NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA 400 DRIVE FOR AUTISM
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 15, 2016
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Finished 2nd
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END?
“We were really good. We were better than Matt (Kenseth) there. A lot of good cars got wrecked which was nice and I knew I was going to be the car to probably beat. I got to second there on the restart and just tried to be patient. I could see Matt was pretty loose in front of me. I was just waiting for him to make a mistake and he did make a couple of mistakes, but it’s so hard to pass somebody on the bottom here because they can suck down on your door on exit and slow you down. I was probably a little too patient in the beginning and allowed Chase (Elliott) to get close to us and actually get by me. I don’t remember how I got back by him, but I did get back by him and we raced pretty hard there for a few laps and Matt got out a good bit. I didn’t think I would catch him, but I got another shot at him at the end and was trying to do all I could to pass him without getting into him. Matt, except for a couple of instances last year, he is probably the cleanest driver out here. I wanted to race him with all that respect and felt like I did a good job. I probably could have got into him in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2 there once and maybe got by him, but I didn’t want to do that. Looking back maybe I should have because I could be in the Chase right now, but we will just keep working hard. We are getting some really good cars built at our shop now. We struggled to start the season, but Jamie (McMurray) and I both have been pretty fast here the last few weeks. Hopefully, we can keep it rolling. I know we have a new car for next week and the (Coca-Cola) 600. Try and put it all together and get into Victory Lane.”
A FUN RUN TO THE FINISH! IT WAS LIKE A DIRT RACE. YOU WERE WORKING IT EVERYWHERE. COULD YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING DIFFERENT?
“I was trying to do all I could do to get by him (winner, Matt Kenseth) without getting into him. I probably could have bumped him a little bit there in the middle of (Turns) 1 and 2, but it was a lot of fun racing with Matt, there. I was just trying to be patient. I knew I was better than he was. And then the No. 24 (Chase Elliott) got to third, and he was catching us pretty quick and then I got side-by-side with the No. 20 (Kenseth) for a couple of laps and he got to my inside; we got to race really hard. And then the No. 20 got back away and by the time I got to second, he was just a little bit to far in front of me. I got another shot there at the end, but I came up a little bit short. I was probably just a little too patient there, but I’m really proud of everybody on this team. The Target Chevy was not good to start the race. The first two runs, I was really bad and went a lap down. I got the Lucky Dog and got some track position. I got a whole new car. It was weird. But it was a lot of fun. I got to lead some laps and be right up front and race people hard. All in all, it’s a good day. We would like to be in Victory Lane, but my day is coming.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd
WALK US THROUGH THE CLOSING LAPS AT THE MONSTER MILE:
“It was definitely wild from my view. If the fans didn’t get what they wanted to see today then they need to go do something else. That was a heck of a race in my opinion. Obviously, wish we could have come out on top. Matt (Kenseth) and Kyle (Larson) were racing really hard for the lead. I tried to steal one from them. They were a little better than we were, but we worked hard and tried to stay in the ball game today and fortunately came out with a decent finish, just not close enough.”
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE?
“Those guys racing side-by-side and I couldn’t really get myself a clear lane and just never could get the run I needed to get on both of them at the same time. I think Kyle (Larson) was a little better than Matt (Kenseth) and we just weren’t quite enough.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – Finished 4th
ANOTHER GOOD SOLID RUN TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“Yeah, we had to work really hard. The pit crew did great on pit road. We passed a lot of cars there. The adjustments got the car better. We were real tight landing/loading and then over at the three-quarter mark too. It was tough, but we got our Farmers Insurance Chevy better as the race went and then avoided the big wreck on the front stretch and ended up with a top five.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – Finished 5th
ON HIS RACE:
“It was a good top five finish. I thought we could run down (Matt) Kenseth and (Kyle) Larson. It was great running with Chase Elliott. I just smacked the fence off of Turn 2 with about 15 (laps) to go. It was like I cashed in my chip and I’m like ‘I’m going now’ and I over stepped the limits of the car. I got tight. I induced that tight by driving it too hard and smacked the ole’ fence. The concrete always wins. The car always has to suffer. I let my guys down today. I was really going for it hard, but yes, we did finish fifth. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, we want to get that win, but man we have been on one side of the yellow or the other side of the yellow the last few weeks. We will get it.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 SCHROCK/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 11th
ON HIS RACE:
“Yeah, it was a struggle. We just could not get going on restarts. After 20 laps we were pretty good. We got a little lucky with all the wrecked cars.”
