NASCAR CUP SERIES
BIG MACHINE HAND SANITIZER 400
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 5, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 MCDELIVERY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEDDAR’S SCRATCH KITCHEN CAMARO ZL1 1LE
9th BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
11th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
13th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd Matt Kenseth (Chevrolet)
3rd Aric Almirola (Ford)
4th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
5th Cole Custer (Ford)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kentucky Speedway with the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart on Sunday, July 12th, at 2:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES (INCLUDING FULL POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
TRANSCRIPT FOR MATT KENSETH):
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 MCDELIVERY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
“It was a great day for the 42 team today. It’s always nice to be up front and be in contention late in the race. Chad did a great job on the box with his calls today. We had a really good strategy and the best tires coming to the end of the race, lining up fourth behind the leader late in the race, but just couldn’t get it done to take the lead. I tried everything to get to the front, but just didn’t have quite enough to get around the No. 4 car. If we had gotten to the lead though, I know we would have been hard to beat. All in all, though, a great race for us. It felt good to run up front and was a confidence booster for all of us. Looking forward to getting to Kentucky and carrying that momentum forward.”
HEY, HOW ABOUT THAT? WERE YOU THINKING THE NEW TIRES MIGHT BE ENOUGH TO PASS THE NO. 4 OF KEVIN HARVICK?
“Man, that No. 4….even the No. 10 (Aric Almirola) and the No. 41 (Cole Custer) and the No. 14 (Clint Bowyer) which, I ran by earlier; they were just really, really fast. Like, I could get a run through (Turns) 2 and 4 and I thought I could run a little faster, but I could never get a big enough run to make the pass. Chad (Johnson, crew chief) did a spectacular job with adjustments, with strategy. I had the best tires. I was restarting fourth on the outside behind Denny (Hamlin) on the second to last restart, and I just couldn’t get up there and quite get it done. We’ve come a long way here in the last couple of weeks. It seems like we’re really gaining on it, so it was a fun day for sure.”
EARLIER IN THE WEEK, YOU WERE SAYING THIS IS ONE OF YOUR BEST RACE TRACKS AND THAT YOU HAD CONFIDENCE; BUT DID YOU REALLY THINK IT COULD BE A TOP-FIVE DAY?
“Well, I’d hoped so. We always come with the goal of winning. I feel like what makes good and bad race tracks most of the time, I feel like, is good cars and getting in position and pit stops and all the things they did to get us there. But I felt like this has been one of my better places. I’ve never been able to look at that win, but we’ve ran pretty competitive here at times. I feel like Pocono is one of my weakest and we ran pretty competitive last week. Hopefully we can carry the momentum and go to Kentucky and have a good run.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEDDAR’S SCRATCH KITCHEN CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th
“We had a great No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet when we could run in clean air and record some good lap times, but unfortunately we struggled in dirty air, like a lot of our competitors today. Any time we were battling someone side by side or from behind them, our car would just build way too tight and make it tough to gain or hold track position. We just had an up-and-down day, falling back early and then playing some strategy to stay out to start Stage 3 from the fifth spot. Once the race restarted for Stage 3, we were able to hold on to that position for a while before having to make our final green flag stop of the day. Unfortunately, a yellow came our when our pit stops were cycling through, trapping us a lap down and forcing us to take the wave-around and get shuffled back in traffic again. When that final yellow flag came out and set us up for a green-white-checkered finish, my crew chief Randall Burnett made the call to come in for four fresh tires and put us 16th for the restart. I was able to capitalize on the final restart with fresher tires and race up to eighth place, which is a great finish for our day. We had to grind it out today, but it turned out in our favor.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th
“I guess it is good to be frustrated when you finish in the ninth-place. All-in-all, it was a good day for this No. 43 World Wide Technology (WWT) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. It was fast. We just did not have the handling underneath us. It was good down the straightaways. It did not want to turn very well – specially behind traffic. One of the more frustrating days being behind cars and just trying to maneuver. So, coming out of there with a top-10 finish is good momentum going to the Kentucky Speedway – another good track for us. We will continue the good vibes and keep staying on Jerry (Baxter, crew chief) to produce good finishes for us.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 13th
“This was an Indy race to forget today. We had to make too many unscheduled returns to pit road, which cost us a lot of track position. We just had an unbelievably tight handling Monster Energy Camaro in traffic, I just could cut through the corners to make any passes Obviously I was hoping for better results for #700 today.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO MILITARY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th
“A nice 14th-place finish at Indy for our GEICO Military team. It was a crazy one, but overall, it was a really solid day. From start to finish, we had speed and these are the types of cars that I knew we could bring to the track that would make a difference. I’m very proud of Matt (Borland) and all of my Germain Racing guys for their hard work. To finish the first two stages in 11th and 12th and then finish the race in 14th is a great day for our program. This is our fourth top-15 finish of the season and we are going to keep stacking those up. We’ll go get them in Kentucky and keep this momentum rolling.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SALUTES VETERANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th
