NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 6, 2016
JIMMIE JOHNSON LEADS TEAM CHEVY WITH THIRD PLACE FINISH IN LAS VEGAS
Six Chevy SS Drivers in Top 10
LAS VEGAS – (Mar. 6, 2016) – Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, led a group of six Team Chevy drivers to the finish in his No. 48 Kobalt Chevrolet SS at the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the third round of the 2016 season. The start of the 400-mile race was delayed 26 minutes by a passing rain shower; and weather continued to be a challenge with gusty winds and sandstorms.
“It was gusty and problematic, but I expected it to be a lot worse,” said Johnson, who led 76 of the 267-lap event. “I guess when you are going 200 mph a 30 or 40 mph wind doesn’t bother it too much. It was exciting. The trash was probably the biggest problem, trying to keep the trash off the grille.”
Austin Dillon, pilot of the No. 3 Dow Energy & Water Intellifresh Chevy SS, rallied back from a speeding violation on pit road to take a solid fifth place finish, giving Team Chevy two of the top five in the final order.
Kevin Harvick was seventh in his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevy SS, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., earned an eighth place finish in his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS. Kurt Busch, who won the Kobalt 400 pole position and led 32 laps in front of his hometown Las Vegas crowd, brought home a ninth place finish in his No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevy SS. Kasey Kahne rounded out the Top-10 in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS.
Brad Keselowski (Ford) was the race winner, Joey Logano (Ford) was second, and Kyle Busch (Toyota) finished fourth.
The Series continues its West Coast Swing at Phoenix International Raceway next Sunday, March 13.
POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHAT DID YOU NEED DURING THAT LAST RUN TO MAYBE WIN THIS THING?
“Track position was pretty important. The series of events leading up to that last restart kind of had us deeper in track position than we needed to be for the win. We still got a third, which is good, but those top three or four cars were pretty equal. It was just real hard to get there and get inside of somebody. I was impressed the No. 2 was able to sit behind the No. 22 that long and finally get by and not wear his stuff out in the process. But, decent day for us all-in-all.”
WAS THE WIND MUCH OF A FACTOR?
“Yeah, it was less than I expected. It was gusty and problematic, but I expected it to be a lot worse. I guess when you are going 200 mph a 30 or 40 mph wind doesn’t bother it too much. It was exciting. The trash was probably the biggest problem, trying to keep the trash off the grille.”
WAS THE WIND THE BIGGEST GAME CHANGER?
“At least with my race car the wind, sure I felt it and I knew kind of what was going on and trying to play into it a little bit. But, it was far better driving than I expected it to be. I’m not sure if everybody else can say that, but my KOBALT race team gave me a fantastic race car, a fast race car and just a series of events there at the end, we lost a little track position and the top three or four cars were pretty equal on speed and I just couldn’t get there.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW – ENERGY & WATER/INTELLIFRESH CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
MAYBE A LITTLE MORE TIME AND YOU WOULD HAVE HAD THEM:
“Yeah, I know there at the end I was trying to save a little fuel, but we were really coming on strong. We killed ourselves today. To comeback to a fifth, I’m blessed and the good Lord was looking out for us. The cautions fell right. We really have to pick it up as a group, me included, on pit road. It was disappointing because we had such a fast race car. At one point in time we were way faster than the leader. We just put ourselves behind. But, we had a shot there at the end and if we were good enough to win we would have done it. We have a little more work to do. I think a win is in the future though.”
HOW DID YOU FIGHT BACK TO FINISH FIFTH?
“Just never giving up. It takes a lot of effort and these guys built such a fast race car I did all I could there to get ourselves back into a position to get back on the lead lap. The caution fell perfect for us. We took a gusty call there to take the wave around and get back on the lead lap to see if the caution would come out. It did right in our window. Things fell our way there for sure. What a fast race car we were running some lap times faster than the leader at one point in the middle of the race when we were laps down that we were really proud of. I wish the wind wouldn’t have been so bad today. I think it would have been an even better day for us. Just proud of the Dow/Intellifresh team we have something to work with. I think you will see us in Victory Lane before the season is over.”
RODNEY CHILDERS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
“We had a good car overall. Everybody did a good job most of the day. We had a bad pit stop and got us behind and then kind of turned our whole day around from there. Everybody did a good job. We couldn’t come close to making it on fuel there at the end like the No. 2 and No. 22, so we didn’t have any option, but to come down and top it off again and put tires on it. Just got to get better. We have given them away the past two weeks and just have to do a better job.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON THE WINDSTORM AND THE SANDSTORM, HOW DID THAT AFFECT YOU?
“Yeah, I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. I think that affected all the cars and made the cars much harder to drive. We had a huge wind blowing across the race track up into the wall off of (Turn) 2 and that made it difficult getting down into the bottom of Turn 3. It was a challenge. And you could definitely tell when the gusts were picking up.”
WAS IT LIKE HARD OR DANGEROUS OR ANYTHING?
“No, no, no, not at all. Visibility, maybe, is the only thing you get a little nervous about when the sandstorm come through, but the winds wasn’t too windy. I thought it was before we got in the car, but I was just as intrigued as anybody to see how it would go and how the race would go with these kinds of winds. It’s definitely a factor that makes it another challenge. All the drivers want is more challenges; more hoops to jump through.”
ON THE NEW DOWNFORCE PACKAGE
“The one thing that I really like is I can drive up to guys with that little spoiler on the back, I’m not really stuck behind people like we used to be. I lot of the drivers are wanting to keep going in this direction and even further. I wasn’t really so sure about that but now I feel like that might be a good move to go even less downforce. I don’t know if the blade needs to get shorter, but these things are sealed off on the ground. There’s a lot we could do to the bodies and stuff to take some downforce out of them. I’m sure NASCAR is looking at that. We can’t just keep taking the blade off, but we could probably take a little of an inch off and not really tell the difference.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
“We fought hard. Driver made a couple of mistakes on a restart and speeding on pit road. We just had to battle, battle, battle and just never got into a good rhythm. We just felt like we were battling from behind.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 SMITH’S/KINGSFORD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
“Hard fought day. I’ve been working on getting on pit road. I thought I got on really good and I will be interested to see the number, just sped a little bit. That got us behind, but we worked the strategy back to keep trying to get back on the lead lap. The pit crew was really good today. Randall (Burnett, crew chief) did a good job. I couldn’t figure out exactly, I knew I needed the front to turn better; we were just a little free in. From there just made small adjustments all day. We made it better each run. At the end there I thought we were decent, the best we had been all day, just nowhere to go. We took what could have been a really bad day and really put us way behind to start the year and salvaged a decent day out of it. Not totally happy, but I think we are making gains. The car has speed in it, just a little bit off. Randall and the guys give most of the credit to them because I … it’s just frustrating. I just got us behind. I didn’t want to get us behind early in the race. We weren’t great, but we had gotten the gap to kind of get in that safe zone where we could make our own day out of it and I put us behind. Randall kept me calm. Some of those runs weren’t very fun but he kept his head in and made me better.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car crash on lap 225
WHAT WAS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON HOW THAT UNFOLDED?
“Just disappointed, what a fast race car, I appreciate everybody working hard. I feel like we made a lot of gains this weekend. Just a terrible job on my behalf. That is pitiful. We have run three races and finished one. Just a bad job on my end. I ought to know better to miss a wreck like that.”
WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE?
“Yeah, got off the brake and missed it.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR VIEW?
“Matt (Kenseth) spin out and I just did a bad job missing him. Just locked up the brakes and ran right into the back of him.”
HOW TOUGH IS THAT WIND?
“I didn’t really notice it too bad today.”
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