NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CAN-AM DUEL #2
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES
FEBRUARY 18, 2016
JAMIE McMURRAY, NO. 1 McDONALD’S/CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW THIS DUEL PLAYED OUT?
“It was fairly uneventful until the last 10 laps. I was shocked that that second group was able to catch us. But it seems like that’s the way these always work out. You get strung out and then with five to go it always packs back up. The lap cars played a little bit of a factor with some guys getting a little bit of a draft of them. You just had to be either in the middle or the outside. You couldn’t be stuck on the bottom. When the 20 (Matt Kenseth) got stuck on the bottom, he was able to make up a little bit of ground but the outside was just the preferred groove.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON BEHIND YOU AT THE END?
“Yeah I was trying to block the 48 (Jimmie Johnson). I had stalled out right when I got to the 18 car (Kyle Busch), and I didn’t think the 48 had much of a run either. It felt like our momentum was about the same. I saw the replay and I still don’t know if he was up to my rear bumper or if it was the air that made his car turn. I’m just not sure.”
WHAT TOOK PLACE FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT?
“I’m not 100 percent sure. When you look at the replay, I didn’t think the 48 was going to have enough of a run; I stalled out when I got near the 18. I never felt him touch me. I don’t know if it was the disturbance in the air off my car coming up. There wasn’t a mark on the car. It was a pretty uneventfully race. Our Cessna/McDonald’s Chevy was really good in practice. You really didn’t get to see what you had in the race because we didn’t run side-by-side that long.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
ON HIS NIGHT:
“Tony Gibson (crew chief) gave me a great car. We brought it home third. We got some damage on the Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevy. We will see what we have to do to fix it up. It’s Speedweeks and you just feel like you always want to bring your best bullet to the Daytona 500. We are going to have to polish on this one to make it the best one we’ve got because of the damage that we got going into Turn 1. It’s exciting, it’s a thrilling type of finish with guys blocking and guys trying to make a move. We did the best we could.”
TY DILLON, NO. 95 CHEERIOS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
ON AVOIDING THE FINAL LAP ACCIDENT:
“It was a little bit of luck. Thankfully we caught back to the main pack there right at the end. Our Chevy power was great. I’m really happy with the way the race car runs. I’m very excited for the (Daytona) 500. Kind of got separated from the pack, caught up to them, about the time we got there I had a good run up to (Matt) Kenseth. He slammed on brakes so quick I had no time to react. We were in the crash. At that point it was just navigating your way through it. I was able to get through it clean. Got a little bit of nose damage, but I think we will be alright.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
HOW DID YOUR BACK-UP CAR RUN IN THE DUEL?
“I was happy that I could hang on to the tail-end of those small packs. That is promising. Very uneventful race for us, but hey I guess if you are going to have an uneventful race and come away with an unscathed race car this would be the one to do it in. We don’t have to pull out another back-up so that is good. We will go on to the 500 and try to do well.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN TONIGHT THAT YOU CAN ADJUST THROUGH THE NEXT COUPLE OF PRACTICES ON THIS BACK-UP CAR THAT COULD WORK FOR YOU IN THE 500?
“I don’t think we will run any practice. We are probably done practicing for the weekend. I didn’t really learn anything for the race either because there was a lot of single-file, very patient racing. You won’t see much of that in the 500.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 NATURE’S BAKERY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
ON HER RACE:
“Our night was pretty uneventful for the most part. I was having a hard time staying on Jimmie (Johnson) really well. It seemed like my runs were inconsistent. I would get big runs and then just drop back for no reason. I don’t know what was happening with the car behind me. Maybe they weren’t staying real tucked up or maybe it was just something we need to fix. Once we made the pit stop we just didn’t get going quick enough to catch that lead group. It made it kind of interesting because we did catch them. AJ (Allmendinger) did a good job of leading the line and getting us there and getting the No. 95 to go to the back of the group. We needed his speed more. We caught them and then it got exciting. I was pretty surprised with how exciting it was getting up there. It wasn’t like it was a great big pack and you needed to make something happen. There was only 10 of us up there. Sure made for a good race. There was oil in Turns 1 and 2. I slowed down. I had plenty of time to slow down for the accident. I saw Jimmie I think starting to spin. I got on the brakes hard and started to slow down. Got off the brake and started to just roll and there was oil and it just spun. It was super unexpected. Hopefully, nothing is wrong with the car and we can just hammer on it a little bit and get it where it needs to be. Change out the engine and get ready for the 500.”
BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS RACE:
“It was single-file you couldn’t pass. The race just got single-file really quick. Starting last just kind of had us behind the eight-ball. By the time we got around the guys in front of us at the start it just got single-file and there was nothing we could do. We both tried to make a run for it and half the group that said they were going to the bottom didn’t go to the bottom. I got hung out. We went for it. The guys did a good job. The car is okay. It runs good and we will go from there.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT?
