MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 8, 2017
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Finished 2nd
YOU PASSED A TON OF CARS AND STILL CAME HOME WITH A GREAT FINISH:
“Yeah, I sped on pit road there early. At the end of that first stage, so it felt very similar to Texas earlier this year. Didn’t get to qualify, had a pit road penalty at the end of the first stage. Went from the back to the front and then we had scuffs on one run and got the balance off pretty bad, but were able to put stickers on and charge back to the front. The Target Chevy was good. Truex though, never got to see him that last run he was upwards of 15 seconds ahead of us. That was pretty crazy. He has definitely been the fastest car all year. So, got some work to do, but if we can keep chasing him, I think we can beat him.”
HOW MUCH MORE DID YOU NEED TO CATCH MARTIN TRUEX, JR.?
“Yeah, I don’t know what we could have done to beat him. He was obviously pretty fast with the lead there. It would have been fun to get to race him because I felt like I had the second best car today; and it would have been interesting to get a restart with him earlier and get to hang with him that last run there. But, we brought the Target Chevy home second after not being able to qualify and having to start last in the race and then having my speeding penalty there. I guess I was just a little too fast leaving my stall and got a penalty. So, I’ve got to clean that stuff up. I’m mad at myself that I made that mistake. I don’t really know if it affected the outcome, but you never know.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd
HOW DID YOU SEE THE FINAL RESTART AND HOW DID YOU GET UP THERE?
“I had a really good roll there. Got to the bottom of the No. 77 and got far enough up next to him to get underneath him into (Turn) 1 and that got us a couple more spots there which was nice. From where we started the night to where we ended up was a big improvement with our Napa Chevrolet. Happy we could just execute well tonight. I don’t think we were as good at Martin (Truex, Jr.) or Kyle (Larson), but we did our jobs on pit road and I made the most of a good car.”
YOU CAME IN AND GOT FRESH TIRES. TAKE US THROUGH THAT FINAL SHOOTOUT OF OVERTIME
“Yeah, it was unexpected. I thought we had two to go there and thought for sure we were going to go to the end. But, I’m really proud of our NAPA Chevy team. I felt like we just executed the night well and had really good pit stops and made the most of a good car, but we weren’t perfect. We weren’t as good as Martin (Trues, Jr., race winner) or Kyle (Larson, second place) I didn’t think. But we made the most of what we had. And, that’s a step in the right direction. If we can just keep putting top 5’s together and we’ll see what we can do.”
YOU HAD PUT TOGETHER A STRING OF TOP 10’S BEFORE DAYTONA. WHAT DOES IT STAY FOR THIS TEAM TO BOUNCE BACK IN THIS FASHION?
“I feel like we’ve been solid. We haven’t been phenomenal and we haven’t been perfect, but I feel like we’ve been really solid, and those are the types of days you have to have. Our pit stops have been incredible over the past three or four weeks. We’ve gained, if not maintained, on pit road and that’s huge. That’s what we have to do. Our race strategy has been nice and all the guys deserve a lot of credit for that. I’m looking forward to down the road these next few weeks and get a little better.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 7th
ON HIS RACE:
“I had a really good car. We got behind at the start of the last segment. I had a little bit of a slow pit stop and then I don’t know why, it seemed like it was not easy to pass at the beginning, but easier than at the start of that last segment. It was just kind of follow the leader for like 40 laps. But had a really good car on the long run. Had a good strategy there at the end and solid day… just needed a little bit more.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CHEVROLET SS – Finished 12th
ON HIS RACE:
“Well, it was good. We had some runs that were really good. We had some runs that we were kind of average, but for the most part we had a pretty quick car. We didn’t have anything for the No. 78 and the top five, but I kept all the guys from sixth on back in front of me within sight. Just didn’t really get great track position all night. We were trying a strategy with our pit stops and it was working against us completely. The cautions were coming out at such poor times for us. We needed a couple of those cautions not to come out. It cost us a little bit of track position.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BREYERS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 16th
“That was a tough start with our Breyers Chevrolet. We just got down a lap early and had to fight hard to get that back. Everybody did a good job to get that. We got back on the lead lap and I felt like we were contending for a, well inside the top 20 there. Kept it clean at the end, a little bit of craziness, but at the end of the night that was okay. Another decent run and something to build off of.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – Finished 33rd
“After the brake trouble we had early tonight, this GEICO Chevrolet SS team ended up really on a different mission tonight. We made the most of our laps and gained some information for our mile and a half program. If we could come back and run this race again tomorrow, there would be a much better outcome for this team.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in multi-car crash on Lap 87
THAT LOOKED LIKE RIGHT PLACE, WRONG TIME
“Correct. It’s just dicey on the restarts. But we had a strong Lowe’s Chevrolet. I hate it for the guys that we didn’t get a better finish. The car felt great. I feel like we were probably in the position for a good top 5 tonight with all things considered. But, the No. 2 car (Brad Keselowski) got into the corner and he was sideways before we got there. I feel like the car on the outside of him left him some room. But then, talking to Brad inside (the care center), he said he was just sideways before he ever got to the corner. And I thought I almost had him missed. I really thought I had him missed and I just clipped him with my right front. It broke something in the suspension and took me into the fence.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Yeah, thankfully I can’t really blame myself on this one. The No. 2 car (Brad Keselowski) lost it pretty early on entry into Turn 3. And he fought it for a while and then just got real close to the No. 14 and was in a really bad aero situation and his car came around. I saw it all happening and was trying to get slowed down, but in a low air situation I was in I could only push the brakes so hard. I honestly thought I had it missed and just caught the No. 2 car with my right front. Pushed the fender in or broke the suspension, something happened where the car was pulling real hard to the right and took me up into the fence and finished her off there. Bummer day for the Lowe’s team, but we will be back next week and go get a trophy.”
IS THIS PAR FOR THE COURSE HERE AT KENTUCKY WITH THE REPAVE?
“Yeah I mean the track has characteristics that are still true. Stage racing and all these restarts, the fact that it is so hard to pass there is just an environment that is created with this style of racing. You’ve got to get everything you can on a restart and everybody is at ten tenths. The old days of pointing someone by or maybe letting somebody go until your tires came in are long gone. All of this breeds a lot of cautions.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR ACCIDENT ON LAP 94
WHAT HAPPENED?
“It was just a restart, I had a run on the No. 6 and I got under him getting into Turn 1 down the front stretch and he just drove over my front end, pretty simple.”
HOW IS THE RACING?
“The racing is fine. I mean it’s not easy to pass. It’s tough to pass for sure once you get strung out, so you’ve got to go on restarts and try to get position. I had one good restart, one I lost a couple of spots and that one I had a position and he just ran me over. It’s tough because you need to do that on restarts, you know you need to be aggressive.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI SAID HE THOUGHT THEY NEEDED TO REDESIGN THE CAR THAT HAVING IT SO MUCH BASED-ON RESTARTS…
“I mean the track is to me, it’s just really lane sensitive, so you have to be right on the bottom it is pretty much the quickest way. So, the restarts are all you’ve got. I mean it’s Kentucky. It was like this last year if I remember.”
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