NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 6, 2015
TEAM CHEVY TAKES FIVE OF TOP-10 IN FINISHING ORDER:
5TH = Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS
- Maintains NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Point Lead
6th = Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS
8th = Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Valvoline Chevrolet SS
9th = Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet SS
10th = Kyle Larson, No. 42 Mello Yello Chevrolet SS
ADDITIONAL TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS IN TOP 20:
12TH = Kasey Kahne, No. 5 HendrickRideAlong.com Chevrolet SS
13th = Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS
14th = Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s/Cessna Chevrolet SS
15th = Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS
16th = Jeff Gordon, No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS
19th = Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS
20th = Landon Cassill, No. 40 Snap Honor Chevrolet SS
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
“We had a great Budweiser/Jimmy Johns Chevrolet all night long. I’m definitely happy with that part. All in all, the car performed really well when we needed it to. We were in the race and we just got a little too far behind with eight laps to go and never made that up. We’ve got to brush up on that but, all in all, the car performed well. We just got bit there at the end.”
ASSESS YOUR EVENING HERE TONIGHT AT DARLINGTON:
“We had a really fast car. Had fun racing up there for the lead. Just got behind on pit road tonight and never made that up. We got to brush up on that. But all in all the car performed well.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
“We had a race winning Haas Automation Chevrolet. We got the lead at one point. It was short lived, but the car definitely loved the clean air. We hadn’t gotten to the clean air until halfway through. Once we did and led those nine or 10 laps it was great. Then we had a poor pit stop when we came in as the leader. Then some guys stayed out and it kind of bottled us up for a while. Then we worked our way back up and once you get past 100 laps to go restarts get really congested. We cleared the No. 78 off Turn 2. We had been working with him all night. You’ve got to race the racetrack and he let us in off (Turn) 2 and everything was fine. Then he just drilled us going into (Turn) 3.”
ON THE AERO PACKAGE:
“Definitely still where you struggle is in dirty air. There needs to be less differential between clean air and dirty air. I ran second most of the race, third, when we did get to the lead it was like the car found another gear. The package in general is a nice balance of slip sliding around and being on the edge. Overall, pleased with our day we came back strong after a mishap. I just have to thank all the guys for their hard work. This was our second attempt at the low downforce and we made big gains since Kentucky.”
COMPARE IT TO KENTUCKY WITH THE DIFFERENT TIRE:
“Yeah you’ve got to have a softer tire when you go to lower downforce.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR, NO. 88 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON THE RACE AND THOUGHTS ON THIS AERO PACKAGE:
“I love the package. I thought we ran okay. We weren’t good when we got here. We weren’t good when the practices were over. I was real worried. The guys did a good job getting the car better all night long. The car was a lot of fun to drive all night. We did have some balance issues we need to improve on, but we fought hard and got a good result. The car was pretty good the last two or three runs. Just took us all weekend to get there and we were pretty far off when we got here, really bad. Real proud of my team, good stops they were consistent and that is what we need because they have been struggling.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S/CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
“I did the tire test here with the 2015 package and I couldn’t tell a significant difference just because there is so much fall off from stickers to 10 laps, to 20 laps, to 30 laps. I did think that when you were behind someone it wasn’t as noticeable as maybe what we had. I am a big fan of this package. I think everybody is. We had a little bit more front downforce with some pans that they allowed us to have. I think that was better because at Kentucky everybody struggled with getting the front to turn. Here that didn’t seem to be quite as big of an issue.”
MAYBE IT’S MOSTLY CREDIT TO THE TIRES THAN THE PACKAGE ITSELF?
“No, I don’t know that… this racetrack always has massive tire fall off. Even if you brought a really hard tire here you would have a significant amount of tire fall off. So, I don’t know that the tire had a lot to do with that. I think the surface of the track. Ultimately to me the tracks that race really well the rules package isn’t as important as the surface of the racetrack when you look at Homestead or Atlanta or here they are places that there is significant fall off and tires make a big difference. There were guys tonight that stayed out and some didn’t. I thought a few of those guys were crazy when they stayed out, but they were able to hang on pretty good, some guys didn’t hang on well. That to me makes really good racing.”