CLINT BOWYER, NO. 15 5-HOUR ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – Finished 12th
TALK ABOUT SURVIVING THIS CRAZY RACE TODAY:
“Yeah, just crazy. It is what it is. I’m happy with the finish. We have got to get better. Definitely we just keep gaining. We’ve got to keep doing what we are doing and keep persevering here and hopefully we will be where we need to be and meet our goals at the end of the year.”
RODNEY CHILDERS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 15th
“We had a good car. We had driven from 20th back to fourth there before the caution. You had a couple of guys stay out and caused a big mess on the restart and got tore up. The guys did good on pit road to keep it out there and keep it going and at least get a decent finish out of it.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS: Involved in 18-car accident on Lap 355
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU REALIZE SOMETHING WAS WRONG?
“As soon as I went from second and tried to go to third, I kind of got up into the neutral gate of the transmission and didn’t even go to third. It stopped before it ever went to third. And then I tried fourth and third and fourth and eventually I got hit from behind. There was a long pause there where I was trying to, I thought maybe I missed a shift; but it wouldn’t go in gear. Martin (Truex, Jr.) was good and patient with me. He gave me a couple of opportunities to try to find a gear and it just locked out and wouldn’t go into gear for some reason. It was still that way at the end and I couldn’t drive the car and I don’t think I’m all that damaged, but unfortunately I lost a shot at winning and I hate to see all those cars tore up.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES EARLIER IN THE RACE?
“No, nothing. And in my career, I’ve never had a transmission do that to me. I’ve had them kind of lock out of reverse at a test session or even in the garage area or something, but to lockout and not go across the gate and then no gear available is something I’ve never had before.”
TAKE US THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RESTART:
“I got a great start in second gear. As I went to put it in third (gear) and came across the shifting gate it never went into third. It actually got locked in the neutral area of the transmission. I had plenty of time. Martin (Truex, Jr.) was plenty patient with me and I was trying to get third and I couldn’t. I tried for fourth and third and fourth and I finally got hit. Just a freak deal with something with the transmission. I’ve never had that happen to me in my career.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET: Involved in 18-car accident on Lap 355
ON THE IN-CAR CAMERA, WE SAW THAT YOU SHOOK YOUR HAND A LITTLE BIT. ARE YOU OKAY?
“Yeah.”
DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED?
“I didn’t. They were just stopping in front of us. I thought I was clear on the outside, but the No. 13 (Casey Mears) got hooked and came into us.”
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“They started wrecking way up in front of us. I couldn’t really tell what was going on. I got to the outside and thought we had it missed, but the No. 13 (Casey Mears) came up the track, he got collected in it.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined on lap 342
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?
‘We know exactly what happened. Something broke on the rear-end; on the rear-end side of it, not the chassis side. So, when it did that, somehow it punctured the oil tank. So that’s the oil you smell. You can see coming down pit road just going back and forth, left and right. We just broke a track bar.”
WE HEARD YOU SAID THE TRACKBAR BROKE WALK US THROUGH THE INCIDENT AND WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED:
“Well, the trackbar broke and the back of the car flops back and forth. I don’t know what more there is to say about that. It just broke. I mean there wasn’t any…we had been fighting, the car was acting weird for the last 80 to 100 laps. I’m sure it was already starting to break and it finally just broke the rest of the way.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ON-TRACK INCIDENT ON LAP 184
YOU HAD SOME BRAKE ISSUES. WERE THEY CONNECTED AT ALL WHEN YOU SAID YOU FELT LIKE SOMETHING LET GO?
“Yeah, I think so. I’ve never blown up a rotor on the right front. I was having to pump them there the last couple of restarts to get some pressure. It’s just a bummer. I feel bad for AAA and all these guys who have worked hard all weekend. We had a solid car, just a part failure. It’s part of racing and we’ll be back next week. But, hopefully we can get back out there and finish some laps off.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I think it was the brakes. I was complaining about them before that, having to pump them up. I am just frustrated. Had the same issue at Bristol and we come here and we have another issue with the brakes. I’m frustrated, but we had a good car. Our Chevrolet was fast and we had good shot of running top 10, top 5 depending on track position. We will just have to get them next week.”
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