MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
AAA 400 DRIVE FOR AUTISM
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 4, 2017
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
WHAT DOES THIS WIN MEAN TO YOU?
“It means a lot to me. When I was growing up in southern California racing dirt bikes I was a big Cale Yarborough fan. We travelled across the country to race in the Amateur Nationals heading to Oklahoma, we stopped at a Hardees I walked in thinking I would meet Cale Yarborough and left with a burger. So, it opened my eyes to the world of sponsorship at that point in time, but I was such a fan and it’s been an amazing journey along the way. It was a huge honor to tie him with three consecutive championships a few years back and then to be here at 83 wins and a day where things played out in such an awkward and weird fashion just very happy that we’ve got it done. To my 83 wins, I’m just so proud that it’s come with one owner, one sponsor, one manufacturer, one crew chief, one team, this is a very special journey this whole Hendrick Lowe’s team has been on.”
HOW HARD WAS IT TO COME FROM THE BACK?
“The conditions were really tough today. I think everybody struggled with balance, corner entry was very uncomfortable for the cars. Mine was decent. Once I got to the top two or three I just couldn’t charge the corner hard enough to catch anybody and put a competitive pass on them. I got the restart of my life there at the end. I was able to just beat the No. 42 through (Turns) 1 and 2 and I guess make it to that line on the back straightaway before the yellow came out.”
HOW MUCH DID THE TRACK CHANGE TODAY?
“It really widened out in the second and third and fourth lanes came in, which I didn’t anticipate having. I thought we would all be chasing the bottom. I’ve won 10 races here chasing the bottom and won one kind of running the middle to the top here today. So, it was definitely a different day in the race car.”
11 WINS AT THE MONSTER MILE ARE YOU AND MILES THE MONSTER NOW BEST FRIENDS?
“Yeah, we are buddies. Hopefully, we can stay that way.”
GROWING UP, HIS HERO WAS CALE YARBOROUGH. HE LOVED THE HARDEE’S NO. 28 PAINT SCHEME AND EVEN WENT TO A HARDEE’S ONE TIME, HOPING TO SEE THE CAR IN PERSON. HE STARTED THE DAY WEARING A SPECIAL HELMET WITH CALE ON IT. NOT VERY OFTEN DOES AN ATHLETE GROW UP TRYING TO CHASE HIS CHILDHOOD HERO. TODAY, YOU MATCHED HALL OF FAMER CALE YARBOROUGH. HOW IMPACTFUL FOR YOU IS THE FEELING OF THIS WIN?
“Yeah, that’s such a great way to say it. I mean, I never thought I would end up here in NASCAR as a kid racing in the dirt out in Southern California. I was a big Cale Yarborough fan and I remember going to a race in Oklahoma with my parents and my brother. We were driving across the country and we pulled up to a Hardee’s. I had no idea it was a burger stand and I really thought when I walked in the door I was going to Cale Yarborough’s race shop (laughs). It was very disappointing. I had a burger and left and then understood the world of sponsorship.
“To be here and tie him at 83 wins is amazing. We just got the tribute helmet. I wasn’t sure how quickly we’d be, or if we’d be able to go there, and get it done. But, Cale, you’re the man. Thank you for all you have done for our sport.
“To be a part of one team and one sponsor, Lowe’s, Chevrolet, Valvoline, Gatorade, and with the support of the fans, this is an amazing day.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Finished 2nd
YOU LED A TON OF LAPS BUT IT ALL CAME DOWN TO THE FINAL RESTART TELL US WHAT HAPPENED THERE:
“Yeah, Jimmie (Johnson) did a good job. A lot better job than I did. I spun my tires. I just spun my tires pretty bad. I tried taking off not using a lot of throttle and still spun my tires pretty bad. I knew we were both probably going to spin pretty bad, but I wasn’t getting great launches all day. I was always having to fight people off into Turn 1 when I was the leader. But, you know, my team gave me a great Target Chevy again. I thought we were the best car today, me and the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) I thought we were really good. I definitely, obviously, didn’t need that last caution there. I was just cruising trying to log some laps, get to the end. I saw the lapper in front of me blow a right-front and wasn’t too worried. I thought maybe the outside lane would take off good. I just didn’t do a great job.”
