TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
SOUTH POINT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
September 16, 2018
BOWTIE BULLETS
CHEVY’S FAB FIVE:
Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman make up Chevrolet’s ‘fab five’ drivers that will pilot Camaro ZL1’s in this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship run. Only the elder statesman, Johnson, has ever won a Cup Series title, and is the only driver in the field who has competed for a championship in every single Playoff since the format was adopted in 2004 to determine the year-end champion.
CHEVY HISTORY AT LAS VEGAS:
Chevrolet recorded its first victory at the 1.5-mile track in 2001 when Jeff Gordon took his Chevy Monte Carlo to Winner’s Circle. Jimmie Johnson saw, and raised Gordon’s victory, by taking home three consecutive wins in ‘Sin City’ in 2005, 2006 and 2007 – a feat no other driver has been able to replicate since. Johnson added a record fourth Vegas victory in 2010. Two more Team Chevy drivers earned victories in Las Vegas in ’12 and ‘15. Throughout Chevy’s seven wins at LVMS four different Chevy nameplates have recorded Vegas wins – Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo SS, Impala and SS.
CHEVROLET WINNER’S CIRCLE:
Camaro ZL1 driver, Jimmie Johnson, is not only a seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, but he is the most successful driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with four wins to his credit, including three back-to-back victories from ’05- ‘07.
TUNE-IN:
The South Point 400 is scheduled to begin on Sunday September 16 at 3:00 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
BY THE NUMBERS:
Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships
Team Chevy drivers have scored 777 wins and 699 poles in MENCS competition
Chevrolet drivers have won seven of 21 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s for Pros Camaro ZL1, has four wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (’05, ’06, ’07 & ‘10)
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Las Vegas Motor Speedway four times
Team Chevy drivers have scored 46 top-five and 87 top-10 finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
A Chevrolet has led 2,335 laps (44.5% of possible 5,242 laps) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHEVROLET DRIVERS IN PLAYOFF CONTENDERS:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – 8TH PLAYOFF SEED
“Looking forward to getting to Vegas this weekend – we’ve had some good runs there the last couple of years. I’m excited to get out there and kind of get the deal rolling and hope that we can get off to a good start and see where it all ends up. It’s a long 10 weeks.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOWFROST CAMARO ZL1 – 11TH PLAYOFF SEED
“We have had fast cars here lately and that is a good thing. So, we are capable of bringing some speed to the track and Vegas has been a good track for us in the past. So, hopefully, we can just take what we have been good with the last couple of weeks and run it there.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR VEGAS STRONG CAMARO ZL1 – 12TH PLAYOFF SEED
“I’m excited for the playoffs to get here, and looking forward to what we can do over the next ten weeks. Our guys have been doing a great job at the shop and track getting our Chevy’s better, and I think we’ve got some good speed heading into the playoffs. We’ve had some strong recently at Vegas to start the season, and hopefully we’ll be able to use what we’ve learned throughout the year to have another good shot at a win. We’re not coming in with a lot of bonus points, so having good races every week will be important for us to advance. Hopefully we also can get some good luck over the next few weeks.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PRO’S CAMARO ZL1 – 15TH PLAYOFF SEED
“Indy really didn’t go our way, but I can say we were very well prepared for that weekend and we are working hard to be ready for Las Vegas. It’s a tight turnaround this week with the rainout. I’m very proud that I’ve made every playoff since NASCAR started them, so that’s a big honor for me. Now we just need to go and get hot at the right time. Historically, the No. 48 team has done well in this 10-week period and we have a lot of experience to fall back on. I think our experience in pressure-packed situations will hopefully help us get where we need to. If we can win at some key races and transfer; we have short tracks, we have my best track at Dover. If we can stay alive and get to Homestead, who knows what can happen down there.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1 – 16TH PLAYOFF SEED
On the first round of the Playoffs:
“I think if we have a solid top 10 day at Las Vegas we will be alright. I think Richmond, we were really bad. Richmond was our worst race of the year by far. So, that was really frustrating, but we were able to look at the difference to our teammates and some of our teammates ran pretty solid there. We can kind of regroup and go their direction. We know where we were off. I think that is going to be the harder race for us and then the ROVAL, me not being a road course guy, it’s kind of hit or miss. Sonoma we were really good and Watkins Glen we really struggled. It’s an interesting first Round of the Playoffs, hopefully we are in it and we make it through.”
