NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 3, 2016
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/BUTTERFINGER/COFFEE-MATE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
NEW PERSONNEL AND NEW RACE CARS. IS THIS THE CULMINATION OF ALL THAT HARD WORK?
“Well, I was hoping for one more spot for a culmination. But, I passed Jimmie Johnson like five times at Martinsville; that’s pretty cool! I can’t thank everybody on this team enough, especially (team owners) Tad and Jodi Geschickter. They put a lot of effort into this team. We weren’t where we wanted to be about six months ago. We brought in so many people who stepped up to embrace their new roles. I can’t thank all our sponsors enough.”
ON HIS DAY:
“Man, I hope the fans enjoyed that. Thanks for coming out. It was a lot of fun. I passed Jimmie Johnson like five times at Martinsville. That is pretty fricking cool. I just can’t thank everybody on this team enough. Randall Burnett (crew chief), Ernie Cope (competition director), Brain Burns (engineer), Tony Palmer (engineer) for embracing their new roles and everybody really stepping up together, especially Tad and Jodi Geschickter (team owners) for putting all this effort into this team. I can’t thank Kroger, Butterfinger, Coffee-mate, Tad is putting so many stickers on this car it’s hard, Scott Products, Kingsford, Clorox, Bush’s Beans, Louisiana Hot Sauce, we’ve got so many sponsors it’s pretty cool to be on this race team right now.”
HOW HARD IS IT TO GET TO THE BOTTOM?
“With 35 (laps) to go it doesn’t matter you’ve got to do what you have to do. We had such a good long run car I was hoping we would stay green for the last 120 laps. I thought we might really have a shot at them. Randall Burnett and all the guys and pit crew I can’t thank them enough. They really stepped it up the last two weeks and gave us a shot to win that race. I had to get aggressive. I thought heck with 12 to go we might have a new clock in the shop. Came up a little bit short, it’s pretty cool to be racing Kyle Busch for the win here though.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE TO BRING IT HOME THIRD TODAY?
“We had a really good Target Chevy. It was really fun this whole weekend to be competitive every time I was on the race track. Normally, I’m very bad here and to finish top 3 feels like a win for me. Never would I have thought that I’d get a top 3 here and now I can kind of see a (Grandfather) clock maybe in my future. I had a lot of fun today. We were running in the top 5 and top 7 the whole race. I learned a lot. I spent a lot of time behind Jimmie Johnson and I felt like I just followed his track there and got a lot better throughout the race. Chad (Johnson, crew chief) did a good job taking two tires there at the end we got lined-up on the inside row and we were pretty good there. So, hat’s off to everybody on this Target Chevy and it was cool to get a good finish.”
ON HIS DAY:
“It was a lot of fun for me. Martinsville in the past has been my worst race track on the schedule. To finish top three here feels like a win. Never what I thought I would be on the podium here at Martinsville and now I can kind of maybe see a clock someday in my future. Had a lot of fun today. Chad (Johnston, crew chief) brought a good Target Chevy here. The pit crew did an amazing job. We gained spots every single time we were on pit road. That was really the key to keeping our track position. We were really good on short runs. Middle runs I would kind of fall off a little bit and then there at the end I could kind of maintain. Had a lot of fun. Had a good late restart there on two tires and was able to carve my way back up to third.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
A GREAT RUN FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE, PAUL MENARD, TODAY; AND THE TWO OF YOU SPOKE AFTER THE RACE. HOW WAS IT?
“It was good. Paul just said we had fast race cars. That’s pretty much the end of it. I’ve got to learn to keep my mouth shut on the radio. That’s part of racing. I’m a fiery guy and it was fun today. It’s nice to see the front of a short track like that. Sometimes you’ve just got to grow up a little bit, but It’s nice to be running up front. I’ve got to thank Dow and all the people that support us. It’s fun. I’ll talk to Paul. Me and Paul are fine. That’s the small part of it. What a run. Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) made a great call there. The pit crew did a great recovery. We broke a jack and were able to recover from that. A lot of things happened today. It’s Martinsville. Your head’s hot. You say things you don’t want to mean. Monday morning I’ll talk to everybody and we’ll figure it back out.”
WHAT DOES THIS DO TO YOUR CONFIDENCE, ESPECIALLY HEADING INTO SPRING AND SUMMER?
“We just keep getting better every week. I didn’t like myself last year. I didn’t like who I was for the team. I was frustrated and I wanted to be better for these guys. When they step-up, they make me better. I’m trying to be different, but I’m not doing a lot of different stuff. They’re just building me a lot better race cars. Everybody back at the shop putting all those 80-hour weeks in, I hope you understand how important it is because you’re making it happen. I wish we had one more spot, but that was pretty darn cool.”
