NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 10, 2016
TONY STEWART TOPS THE CHART FOR TEAM CHEVY IN QUALIFYING AT MICHIGAN
Five Chevrolet SS Drivers in Top 10
BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 10, 2016) – Tony Stewart powered the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS to the top qualifying position among the Team Chevy drivers for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a time of 198.950 mph/36.190 seconds. It marks Stewart’s 10th top-10 start at the super-fast 2.0-mile Michigan international Speedway, his second in seven races this season.
Ryan Newman was sixth quick in the No. 31 Grainger Chevrolet SS, and Kyle Larson was seventh in the No. 42 Target Chevy SS. Newman’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Austin Dillon, qualified eighth in the No. 3 Dow Salutes Veterans Chevrolet SS, and Rookie of the Year contender, Chase Elliott, drove his No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevy SS to a 10th place start.
Joey Logano (Ford) won the pole position, Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) was second, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) qualified fourth, and Ryan Blaney (Ford) was fifth.
The FireKeepers Casino 400 takes the green at 1 pm ET Sunday June 12th. Live coverage will be available on FoxSports 1, MRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd
HOW DID THAT LAP FEEL?
“I’m glad that was the last time I had to do that today. It felt really good. We were really loose in practice and Mike (Bugarewicz, crew chief) did a great job in the break there of making some big changes to get us caught up. It got my confidence back there and made me feel like I finally had the right-rear (tire) in the track there. Now we can hustle a little bit.”
A LOT OF DISCUSSIONS ABOUT ‘WHEELMEN’ AND DRIVERS THIS AERODYNAMIC PACKAGE WILL PLAY TO. YOUR NAME COMES UP IN THAT CONVERSATION ARE WE HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION WITH THIS? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE FOR THEM ON SUNDAY?
“I think we will all know a little more tomorrow when we get in practice and get around other cars. It has been a long road trying to get the package to go this direction, but we finally got them going the right way. I think it’s going to make it better for everybody.”
ON HIS QUALIFYING SESSIONS:
“We just kept getting better and better honestly. Typically, you get tighter and tighter as each run goes and we were still a little too free at the beginning and then it seemed like it just kept coming to us and we kept making changes to compensate for it. The big thing was that break in between practice and qualifying for Mike (Bugarewicz, crew chief) to make those changes he did. It is definitely a good position to be in for here. This is a track where track position means so much anyway. We are at least off to a good start right now.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 14th
WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED OUT OF THE CAR?
“Well, I think the car was quite a bit more free on entry this weekend and it’s hard to get the car to turn through the middle. Like we said during the break, it’s so much better than what we had here last year where you literally were running wide-open and hard a hard time making the car faster. It’s so much more fun to be able to find a balance and then work on that. I think it’s a great package. We just waited a little too long. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the McDonald’s Chevy.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 16th
WHICH END OF THE RACE TRACK IN THIS ROUND HURT YOU THE MOST?
“Qualifying is not my specialty by any means. So, 16th doesn’t look good, but it’s not the worst day we’ve had. We’ve started a lot worse before. But for us, truthfully, the track has changed so much since our practice session, some rounds and then the track bar and tire pressure isn’t going to fix what we’ve got going on. The car is just really, really loose. We maybe need to go on the scales and change some springs around and work on the car. We put our best foot forward and took a huge swing at it. We just didn’t have enough in what we can adjust here on pit road.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 27th
WHAT WAS THE HINDRANCE TODAY?
“We were pretty good in practice, so I don’t know. We got really loose into Turn 3 on the first run. I think a lot of people did. A lot of people didn’t anticipate that it would be as free as it was. And, we made some adjustments that really didn’t help us any. So, we went back out there and it was worse; it was much looser into (Turn) 3 so we couldn’t finish the lap. We’ll be all right. It’s a good wide race track. You can do a lot of good things out there on the track and on pit road. It’s frustrating because I thought when we showed up we had good speed, good speed in our mock run. We’re just trying to get qualifying a little bit better.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 OUTBACK CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 29th
“With the car on the race track and the debris up out of the groove, and you could hold the cars at the end of pit road but it is what it is. Our Outback Chevy will be fine, but there’s really not much you can do about that.”
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