CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
SEASON FINALE
FORD 400
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 18, 2016
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
“I am just so proud of everybody on this Jimmy John’s Chevrolet team. They want to come to the race track and bring good race cars and perform well. Just real proud of that. I didn’t know if we had a chance at the pole with as fast as the No. 24 (Chase Elliott) had been. But I knew if we could just run the same speed every round, that is half the battle because you never know how much it is going to slow down for everybody else, and it doesn’t take much to make a mistake. Really proud of everybody on our Jimmy John’s team. Have to thank everyone at Hendricks Engines and Chassis and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Tony Stewart for one last race. It will be weird not to see him on the race track next year.”
GOOD WAY TO START THE WEEKEND:
“Well, I am just really proud of everyone on this Jimmy John’s/Busch team for everything they have done the last three years really, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. But I’m really proud of the character and effort that we put together really throughout the whole year and this just goes to show you where the focus of the team is and what they do. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are.”
NICE RUN FOR THE POLE:
“Really proud of everybody on the Jimmy John’s team for just battling through the whole year. We’ve had ups and downs and a lot of good things happen, but it has come from a lot of adversity as well. Just really proud of the effort the guys are putting in this weekend. Felt like we had a good practice in race trim and they did a good job with the qualifying stuff. We had speed right off the bat so after that it was just trying to get the driver to catch up with the car.”
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS WEEKEND?
“I’ve been here a lot more times without the pressure of the Chase than I have with it. I’ve been fortunate really the last three years with everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing of having really good performing cars. This stuff is hard. In case anybody didn’t realize that, this stuff is hard. We are splitting hairs here between who is in and who is out and who is good and who is bad is determined by not very much.
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 ALWAYS A RACER/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 11th
“The first round was pretty good. I felt like we got through (Turns) 1 and 2 good the first round, lost time in (Turns) 3 and 4. The second round I changed where I ran in (Turns) 3 and 4 and felt like I made a much better lap. Then in the third round we just got tight in both ends. I think we have an idea of what we could have done to make it better. When Clint (Bowyer) comes here next year we will have that in our bank.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 12th
“The car had good speed and made a good adjustment from the first session to the second session to pick up a good bit of time. Just such a fine line there are so many different lines to run here, so by the third round I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, we got blocked there. Just unfortunate. I think the cars got good speed and I just got to work on pacing myself around this place. It’s a tough race track to get around for sure. Anytime you can make the final round just shows the cars got good speed in it. That is a positive and we will just kind of keep working on a direction going in the race and go from there.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 14th
WHAT DID MORE DID YOU NEED?
“Unfortunately, that first outing we just didn’t get a good lap. Then I was on a great lap and the caution came out so we ended up with an additional lap on our tires. We had a nice pick up there for five or six laps on our tires, whatever it was and ended up 14th. A bit unlucky and we kind of hurt ourselves that opening run and I think to end up 14th on the age of those tires is respectable. Qualifying isn’t my strong suit, I’m much better at racing, so let’s line them up and go racing.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t know it felt like an okay lap, but it was just slow. I looked at dartfish, my corner exit wasn’t where it needed to be. I was definitely off there, so I was too free that first run. We worked on it. I felt like the lap when the caution came out I would have been able to transfer and keep a lap off my tires, but that caution got me. What is a championship race without a little drama?”
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