MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
QUAKER STATE 400 PRESENTED BY WALMART
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 12, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
4th Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1
6th Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Caterpillar Camaro ZL1
9th Austin Dillon, No. 3 AAA Camaro ZL1
12th William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1
13th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Daniel Suarez (Ford)
2nd Aric Almirola (Ford)
3rd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
4th Kurt Busch (Chevy)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
NBCSN will telecast the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart at Kentucky Speedway live at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, July 13. Live coverage can also be found on NBC Sports Gold, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES:
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4th
“So far, Kentucky’s practices have shown some really good speed. The car is a little on edge with stickers, but that’s part of how Kentucky races. When we did a mock qualifying run in practice, we set a nice fast time at the time and that told me we were headed in the right direction. Really proud of the team and the guys finding the balance because we changed quite a bit in the second practice session that is now impounded, which forced a different style of qualifying. I’m hopeful that this blends into a nice race where we execute as a team, find the right pit strategy, have good times on pit road and find the right lanes on restarts. This track can be a treacherous place on restarts, but hopefully we can keep our Monster Energy Chevrolet clean.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 9th
WHAT IS IT ABOUT KENTUCKY THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO?
“Yeah, it’s a lot of fun; it’s challenging. Just like practice and qualifying, I thought that the track was going to gain some grip. I felt like it might have lost some grip, so it’s hard. It’s a challenging track. One end is different than the other and you are just trying to keep up with that. Especially now with the traction compound, you have to really keep up with how the car is handling as the track gains grip and what it does throughout. We go into the nighttime at this race, so you don’t have that opportunity to get on the track until the race.”
SOME OF THE GUYS WE WERE TALKING TO EARLIER SAID THE TRACK WAS RUNNING FASTER THAN IT WAS IN PRACTICE. IS THAT ACCURATE?
“Yeah, there’s more grip out there and more room to run around. It’s definitely different than the old Kentucky. This has made it probably a little more familiar as far as being able to pass and move around, hopefully. You want to have a good race and they are doing everything they can with the traction compound to make it wider. The trouble is the banking; it’s just an odd track. It’s hard to get both ends running well. When you get a run on somebody off of 2, you have to go into 3 with not much grip there or it can be challenging.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 12th
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS TRACK, WHAT DO YOU NOT KNOW FOR SATURDAY NIGHT YET?
“A lot. I don’t know what we are going to deal with really. Day practice and a night race is going to be really hard to tell until we get into the race. I like a night race, for sure. Hopefully we can win it, that’d be fun.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 13th
WHAT CAN MAKE THIS A CHEVROLET TRACK AS YOU GUYS ARE MAKING PROGRESS TOWARDS THE RACE?
“I’m not sure manufacturer wise, but my own journey I have always struggled here. I’ve done a lot of testing here and torn up a lot of equipment when I first started at HMS. I’ve had my own personal struggles here that I’m hoping we can figure out this weekend. For our company, we have had some better runs here, but all of that stuff is kind of out the window with the new package.”
“I expected way better of a qualifying run than that. In practice, we had a lot of things go our direction. Not sure where it’s going to end up, but we all have a lot of high expectations and we are all very eager to win races. Where we are ending up in qualifying isn’t where I want to be.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 19th
ARE YOU A FAN OF THE TRACTION COMPOUND OR DO YOU THINK THE TRACK NEEDS TO LEAVE THEM HOW THEY ARE?
“I’m a fan of it. I think with this package and how hard it is to pass; it just opens up options. Hopefully it will make for better racing. There are a lot of tracks that don’t need it, but there are some and I feel like a bulk of them are at this point in the season. It’s nice to see tracks like Kentucky, Michigan, Pocono and other tracks that haven’t are looking to do it. Hopefully it helps the racing out.”
“Just in our points position, it would be nice to get some solid runs in and gain some more points where we won’t have to worry about the cutoff. If we can just get some smooth weeks in, it should take some stress off of us.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 DEWNITED STATES CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 20th
“Our qualifying run wasn’t very good, unfortunately. Hopefully tomorrow goes better. I hope our lack of pace today equals pace tomorrow. If not, we’re going to be in trouble.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 22nd
“Our car has been a little off this weekend, but we are confident that once the race gets started, we’ll be good. We need speed. Our car drove pretty good in qualifying; it was just really slow. It was pretty terrible right there. It’s really frustrating, I don’t know what to say. None of us are very good. The car didn’t drive very bad, it was just really slow. We have a lot of work to do.”
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.
