MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 1, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
3rd JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1
8th RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 KALAHARI RESORTS AND CONVENTION CAMARO ZL1
11th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1
12th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Ryan Blaney (Ford)
2nd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3rd Jamie McMurray (Chevrolet)
4th Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
5TH Kyle Busch (Toyota)
The 14th race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season at Pocono Raceway, the Pocono 400 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, June 3 at 2:00 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd
YOU’LL BE STARTING 3RD IN SUNDAY’S RACE. HOW WAS QUALIFYING TODAY?
“Yeah, this is good; especially how we ran last week. We’ve not had a very good year. So, I’m really pleased with our last two weeks performances. We kind of thought this week was going to be a little bit better because the Hendrick engines had a bit of an upgrade, and this is definitely an engine race track. So, we were pretty encouraged by coming here, and the team has done an awesome job in getting our Camaros better. Gosh, I think after all the winter testing we thought the Camaros were going to come out and just dominate. It’s crazy how we were a little bit off at the beginning of the year but it’s also crazy how they figure out how to massage on them and get them better every single week. And, yeah, so I’m thrilled with our performance today. I made a little mistake on that last round. I think we could have been on the pole, which would have been awesome.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 KALAHARI RESORTS AND CONVENTIONS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 8th
YOU FEEL THE UPTICK IN YOU GUYS PRODUCTION? YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT ANY BREAKS IN THE RACES HERE LATELY, BUT THE SPEED SEEMS TO BE THERE:
“Yeah, it’s definitely a season that keeps me humble I guess you could say. It was a good run for our Kalahari Chevrolet. The guys did a good job. Worked entirely in qualifying trim. After Round 2 I thought we had a shot at the pole, we still did, but eighth is a great effort for us based on how we have been qualifying the last eight or 10 weeks.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 12th
YOU’LL HAVE A GOOD START FOR SUNDAY’S RACE IN THE TOP 12
“Yeah, we didn’t have much speed in the first practice or even in the start of qualifying, we just seemed to get a little better there and I think I had a little more left in it. I got loose in (Turn) 1. If I wouldn’t have gotten loose there, I think we had a couple of tenths, but nothing for the lead guys, but maybe a couple of spots forward from where we are. I’m just proud of the progress we’re making on our cars. Hopefully we can keep that progress going in the next couple of weeks but it’s a solid starting spot for Sunday. Truthfully, we just need a solid top 10 and that would be really great because it’s been a while.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 13th
DESCRIBE YOUR FIRST LAP OUT THERE:
“Just lost a ton of time in (Turn) 1. I got down there and got up the track like a half groove and then it was just really slick and couldn’t get the throttle down. I should have just aborted that lap, so kind of mad at myself. And then the second time I went out I was pretty good. Austin (Dillon) I didn’t know he was 12th, but he kind of held his car out in the Tunnel (Turn) and I over slowed not really knowing where he was going to go and that cost me a little bit of time, probably enough to make the final round, but I put myself in that spot, so a little upset at myself.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
WHAT WAS THE ISSUE? WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED?
“I just over drove Turn 1. Looking at the data I guess I just didn’t get to the brake pedal as hard and then I got free in. The other two corners put together pretty well. We weren’t very good in the first round, but Greg (Ives, crew chief) made good changes. The car was really good. I’m bummed for my guys. The car is definitely better than 14th, but we should be good on Sunday. Have some good practices tomorrow the weather is looking better, so we will see how we end up.”
WHAT KINDS OF THINGS ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP YOUR EYE ON IN PRACTICE TOMORROW?
“Really just overall balance. I mean, the corners don’t seem to be too split up this year. My car is pretty similar at all three ends and if we can get our balance as good as we were in practice and really in that second run of qualifying there I think we will be pretty good.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
QUITE A HANDFUL ON THAT QUALIFYING RUN WASN’T IT?
