NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PENNSYLVANIA 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 1, 2016
REGAN SMITH, NO. 7 APC CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
ON THE RACE:
“It’s been a strange weekend really weather wise. There were times yesterday I thought we were going to get to race and the track had like a pond underneath it apparently. I’m just proud of Tommy (Baldwin) and then the guys on the box for kind of realizing there was opportunity for a strategy play there. We have had a decent run today. We were a lot better than we were last time here. We have made a lot of gains with our race car and with our team. When you are a small team you’ve got to take those opportunities when you can. Fortunately, we were getting good enough fuel mileage to just keep trying to stretch it and have enough left for when the caution did come out. I don’t know that we could have predicted it would have been from fog. I think we were just trying to do what we could do to make sure we maintained as far up as we could and maybe lead a lap or something like that. That is what you’ve got to do sometimes.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
YOU HAVE HAD ARGUABLY THE FASTEST CAR ALL DAY LONG, SO I’M ASSUMING YOU WANT THIS FOG TO LIFT AND GO BACK TO GREEN
“Our Mobil 1 Chevy has been really fast. Obviously, we had one caution come out at the wrong time and the fog here at the end; I felt like we were in a pretty good spot running down to (Turn) 2 and here comes the fog. That’s kind of the way that things have gone this year. It seems like when we have a really fast car we just have some weird circumstances, and today would fall right into that category if they called it right now.”
MAYBE YOU’RE GETTING BACK LUCK OUT OF THE WAY BEFORE THE CHASE. YOU’VE HAD SPEED EVERY WEEK. HOW ENCOURAGED HAVE YOU BEEN SINCE YOU DECIDED TO TREAT EVERY RACE LIKE A CHASE RACE?
“Well, we got out butt kicked last week; the whole field did, by the No. 18 (Kyle Busch). I think as you look at that, that’s always been kind of a hit and miss race track over the last few years for us. But, the car has been really fast this week and it was really fast at Loudon. We’ve had the speed at most of the places; we just haven’t had things go right. It’s just things like this that you keep adding to a very long list of 2016.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS RACE CAR AND HOW MUCH DO YOU HOPE TO GET BACK UNDER GREEN?
“Well, I’m pretty happy with it. I’m not sure. I think we can gain a couple of spots, but I’m not sure that we might not go back a couple spots. We might average out at the end. If we end up fifth I’m pretty happy with this today.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
IF WE DO GET BACK GOING WHO ARE YOU KEEPING YOUR EYE ON?
“The No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) starts in front of us. I think he has got the best car actually. The No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) would be tough also, but we are right there also. Our Target Chevy has been good all day. It’s been fun running up front. The strategy has been pretty weird. We will somehow cycle to the lead and run around up there and then pit and then be back in traffic then cycle back to the lead. It’s been fun. Hopefully, this fog clears and we can get back going a little bit. It would be cool to see Chris Buescher win, but it would be the worst birthday present I’ve ever had in my life I know that. I’m hoping we get back racing and can at least get a few laps in and get him shuffled out.”
HOW MUCH FEEDBACK ARE YOU GIVING TO YOUR CREW CHIEF CHAD JOHNSTON?
“Well, as far as conditions and stuff they’ve got in-car cameras up here (points to the pit box) and they can see, but it’s been decent. There was that one part when I was leading and I was battling Austin. We had some rain on the windshield so we didn’t know if that was going to be the race to the end so we were racing hard. Here the fog has just kind of rolled in. Hopefully, that all clears up like I said and we can get back going.”
ON THE CHASE BUBBLE HOW DO YOU APPROACH THESE NEXT HANDFUL OF RACES KNOWING THE CHASE IS APPROACHING?
“If we do get going and we finish somewhere in the top five it’s a great points day for us, but if the No. 34 happens to win this thing it’s still decent as far as points go, but it just eliminates one more spot for us to try and get in. Right now that would put me back out of the Chase. We would just have to work really hard. I have some good tracks coming up for me, but it’s always nice to be in the Chase and padding that point’s behind you. I’ve got my fingers crossed.”