IF THIS WERE NEXT YEAR’S PACKAGE WOULD YOU FEEL PRETTY GOOD ABOUT IT?
“Yeah, I think the general consensus among all of the drivers at least is that we would like to start with this and possibly try to even get more downforce off the cars. It seems like they race better when you are behind someone, when you are not as dependent on having the air on the car. I think that is always going to be important. It doesn’t matter what type of racing you watch the leader always has a little bit of an advantage, but it seems like he has less of an advantage with the smaller spoiler and this rules package.”
TALK ABOUT THIS BEING A GOOD POINTS DAY AND DOING WHAT YOU NEED TO DO GOING INTO NEXT WEEK AT RICHMOND TO MAKE YOUR FIRST CHASE:
“Yeah, honestly for the last 10 weeks we have been racing … literally if you don’t have a car that can win you are just trying to get the most points you can. We had an okay car tonight. I was super conservative. My radio only worked about two percent of the time. So, I had a spotter sometimes, but I didn’t others. I was really conservative on restarts and really throughout the whole race. I’m hoping that we are locked in tonight so that we can go to Richmond and race and have fun. And just know that there are no consequences.”
WHAT IS THE PLAN IN RICHMOND IF YOU STILL KNOW YOU HAVE A GOOD BUFFER, BUT DO YOU GO IN AND TRY TO WIN OR STAY CONSERVATIVE?
“I think you just have to look at the scenario of what the points are. The feeling will be so much different knowing that you are locked in versus there is a really slim chance that you can get knocked out. I don’t know until we find out I can’t tell you.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
ON THE RACE AND HIS THOUGHTS ON THIS AERO CONFIGURATION:
“I like the aero package. I like the racecar. We just couldn’t ever get track position. I don’t know we struggled tonight. We got it pretty good on the short runs and we were mediocre on the long runs, but not great. We just had some issues on pit road.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 25 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – CUT DOWN A RIGHT-FRONT TIRE ON LAP 228
“We had to stay out, which was fine. And I’m not sure; I didn’t feel like it (tire) was going down or anything. It just like going in there, getting into (Turn) 1 and tore up the race car, unfortunately. I appreciate everybody’s hard work this weekend. We were trying. I messed up there at the beginning of the race and got us behind and you just can’t do stuff like that.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ON-TRACK ACCIDENT ON LAP 188
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I didn’t feel out of control out there. I felt like I was in a pretty decent rhythm. It snapped pretty hard in (Turn) 4. So, I don’t know, I mean they said it looked like it snapped pretty hard. It felt like that it was definitely more sudden and something that I wasn’t expecting. It is definitely possible that it just got loose. For a few laps before that I felt like I could pull the yaw pretty easily through (Turns) 3 and 4. The one thing about Darlington is you definitely run a lot of lines here. I was running – I felt better lower than higher, so at times I was a lane or two below the dotted line. Debris is just something that happens here because we are using so much track, but I’m not 100 percent sure could have just got loose. But, it could have been a cut tire too, just not sure. It’s a bummer. We fought our way back to the lead lap after taking two tires, but it’s probably not a good idea at Darlington. I think Carl (Edwards) took no tires, and not a good idea at Darlington. So, I feel like we were in a position to have a decent end to the day, although we’re just only halfway. It’s unfortunate. And I love this car and my suit. The Lady in Black thing was a cool thing, but unfortunately I think it’s come to an end.”
Connect with Team Chevy on social media. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TeamChevy, follow us on Twitter@TeamChevy, and add +TeamChevy into your Google+ circles.
Team Chevy racing photos are available at:
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 115 countries and selling around 4.8 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.
