MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TICKETGUARDIAN 500
ISM RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 9, 2018
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
HOW DID IT CHANGE FROM ROUND 2 TO ROUND 3 OR DID YOU NOTICE A CHANGE IN THE TRACK?
“I thought between rounds it maybe just got a little more grip. Nothing crazy. It was definitely different when we qualify later in the day. It seems like from practice to qualifying in the past you go a little bit faster. But today, it was hotter outside and it was a little slicker there in that first round. But our Credit One Bank Chevy has been really good here the last few years and actually, I’m a little disappointed in second because I always qualify good here. I think I’ve been like in the top eight every single time I’ve qualified at Phoenix and still don’t have a pole yet. I thought today was going to be the day. I thought my first lap was okay, but Martin (Truex, Jr.) obviously, their team hit it there for that final round. Sunday’s race will be fun. Like I said, we’ve been fast here the last few years, so it would be nice to close out the weekend with a win.”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE GOOD HERE?
“It’s a fairly short race for a Cup race, so you have to take advantage of your restarts. It’s somewhat tough to pass here; and then you can’t make any mistakes on pit road or anything like that to set you back any because like I said, it is a fairly short race for a Cup race. All of our races are long, but relative to the rest of them, this is a short one. You’ve just got to be 100 percent every lap and not make any mistakes, and have a good balance on your car throughout a fuel run. It seems to get pretty slick come race time, compared to what we practice with. So, you’ve got to keep up on the balance but our team is really good at that and we should be strong.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd
THIRD PLACE QUALIFYING EFFORT FOR YOU HERE, THAT’S PRETTY SPORTY:
“Yeah, it wasn’t bad. We felt like we made good adjustments through all three rounds. Obviously, would like to just finish stronger. That has been the name of the game, so just trying to do that a little better, but overall proud of the effort and I think that third is a plenty good enough starting spot. We have been qualifying better, which is good, the past couple of weeks, we are just trying to make small gains and scratch and claw to find all the speed we can.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4th
DID YOU THINK YOU COULD DO HERE WHAT YOU DID A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO?
“Yeah, we were a couple of spots shy of backing that up. After the last couple of weeks, we’ve had I’m just happy for my guys. None of us have been happy with how we have been running. So, to come here and kind of be back in the hunt is refreshing for not only me, but everybody that puts so much work into this Nationwide No. 88 car. So, glad we are better than we were the last couple of weeks.”
DID YOU FEEL YOU HAD THIS IN THE CAR FROM PRACTICE?
“Yeah, absolutely, if we would have qualified at night again I think we had a better handle on what adjustments we needed. Qualifying in the day, kind of didn’t really know what to expect. A little curveball there, but we are starting fourth, it’s not the end of the world. I completely blew the second lap too, so probably should have been a little better than that. I don’t know if we had anything for the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) but it’s cool to see so many Chevy’s there in the top five as well.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
GOOD TOP 12 QUALIFYING EFFORT, TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Yeah, it’s just good to have some speed and feel like we are in the ballgame. I feel like we kind of missed the adjustments a little bit, but I think that is just with us getting more time together and kind of understand what the track is going to do. Overall, I felt pretty good about it. We will see what happens tomorrow.”
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAD A REALLY GOOD SHOWING TODAY IN QUALIFYING HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THAT GIVE YOU THAT YOUR WHOLE ORGANIZATION WAS STRONG TODAY?
“Yeah, I mean I think this is just a short track. We always have good handling cars, so that plays a role, especially here. I feel like this has always been a good track for us and hopefully that pays off on Sunday.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 GRAINGER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 13th
“We just didn’t have the speed that we needed to. We can probably cry just a little bit over a thousandth of a second; we needed two tenths and we’ll do that hopefully tomorrow in race trim with the Grainger Chevrolet.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 17th
YOU WERE FASTEST IN THE FIRST SESSION AND JUST MISSING THE SECOND ROUND BY A HALF A TENTH, WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE FROM ROUND 1 TO ROUND 2?
“I kind of look back to the amount of practice we had today. We only had 20 minutes practice because of the issues we had in Las Vegas and I never had a chance to go out on scuffed tires to see what adjustments we had to make. I had two runs on stickers in practice and we clearly dialed that part of the car in and it would have been nice just to have a scuff run to go out and understand what exactly to do. I’m very optimistic with the speed in the car in that first round and look forward to a full practice session or two tomorrow and dial this Lowe’s for Pros Chevy in.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 WRL GENERAL CONTRACTORS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
A TOUGH WEEKEND FOR YOU, NOT FEELING WELL WITH THE FLU, AND THEN YOUR CAR NOT UP TO YOUR STANDARDS, EITHER. WHAT HAS BEEN THE STRUGGLE SO FAR?
“We’re just having a hard time getting into the corner. It’s just a struggle there. It’s really easy to free, loose in, and end up by the wall. So, I have to really guard against that. Because of that we made the center a good bit tighter there trying to help, but it just didn’t do much for us. But we’ll try to get better for tomorrow.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CLICK N’ CLOSE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 27th
WHERE ARE YOU LACKING SPEED IN THE RACECAR?
“That is what we were trying to figure out, where our speed is. A little frustrating, but it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish. I’m trying to beat that into my head, but we get so far behind when we start back here. We will go to work tomorrow on our Click N’ Close Camaro ZL1 and see what we’ve got, try to make some gains and get everything going. Just a little bit of a bummer, wish we could have obviously gave it a shot for the second round, but we will go have some fun tomorrow.”
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