ON THE BATTLE WITH AUSTIN DILLON:
“I don’t think you ever want to expect contact, but obviously we were racing really hard. I was doing all I could to stay in front of him and he was doing all he could to get by me. We battled hard down the front stretch one time and then he got back to my inside into Turn 3. I left him plenty of room I was just going to try and run side-by-side with him again and try and slow him down on the front stretch. I guess he got loose underneath me and got into our door. That was pretty frustrating at the time, but it happens to not even really matter. That part of the race doesn’t matter at all. It doesn’t mean one thing to me. I just hope we can get back going racing.”
DID THE CONTACT DO MUCH DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR?
“We had some body damage after the contact and I could smell some smoke and stuff so I was pretty concerned and kind of hoping for a caution so we could get it repaired. We had that next caution. I think all they really had to do was pull the left-rear fender out and that was it and we were kind of back to normal. I felt like I didn’t have as much straightaway speed now as I did then. Maybe I have a little bit more damage than what we think, but other than that it has been okay.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON FINISHING ALL THE LAPS IN THE FIRST 21 RACES THIS SEASON, A NEW NASCAR RECORD:
“It’s nice to be in position to have completed all the laps. That is done with a lot of team work. It’s not just one person. It starts at the shop with the quality of cars and congratulations to everybody that has helped be part of this sequence. All-in-all we are finishing on the lead lap, we are finishing top 10 every week. We just know that we need to find a little bit more to be competitive once the Chase starts. All-in-all I can’t say thank you enough to everybody on the No. 41 SHR car.”
THE RACE TODAY:
“I felt like we were making all the right calls and all the right sequences on when to pit and we just had one adjustment go astray. We tried to loosen up the car with a left-rear wedge change and we ended up getting tighter. Sometimes that has happened to us this year and we just need to not fall into that pit fall and make sure we steer clear of wrong adjustments or adjustments that are questionable until we have a better handle on it.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
HOW IS THE CAR IF YOU GO BACK GREEN WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE?
“Hopefully, a couple of guys pit. It’s been a crazy day. I’ve got to thank the fans for sticking around. We’ve got a good Caterpillar Chevrolet and just look forward to getting back going here.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
ON HIS RACE:
“It’s been very awesome. Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) and the guys did a great job going into today to make the right adjustments. Turn 3 has been our strong suit. We could really get a run down the front stretch on guys. It’s was fun racing with the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) today. It was a heck of a race. It’s a shame. Hopefully, we get this thing finished off and we can get a better finish. We’ve just got to keep working. We proved today that we’ve got the speed to win we’ve just got to work on all the other aspects.”
IF WE GO BACK GREEN, CAN YOU GET BACK TO THE FRONT?
“We’re going to do everything we can. It’s frustrating. Man, we had a super-fast car, especially in Turn 3, and could really make up a lot of time on everybody there. It was fun racing that No. 42 (Kyle Larson). He bought me through the short shot of (Turn) 3 and I got loose under him. I knew if I downshifted I was going to really break loose, so I just kind of kept in fourth and we got loose together. But, it’s just frustrating. We’ve got to get better on all aspects and the good thing is that we had a fast enough car to win today, and I’m proud of that.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN HERE?
“I don’t know. Mother Nature is going to take its toll. We’ve just got to thank the good Lord for giving us a great opportunity today. It’s disappointing if we don’t get to make a better opportunity of it. But either way, I’m proud of my guys for a fast car.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
ON HIS RACE:
“We started off a little tight there. I thought we made good adjustments throughout the course of the day. I could kind of use the trackbar to help kind of guide the car the way I needed to. I feel like we had an eighth to 12th place car when were at our best. I think we still just need a little bit more to get to that next level of cars, but I felt like we just made good changes. Strategy kind of never worked out. I felt like we kind of always kind of got in the back of the field when the strategy kind of happened. We were able to pass cars and got what we got.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
A HOLE IN THE NOSE OF THE CAR? HOW HAS THAT CHANGED THE CAR FOR YOU TODAY?