“Yeah, we’ve been dealing with some loose and had a very shortened practice this morning didn’t get to make a qualifying run due to serving a penalty. So, the Round 1 qualifying was nice, very loose, but I got a solid lap and trying to get a little bit more there as you need to going into that second round. I had to catch it pretty good down in (Turns) 1 and 2. So, to still end up 15th with a catch like that I think is a good sign of our Hendrick cars bringing more speed to the track this weekend. I’m right there with three of my teammates, Chase (Elliott) is up there and has got a shot at it here, but we are working hard and we are getting better. It hasn’t been an easy road by any stretch, but we are getting better.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 UNIFIRST CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 16th
WHERE DID YOU MISS THE MARK?
“The second run I thought we put together pretty well, we just had to make a re-run about lost it off of Turn 1. We just we are getting tight kind of center off of there and I just tried to drive through the tight to make speed and just snapped loose at the very end. So, we had to come back, do a re-run and after that we were a little bit too tight everywhere. Overall, not bad, we want to be better, but we will hopefully be good in race trim tomorrow.”
WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL AT THIS TRACK COMING INTO SUNDAY?
“I like Pocono. It’s a fun race track. It’s very technical. You have to run it…every corner has to be pretty much perfect to make a good lap. I like that part of it. I think it rewards kind of precision, but it’s a fun track. It’s difficult in a Cup car you are doing the shifting and everything, so just adds another element, but it’s been pretty good so far, so hopefully we can just cap it off on Sunday.”
DARRELL ‘BUBBA’ WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 WEIS MARKETS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 19th
WHAT DO YOU TAKE AWAY MOST FOR QUALIFYING TODAY?
“I think qualifying you just get after it here. You try to forget about the rhythm that you need to be in to be successful here. We just got too tight round to round there and I felt like I needed overall grip from the first run we made, which was really good for us. And then just kind of maybe over adjusted and I tried to get a little bit more out of it. Probably should have just left it alone and let me kind of get some more speed, but we are still learning, still growing, but it’s good to be back here, like I said earlier. It’s always fun. I thought we were a little bit better than qualifying last year, but we were 16th last year, so a little bit slower. I’ve lost a little bit, but still fun, looking forward to practice if we can get it in tomorrow depending on weather and really dial in our Weis Chevrolet.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 27th
WHAT MORE DID YOU AND YOUR TEAM NEED DURING THAT LAP?
“I think we were looking for a little bit of stability. I’ve got to look a little bit more too and try to figure out how to get around here a little better. This team and this whole group have done a really good job at upping our qualifying game this year. We have definitely been a lot better and just a little bit off this weekend. We will go back and look at it a little bit and try and study a little bit more data and see what we can’t figure out for the race.”
THINGS FOR YOUR CHECKLIST TOMORROW?
“No rain (laughs) would be a good start and from there, I think it’s going to be a lot of the security on entry will be a good start for it. And then you always want to make sure you are turning off of (Turn) 3, so I think we made some progress there. We did do a little bit of race runs today in practice. If we can get our Louisiana Hot Sauce Chevrolet Camaro up there, we will be in good shape. Now we just have an opportunity to pass more cars. We will see how it works.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 29th
IF YOU HAD A CHANCE TO DO ONE CORNER OVER AGAIN, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE?
“Definitely (Turn) 1. Our GEICO Camaro was pretty good in Turn 1 and we were struggling a little bit in Turns 2 and 3 in practice and the balance kind of flip-flopped. I was really strong in (Turns) 2 and 3 I felt like, but I had a lot of time I lost in Turn 1. But, we are working on it, we are getting better here at qualifying. It’s not a huge jump from where we have been, but our process is getting better the way we go about things. I feel like we are going to start turning the page here at qualifying and race day. Had a solid day at the Coca-Cola 600, we would have liked to have had a little bit better, but our results and our process get better. I’m excited for the future. I think our car is pretty good for tomorrow and we’ve got a good piece to work with, we’ve just got to build around a little bit more.
Connect with Team Chevy on social media. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TeamChevy<https://www.facebook.com/TeamChevy>,follow us on Twitter @TeamChevy<https://twitter.com/TeamChevy>, and follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/teamchevy/?hl=en
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.
