MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KC MASTERPIECE 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 11, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
10th CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BREYERS 2 IN 1 CAMARO ZL1
13TH WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1
15TH RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 BASS PRO SHOPS/CABELA’S CAMARO ZL1
17TH CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
18TH AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd Ryan Blaney (Ford)
3rd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
4th Aric Almirola (Ford)
5TH Brad Keselowski (Ford)
The KC Masterpiece 400 is scheduled to begin on Saturday, May 12 at 8 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FoxSports1, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BREYERS 2 N 1 CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 10th
VERY STRONG TOP 10 STARTING EFFORT FOR YOU TODAY IN QUALIFYING:
“Yeah that is really good. Practice went pretty decent and we got a good mock run in and was just trying not to mess it up. I’m proud of the effort. Our Breyers 2 N 1 Camaro ZL1 was good all three runs. We didn’t lose a bunch of speed throughout the whole thing and I’m proud of that. It’s the second best start I’ve ever had in the Cup Series, that is pretty awesome as well. It’s a good day. It’s a good start. We are starting on the outside, which I think can be a good thing here at Kansas, so I’m good with that. We kept moving up every round, we kept getting a little better. At the end of the day that was really respectable and I’m proud of everybody.”
ONLY ONE PRACTICE SESSION TODAY HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE?
“I liked it. Kansas is a good track for myself, for this team, we ran really well here last year. Ran well here on the Xfinity side. I like this place. It’s really come into its own. The asphalt has definitely widened out. As long as we don’t have any more natural gushers out of the groove we will be just fine. I feel like it’s something that we can go out there and race with. Working on a little bit of fall off stuff and we’ve got some stuff to look at, but our better runs were at the end of practice, which is exactly what you want. So, we will work off that.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 13th
NOT QUITE ENOUGH TO GET TO THE FINAL ROUND STILL A GREAT QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“We just need a little bit more of everything. I felt like we tried to guess on the balance to get us on the loose side. We have been trending really tight and just couldn’t get the front tires to work. Overall, was pretty good for us I thought. To qualify 13th is good, probably could have saved the re-run, but we wanted to see if we could go a little bit faster. We will have a little disadvantage to start the race, but we will see. Hopefully, the track comes to us at night. Darien (Grubb, crew chief) has been doing a great job with adjustments and our Liberty University Chevrolet has been solid. We will see what happens tomorrow night.”
YOUR FIRST CUP START AT KANSAS, WHAT IS YOUR COMFORT LEVEL WHEN YOU FINISHED UP PRACTICE?
“Yeah, I have been a little bit under the weather, so I think for me being in the car for three hours was probably good just to get used to what it’s going to be like tomorrow. Long practice, I felt like we went through every possible change and we picked up little things here and there. I think that helped us. It helps a rookie come to a track getting that much practice I think is a good advantage for us. I can really decipher what I need, so I always liked this place, got my first Truck win here. It’s a special place and hopefully we can have a good run tomorrow night.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER/FIRST DATA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 22nd
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“I was pretty tight that run and I just got tight getting into the top there and got up in the marbles and got loose. I’m just thankful I didn’t get too much damage on our First Data Chevy. I haven’t looked at it, but it appears really minor. Wish I wouldn’t have done that because I feel like we had a shot at the pole.”
HOW WAS THE CAR IN RACE TRIM EARLIER TODAY?
“It was good. I feel like once we moved up it was really, really strong. It seems like at Kansas you just run the top and that is kind of the preferred line. A couple of guys get the bottom to go good, but up top our car is really good.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 24th
TWO EVENTFUL ROUNDS FOR YOU, FIRST OFF GETTING THROUGH TECH TO GET OUT ON THE TRACK IN ROUND 1:
“The guys did a really good job to get out. We literally just like they said you have like eight seconds or something to get out. So, that was good that we were able to get through tech and get out and make a lap. We intended on running again, but for some reason the engine wouldn’t start. The starter would only spin it over for like one revolution and then the starter would disengage. We really tried hard to get it to start and just couldn’t ever get it to fire again. We will start wherever we are at there and yeah, nothing we could do about it.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE?
“It’s so different here because you practice in the daytime and then you race at night. I thought our car was okay. We have a little bit of work to do. The track was really wide. The guys that could run the top were extremely fast and I think you will see that again at night, but it’s just not quite the advantage that it is during the daytime to run high.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 SYMBICORT CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU LOST THAT LITTLE BIT OF TIME?
“I think that when we entered Turn 1, I got on the splitter really hard and just washed-up the track and had to wait a long time to get on the gas. We really didn’t make a qualifying fun in practice. We were more focused on the race tomorrow night, but I was hoping we could lean on our teammates to kind of get us in qualifying. I knew the first lap was going to be kind of a guess, and it was. But, we just missed it in our second attempt there and got on the splitter and kind of plowed. We’ll keep working hard to make these cars better and see what we can do tomorrow night.”
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