“Just aggressive racing at the end. I had a big run. Jamie (McMurray) was trying to get underneath the 18 and that didn’t work out, and I creeped up to his outside. He moved up quickly to defend that. I could tell I was going to be taken up into the wall. I tried getting out of there but kind of got into the fence, skipped off the wall and spun out in front of everybody. It was a lot gone wrong I guess. It’s not like anything was intentional. It’s just a bummer to tear up a car after taking the white flag in a car that we tried so hard to protect and make so fast. There was just a lot gone wrong.”
YOU’RE GOING TO A BACK-UP CAR NOW. WHAT DID YOU SEE?
“Yeah I’m sad to lose that car. It was really, really good. The 1 had a run on the 18 and it didn’t pan out getting underneath him. That allowed me to come to the outside. Then Jamie came up to defend that and unfortunately I was outside of him. I could see where it was taking us; we were going to hook bumpers and crash. I tried to get out of the hole, but it didn’t work and I kind of skipped off the wall and turned around in front of everyone. It was an aggressive move. Sometimes it works and sometimes they don’t. I’m just bummed out we lost a race car.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE AT THE END WITH JAMIE MCMURRAY?
“It was just aggressive racing at the end. I had a big run and Jamie was trying to get down underneath the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and that didn’t work out and I had crept-up to his outside and then he moved up quickly to defend that and I could tell I was going to be taken up into the wall and I tried getting out of there and it kind of got me into the fence and I skipped off the wall and then spun out in front of everybody. It was a block gone wrong, I guess. I don’t think anything was intentional but it’s just a bummer to tear up a car after you take the white flag in a car we tried so hard to protect and made so fast. It was just a block gone wrong.
I could see with his aggression how fast he was coming up that our line was going to take me into the wall and I tried to check-up and get out of there and it just didn’t work out and it took me up into the outside wall a little bit and turned me down across the field. It’s just a block that didn’t turn out and I was out there and it unfortunately turned us around”
WHAT HAPPENED EARLIER IN THE RACE WHEN YOU TRIED TO MAKE A MOVE? NOBODY WENT WITH YOU
“At the start of the race in the inside lane, everybody watched the first Duel and was so eager to run the top, that our race immediately went there. And I just didn’t have a hole to get up. And we moved around and kind of worked our way up there, but again, everybody was so protective of the top, and nobody really wanted to race. And with all that said, I still got into third or something and then that deal happened in the end.”
WHAT SORT OF A CHALLENGE IS IT FOR THE GUYS TO PULL OUT A BACK-UP CAR FOR SUNDAY?
“The guys were real confident about our back-up selection, so I feel good about it. I was asking what our strategy was here and if we needed to protect and (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) of course wanted me to, but he said, ‘Go race. We’ve got a great one sitting in the truck.’ So, we’ll take advantage of the next couple of practice sessions and dial this one in.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 15TH
ON HIS RACE:
“I felt like we had done a good job to maximize everything we could to get out there and have a chance to have a top-five finish. My guys have worked hard on it. The Kroger/Scott Products Chevy hasn’t been the fastest car, but we keep making it better. Just sad that we wasted that car for no reason.”
WILL YOU BE GOING TO A BACK-UP CAR? THOUGHTS ON STARTING IN THE BACK?
“Starting position here doesn’t mean anything, just going to a back-up car. We haven’t had the speed in both our cars yet – the Unlimited car and this car. I feel like we are going to have to go to work on our back-up car. I think it’s fairly close to this one. Just some work for my guys. We were hoping to get through there clean and have a clean race car. I thought we might. I thought we actually, the way it was all funneling out, you didn’t know. I might have had a chance to win the race. Just disappointing, but it’s Daytona that is why I love it so much. My guys will wake up tomorrow and work as hard as ever as they always do.”
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH
ON RUNNING OUT OF FUEL AND HIS RACE:
“We had a shot to win it. I hate to be in that good of a position and not be able to take advantage of it. We just ran out of fuel. I’m not sure exactly what happened yet. Obviously, we ran out and other guys made it. So, we just have to figure out why we didn’t and go from there. I’m proud of our guys because obviously we had good speed and were in good position. Coming down pit road we came out where we needed to in order to be in good position to win the race. It was kind of shaping up there at the end. The No. 1 was kind of laying back on the No. 19. They kind of kept getting a run and I kind of was feeling out what they were doing. I was hoping that I was going to be able to lay back and be a part of that same run. Proud of our guys for having the speed and obviously the 500 is the one you really got to worry about, but really wanted to win that race.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CAT CHEVROLET SS – Retired early from second Can-Am qualifying race due to an engine issue
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“Something happened in the motor. We dropped a cylinder and basically is just a better situation to park it and diagnosis it. And figure out what we can do to help ourselves for Sunday than to go out there and it not necessary to run for points or anything like that. It’s a better chance for us to diagnosis it and that is why we are in the garage.”
BECAUSE TEAMS CAN CHANGE ENGINES BEFORE SATURDAY’S PRACTICE DO YOU SEE THAT HAPPENING AND IS THERE ANY CONCERN WITH THE NEXT ENGINE?
“Well this is a different issue than what happened to the No. 27. We’ve got that to look at too. Something was definitely off here. We will figure out what we need to do to make the Caterpillar Chevrolet faster. But that second engine I guarantee you is better than this one right now.”
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