ON HIS DAY:
“It was fun. I was excited. To start 29th and to drive up through there like we did is a testament to these guys and effort they put in. I struggled at this track qualifying. Seemed to race well, I just have never really been good qualifying or practicing. We did a lot to help me as a driver today. Man, it was just a career day for the Dow Chevy here at Martinsville. Looking forward to races to come. I learned a lot today.”
BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 14 JANSSEN/ARNIE’S ARMY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
AN IMPRESSIVE DAY FOR YOU AND BEST FINISH FOR THIS TEAM THIS YEAR, WERE YOU TIRED NEAR THE END?
“A little bit. I was pleased but not satisfied. We had such a good car. We were so fast. I don’t know if the track changed or we had different tire codes today. It just wasn’t quite as good as practice all weekend. But I’m really proud of the effort by the guys. We had a great car. It was a top 10. Gosh, we wanted to win this race for Arnie’s Army and everybody. This is a bittersweet special track for me. I lost my best friend here. I really wanted to win for him. But it was still a good day. We’ll take a seventh and move on. The team is getting stronger every week, really. I’m proud of those guys and it’s going to be a strong team.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 LIBMAN/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS DAY:
“We had a really fast car all weekend. Top 10 in all the practice sessions, qualified fourth and drove up and took the lead. Led a little bit and we started with a little bit higher air pressure to start the race. We just gave up too much. Kind of got backwards and then had a set of tires that had a loose wheel, it was back in the middle part of the race and just battled back. Really fast car all weekend. Just trying to tune on it throughout the race.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ON HIS DAY:
“The first half of the day we were really good at the end. We had some short run speed, but would fade. Better than last fall, but need to get better yet.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 GRAINGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
“Coming into this race I told the team that they had given me the best car I’ve ever had at Martinsville Speedway. The opening laps we were a top-five car despite a tight-handling condition. Our lap times especially held up during the longer the green-flag runs. After our third stop, we don’t know what happened to be honest. The car was on the splitter and it was just a handful to drive. It cost us big. We lost a lap and for about 150 laps we marred back in 19th, 20th position. No one on the Grainger team threw in the towel because our lap times were within the top 10. We were even passing top 10 cars but needed to somehow fight our way back onto the lead lap. With about 50 to go, we got the break we needed and raced our way back onto the lead lap. A late-race caution allowed us to pit for fresh tires and we were able to race from 17th to a 10th-place finish. I’m proud of this Grainger team and everyone at Richard Childress Racing. We worked hard this off season and to see all three cars end up in the top 10 says a lot about our organization. Glad to see this team rally back for a top 10 because we had another good car and now a decent finish to reflect it.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED EARLY ON:
“The No. 23 (David Ragan) pushed up in the middle of the corner and just barely touched us and it cut the left-rear tire.”
TALK ABOUT BATTLING ALL DAY TO GET BACK ON THE LEAD LAP:
“Yeah, we had a good car. We got higher than that at one point. The car was fun. We had good long run speed. Just didn’t end up working out for us as far as the line we were in on our last restart. The second place guy we passed him the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth), but the guy who started fourth where we would have started if we didn’t pit finished right in front of me. What do you do? If you can’t start in the inside you are screwed.”
HOW MUCH WAS GRIP A PROBLEM TODAY WITH TEMPERATURES NOT AS WARM AS THEY WERE EARLIER IN THE WEEKEND?
“Not a problem. They just put some new patches over there in Turn 4 and that is where the second groove is man. It’s very slick over there, you can’t run up there.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 TAXACT CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
ON HER DAY:
“I feel like it was one of those typical Martinsville’s where there is a lot of body work damage. I look at everyone else’s car and there is too. I think our biggest problem was just we generally had some inconsistency with runs. We would have a good one, then a bad one. Luckily, we started the race off with a good 90 laps where we were really making a lot of progress the last half of it. It wasn’t taking off as well and then we did some changes later on that helped that. Honestly, I feel like we just had some tire inconsistencies. There was some weird build numbers that we would get when the run was bad and it was making more and more sense because it was happening over and over again. I think that was kind of one of our problems, but in general I thought we had a pretty solid day. We had a lot of contact with a lot of cars, but I feel like that is also fun to watch. It’s fun to watch as a fan and it makes it fun inside the car. You take matters into your own hands pretty easily here at Martinsville. It was all-in-all a pretty decent day for the TaxAct car. I was really hoping when we got inside the top 10 we would hold, but that run it just went loose and that set of tires was a little different. It is what it is.”
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