NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
IRWIN TOOLS NIGHT RACE
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 22, 2015
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2nd
YOU HAD TO BATTLE THROUGH SOME ADVERSITY TONIGHT, BUT YOU HAD A REMARKABLE FINISH IN SECOND PLACE. HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE NIGHT?
“I’m just proud that NBC actually played our interview this week so the fans will be happy. I just want you guys to know that I actually did the interview, but they didn’t play it. But I’ve just got to thank everybody on the Jimmy John’s/Budweiser team for just doing what they had to do to stick this out. I made a mistake there on pit road and got us behind and just didn’t get our Budweiser Chevy through traffic like Joey (Logano) did. There were a couple of times when it was pretty close but I wasn’t letting off the gas. I just needed to be a little bit closer to him to make something happen. But all in all, I’m really proud of my team. They showed the heart and determination that you have to have. This hasn’t been my favorite place to drive, but they bring really fast race cars here and that overcomes a lot of my talent lack that I have at this particular track.”
THE CLOSING LAPS WERE DRAMATIC. WHAT WERE THEY LIKE FOR YOU?
“Well, you’re just trying to keep pace as you go through traffic. You know that you’re coming up on lapped traffic. You don’t really know where they’re going to go. I could tell that Joey was having that huge drive-in early in the corner. My car was okay on the bottom, but I couldn’t really get through the center of the corner like I needed to. There at that very end, I found a really high groove that worked well between (Turns) 3 and 4 and we were able to make up a little time. But you’d catch a little; you’d lose a little. But I’m sure proud of my team.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PRO SERVICES CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
ON HIS NIGHT:
“It took us awhile to get the car going. We were pretty tight in the center of the corner. Once we got it rolling there in the second half of the race I was in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, I restarted on the inside those last two or three restarts and that really hurt us. Great performance for this Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet big credit to my guys for working hard all weekend. I smacked the fence pretty hard on lap four in practice and we fought back from that all weekend long. So, definitely a team effort, very proud of my guys.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ON HIS NIGHT:
“Yeah we had a little issue on pit road and lost real early in the race so that put us behind everyone. It’s just so hard to pass here. Kyle (Busch) was flying at the start of the race and lapped all the way up to us and a couple more cars. You just can’t get behind early like that when there are so many cars on the lead lap. We never did, hell we were running 12th getting lapped. Just so hard to pass, even the lap traffic is hard to pass. They are doing everything they can to give you an opportunity, but you’ve got to run like two or three corners just to set a guy up and get in position. You can lose half a straightaway quick, even a straightaway to people you are racing against. That is the way it is. We had a lot of fun. The car is not in bad shape. We did run it into the fence twice, maybe three times, but I know twice. I think it bent up the rear-end housing a little bit. It bent the wheel, so, when it bends the wheel it bends something else. Probably why we lost so many positions at the end there, we should have run fifth or sixth, but on the long run it just got real bad. If you just hang around you are going to get in the top 15 here if you don’t do anything crazy. Just had to be patient and I wasn’t patient enough. I got into the fence a couple of times. But we had pretty good early run speed. Right at the beginning of the race we took off, passing guys and having a good time. The car was driving great. But, yeah, that is just the way it is, just a long night. But I had fun, this place is a lot of fun.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON HIS NIGHT:
“We took a 20th place car from yesterday and turned it into a top 10 today. Not the end result that we wanted, but a good points day for us. That is part of what we are racing for right now.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track incident on lap 359 that put the No. 42 Chevrolet SS behind the wall for repairs – FINISHED 41ST
A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH TIRES WAS THAT WHAT WAS PLAGUING YOU TONIGHT?
“The first time we blew our left front we stayed out on two tires and we had a lot of laps on our lefts. And we blew that one out. Later on we had a lot of damage and got really tight and blew the right front.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FIRST INCIDENT EARLY ON?
“I guess on our left front the side wall got cut out. I don’t know if that was a wear issue or not. Then we got into the wall and we were pretty tight after that with lots of damage on the right side. So, probably just used up our right front tire because I couldn’t turn. I just hate it we hit the wall with a blown right front and ended out night.”
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