“We had a really strong Dow Salutes Veterans Chevrolet today at the Brickyard and it was fun to be able to earn Stage points in Stages 1 and 2 and lead laps. Our Chevy was handling really well all day so we really only needed to make small adjustments throughout the race. Justin Alexander made great calls to help us get track position. Clean air is huge. We made the decision to stay out when the caution flag was displayed at the end of Stage 3. That put us in a great position for a two-lap shootout to the checkered flag. We were racing for sixth but tangled in Turn 4 coming to the checkers and ended up backing into the wall. Definitely not the finish we wanted or deserved today, but I’m proud of our effort. We had a lot of positives with earning Stage points and leading laps. It was also an honor to race with the names of 1200 veterans on the car on Independence Day weekend. I want to thank Dow for helping us to honor the true heroes.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 27th
“Our Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was super-fast today. It just sucks because we have had a lot of these things happen this year. It’s not a fault of anyone, it just happens and it’s a bummer for sure. We’ve had fast cars and it feels like we always have bad luck when we do. That’s what hurts even more. We just need to bring that same speed to Kentucky and hopefully we won’t have any issues there. To be leading the race like that and have a tire issue is, I guess, a good way to go out. We’ll just see what we can do in Kentucky.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by accident on lap 132; Finished 30th
“I wish we could have some luck here in Indy. Every time we come here, something happens. We had a pretty decent car, but through a series of events it just got worse. We suffered a tire issue right before we made a green flag stop, which ended our day. I hate it for my guys and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports because they have been putting in a ton of hours both at track and at the shop. We will move on to Kentucky and I hope we bring some luck with us.”
JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined in multi-car accident at the entrance to pit road on Lap 17 – Finished 37th
WHAT WAS YOUR VANTAGE POINT AS YOU WERE COMING DOWN PIT ROAD?
“Kind of like it always has been in the past here. Starting in the back trying to go forward, the No. 15 (Brennan Poole) actually got in the back of me. I didn’t know if I got (hit) the gentleman on the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney’s crew member) or not. Once the wreck started happening in front of us and we all got bottled-up there, one car after another were getting run into. It’s just a shame. I hate it for these guys on this Ally No. 48. They’ve done such a great job. They’ve prepared so well for the circumstances. Obviously, our hearts and thoughts are for Jimmie (Johnson) and his family right now. That’s the most important piece of all this is getting him back to the race track soon. And, I wanted to do well for them today and it’s disappointing to be standing here talking to you (TV interviewer) unfortunately. But we’ll go on. I don’t know what next week looks like yet. We’ll go run the Xfinity Series race and go have a good shot at it. It’s a disappointing way to end the Brickyard 400.”
WHAT DID IT MEAN TO BE THE ONE TO GET THE CALL TO STEP IN FOR A SEVEN-TIME CHAMPION?
“I told Mr. Hendrick and I told Jimmie as well how honored I was that they would ask me to be in this role. It means a lot. It means a lot as a driver and just everybody involved, and my family. I’d like to get the opportunity again.”
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 MCDELIVERY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Matt Kenseth. We’ll go right to questions.
Q. Can you talk about the restart. At that point how much of a chance do you have? Aren’t you dependent on the guy behind you as what you do on the restart?
MATT KENSETH: Yeah, I mean, all four of those cars were really, really fast. They just had a ton of raw speed. Aric was great. He was ready and pushed me. I didn’t do the best job taking off. I didn’t want to get a penalty for jumping the start. I started going, he pushed me. Didn’t look like Kevin was going, so I hesitated just that beat that kind of got Kevin out there.
He still pushed me up there pretty good. Couldn’t get going that fast. Once we got through one and two, we were pretty fast again. Just not fast enough. Really the restart before that was our chance. We had on four new tires, lining up behind Denny who was the control car, the leader. Had Kevin underneath me. Was able to get around him and clearing him, kind of in second place.
Kevin had so much speed he pulled up behind me in the backstretch and pretty much pushed me down the whole straightaway. When we got about three‑quarters of the way down, he took a left and passed me. There was just no way for me to defend that one. Those guys were really, really fast.
Our McDonald’s Chevy handled great today. We were really fast. If we would have been up front, we would have been hard to beat. I just didn’t have enough speed to get around Kevin.
Q. You were talking earlier today to us about trying to pick things up for this group. How do you feel about today?
MATT KENSETH: I certainly wasn’t flawless today. I could have done a little bit better on a couple of those restarts, particularly the last one. But I feel a lot more comfortable than I have been for sure.
I think really Pocono was a big step forward for us. It was the first time, our finishes don’t look spectacular, 11th and 12th, but we’ve been finishing 20th and 25th. Obviously it’s a much better car and team than that.
I feel like we had done some stuff at Pocono that really seemed to work for me and directionally seemed to be better. The car drove pretty good here the whole entire day, too. I’m hoping we can just carry that momentum into Kentucky, just keep moving forward with that. Hopefully get to the front like we did today, running up front where this team belongs.