YOU LED 241 LAPS AND WE THOUGHT THE RESULT WOULD BE DIFFERENT THAN A YEAR AGO, BUT YOU BROUGHT IT HOME IN 2ND. THERE WAS A LITTLE FRUSTRATION ON THE RADIO ABOUT THAT LAST RESTART. WHAT WAS HAPPENING THERE?
“He (Jimmie Johnson) did what he had to do to get the best launch that he did. We were both playing games a little bit. He just took off better than I did. I wasn’t really complaining about the restart. He did a good job. He’s a seven-time champion for a reason. He’s got a golden horseshoe somewhere; and he’s really good at executing. So, I’ve just got to get better at that. We had a dominant car all day. We had a couple of runs where we got off; maybe some bad tires or something. But we were able to rebound from those struggles.
“I fought hard all race long. I felt like we were on defense the whole race. Even though I led a lot of laps, I felt like we were on defense. We’d be on two tires when everybody else was on four. Two left side tires I was able to lead a lot of laps. It needed to stay green there at the end. I was a lot better than Jimmie was. He just did a better job than I did on that last restart.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Finished 4th
THAT WAS HECTIC AT THE END:
“Yeah, I’m not really sure exactly what happened there off of (Turn) 2. I don’t know if the No. 13 (Ty Dillon) got… I know he washed up, but I don’t know if he kind of hit the fence and came back down into me or I ran into him. It was just so tight. I had another car on my quarter-panel, but either way it was a hard fought top five for our Caterpillar Chevrolet. Thank all the fans for coming out today, a beautiful weekend and we will keep digging. That was the toughest top five I’ve had in a long time, so we’ve got some work to do.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS- Finished 5th
YOU WERE ONE OF THE GUYS WHO HAD FRESHER TIRES TOWARD THE END THERE, BUT THEN THAT WHOLE RESTART JUST TURNED CRAZY. WHAT DID YOU SEE?
“I don’t exactly know what happened between all those guys, but our NAPA Chevy was solid all day. It wasn’t as good as some of those other guys, but we made a lot of gains from I think where we were yesterday. We got up inside the top five there at one point and got stuck back around 10th at one point too. So, up and down for sure.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 7th
ON HIS DAY:
“It is interesting the way the track changed. You could run the bottom and then there were times you kind of needed to run the middle and it seemed like as the tires cycled as more rubber got laid down then picked up, you really had to move your line around. But, overall a really good day for us. We qualified bad and I had a really hard time overcoming that. The way the pit stalls worked out the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) lost their pit pick and got stuck inbetween me and Jimmie (Johnson) and I had to give up a lot of time on pit road just to give him enough room and make sure everybody had enough room. That was a big challenge and got us behind all day long. Overall we had a really good car.”
WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT ACCIDENT AT THE END?
“I don’t know. It really didn’t matter. I think if we had been on old tires it would have been the same result. I have no idea what happened I just saw cars spinning. I felt like having two tires and being the first car on two tires was the best call, but the fact that we wrecked a quarter of a mile after it went green, it didn’t matter.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Finished 11th
ON HIS DAY:
“I don’t know what happened at the end there were just cars crashing everywhere. Our car really wasn’t very good all day. We ran around 15th to 20th, we got lucky on staying out on a green flag run there and got some track position and I sped on pit road some fricking how. We have had a lot of speeding penalties this year, so I don’t know what is going on with that, but it was a long day. Not any fun at all.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – Finished 14th after being involved in an on-track accident at the end of the race
WALK US THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED ON THOSE LAST FEW LAPS:
“First of all, I’m really proud of our Germain Racing team. I can’t thank Bob Germain enough for giving me the opportunity to come out here and race with these guys, it’s a lifelong dream. To lead laps like that meant a lot to me. We had to restart fourth on old tires and I just think the air off the No. 31 got me a little loose and they left a bunch of sand there off Turn 2 and as soon as I got loose and hit that sand it was all over. I feel bad for all the cars that got torn up. But, really, I don’t really know what the No. 31 or myself could have done any different to stay out of that crash. Proud of our effort today. We proved to ourselves as a team that we can run up front with the big boys and just proud of our effort by our GEICO Chevy.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 DURACELL/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track incident on lap 343
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“The No. 37 (Chris Buescher) just got loose and wrecked us.”
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