CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
SEASON FINALE
FORD ECOBOOST 400
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 20, 2016
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER AND CHAMPION
DID YOU EVER DREAM THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE?
“Oh my gosh, there is no, no way on earth. Just beyond words. Just didn’t think the race was unfolding for us like we needed to do to be the champs, but we just kept our heads in the game. Chad called a great strategy, made some great adjustments for the short runs. Luck came our way and we were able to win the race and win the championship. I wouldn’t be here without so many people believing in me and giving me this chance; from my dirt days – my parents first and foremost, my brothers, my wife and family today. Car owners, sponsors, Chevrolet, Lowe’s, so many amazing people along the way that believed in me to give me this chance. Jeff Gordon, Rick Hendrick, all the men and women at Hendrick Motorsports for working so hard to get these cars fast and giving me an awesome 15 years with the company. Just thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. So thrilled to be in this moment and so grateful for the opportunity and so thankful and blessed. I am at a loss for words.”
PETTY, EARNHARDT AND NOW YOU CAN SAY JOHNSON. WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 7 FOR YOU?
“It’s big. It has a different meaning. The No. 7 has a very special place in my heart with Ricky Hendrick. As a lot of people know. For some reason I just felt good and calm today and things just kind of unfolded at the end for us. I know it was help from above. In my heart I wanted to believe it would happen. It has and I just can’t believe it. Thank you so much!”
HOW IS YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW?
“My heart is so full. I had this crazy calmness over myself all day long leading in to this. Even with us running fifth and the championship not looking like it was going to be there. I just felt something. My heart was full because I was thinking of some loved one. Ricky Hendrick and his influence of me being in this race car. Dedicating the #Se7en hashtag to him and kind of building up to this. Something happened from above. It was those late restarts that gave us this opportunity. I’m just so thankful. So thankful to have Robert Niblock here from Lowe’s. They have been with me since day one, and believed in me.
“Chevrolet – it is the only car I have ever driven. Hendrick Motorsports. It is home for me. It has been the perfect place. My family, friends as well. You wish you could say something really impactful in these moments but there is so much swirling going on right now in my head. I’m overly blessed and thankful.”
ON HIS GIRLS:
“They are pretty happy. Not sure they understand what is going on but their little hears are full too.”
WHAT DID MICHAEL JORDAN SAY AFTER YOU TEXTED HIM WHEN YOU WON SIX AND SAID ‘WHAT NOW’?
“Go get seven. I do remember what he said. We got it! MJ, where are you buddy? We got it now.”
ON ALL THE DRIVERS THAT CAME AND CONGRATULATED HIM:
“It means so much. We are working with them all each and every week so many great friendships and relationships here in the garage.”
RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS:
“It is unbelievable. Jimmy was using the No. 7 that Ricky had and dedicating it to him. That was so special. To see him tie Richard and Dale, it is just unbelievable. I’m still in shock. I think it will sink in later tonight. But we are so proud of him. To do it through all these different formats is so special. What a great representative of the sport he is. Me getting into the Hall (of Fame) this year, and him celebrating. This is beyond exciting. I’m so proud of him and the team. So proud so proud.”
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS:
“I’m pretty speechless right now. It has been an awesome, awesome journey but it has been a very trying season. We’ve had a lot of good things. We have had some difficulties along the way. But to be able to be where we are at today with Lowe’s, one team, one driver, one crew chief, one sponsor…to be able to win all seven championships is just awesome. I can’t thank everyone at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet enough. All of our other corporate partners. The guys and gals at HMS have buckled down and worked so hard to be able to give us the race cars we needed to have to be able to compete. It definitely showed. We got three wins in the second half of the season is pretty phenomenal.”
JEFF GORDON, TEAM CO-OWNER, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS:
THOUGHTS ON THIS GREAT TEAM EFFORT TONIGHT:
“Well, it was certainly a different perspective on it being on the pit box with Rick (Hendrick, Team Owner), Chad (Knaus, crew chief), and all those guys on that 48 team. Obviously you never give up until that checkered flag waves. You know, there were moments throughout the weekend where I thought Jimmie and the 48 team were the best ones out there and there were times when it looked like we were going to settle for less than the championship. But those guys never stopped fighting or gave up. The best pit stops came at the right time and the calls that Chad made came at the right time. Jimmie had the most incredible moves and restarts at the end when it counted most and that is why those guys are seven time champions and proved it again tonight.”
“This was certainly a different perspective to be on the box with Rick, Chad and all the guys on the 48 team. Obviously you never give up until the checker flag waves. There were moments throughout the weekend when I felt that Jimmie and the Nol. 48 team were the best ones out there, then they looked like we were going to have to settle for less than the championship. But yet those guys never stopped fighting nor never gave up. The calls Chad made came at exactly the right time and Jimmie had incredible restarts and moves there at the end when it counted the most. That’s why those guys are seven time champions and they proved it again tonight.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
“Congrats to Jimmie (Johnson) congrats to Chevy for winning the championship, that’s pretty cool and that Jimmie could win seven there. We had the car to win there and I know that I did everything in my power to win the race. But rules are rules and I have to work in the box.”