Q. You’ve been a part of a lot of Brickyard 400s. Do you think this race today maybe has done enough to put to bed the story of moving this race from the oval to the road course at least for another year?
MATT KENSETH: I mean, I was listening to Aric for a while. I thought he said it pretty good. I think it’s one of those racetracks that we need to race at as long as we can. It’s arguably the most famous speedway in the world, or one of them.
To be able to race on the ovals with the Cup cars, which is the highest form of stockcar racing here, we should be on the big track as well. I don’t think it would be bad to maybe test the road course and look into it, maybe do a second race on a road course, kind of like the INDYCARS did this week.
I really do think the Brickyard 400 has a lot of prestige. It’s not a southern race, but similar to the Southern 500, races like that. I think there’s a few of those races you sure would hate to see disappear.
Q. You mentioned how big of a weekend or important Pocono was. What was it you feel you were able to hit on that translated to Indy, momentum or whatever?
MATT KENSETH: Well, I mean, not really going to give you particulars obviously. I think not having a lot of practice, then you run a race at a track, you move onto the next track. A lot of stuff we do with racecars is track specific. We’re trying to find those things that maybe are not so much track specific and try to find some trends in what we were either doing or not doing, try to get everything moving kind of in the right direction.
I just felt like we had a lot of positives there, had a much better feel for the car. Felt like we were able to make some adjustments, move towards the front at times.
Pocono and Indy are really different racetracks, too. The best adjustment you can make to these cars, particularly this rules package, is track position. We’ve been starting 20th every week with no practice, haven’t been at some of these tracks in a couple years, hard to get going. These last couple weeks we’ve had great strategy, good pit stops, able to get some good air, dissect the car, make some changes, try to get it more to my liking or kind of what we’re looking for.
Q. With the lack of practice, how do you feel the team is adjusting to you and you to the team through the last races now?
MATT KENSETH: Hopefully it’s a little better. They’re probably pretty darn disappointed the first couple months. The last couple weeks obviously have been better. Last week wasn’t a home run by any means, but like my engineer said it’s a base hit, kind of got rolling a little bit. This was certainly a great day for us. Hopefully we can build on it, have another good run next week.
Q. You’ve been around long enough that you remember when we ran this track in July, the hottest part of the summer. This being a 4th of July weekend, how different is that than what used to be run? Do you like the fact it is in the heat of the summer and following the patriotic aspect of that when you talk about the history of the Brickyard?
MATT KENSETH: Well, I don’t know that it really matters to me necessarily when we run it. To be honest, it’s been such a strange year, obviously no fans, media and stuff at the racetrack. They all kind of blur together. I have to think about it when I realized yesterday was the 4th.
I don’t know. I mean, I heard Aric talking about it, he’s a little bit full of it. Nobody likes to melt in a racecar. Some people probably hate it more than others, but nobody really likes melting in a racecar.
Some of these days races, certainly tonight it got real late, pretty dark, wasn’t that hot. Certainly there’s some coming up that have the potential to be pretty hot. Kentucky and Texas, some of those races.
I don’t know. It doesn’t matter to me really what time of year we come here. I did really always enjoy the weekends here when you had IRP, Thursday, Friday, then Friday, Saturday watching the trucks, the Xfinity cars over at IRP, then the Cup cars here being the Cup race. That was always fun. That always used to be in August, a weekend I always looked forward to.
Q. Rough go since the first race at Darlington. How much confidence does this race give you going forward to Kentucky and the rest of the season as a whole?
MATT KENSETH: Whenever you run well, you build more confidence, not just for myself but for the team and everybody involved. Running bad has opposite effect. Certainly we had a good day starting off at Darlington. I was super sloppy and rusty, we still finished 10th.
Just kind of downhill from there. We went back and were a little faster. I hit the wall, got a bad finish. Nothing was going really well. Like I said, we had a couple decent races last weekend with no mistakes, no problems, no issues, got decent finishes. Today we were able to be competitive, run up front. Chad had great calls, really good calls. Gave me everything I needed to win the race. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t get it done honestly. Had the best tires, gave me good track position. Couldn’t quite get the 4 car.
When you run well, it builds confidence. But you have to go out and do it each and every week.
Q. You’ve won so many races, a championship. Is confidence still something you need, something that’s important to any driver?
MATT KENSETH: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s easy for anybody to get kind of beat up. You try to keep it in perspective. You go try to do better every week, try to do the best job you can do at controlling the things that are in your control, kind of not worry about the rest.
Certainly you have all those weeks where you’re running in the 20s with a team that we know is capable of running like we ran today. That’s kind of tough on your ego, confidence, whatever. Even walking through the shop you thing they are whispering, Got the short straw with this replacement driver (laughter).
Certainly when you run bad, you never feel good about it. When you run better, certainly builds confidence. Kind of shows us all as a group that we can do it.
THE MODERATOR: Matt, thank you for your time.
MATT KENSETH: Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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