NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
MYAFIBRISK.COM 400
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVE RACE NOTES AND QUOTES – KURT BUSCH, JIMMIE JOHNSON, KEVIN HARVICK
September 20, 2015
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD:
YOU BATTLED THROUGH ADVERSITY. THE RIGHT REAR TIRE WENT DOWN EARLY, BUT YOU CAME BACK AND WAS RIGHT THERE IN THE MIX TO WIN, BUT IT SEEMED LIKE THAT CAUTION WITH 10 LAPS TO GO REALLY CHANGED THINGS
“Yeah, it did. It was the difference-maker today. But overall, I’m really proud of this team and everybody at Haas Automation and Stewart Haas Racing. This Chevy was fast. It was fast enough to win. When the caution came out there at the end, I thought we had the right strategy, but we didn’t. But this is a point’s day. This is a long journey through these next 10 weeks. We weren’t given a hall pass now, through Loudon and through Dover. We’ve just got to work hard as a team and saddle-up. This isn’t just a win and take a couple of weeks off, but we had a winning car today. It’s kind of a shame. We had a good run at Fontana earlier this year and it kind of ended up the same way.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO.48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS, FINISHED 11TH: DID KEVIN (HARVICK) TRY TO BLOCK YOU OUT THERE? DID HE INITIATE THAT? “He didn’t leave me any space. He was pinning me down, and I had to get back up on the track. I wouldn’t say that what he did was any different than other situations I’ve been in like that. When you are in his position, you want to get the inside car in a bad angle so they have to lift. I was fine with lifting, but I had to get back on the race track, so I worked my way back up on the track.”
IT IS HARD FOR US TO SEE, BUT YOUR FRONT BUMPER DID NOT HIT HIS REAR BUMPER AFTER YOU GOT HIT BY (JOEY) LOGANO? “Nope. I pulled down inside of him and we were door-to-door. Then as I moved back up on the racing grove is when we touched door-to-door. Tire-to-tire.”
WHEN KEVIN CAME BACK OUT ON THE TRACK, HE TOLD HIS SPOTTER TO LET HIM KNOW WHEN THE NO. 48 IS NEAR ME ON THE TRACK. DID YOU FEEL BAD AROUND HIM? “No. I assume he would try to find it is my fault. I just simply needed the lane to get back on the race track. By no means was I trying to do anything different. I’ve seen him on the flat working his way back up looking for a racing lane. That is what I was doing. I was on the bottom trying to get back up on the racing surface, and he was trying to pin me down and I had to get back up or else it would have been a hell of a mess.”
HOW WERE RESTARTS TODAY? “Crazy. Whenever you have that big flat apron like that on the bottom, it really creates a lot of craziness.”
ASSESS THE AFTERNOON. IT SEEMED LIKE AT TIMES YOU HAD SPEED. AND THE LAST RESTART, I’M NOT SURE WHERE THAT LEFT YOU
‘Yeah, the last restart, some guys got loose and everything kind of went to the top and unfortunately that was the lane I was in and got choked in pretty bad. I was one car away from clearing that lane on the top and would have been motoring into top 5 contention. At the middle part of the race, maybe two-thirds, we lost what we had going on. It was some tire pressure stuff from what I gather and heard on the radio. We got that back and at the end, we were really fast. Just off for one segment there, and it hurt us pretty bad.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT’S WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU JUST HAD TO MANAGE THE DAY WITH POINTS
“Yeah, managing points was certainly part of it. Restarts were wild and crazy. So, we’re just trying to be smart. But at the same time, we had such a good car from the start, then we were off, and then we were back on. I wanted to be up there racing for the win or at least for the top two or three.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – Crashed in Turn 3 on Lap 138 with a cut left rear tire after the No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson got into him. Sidelined for 57 laps during repairs. FINISHED 42ND:
“Yeah, I got a fairly good restart. I just had a little tire buzz at the end and shifted into third gear and I saw those guys coming on the apron. They must have gotten together and had a good run up. But I just held my ground and he just slammed into the side of the door like I wasn’t even there. So, the spotter was telling me four-wide and I guess he just figured that he’d come up the race track. But, I’m just really proud of everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Budweiser team for not giving up and doing all the things they had to do to get the car back on the track and we’ve just got to go win one of these races.”
HOW DO YOU RECOVER FOR THE NEXT TWO RACES?
“Win.”
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