NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 17, 2016
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2nd
YOU STARTED OUT WITH THE ISSUE WITH THE ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT RIGHT OFF THE BAT, BUT YOU CAME BACK WITH A NICE 2ND PLACE FINISH
“We had a lot of luck on those last several restarts. You start on the outside and just gain some spots just being on the right lane. We didn’t have a good enough car to run in the top 5 today, but Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys did a great job getting our laps back. We had a dead battery at the start of the race; something bad like that, same thing I think happened to the No. 22 (Joey Logano). That cost us two laps early in the race and we worked real hard. Greg did a great job helping us get our laps back. The car was about a 15th or 10th place car. We were just lucky on those restarts as to where we lined up. And that really helped us.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3rd
YOU WERE A LOT BETTER THAN A TOP 10 CAR. BEST FINISH OF THE YEAR. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE FOR YOU TODAY?
“We just battled through it. Junior had trouble at the start and I was 40th when we started the race. One car at a time. One set of tires at a time. And then we were in great position around lap 350. We got the lead from (Carl) Edwards for a little bit. And we just kept working on it. And there’s nothing more that I could have gotten out of the car. I’m really happy with the way that everybody worked together. I shouldn’t be happy about finishing 3rd, but I’ll take it. It’s just a great effort. And the way that this team has come together is perfect. We just need to find that last little bit. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, and Chevrolet. It’s just wonderful to have a good group of guys to go out there each week to have a shot at it. And, I still don’t think I’m supposed to be happy about finishing 3rd. But, Edwards ran a great race. Congratulations to him.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4th
YOU MADE IT LOOK EASY, BUT IT WASN’T. YOU WERE TWO LAPS DOWN AFTER A LOOSE WHEEL AT ONE POINT. HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THAT?
“I just had a really good Kelley Blue Book/NAPA Chevrolet. The guys brought a fast car here this weekend. Started off a little slow. I didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to on Friday, but we hit on a couple of things, I thought, right there towards the end of final practice yesterday that we really liked. Fortunately that carried over to today and I was able to move forward. I hated to have a loose wheel, but stuff happens. The guys did a good job having a good pit stop under green. We only ended up losing two laps and that gave us a shot to get back. One down, and then trying to get back to the lead lap. It was a long day but I’m definitely proud of the effort. We’re chipping away, just not close enough.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 DITECH CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7th
YOU HAD ONE OF THE MOST DOMINANT CARS OUT THERE, BUT YOU WERE CONSTANTLY RESTARTING ON THE INSIDE. WAS THAT THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
“Yeah, it was definitely the biggest challenge for us. The guys did a great job with our ditech Chevy. We had the speed but it seemed like every restart we were just struggling to make ground on the restart and by the time you get to two or three spots back, you battle back to where you were and then the caution would come out again. But there’s nothing you can do about that. We raced hard all day and we’ll go to the next one.”
CLINT BOWYER, 15 5-HOUR ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
“It was a good finish and I’m proud of the finish. We had some luck which helped but proud of the result and good that the 5-hour ENERGY Chevrolet was able to get a top 10 today.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 WIX CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
“We overcame a lot of adversity today between getting a tire rub in one incident and front-nose damage in another. We persevered with a strong WIX Filters Chevrolet. The biggest challenge for us were restarts on the inside line. It was such a disadvantage starting there. We were very fortunate to take the last two on the high side. We had a good car. It was fast and it wanted to go. I’m very happy all and all. We’re looking forward to going to one of my favorite tracks next weekend at Richmond International Raceway.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 19TH
“Best car I’ve ever had here for sure. Actually felt like I knew what I was doing around this place. That was pretty cool. I was having a lot of fun. The Gibbs cars were definitely better, but I think we saw a couple of them obviously were right on the border line of probably having too much camber pushing the limits. Pit road problem, it’s the little stuff that we have to keep fixing. I honestly think we had a… if you look at the top five results I think I was better than most of them. I wasn’t going to beat the No. 19, but depending on where you restart and everything I think we were pretty good other than that. Just a long day, disappointing. It could have been a lot worse, but it could have been a lot better.”
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