AN OBVIOUS DECISION?
“Oh yeah, you don’t race for points anymore so no reason to stay out there for track position. Come in and get them tires and have fun.”
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH TODAY’S FINISH?
“Yeah, it was alright. I thought we had a better finish brewing, but just the way the cautions fell didn’t really work out for us. I had a lot of fun racing out there with everybody. A lot of tempers out there, but I was smiling the whole way. It was a good time.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS DAY:
“I had a fast Great Clips Chevrolet. We could pass cars, pass a lot of cars, just the way the cautions came out it didn’t help us, it hurt us every time. The guys that finished in front of us majority of them it helped. I felt like myself and Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) – Jimmie (Johnson) was obviously good and Kurt (Busch), (Kevin) Harvick was really good. Anyone else in there kind of got lucky I guess. We had a good car and I was happy with our speed and the fall off was great. Just wish we would have finished better.”’
JIMMIE (JOHNSON) SAID HE STUCK TO HIS STRATEGY TODAY. DID YOU GUYS STICK TO THE STRATEGY THAT YOU HAD PLANNED?
“Yeah, we stuck to ours. That was kind of what we wanted to do all day. It just about worked depending on when those cautions come. That is how at the road courses it gets spread out and everybody is on a different strategy. It works for some and doesn’t for others. We had an eighth with a strategy that didn’t really work, but we had a really fast car and felt like we could have ran top five for sure.”
ON HIS BATTLE WITH DALE EARNHARDT, JR. AT THE END:
“Jimmie (Johnson) was on old tires so he was holding both me and Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) up pretty good. Then me and Dale ended up side-by-side and we were real equal in speed. I had a run on him and went for him into (Turn) 11 and broke too late and ended up skidding into him, but we both made it out and didn’t lose a spot. Thankful for that.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
“We needed that top 10 today. We’ve had good cars the last three weeks but not a lot to show for it because of bad luck so to race this WIX Filters Chevy in the top 10 all day and finish top 10 is such a good feeling. I want to thank Todd Parrott for his help over the last six weeks and look forward to having Luke Lambert (crew chief) and the rest of the boys back next week in Daytona.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AARP MEMBER ADVANTAGES CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
YOU WERE ABLE TO WORK YOUR WAY FORWARD, BUT IT’S BEEN A TOUGH DAY FOR YOU
‘It was. I was really optimistic going into the race. Our car was good in practice. We qualified well. They dropped the green and we were moving forward. I was pretty happy with it. I felt that rear starting to go off pretty early on and saw some guys coming from further back. And so we tried to make a couple of adjustments. It just seemed as the track continued to lay rubber, our set-up, which we were taking a little bit of a gamble and risk with, but it looked good in practice; but it just didn’t pay off for us. So, we had to make some big adjustments and lose track position. But the car was really, really good there at the end. So, it was great to have AARP and Member Advantages on board and it was a great weekend. Nothing’s going to take away from this weekend for me. I know it wasn’t the finish we all wanted, but it was a very memorable weekend. It’s still a little bit more fun to go to hang out with some of my friends and family here. But, I hate that we weren’t a little bit better. And that last thing, I was just taking some risk on that last pit stop. We didn’t have anything to lose at that point.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KINGSFORD CHARCOAL CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 37TH
WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM THAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE GARAGE AND ENDED YOUR OPPORTUNITY FOR A GOOD RUN TODAY?
“I don’t know the problem. I think it was a fuel related issue. The car was good. I thought we had a better chance of winning this year than we did last year. It was still going to be tough. The No. 41 (Kurt Busch) was pretty solid. The No. 18 (Kyle Busch) the way it played out was pretty good. I know the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was good. We just fought the rear a little bit. I don’t know how that would have played out at the end. I know we had the fastest lap of the race, which shows the car had speed. I think we were going in the right direction it just feels like a swift kick to everything right now. But it’s nothing we really did wrong it is one of those circumstances. I don’t know if that helps or not. I think we had a good enough car to be in the top five for sure. It would have just been interesting the way it played out. There were a couple of spots on the racetrack I was just a little weak that we need to be a little bit better, but I thought it was at least good enough to at least contend.”
BRIAN BURNS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 47 KINGSFORD CHARCOAL CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 37TH
“Still investigating it looks like something with the fuel system may have gotten clogged up or gotten some debris or something in there. Not sure yet. We will take a good look at it when we get back to the shop and regroup. Man, even after having to come back out laps down. We turned it into a test sessions and learned a lot, picked up a lot of speed. We ran the fastest lap of the race compared to anybody else towards the end just trying some things. Trying to turn something positive into it.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track accident on lap 29
YOU JUST MADE SOME ADJUSTMENTS TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER. WHAT HAPPENED?
“We were going to be okay. It’s just a product of restarts here. When you are in mid-pack, it’s not a good place to be. It’s just really congested. We were a lot faster than a couple of guys around us. You’re trying not to get run over. You’ve got to make moves. Every time I passed the No. 55 (David Ragan), he would just stay on the side of me and not give me three or four inches to get clear, so we can all kind of get going. After the fourth time of doing that, it’s just, we both ran out of room and I guess he turned me on purpose. I ran into the side of him first, so I kind of had it coming. But that was an accident. I thought I gave him enough room there, coming out of the esses, and I felt like he probably just turned me on purpose where it happened and how it happened. But, it’s just a product of the racing here and we’ll go on and do our thing.”
HOW DID THAT DEVELOP?
“Just a Sonoma restart, mid-pack, just a lot of congestion. Cars being desperate trying to get some track position. We were just kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time. I kind of had the No. 55 (David Ragan) passed about four times and every time he just didn’t really give an inch. I hit him down there in Turn 7 on accident and kind of doored him and I think he got pissed off and turned me on purpose. It’s just unfortunate that happened, but that is part of the restarts here and part of the craziness that happens. You have to be up front. We had a decent car. We made some adjustments there and felt like it made a big improvement just didn’t get to show it.”
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“We got wrecked bottom line. Definitely a tough day. I felt like we had a decent car all weekend. We were off a little bit that first run, made some adjustments, felt like it helped. When you start around 20th on those restarts it is just a recipe for disaster. I was trying to be aggressive, made some moves. I had a couple of cars passed and then the lane I was in jammed up and the guys I had passed got back by me. You just get frustrated, you lose patience and I got into the No. 55 (David Ragan) doors a little bit in Turn 7 and I guess he didn’t like it and he figured he would just dump me. He probably has one coming, but other than that it’s just part of the restart deal. I hate that I got my guys car tore up.”
HOW AGGRESSIVE HAS THIS RACE BEEN FOR THE FIRST PART OF THE RACE?
“It was fine in the beginning. I started in a decent position. I didn’t make contact with anyone. Got passed a few times, passed a few guys and you get back there in the 20’s and some of those guys’ heads come unscrewed. It is just the way it works here.”
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