NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 4, 2016
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – Pole Winner
WAS THAT FAST LAP A LUDICROUS SPEED LAP?
“It was insanely fast. It’s amazing all the detail that goes into qualifying with finding that perfect lap three times out there. My second outing we were way tight and I didn’t know where it came from. (Tony) Gibson, (crew chief) and crew went to town. They just adjusted on it. We gambled and we made that last session, which was great. That was icing on the cake to be able to go out into the third round. I was first or 12th it didn’t matter. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, two poles in a row, this is great. This is how you work through an off season and show up to qualify, now we just need to find that speed on the long run. Really proud of everybody at SHR.”
DID IT HELP THAT YOU GUYS WENT AND LOOKED AT THE VIDEO?
“Team communication all the way around. They can hear it in my voice on times when I’m confused by something at this time now they are like ‘okay this is where you need to try to do something different.’ It’s just team work that is what it is. You have to have offense, defense, special teams and I’ve got a great group.”
HOW SPECIAL IS IT TO COME BACK THIS YEAR AND GET THE POLE?
“Man, I wasn’t going to lift for anything. I was giving it all I had. I’m really proud of the team to help me get to that third round. I was over driving the car and I needed to settle in and Tony Gibson (crew chief) made a great adjustment in that last round. I was hoping to put on a show for the home crowd, get the pole, but now we’ve got to go to work tomorrow. I hope we can get the car dialed in for long run speed for Sunday.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS TRACK POSITION?
“It’s going to be neat to have that pit stall at the end and just kind of roll off the jack and hopefully beat everybody off pit road if they have done a better job through the race to get ahead of us. We hope to protect our track position all day.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW – ENERGY & WATER/INTELLIFRESH CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 5th
WHAT STOOD OUT TO YOU MOST ABOUT THE FINAL ROUND?
“Moving up in (Turns) 1 and 2 definitely helped me. I was running the bottom kind of fighting the car through there. It just was easier through the bumps when I moved up. I wish I would have done it a round before because I could have maybe got a little bit more there. Just proud of my team. We had to fight back from the beginning. We made a big mistake that first run. The cowl cover was on. I ran around there wide open. I said ‘the motor ain’t running’. We found it and we came in. Good recovery. We know to make a bigger cowl cover so we can see it next time. Good run for the Dow Chevy. I’m proud of these guys. Each week we keep making the third round and we are going to have a pole by the end of the year.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 13th
WHAT IS IT LIKE RUNNING DOUBLE DUTY THIS WEEKEND?
“It’s been busy today. It’s been fun. I felt like we made some gains on our NAPA Chevrolet. We started off not where we wanted to on our TaxSlayer Chevy, but I thought we got it better in the second practice. I hate that we missed it by one again. Last week we missed it by one, but we were in the wrong cut off bracket. At least we missed the top 12 by one this week, not the top 24. It’s an improvement. Not perfect, but we are excited about being better than last week. We will take it and try to get ready for the race.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS
ON WHAT HAPPENED TO BRAIN VICKERS ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“Well, I’m going to go talk to NASCAR officials in a minute and find out. We heard them tell the No. 5 car to go ahead and finish his lap. By the time they threw the caution we were already past where the No. 19 had hit the wall and already into Turn 3. They said it was a safety issue. I guess us running into Turn 3 wide open… they weren’t worried about our safety they were worried about everybody else behind us I guess. We will find out. I know they will have a reason for it, but we are just going to put our two cents in and a different side for them to look. So hopefully we won’t have to deal with that scenario in the future.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 20th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“We struggled out there in qualifying. The car’s been tight all day and lacked front grip, and we just never got it sorted out. We’ve got two practices tomorrow to try and dial it in.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 29th
WHAT ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO HAVE TO DO TOMORROW TO WORK ON THIS CAR FOR SUNDAY?
“Honestly, we have been kind of a 30th-place car since we unloaded here. All day yesterday we were like 30th on the board. We went to qualifying trim this morning and I think we were 28th or 30th this morning and we qualified right there. I ended up getting into the wall a little bit just trying to get a little bit more, but I hit the wall and still ran the same speed. It’s kind of been the story of our weekend. We just can’t find any speed in the car. Kyle (Larson) is a little bit better than we are, but both of our cars just don’t have the speed that we did last weekend.”
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“The front doesn’t turn very good, but the back still doesn’t feel very stable. We freed it up a bunch for our second run and then still just didn’t turn good enough. We just have kind of been the 30th-place car all day yesterday and all day today. I think the most frustrating part is that we just kind of run the same lap time every time out. All day in race trim yesterday we kind of ran 29.00 and all morning we ran 28.30’s and then I ran two 28.00 right here. I don’t know if I’m not telling them the right information or if I just don’t have the right feel, but we just can’t seem to make adjustments that are making the car any quicker right now.”
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