TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
GEICO 500
TALLADEGA, ALABAMA
MAY 7, 2017
BOWTIE BULLETS
- CHEVROLET TOP 40: Did you know? Talladega Superspeedway is one of six tracks on the current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) schedule where Chevrolet has 40 or more victories. Chevrolet eclipsed the 40-win mark at the 2.66-mile superspeedway when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took his Chevrolet SS to victory at in May of 2015. Chevrolet leads all other manufacturers with exactly 40 wins at Talladega.
- CHEVY HISTORY MINUTE: Chevrolet has a rich history at Talladega Superspeedway. Long-time Chevrolet ambassador, Dale Earnhardt leads almost all statistical categories at the 2.66-mile track. Earnhardt holds the record for most wins with 10, most to-fives with 23 and most top 10’s with 27 to his credit. Of active drivers, his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., driver of the No. 88 Chevy SS, leads with six wins at Talladega.
- TIED FOR THE TOP: Richard Childress Racing (RCR) and Hendrick Motorsports have campaigned the Chevrolet brand within their race teams since the inception of each organization. Chevrolet has enjoyed a 48-year relationship with RCR and a 34-year partnership with Hendrick Motorsports. Both organizations have found immense success at Talladega Superspeedway, they are currently tied for the top spot on the all-time win list at ‘Dega with 12 wins each.
- ALL-TIME WINS LIST: Lifetime Chevrolet driver and seven-time Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, currently has 82 career Cup Series victories. A trip to Victory Lane this weekend would tie Johnson with Cale Yarborough for sixth on the all-time Cup Series wins list.
- POLE MAN: This weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, Elliott Sadler with join Tommy Baldwin racing for his second Cup Series event of the 2017 season. Sadler currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but currently leads all active Cup Series drivers in pole wins at Talladega Superspeedway with three first-place starts on his racing resume.
- TUNE-IN: The GEICO 500 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 7 at 2 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
BY THE NUMBERS:
- Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships
- Team Chevy drivers have scored 769 wins and 690 poles in MENCS competition
- Chevrolet drivers have won 40 of 95 races at Talladega Superspeedway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS, has six victories at Talladega (’01, ’02 – TWICE, ’03, ‘04 & ’15)
- Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, has gone to Victory Lane at Talladega Superspeedway twice (’06 & ’11)
- Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s $1 Any Size Soft Drink Chevrolet SS, has two wins at Talladega Superspeedway (’09 & ‘13)
- A Chevrolet driver has won one of the last four races at Talladega Superspeedway
- A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Talladega Superspeedway 34 times
- Team Chevy drivers have scored 183 top-five and 344 top-10 finishes at Talladega Superspeedway
- A Chevrolet has led laps 7,657 (42.5% of possible 18,001 laps) at Talladega Superspeedway
FOR THE FANS:
- Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Midway at Talladega Superspeedway
- Fans can check out great a great assortment of Chevrolet vehicles including: lmpala 2LZ, Equinox Premier, Corvette Grand Sport, Colorado Crew Diesel, Silverado 2500 High Country, Silverado Crew LTZ, Suburban, Chevrolet SS, Camaro and Malibu
- At the Chevrolet Display, fans can view the No, 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, No. 3 DOW Chevrolet SS and No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro Xfinity Series show cars
- Also on display is a Chevrolet R07 racing engine complete with electronic fuel injection. Fans can also see a sample of engines, parts and accessories available for purchase from Chevrolet Performance at their local Chevrolet dealer
- Other activities at the Team Chevy Racing Display include a variety of interactive games for adults and kids
TEAM CHEVY QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS AT THE DISPLAY:
- Friday, May 5th
- 3:30 p.m. – Brandon Jones
- 3:45 p.m. – Spencer Gallagher
- Saturday, May 6th
- 8:30 a.m. – JD Motorsports
- Sunday, May 7th
- 9:30 a.m. – Elliott Sadler
- 9:55 a.m. – Jimmie Johnson
- 10:15 a.m. – Ty Dillon
- Chevrolet Display Hours of operation: Fri. May 5th – 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Sat. May 6th – 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sun. May 7th – 7:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 SHARE AN ICE COLD COKE CHEVROLET SS – POINTS LEADER
“There’s always a bit of anxiousness when you’re headed to Talladega. I haven’t historically run great at restrictor plate races, but I think Daytona this year showed that our shop has made some real gains on the superspeedway cars. Both me and Jamie had strong Chevy’s to start the season, and I think a few years of plate racing has helped improved my racing at those tracks. I got to do some pre-race media for Talladega a few weeks ago and they’ve got another great weekend lined up. This weekend, we’ll be looking to do what we can to get up front, earn some stage points, have some luck, and be in a position for a good finish.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – 3RD IN STANDINGS
ON WHAT HE CAN TAKE FROM DAYTONA AND APPLY TO TALLADEGA
“I think they are real similar. I think some of the same guys win at Talladega as they do at Daytona. Your good plate racers are good plate racers and they are going to have success at both. Hopefully, we can carry the same speed we had in our car at Daytona to Talladega and if we can do that, that is all we can ask for.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S $1 ANY SIZE SOFT DRINK CHEVROLET SS – 7TH IN STANDINGS
“Talladega is always a wild-card race. The schedule for the weekend is pretty laid-back, because teams will usually limit practice and once qualifying is over it is quiet until race time with the impound of the cars. I have been fortunate enough to win a couple of times at Talladega, but it is usually a matter of luck to be at the right place, at the right time. We have had fast cars every week so far and I know that our Superspeedway cars are always competitive, hopefully we can manage to avoid issues on Sunday and be in position to race for the win in the closing laps.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – 8TH IN STANDINGS