“It happened early. I think they pointed it out to me on Lap 2. I really don’t know where it came from. But, it was just above the bumper bar where the bowtie sits on the nose of the car. There’s a huge rip there. At first, the balance was off a little bit. The car was pretty tight and slow on the straights. And then they were able to get that patched up. They worked on it two or three times and we lost track position doing so. We had the balance back on the car, but it’s just really slow on the straights. I feel like the air is being deflected up and maybe it’s starving the cowl and getting the air in the engine to have it run down the straightaways like it should. But we’re fighting through it and trying to get it going the right way.”
THE FACT THAT YOU RAN SO WELL AT INDIANAPOLIS, DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE TEAM HAS BEEN MAYBE TURNING THE CORNER A LITTLE BIT AS WE GET CLOSER TO THE PLAYOFFS?
“You leave Indy and think absolutely; and you have a long agonizing today from Lap 2, and you forget what happened at Indy. It’s crazy how humbling this sport is. The good news, and I’ve watched the No. 5 (Kasey Kahne) and I can’t believe how fast that car is down the straights and through the corners. I know track position isn’t working for him right now via strategy, but watching him pick cars off and move forward looks good. So, we may not have sunshine right now on the No. 48, but maybe on another car at Hendrick Motorsports. And we’ll keep stacking these pennies and hopefully be better when it comes down to the Chase.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 27TH
WHAT A CRAZY DAY FOR YOU. YOU HAD A SEATBELT MALFUNCTION THERE, WHERE IT CAME UNDONE ON A RESTART AND YOU HAD TO DROP TO THE BACK AND GOT IT CLIPPED, BUT THEN YOU HAD TO COME DOWN PIT ROAD ONCE AGAIN AND HOPEFULLY GET IT FULLY FIXED. WHAT HAPPENED?
“Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve ever had that happen with this type of mechanism where you just plug it in and it latches. I’ve had it happen under the old system with the old buckle. I was actually at Sonoma one time leading the race and we went right off the next corner when it happened. I was able to get that one latched. This one, I thought I had it latched because it happened actually on pit road one time. And I got it latched and lost some time. And then we were in a pretty good position on the restart and went to take off and as soon as I went into second and third, just that little bit of a side movement just pulled it out. It would go in and sort of latch, but when you wiggled it from left to right, it would pop right out. So, I don’t know if there is something lodged in there, or what happened or why it took so long for that to play out, but I knew I couldn’t go down into Turn 1 on these crazy restarts without a right-side seat belt. So, I came in under that stop. We worked on it and now it’s good. I have no clue. It’s unfortunate. The No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet is pretty good. We just need track position. We finally got it and I’ve been having some decent restarts and things were going good. I hate that that happened.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 33RD
TALK ABOUT THE DAY SO FAR
“I hated to put anybody in a bad spot. I had a bad segment of events prior to that (contact with Ryan Blaney) and I was trying to stop the bleeding doing all I could do. I felt like we were falling back. We were losing too many spots and I had to do something to try to keep from continuing to fall back and lose all that track position. Like I say, I hate to put anybody in a bad spot. I’m glad nothing happened there. But obviously that didn’t work out later on.”
VERY TIGHT RACING WITH JOEY LOGANO AS WELL?
“Yeah, we came off of Turn 1 and those guys were three-wide. I thought Denny (Hamlin) had the best run, so I elected to push him down the back, down there at the exit of Turn 1; I thought that would be a good move to kind of get him passed, that hopefully he’d drag me by; and I was just still next to him and got in there. I thought I slowed down enough to not get loose, but got loose and collected Joey. So, I apologize to those guys. It was completely my fault. And I apologize to my guys. Man, they gave me a good car. I need to re-think my evaluation of how I’m going to approach these races because it’s not working out right now.”
IT’S BEEN A ROUND MONTH OR SO. HOW DO YOU NOT LET THAT GET YOU DOWN?
“Oh, it’s just poor decisions on my behalf I think, is the biggest thing. So, the best way to fix it is obviously to see it at first and notice it and just go to work and like I said, rethink my approach. It’s definitely not working. We’ve had good cars. We had a good car today. I felt like we were a step in the right direction from where we had been the last couple of weeks, which I felt like was a good sign. I just didn’t do my part. I need to rethink things and try to do a better job and put us in a better position. It’s not bad luck. It’s just me putting us in bad spots.”
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