MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
ISM RACEWAYTICKETGUARDIAN 500
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 8, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hooters Camaro ZL1
6th Alex Bowman, No. 88 Nationwide Camaro ZL1
7th William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1
11th Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Okuma/Caterpillar Camaro ZL1
13th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Ryan Blaney (Ford)
2nd Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
3rd Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
4th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
The TicketGuardian 500 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, March 10 at 3:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
YOU’VE GOT TO BE PLEASED WITH WHERE YOU’RE STARTING, RIGHT?
“Yeah, I hate qualifying second. We’ve qualified second out here last Fall and then this one. But I guess he (pole winner, Ryan Blaney) isn’t a bad one to qualify second to. But, I look forward to Sunday. I think our Hooters Camaro at least has a good place to start and we can have a good pit selection. That’s important. We have a long race ahead. But, I’d really like to get a pole outside of a speedway track. We’ll try again next week.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th
FINAL ROUND AGAIN THIS WEEK. I KNOW YOU WANTED THE POLE. WHAT WERE YOU MISSING?
“Yeah, I felt like we made some good adjustments and changed the brake bias a little bit helped us a lot that second lap in the second round and was pretty optimistic about a third round knowing that. We just kind of broke the car up for the third round a little bit. Just a little bit of a bummer, but hopefully we will be good on Sunday.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 7th
ON QUALIFYING:
“Yeah, it was good. It was kind of a little bit of figuring out the car all day and figuring out me and some of the things that I was doing. I didn’t really pair it altogether I don’t think yet, but it was good for the most part. I’m pretty happy.”
ON PHOENIX BEING A GOOD TRACK FOR HIM:
“Yeah, it’s been pretty solid. We didn’t qualify super good here last year, but for the most part I think we have been solid here. So, hopefully, that continues.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 OKUMA/CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
GOOD QUALIFYING EFFORT, TALK ABOUT YOUR ROUNDS:
“Yeah, we will definitely take it. We worked all day trying to get this Okuma/Caterpillar Camaro ZL1, so we have a little bit of everybody branded on this thing this week, so that is cool to have that many partners. But no, we had to re-run the second round and had a good amount of pick-up and that is what allowed us to have a shot at the last round. I’m proud of these guys. We made good adjustments. Our feedback is good and has given us opportunities to get our car better every time we hit the race track. Hopefully, we keep working on it, working on our communication and being closer when we start the weekends and I think we can make some hay as the year goes on.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 13th
YOU BARELY MISSED THE FINAL ROUND:
“I know it’s a bummer. I wanted to run again. We waited late and should have probably went early and done it again because we just kept getting better with laps. I told them I should have ran a fourth because I ran my fastest on my third. But, part of it, still that’s a solid starting position for Sunday. I feel like we will be just fine. Race trim should be better than what we are in qualifying trim.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
HOW INTENSE IS THIS QUALIFYING?
“Yeah, I mean it’s a smaller amount of time to be on track with the rules for this year and then to have the track oiled down prior to Round 1 really complicated things. We missed the balance a little bit in qualifying there. Had a really good practice session. Had higher expectations for qualifying. Fourteenth isn’t the end of the world, but we certainly wanted to be in Round 3 with this Ally Chevrolet.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 20th
GOOD SHOWING FOR YOU AND THIS TEAM:
“Yeah, we are making gains as a team. I’m really proud of it and our teammates were really fast too. We still have some room to gain, but to be gaining speed from practice to qualifying week-in and week-out is really big for us. Something we haven’t done in the past and gives us a lot of courage and confidence going through the rest of the season. Proud of our effort. We still have a lot to go, but we are on the right steps.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 21st
“Our qualifying session wasn’t bad. We’ve just got to keep working on it to find what I want. We are getting there little by little. We made an improvement from the first round to the second round so that was a good thing. We just missed it, but we will be alright.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 FLAVOR FILL UP CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 22nd
“Our team did a really nice job today. Our Flavor Fill Up Camaro ZL1 was really fast in practice. We were good in race trim, we were good in qualifying trim. It should have been better than that. We were really good the first round and had a car pull out right in front of us on our lap and just ruined it. We don’t have time with these sessions being as short as they are to cool down and start over, we are just at the mercy… yet again… somebody pulling out in front of us and ruin it for us. Tough break for us, but that is okay we have a really good race car. Best Phoenix I’ve had so far even considering that.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CAMARO ZL1- Qualified 23rd
“I’m frustrated right now. I feel like our balance was okay in practice, we just couldn’t get any heat build up or front-tire grip in our Camaro. I’m wrecking sideways too, so it’s not like I’m tight. There is no grip in the front tires. The rest of the car feels okay, so my crew chief, we are still gelling, still trying to work together. He is like ‘we will get the chatter out of it for the race.’ I’m like, you don’t have to worry about the race because it’s fine in race runs just qualifying is always tricky here. I went back and studied to see if we could get a little bit more speed and felt like I did my part. Not knocking the guys, but its just weird how we are fighting two totally different things in the car.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 31st
WERE YOU SURPRISED YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT TO THE LINE IN TIME?
“Yeah, I don’t even really know happened. I never saw a flag waiving or anything when I came to take my second lap. I was pretty shocked when they said I didn’t make it to the line in time. It’s just whatever.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT NOT TO BE ABLE TO MAKE A LAP?
“Yeah, I would have been 13th after that. So, yeah, I would be in the next round, probably make the final round too. That sucks, but it is what it is. I would like to just see a video to just see or see the clock to see if we really didn’t make it. It’s just odd.”
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