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THERE?
“Well, you are supposed to be side-by-side entering the box and he was all the way behind me. So not really anything I could do to maintain his distance behind me. But its whatever, I am happy for him.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON THE RACE:
“Just a product of hard work. I will be honest I was shocked by how bad we were. Dropped the green and the car wouldn’t turn and we just kind of fought that all night. This tire is a tire that we’ve definitely struggled on. Got to keep doing our homework on it. Had a pit road penalty, we fought back there and kept doing the right thing. I could see the No. 21 was the guy we were actually racing. He was having trouble, so I was just trying to be smart. Kept getting the wave around, kept getting our laps back, and missed the big wreck and hell I don’t know how we finished eighth. Good finish we’ve definitely got to do our homework to be better and be ready for next year.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, NO. 59 THRIVENT FINANCIAL CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
“We had a great car. We made up a lot of spots in the beginning and we just sort of maintained that all day. We were running right there 16th – 20th most of the day and the strategy worked out, everything played out. Got back on the lead lap which obviously was a game changer. There at the end we got a couple of good restarts and we had a good car. We were able to close off a good season.”
WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT THIS TEAM AND WHERE YOU GUYS ARE HEADED NEXT YEAR?
“Well, it’s great momentum. The last 10 weeks have been great. We have run more in the top 20 than we ever have. As you do that every weekend it gets easier and easier to do it. We’ve got a busy off season and still got to work hard and everybody is going to be trying to find extra speed come February.”
IS THAT A GOOD WAY TO END THE SEASON?
“Oh it’s a great way to end the season. Anytime you can go into the off season with your best run of the season that is a pretty big deal.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
“We really struggled on racetracks that chew up tires such as Homestead, Texas, Chicago and Fontana. We just didn’t have the long-run speed or the balance, but luck played in our favor today to take the wave around and guys we were running with in points got in that wreck to help us get back on the lead lap and to get a set of fresh tires at the end. We were able to dodge some of the cars on the restart with the damage we had. It wasn’t the Chase we wanted. We were the slowest seventh-place car in points that I’ve ever seen.”
“We finished a spot higher in points but we didn’t have the car as good this year as we did last year. The second half of the season was a struggle. We need to revamp our notes and try to turn over a new leaf starting next year.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 ALWAYS A RACER/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 22ND
HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE THIS DAY AND CLIMBING OUT OF THAT THING FOR THE LAST TIME?
“I’m proud. It’s been an awesome 21 years racing in NASCAR with the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series. That is really cool to see that No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) up there making history. Now we’ve got three guys in the seven win club. Pretty proud day, I was glad I got to race with him on the day he got his seventh.”
WHAT WERE YOUR MEMORIES TODAY? WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THROUGHOUT THIS DAY?
“I raced. I did what I do every time I get in the car. I didn’t think of anything else other than just racing the race. We got behind there and we tried something to make ground and got caught out and had to run 60 laps on a set of tires. At the end the line-up there was, let’s say confusing. I was still screaming about that just like I would on any other race. I was true to form all the way to the end.”
ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER ABOUT TODAY?
“The whole day. It’s still hard to digest it all right now. The whole day was awesome. You couldn’t ask for it to be a better day.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO LEAD THE FIELD?
“Humbling. I’ve said all year I just want to be one of the guys racing. To be put out there it’s an honor, but it’s humbling at the same time.”
HOW GOOD OF A JOB WERE YOU ABLE TO DO KEEPING YOURSELF LOW KEY THIS SEASON?
“I’m happy with the year.”
I HEARD YOU TALK ABOUT THEY ARE GOING TO GET YOUR VISORS RIGHT FOR VOLUSIA. DOES THAT MEAN YOU ARE DEFINITELY DOING VOLUSIA DIRT?
“No, but I can take him over there since he will be at Daytona. I’ve got an interior guy that grew up in Pennsylvania where there are a gazillion dirt tracks and the kid has never been to a dirt race and he still doesn’t know how to put tear-offs on. At least he was consistent all the way to the end himself.”
WHAT ARE YOU DOING MONDAY?
“Off road riding like I do every year. The annual four-wheeler trip.”
YOU STILL DON’T NEED YOUR SURGERY RIGHT?
“No, no surgeries we are free and clear this year on surgeries.”
WHEN WILL YOU BE BACK IN A RACE CAR?
“Don’t know yet. Stay tuned we will let you know when we know. It won’t be long. We aren’t going to wait too long.”
BEFORE YOU CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR?
“No.”
WHAT DID ALL YOUR PEERS SAY?
“They had all kinds of cool things. That is probably the best part of the day is just your peers and fellow drivers and crew chiefs and crew members. Probably the coolest thing about the day to actually answer your question that I just thought of was just pulling away and coming down pit road and high fiving all those guys. It made me think back to the moment when Dale, Sr. won the Daytona 500. It was just an awesome moment. It made me feel good because those are guys that like us and we have mutual respect for each other.”
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