NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
OCTOBER 18, 2015
JIMMIE JOHNSON POSTS TOP CHEVROLET SS FINISH AT KANSAS
Penalties Hamper Three Chevy Chase Contenders
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (October 18, 2915) – Defending race winner and six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, made a strong showing in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway with a third place finish. It was his 16th top-10 finish in 19 races at the 1.5-mile venue.
Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsport teammate, Kasey Kahne, brought his No. 5 LiftMaster Chevy SS across the line in fourth place, giving Team Chevy two of the top five in the finishing order.
Neither Johnson nor Kahne are contenders in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but there are six Chevy Chasers currently competing for this year’s championship title. It was a solid day for Kurt Busch in the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, who finished sixth. Jeff Gordon, battled handling issues in his No. 24 3M Chevy SS, but managed to score a 10th-place finish. Ryan Newman came home 11th in the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS.
For three of the Chevy Chasers, it was a frustrating 400-mile race full of misfortune. With 53 laps remaining, Martin Truex Jr., had a tire roll away during a pit stop and had to serve a pass-through penalty in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevy SS relegating him to a 15th-place finish after running in the top 10 throughout the day.
Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, Kevin Harvick also had to serve a stop-and-go penalty in his No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet due to dragging a fuel can out of the pit box during a routine pit stop. Harvick, who led 21 laps earlier, finished one lap down in the 16th position.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a loose wheel and had to pit under green in his No. 88 Halo 5: Master Chief Chevy, which dropped him off the lead lap. He was never able to rebound and finished two laps down in 21st position.
Joey Logano (Ford) was the race winner, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) finished second, and Kyle Busch (Toyota) was third to round out the top five.
The series moves to Talladega Superspeedway for the third and final round of the second stage in the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on Sunday, October 25.
POST RACE QUOTES:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
ON HIS DAY:
“It was fun racing. This was such a great racecar. I think the No. 20 had a little more pace at the start of a run and then we would slowly catch back up to them. I really felt like we had a car we could win with today. I knew we had a great car all weekend long. The silver lining of not being in the Chase is having fast cars. We have had fast cars the last two weeks, but have had some weird mechanicals bite us. I think a win is right around the corner for this Lowe’s team. I’m just thankful for my group back at Hendrick Motorsports and the hard work they are putting in at getting better and all these guys on the No. 48 team.”
ON FINISHING THIRD:
“I’m just looking for the silver lining not being in the Chase fighting for a championship. I know the two results before this weekend don’t show it but we did have speed in our cars and we are running really well. We did it again this weekend. We stayed out and gambled on old tires, it didn’t pay off, but in the position we are in it was worth the gamble and still brought it home in third. A solid performance for the Lowe’s Chevy and looking forward to the next two races.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THESE FINAL RACES IN TERMS OF YOUR OBJECTIVES?
“Well you have to put new objectives out there. For us it is to try and finish as high as we can in points, which could be fifth and win races. We really, from doing this for so many years, if you end the year slow and not proud of the performances on track it is a long winter. We don’t want that. We want to end on a high note, get as high as we can in the points, win some races and be very competitive.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 LIFTMASTER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We had a great Liftmaster Chevrolet. The guys had great pit stops and did an awesome job. We were able to battle all day. I was kind of stuck there around 10th or 12th most of the race of the first half. I got from 24th to about 13th, 12th right in there and we were battling loose the longer the run went the looser I would get. We finally made an adjustment that helped that. From that point on we were rocking and rolling pretty good. We were able to get up there and felt like we were definitely a top five car and really competitive.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THIS DAY FOR YOU?
“It was a good battle. I’m real proud of this team. We are a very good team doing good things. Can we be great and finish great? That is our next step. I just have to thank Tony Gibson (crew chief) and everybody at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing). We are really gelling together and doing the things we need to do to advance in this Chase. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, and Chevrolet, all of our great sponsors. It is fun running strong and we know we can do a little bit better. That is that threshold that we need to cross over. Here we are we are going to Talladega with a plus next to our point’s situation to try to get through this next round. Real happy for the guys, it wasn’t quite a top five today, but just as good.”
YOU ARE 13 POINTS AHEAD OF THE CUTLINE HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR STRATEGY FOR NEXT WEEK?
“Really? Only plus 13? That is unbelievable. I would have hoped we could have been 25. That is how tight it is. This competition you can’t get a spot on anybody and you can’t give up a spot. Plus 13 is not very exciting, wow, you kind of deflated my bubble there. I thought a fifth and a sixth was pretty good in this round, it is not.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – Finished 10th:
HOW DO YOU THINK YOU RAN TODAY?
“Absolutely horrible. We were absolutely as far off as you could be. I don’t know. The thing qualified amazing and ever since we put it in race trim it just is not comfortable, hasn’t felt good, and we’ve struggled with it. That was one of the hardest top 10’s I’ve ever had to go through. I’m proud of the team. They fought hard and that’s why we’re where we’re at. But gosh, that was ugly.”