CHEVROLET DRIVERS NOT IN PLAYOFF CONTENTION:
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 LIBERTY NATIONAL CAMARO ZL1 – 17TH IN STANDINGS
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – 21ST IN STANDINGS
I would like to say that I’m excited about going to Las Vegas, but I’m not sure about that with the heat that we’re going to experience this weekend. All kidding aside I hope to continue the streak of top-10 finishes that we had here the last couple of weeks. I feel like our team is coming to the track with a really good race cars and the results of shown the last few weeks. Our sponsor on the car this weekend, GEARWRENCH, has a lot of fun stuff going on out here around the race weekend. On Sunday they will give away a brand new Chevrolet Camaro SS to one of three finalists playing their Win a Camaro Challenge.
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – 22ND IN STANDINGS
“Las Vegas is one of the basic mile-and-a-half tracks for us, along the lines of Kansas and some of those. It’s a fun track. I went out there with the Truck Series a couple of years ago in September, so it’s usually hot and that throws another element into it compared to the spring race. It’ll be a really intense race because it’s the start of the playoffs, and you’ll have to be on your game for sure.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 NATURAL LIGHT RACE DAY RESUME CAMARO ZL1 – 23RD IN STANDINGS
“It’s definitely going to be hot out there. When we go to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March, the weather is usually decent. It’s usually somewhat cool, even a shower or windstorm but with the summer months, it’s a whole different ballgame. We’ll see how the summer treats the racetrack and we’ll see how it’s been affected sitting in the desert heat all summer. Las Vegas is an extremely fast racetrack. It has a lot of grip and is fun to race at, so it’s cool to be able to give them a second opportunity for us to come out and race there twice. The car should be a lot different. We do so much to our racecars throughout the season and it’s almost hard to use the notes from the spring because of how different the track will be from the temperatures in March to the temperatures in September.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 – 24TH IN STANDINGS
“Heading to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend, we already know it’s going to be really hot there. This will be new for everyone being the first year that we race there twice. I would imagine it’s definitely going to change the track conditions after the track has sat in the summer heat for the last several months. Chris (Buescher, teammate) had really good speed there in the spring, so that’s promising for us going back there to be fast off the truck in practice on Friday. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is so different in terms of the 1.5-mile tracks that we go to, and that’s what makes this series so difficult. Trying to judge from the last time we were there in March, the setup in our Kroger ClickList Camaro ZL1 can change drastically throughout the season with the changes we constantly are making to our racecars. Going back there almost six months later with the same setup really may not be an advantage anymore. We’ve updated the cars so much and made them better. I think it’s going to be slick at the top and it’s going to be one of those things where it’s about survival. It’s easy to make a mistake and if you get into the wall, it can really affect the aerodynamics and hurt your speed. We’re looking forward to having a good run and finishing out the season strong.”
DARRELL ‘BUBBA’ WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 – 27TH IN STANDINGS
“We want to get out of our little slump we are in. We have either had bad luck or just some bad races. I think we’re working hard to bring some fast Chevrolet Camaro ZL1’s to the track, but just need to finish the weekend. That’s where we are at right now, but Vegas is always a place you can have good luck. We have a lot of track time here. We have tested here, raced here and now going back again. We have good notes and feel like we should have a good race. We really want one.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – 29TH IN STANDINGS
“This GEICO Racing team has been working incredibly hard all season long, and we are finally starting to see an upswing in momentum here in these last few weeks. We have three straight 21st-place finishes, which is a great improvement in consistency for our team. We obviously have to keep growing and building up the program, but to make any sort of overall change we needed to start being consistent. Our guys can check that box now and move on to the next step, which is turning those into top-20 finishes every week. Las Vegas was a tough track for us earlier this year, and we have an opportunity to show the results of all the hard work this team has been putting in by outrunning our own performance from the March race. I am proud of the work everyone is doing at the track and at the shop, and I know that we are all going to make the most out of these last ten races.”
Chevrolet Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Statistics
Manufacturers Championships
Total (1949 – 2015): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-2015)
Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Drivers Championships
Total (1949 – 2016): 31
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005 – ’11)
Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016
Event Victories
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 – (in 2007)
2018 STATISTICS:
Wins: 2
Poles: 5
Laps Led: 1,181
Top-five finishes: 28
Top-10 finishes: 74
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 777 (1949 – to date)
Poles Won to Date: 699
Laps Led to Date: 231,982
Top-Five Finishes to Date: 3,960
Top-10 Finishes to Date: 8,142
Total NASCAR Cup wins by Corporation, 1949 – To-Date
GM: 1,112
Chevrolet: 777
Pontiac: 155
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65
Ford: 771
Ford: 671
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4
Chrysler: 466
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 190
Chrysler: 59
Toyota: 121
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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.
