NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PURE MICHIGAN 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 28, 2016
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
TALK ABOUT THE EMOTION OF WINNING, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?
“I was teared-up that whole last few laps because I could just feel it. It was finally going to be it. This one is for the Clauson family. We really miss Bryan. We love you guys. We’re going to miss him. We parked it for him, so that’s really cool.
“We had a lot of work to do for that first third of the race, and got it done. Thanks to Target. Thanks to everyone on this team. Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and the pit crew and everybody. We messed up that last stop by we made it back.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT FINAL RESTART? IT PROBABLY WASN’T AS CLEAN AS YOU WANTED IT. HOW DID YOU GET THE LEAD FROM THE NO. 24 (CHASE ELLIOTT)?
“We both spun our tires really bad. And, the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) pushed me really good. He could have probably pulled underneath me and went by. But he stayed with me and got me the lead. So, thanks to him. I had a lot of fun.”
AFTER THAT LAST PIT STOP, WERE YOU THINKING YOUR SHOT WAS GONE BECAUSE IT DIDN’T GO WELL AND YOU WENT BACK TO FOURTH?
“Yeah, we fell back to fourth and I thought we were done. I’m sort of at a loss for words right now. My Adrenalin is going crazy right now. Thanks to all the fans who are watching. I had a good time.”
AFTER LOSING YOUR CLOSE FRIEND, BRYAN CLAUSON, DID YOU THINK A COUPLE OF WEEKS LATER YOU WOULD BE CELEBRATING IN THE CHASE, WHICH YOU ARE NOW IN?
“After AJ (Allmendinger) got into us I thought we were done there at Watkins Glen. But it feels good. I just want to celebrate with everybody and have a good time.”
CHIP GANASSI, CAR OWNER, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET
HOW ABOUT THIS YOUNG MAN AND WHAT HE’S BEEN THROUGH TO GET TO THIS POINT?
“Well, he hung in there with our team. We were building. We’ve been building over the years. He came on board and did a great job. The team rallied around him. I can’t say enough about the kid and the job he’s done over the last few years and it’s been a nice gradual coming-up through the pack. And I couldn’t be more happy with Kyle right now.”
IT’S BEEN A ROUGH COUPLE OF WEEKS FOR HIM. THEY LOST 59 POINTS IN JUST TWO RACES. TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS AND TO GET YOU GUYS INTO THE CHASE, TALK ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE FOR YOUR TEAM
“It’s really, really big. We’ve been on the cusp for so many years. We got Jamie (McMurray) in there last year and now getting Kyle in, we couldn’t be happier. I’m kind of speechless to tell you the truth.”
AND YOU BREAK A WINLESS STREAK, TOO, OF 99 RACES
“It was a big one. It was a big one. I hate to put the onus on somebody else, but boy I’m sure glad to. And I can’t thank Target enough and all of our other sponsors that make up the team in all the series’ that we’re in. It’s one big team…all the engineers and all these people work so damn hard. And to go winless for so long is really difficult. Only one person wins in this sport. It’s like golf. There’s only one winner. And we’re just proud to be here right now. I’m really proud to represent out team and proud to represent our sponsors.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ON THE LAST FEW LAPS AND WHAT MORE HE NEEDED TO GET THE WIN:
“Just a better restart again. That was what it was all about for sure. Once that guy (Kyle Larson) got out front it was really hard to pass. My guys did such a good job today of making the most of pit road. That was the only place you could make a large sum of ground in a short period of time. They did exactly what I asked them to do. I said ‘you guys are going to have to bail me out here I messed up.’ They did they got us the lead just like I asked and I gave it away again. It’s one of those things where you do or you don’t and I didn’t. You just got to recognize your mistakes, look at the positives I guess and move on down the road.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
ON HIS FIFTH PLACE RUN AND WHAT SORT OF CHALLENGES HE FACED DURING THE DAY:
“We just lost the handle there on the last couple of runs. For whatever reason we got really loose in and then after that on the restart we were tight on two tires. Everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Busch Beer Chevrolet did a good job we just didn’t quite have what we need to to win the race today.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Yeah just a very good day for all of Hendrick Motorsports. Unfortunately, one of our cars didn’t win today. We had an issue with some fueling on pit road that dropped us back. Then I thought I had a right-rear tire going down. To rally back and end up sixth is good. We are working hard and it’s nice to see the speed showing. There has been a lot of hard work for months and months and months going into this. We didn’t see the consistency in speed that we wanted, but this weekend we’ve had it from day one until now. It’s going in the right direction.”
ENCOURAGING TO HAVE IT HAPPEN THIS TIME OF YEAR:
“Yeah, for sure. This was the 2017 package or the proposed 2017 package, so we will see more next weekend in Darlington, although, Darlington is such a unique race track on its own. We feel like we are doing the right things to get speed in our cars and fortunately we still have a few months before we have to race for a championship at Homestead.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF KYLE LARSON GETTING HIS FIRST CAREER WIN?
“I’m excited for him. When we took that last restart I saw three guys up there that hadn’t won before. In my mind I thought ‘man I hope one of these guys gets it.’ Certainly, Chase (Elliott) being a Hendrick car. It’s great for our sport. They are very strong young talents and Kyle is well deserved and a long time coming.”
WILL HE BE A FACTOR IN THE CHASE?
“You never know. The Ganassi cars have been showing a lot of consistent speed. Homestead is a great track for him. If he makes it to Homestead he is definitely a threat.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Well I thought we were going to be better than that in practice. I thought that the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) and our cars were really comparable. They just… man an awesome job by him to get his first win here. I had a really good restart at the end and probably finished better than we should have and finished ahead of the guys that we needed to.”
TALK ABOUT THE NEXT TWO RACES AND WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO:
“Well you just have to get the most points you can and try to win. I honestly didn’t know that we would have another first time winner, but we did. And just go and get all the points we can.”
TALK ABOUT KYLE (LARSON) GETTING HIS FIRST WIN:
“He is due. He has been in position more than once to be able to win a race. I think he was in second when the caution came out. I don’t know if he was going to be able to win at that point. It’s cool that he got a good restart and earned it. I’m really happy for that team, for that sponsor, for our whole organization. From where we started our year to where our cars are now we have made a lot of progress. Props to those guys.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
“We gave it a battle. We were just lucky with where the yellows fell to maintain our position. Overall we just couldn’t attack because we were way too loose today. Unfortunate, everything fell our way at the end to get a nice 12th place finish, but we’ve got some things we need to iron out and other things that we need to focus on for the Chase. We’ve got a couple of weeks here and we will be at our best come Chase time.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 15TH
“That is the best we have been here for sure. We made a lot of gains and our long run car was really good. Just never could get going on restarts. I was always just… I couldn’t figure out where I needed to run. That last caution hurt us a lot. Just didn’t get a good restart. I didn’t get to the outside quick enough and then we were just too loose there. I still should have gotten to the top earlier. I was trying to see what was going to happen and I didn’t get to the outside quick enough. Just wish I would have got more there. I thought we deserved better than a 15th, but we haven’t been close to being 15th here in three years. It’s definitely a lot of gains there. Overall, happy, but just in the short term disappointed with the finish.”
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