DID YOU MAKE LEMONADE OUT OF LEMONS TODAY?
“Oh, yeah. That’s what we’ve been doing lately a lot of that. Last week we did the same thing. I thought we actually had our car pretty decent by the end of that race, but we never had it good today. And it’s not from a lack of effort. We just didn’t have it. I don’t know what I’m missing in the feel and what I’ve got to do to give these guys the feedback they need to adjust on it, but gosh; I had zero confidence today. It was just edgy and I just felt like I was wrecking in every corner.”
THOUGHTS ON TALLADEGA NEXT WEEK:
“Every point means something; it just doesn’t mean anything as far as our approach for Talladega next week. I’m real confident in our racecars and our race team. I’m excited about our chances at actually winning there. I just don’t like the chances of being in a wreck because they are usually high, but we are going to go and approach it where we are going to be aggressive and race hard. We will just see where the points end up.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – Finished 15th
“It was tough day. We were in good shape before the penalty (pass through penalty for tire going outside the line following green flag pit stop on Lap 213). We fought hard on the car all day got much better right when we got the penalty. We were fast at the end, but not enough time to get back up there.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
WHAT WILL BE YOUR TAKE AWAY FROM THIS RACE IN KANSAS?
“We are lucky to come out of it as good as we did with our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s team. We didn’t have a great weekend. A lot of things falling on and off and now we’ve got to go to Talladega and have a good week. All-in-all it could have been a lot worse and everybody kept digging.”
WHAT WAS THE CHALLENGE OF THE MISSING SHIFTER HANDLE AT THE END OF THE RACE?
“It was just really hard to shift from second to third (gear) just because there was nothing to grab onto for leverage. But in the end the car vibrated all day I’m lucky something else didn’t break.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 HALO 5: MASTER CHIEF – FINISHED 21ST
THE LOOSE WHEEL IS WHAT IS ECHOING IN YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW FROM INSIDE THE CAR YOU DIDN’T HAVE A LOT OF CHOICE DID YOU?
“I was pretty sure we had an issue. We had a lot of wheels shaking, tires shaking because of the wheels spinning inside the tire. Every set we had today except for one didn’t shake. Every set shook, but it’s a completely different kind of thing when the wheel is not tight. We don’t know which one it was we came in so quick it didn’t beat up the wheel enough to give us a real indication of which one it was. I knew we needed to come down pit road. We had a fast car, just never really had good track position and got behind. We didn’t come here to run second or top five we don’t need that we need a win. We had to try to go out there and win and we just got behind.”
HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU CAN WIN AT TALLADEGA NEXT WEEK?
“I wouldn’t rather be going anywhere else than Talladega for the next race if we need a win. That is a good opportunity for us. Even over Daytona, I think we can go to Talladega and do the job. There is a little more room there to be aggressive and make the moves you need to make. I got the car. That car won the 125, ran third in the (Daytona) 500 and won Talladega and won Daytona. That is a good enough car. I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere else if it’s a win and you are in kind of deal.”
HOW TOUGH WAS THIS RACE?
“It was tough for us. We had a lot of wheels that were spinning inside the tire and that throws the weights off and makes the car shake pretty bad. It doesn’t really bother the balance really, but it just annoys you. We did have a real bad vibration that was a little different kind of vibration where it might have been a loose wheel. I came down pit road to get that fixed. We needed to win here. A top five ain’t going to do it and a top 10 ain’t going to do us no good. It was either come here and win or wrap it up and go to Talladega and try to win there. I feel pretty good about that.”
JUST HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU GOING TO TALLADEGA NEXT WEEK?
“When you think about it we’ve got to win to get into the next round and I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere else. When you look at all the tracks where would myself and I’m sure where my fans think we’ve got a shot to win, where else would we want to be going besides Talladega? Looking forward to it. We have a car that can win there. We will go there and try to do the job. It’s all we can do.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track incident on lap 155 – FINISHED 41ST
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“We had a really fast American Ethanol Chevrolet. We were a little tight that run. I was catching everybody in front of us. The team worked hard on our Chevrolet this weekend and I’m really proud of them. Man, what a bummer. I guess we just cut a right-front tire. I don’t know if I ran over something, or what. It showed a little heat the second run but not that much. We’re carrying a lot of speed around the top of the track, and just cut a tire. If we bring another car like this one to the racetrack this year we will end up with a win.”
IT APPEARED THAT IT WAS A TIRE ISSUE; WHAT COULD YOU TELL?
“We were a little tight that run and I was catching everybody in front of us. I thought we had a really good American Ethanol Chevy. They worked hard on it. I’m really proud of how we started the race. Just, man what a bummer, I guess we just blew a right-front (tire). I don’t know if we ran over something or what. It showed a little heat the second run, but not that much. I know we are carrying a lot of speed around the top of the track and just blew a tire.”
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