NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES’ SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 4, 2016
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUSCH BEER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ON HIS NIGHT:
“Our team in the garage did a great job. They brought the fastest race car to the track once again and we just didn’t do a good job on pit road and gave it away.”
HOW MUCH DID THE RACE CHANGE AND HOW DID YOUR CAR REACT THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT?
“We started 12th and eighth and sixth and we had a great race car all night just got to thank everybody in the shop and in the garage for putting the race cars under us. We can’t just continuously shoot ourselves in the foot every few pit stops.”
HOW MUCH IN THE FOREFRONT OF YOUR MIND WERE THE PIT STOPS ON PIT ROAD TONIGHT?
‘Oh, it’s just the same old thing. You get in position where you bring a dominant car. The guys in the shop and the guys in the garage are doing a great job, and the guys on pit road are doing a terrible job. You get in a position to win races, and they continually step on their toes and don’t make it happen. You’re not going to win races like that. I’m really proud of the car that we brought tonight and the things that we’ve done on the race track, but you can only make so many excuses for pit road.”
I’M SURE THIS WILL BE A CONVERSATION THIS WEEK, BUT HOW DO YOU GET IT CLEANED-UP BEFORE THE CHASE STARTS?
“That’s a good question for (crew chief) Rodney (Childers).”
TALK ABOUT THE FINAL RESTART. IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE CATCHING MARTIN TRUEX JR. FOR A LITTLE BIT THERE
“He had a good car. I had a good car. I hit the wall a little bit there, the run before. We had control of the race and just were pile-driving them all night, and just gave it away.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
HOW DID THE RACE GO FOR YOU?
“It was long. My spotter said we were halfway and I was like ‘are you kidding me we still have however many to go?’ But it was a good night. We had to fight pretty hard to get to the top four or five. Our pit stops weren’t great there in the beginning, but they rebounded and we had some good stops there at the end to maintain. The last probably five or six stops I thought were pretty good. We were able to get past Denny (Hamlin) and get to the lead and lead some laps. We had a really good car out front. In traffic, I was just too tight for a little while and as we went I would get too loose on exit, but I found some lines that worked for me and that helped, but a tough race. It is good to come back after the win last week and finish third. I’m really happy with everybody on this Target team for working so hard and digging deep there throughout the race to get us in position.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 LIFTMASTER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
ON HIS NIGHT AT DARLINGTON:
“Yeah, we had great pit stops. The guys did a really nice job the entire race, but really at the end it gave us some positions, which was great to get a top 10. We just had a nice car with the Liftmaster Chevrolet. We had a vibration that really hurt us a lot throughout the race and we had it again the final run. When we had that I was nowhere near as good as I was when I didn’t have it. I only didn’t have it like once or twice, but it seemed like that was a pretty big part of our night. But when we didn’t have it I felt like we had a pretty nice car. A couple of things we could work on to be better though.”
NEXT WEEK AT RICHMOND IS THE LAST RACE TO THE CHASE TALK ABOUT YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING INTO THAT RACE:
“Yeah, we just have to keep getting better as a team, keep putting good cars out there and I need to do a good job driving and we need to progress throughout the race. Have great pit stops, just kind of things that we did tonight. We need to keep doing and getting better at. I will be much happier if we can do that the rest of the season.”
WERE YOU THINKING THERE FOR A MOMENT, THAT YOU MIGHT GET TWO IN A ROW?
“Yeah, I was leading there for a while and we were really good out front, especially for 15 or 20 laps; then I would get too loose and I could see Martin Truex, Jr. catching me. But, I knew we would get come cautions and if we could have just come out the leader on those pit stops I think we would have had a good shot. But, our stops were good there at the end. We were able to maintain on everything, pit stops included. All in all, it was a great day for the Target team. It’s nice to get contend for another win two weeks in a row. If things would have played out right, yeah, we would have maybe could have gotten a second win, but to get a top 3 leading up to the Chase like we got, is really important right now. I’m happy about all the effort and looking forward to the next couple of weeks.”
WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL LEADING INTO THE CHASE?
“My confidence is really high. Those Chase tracks are really good for me. I enjoy going to most all of them. There’s a couple in there that I’m not great at, but most of the tracks are 1.5-miles and worn-out surfaces that I really like. I’m excited about it and am glad to be in the Chase for once, and then go for a championship.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
SOLID EFFORT FOR YOUR TEAM IN ADVANCE OF GOING TO TRY TO MAKE THE CHASE NEXT WEEK AT RICHMOND:
“Yeah a good effort, but I mean guys have got to step it up in the pits. I mean we try hard, but trying hard ain’t good enough when you are losing three spots at a time.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS VF-1 MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET – Sidelined in crash on lap 326
WHAT HAPPENED?
“We had a tough night. You’ve got to be ready for battle on these restarts. Just not enough give. Too much take. For me, we had a tough night. We were trying to get the loose and tight worked out. He’s (No. 27 Paul Menard) just sideways. He just pushed too hard. That’s what happens when I didn’t give him enough room. He overdrove. I was right there on our limit. It’s the end of our night. It was just a tough night for all the hard work that goes into it. All these races come down to the restarts at the end. There’s no such thing as a long green flag run anymore. And you’ve got to be ready to battle on these restarts. The problem is that everybody’s got good give and take at early in the race, nobody has it at the end.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 COCA-COLA CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined with cooling issues on lap 317
HAVE YOU DETERMINED THE FAILURE?
“Yeah, overheating was the first part of it, and it finally grenaded. It was 375 degrees on water temperature. There’s a screen in there that keeps all the trash from getting into the radiator and it got separated from its mount, so all the trash was getting underneath it and going up inside the radiator and it just kept blocking it until we finally lost the motor.”
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