“Talladega is crazy. It’s about survival. I hope we have a better showing at this restrictor plate track than we did in Daytona, where we crashed. Either way, it should be great entertainment for the fans. I’m looking forward to Andrew Moore’s perspective as a photographer for us this weekend as well.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – 13TH IN STANDINGS
“I think the stage racing will definitely change the strategy of how I will race this race. In the past, I would drop to the back and make a run at the front when there was less than 50 laps to go. I think we’ll see what we saw in Daytona earlier this year. I think you may see a few guys drop back for just a little bit but at some point, they will run to the front or at least run to their best position to get points. It really is no different than any other track. You still have time to kind of put yourself in position or wait to put yourself in position.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 UNIFIRST HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – 20TH IN STANDINGS
“Talladega is such a tough place to win. You have control of a lot of the stuff going on, but then there’s so much that you can’t control, especially the draft. Our car was really good at Daytona this year and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports works so hard on the superspeedway cars, so we should have a great race.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW INTELLIFRESH CHEVROLET SS – 21ST IN STANDINGS
“Yeah, I’ve done a lot of different things there and finished a lot of different ways. I do love the speedways. It’s been fun. We were pretty good at Daytona and I’m thinking we are going to bring something faster yet to Talladega.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – 23RD IN STANDINGS
“These days in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the competition is intense every single lap. A place like Talladega is especially intense. You don’t get a mental break unless you’re under a caution, and even that’s not really a break because you’re thinking about how you’ll survive the next run. It makes for a really exciting race for both drivers and fans. We have to be on our game because if we make a mistake as drivers, our day can be over in an instant. And the fans have to be on their toes because if they blink they’ll miss what could be the winning move of the race. Nobody will want to miss the GEICO 500.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – 24TH IN STANDINGS
“We’ll go out there and draft a couple of times on Friday and qualify on Saturday, and try to just enjoy it – it’s a real relaxing weekend schedule compared to most of these, and you don’t have to worry about the balance of the car too much. We’ll see how it races, but I haven’t put too much thought into that to be honest. We haven’t done anything to make our fans too happy here lately, so we’ll try to change that at Talladega. Greg (Ives, crew chief) told me last week that we aren’t going to look at points anymore, we’re just going to try to go win a race. We had a great car in Daytona, just had some bad luck when we were leading, so we’re looking forward to Talladega.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 VALVOLINE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – 25TH IN STANDINGS
“It’s another opportunity to score points, and they all add up. For plate tracks, it really makes it harder to justify riding around and waiting to the end, which is something I’ve never been in favor of under normal circumstances anyway. We’ll go out there this weekend and race hard like always and go after our main goal, which is to win.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – 26TH IN STANDINGS
“The racing is the same, but it’s so different than Daytona (International Speedway) because at Daytona you kind of get three wide there and there’s nowhere else to go. At Talladega Superspeedway, you can almost get five wide and still make things happen. It’s just a race that I wouldn’t say that I really look forward to, but it’s going to put on an amazing crazy race and that’s what the fans love.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CHEVROLET SS – 27TH IN STANDINGS
“Yeah, don’t wreck (laughs). My superspeedway record on the Cup side is all kinds of pitiful. One or two of them you could say that we could have done something a little different and maybe escaped it and the other three we have simply been an innocent bystander and gotten hit in the right rear. That is hard to swallow. It really is a tough thing when we go racing that we always seem to get caught up in something. We’ve tried it both ways. We’ve tried to ride around the front, we’ve tried to ride around the back and it hasn’t worked. Talladega, we are going to go, we are going to lose the draft, we will just go a lap down we will be the only one a lap down, so we will get the lucky dog when the caution comes out and we will do it again. And then when there are 10 cars left at the end of the race we will race then.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, NO. 95 WINN-DIXIE CHEVROLET SS – 28TH IN STANDINGS
“Superspeedways are always good opportunities for us to be up front and maybe even sneak a win in. You never know. Daytona seems to go better for us than Talladega but a lot of that is finishing and not having any damage. It seems like the races at Talladega get a little wild for us, but superspeedways have been a strong suit for this LFR team. We got a pretty good start at Daytona. I feel like we could go there and have a shot to get in the playoffs.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships
Total (1949 – 2015): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-2015)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Drivers Championships
Total (1949 – 2016): 31
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005 – ’11)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016
Event Victories
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 – (in 2007)
2017 STATISTICS:
Wins: 4
Poles: 2
Laps Led: 747
Top-five finishes: 16
Top-10 finishes: 30
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 769 (1949 – to date)
Poles Won to Date: 690
Laps Lead to Date: 229,220
Top-Five Finishes to Date: 3,899
Top-10 Finishes to Date: 7,983
Total NASCAR Cup wins by Corporation, 1949 – To-Date
GM: 1,104
Chevrolet: 769
Pontiac: 155
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 752
Ford: 652
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Chrysler: 466
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 190
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 96
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About Chevrolet:
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
