MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
FIRST DATA 500
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
OCTOBER 26, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Chase Elliott, No. 9 Mountain Dew Camaro ZL1
11th William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
14th Kyle Larson, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1
18th Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro ZL1
19th Alex Bowman, No. 88 Llumar Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
2nd Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
3rd Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
4th Aric Almirola (Ford)
5th Michael McDowell (Ford)
NBCSN will telecast the First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway live at 3:00 p.m. ET Sunday, October 27th. The NBC Sports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 MOUNTAIN DEW CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd (PRE-QUAL QUOTE):
WILL START FROM THE REAR DUE TO ENGINE ISSUE. ON THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALIFYING:
“We’d still like to have a good pit pick. A lot of times, that can be as important as your starting spot. So, obviously we don’t get to keep our starting spot, but a good pit pick would be nice. It would be great to have that first pit box or a really good one. We’ll do our best.”
YOU SAID YOUR BEST CHANCE TO GET INTO THE ROUND OF 4 IS WITH A WIN. HOW BIG OF A CHALLENGE IS THAT NOW STARTING FROM THE BACK HERE?
“I think if you’re car is driving good and you make good decisions and execute the day like it needs to be done, I don’t think starting last isn’t something that you can overcome. Certainly it’s not how you want to start your day and it puts you in a bit of a hole, but I think at the same time I think if your car is driving good and you do a good job fighting your way up to the front, you still have a shot. That’s why a good qualifying effort is still important if you do get yourself in a position towards the front at the end of this thing, tomorrow, a good pit stop could decide it for you. So, I think we have to continue to push in all areas and just hope it goes our way.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN
“I was really happy with it. I mean I definitely kind of blew Turn 1. I got a little greedy coming to the green and I felt really good about it and kind of over exceeded it into (Turn) 1. It was at least a decent lap. Race trim was really a struggle for us. We honestly threw more changes at the car than we could count. With how our qualifying felt, I feel really great about the race. I think we have adjustability in the car.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
ARE THERE ENOUGH GOOD PIT SPOTS THERE THAT YOU THINK YOU’LL HAVE A DECENT PIT STALL TO WORK WITH TOMORROW?
“I don’t know. I have no idea. I typically qualify better here. But, we’ve just been playing with some things and trying to get better here at Martinsville. Been doing a lot of studying and have changed-up things I’ve been doing in the car, so we’ll see if it pays off tomorrow. I still feel a little a little out of control, but we’ve been working hard. Hopefully it pays off.”
YOU SAID AS SOON AS YOU WON AT DOVER THAT YOUR FOCUS SHIFTED TO THIS RACE AND HAVE SPENT TIME ON THE SIMULATOR. WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO DO TO TRY TO COME WITH TERMS WITH THIS VERY TRICKY HALF-MILE?
“I honestly haven’t been spending any time on the simulator. But I just looked at a lot of SMT data in just kind of areas that I got beat compared to the good guys, and tried to look at that and study that and see what I can do to simulate what they do; and then try and balance our car around that. I feel like our balance is quite a bit different than normal here, so hopefully that’ll be good for the long run, but we’ve just got to wait and see for tomorrow’s race. Once it gets past halfway, that’s usually when I stat to struggle. Hopefully tomorrow is a little different.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 CHEVROLET ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 18th
“Since we unloaded, our Chevy Accessories ZL1 was good. Looking forward to an opportunity to redeem ourselves from our run in the spring. It will be interesting. We had a solid lap. Looking forward to tomorrow.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 LLUMAR CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 19th
ON HIS EFFORT
“Felt like it was pretty decent. It will hopefully give us decent track position and go from there. We will see here tomorrow.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 24th
ON HIS RUN
“Not what we expected. Not what we expected. We really liked the balance of the car in race trim and how it drove. We just missed it in our qualifying adjustments from there. Live and learn and we will make different adjustments when we come back in the spring.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
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