NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 12, 2016
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ABOUT THREE RESTARTS FROM THE END, YOU HAD THE LEAD AND YOU DIDN’T GET A VERY GOOD START. WHAT HAPPENED?
“I just did something dumb. You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races. Completely my fault. The guys gave me a great car today. This whole NAPA group has been working so hard these past few weeks and that one was on me. Like I said. You can’t do dumb stuff to win these things and I did today.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHEN YOU PLAY THIS ONE BACK ON MONDAY AFTER YOU’VE HAD A CHANCE TO THINK ABOUT IT, WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?
“I’m not sure. I’m not sure there was anything I could have done there. It was pretty tight to fire off for two or three laps; sometimes for a full run. My restarts were pretty good. You’ve got to have a good guy behind you if you get a good push. I just had good restarts and kept some track position, it seemed like. It might have been hard to pass. So, just staying out front the whole time was a big key. The Target Chevy was really fast. I think we had a third or fourth-place car. So, thanks to all these guys for working hard at the shop on not having much time to figure out this aero package and bring a nice piece here. I wish we could have gotten a win. But, we’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can run up-front more often.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 OUTBACK CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
FREE BLOOMIN’ MONDAY AT OUTBACK WITH A TOP 10 FINISH. YOU WENT FROM 29TH ALL THE WAY UP TO THIRD AT ONE POINT. IT WAS VERY IMPRESSIVE:
‘Yeah, I got loose on the restart where we restarted third. But I’ve just got to say thank you to everybody from Stewart-Haas Racing, especially on the No. 34 Outback Chevrolet, and everybody from Busch, and Jimmy John’s and Mobil 1 and everybody who helps this car. They fought all day and had great pit stops on pit road. We were able to overcome some missed-timed cautions again. It seems like the weekend of cautions; that’s what got us in our starting spot, anyway. But all-in-all, everybody kept their heads up and kept digging and we got a good finish out of it.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Not only today, but just the whole weekend. I am tickled to death with these guys. That is the kind of weekend I’ve been looking for all year out of this group. Today is proof that we can do it. I would rather have this than win a race and run 15th/20th the next week. From start to finish all weekend it’s been solid and that is what we are looking for right now. I’m tickled to death.”
THOUGHTS ON THE DOWNFORCE PACKAGE:
“I love it. I absolutely love it. The package is good. The aero package is starting to catch up now. The whole equation to this to make it all where everybody wants it to be are tires and aero. Up to this point Goodyear has been way ahead of NASCAR. NASCAR is finally catching up. So, now we are getting the split between the two groups closed up. The good thing is Goodyear is primed and ready to do all the stuff they need to do. They have been waiting on NASCAR. It’s coming around. It’s going to get back to… you know today we got to drive the cars. We got to make a difference in the car and manipulate things. That is what we have all been wanting. We are not running Mach 12 around here in the middle of the corner. I don’t know what everybody else is going to say, but I thought it was pretty good. It may not be perfect yet, but it is more than definitely going in the right direction for sure.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SALUTES VETERANS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ON HIS SOLID FINISH:
“We are a little disappointed we thought we had enough speed to have a shot to win. Obviously, it wasn’t all there, but never really got track position we needed. I thought that first restart was good and we got to running fifth there, but the caution came out when we had pitted and we did not get in front of Jimmie (Johnson) before the caution came out, so that hurt us. But, I’m proud of my guys they made some good adjustments to get us back in the game. A good last restart, starting on top was a lot. I don’t know what people thought of the package, but it was pretty hard to pass because you were really free. I kind of had that feeling. Everybody has wanted to go that way, but there is only so far and we are not all Superman out there, so downforce is king.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
ON HIS DAY:
“It was a tough day. It was tough to restart. I mean I restarted between 15th and 24th all day long. It was just tough back there. Everybody is aggressive and moving around. One guy screws up and you are behind him you drop spots, you screw up you drop spots. If one guy screws up and you get by him you gain six spots. It is just all over and it just depends what the people do in Turn 1. It’s pretty wild, pretty tough, but our car was decent at times. It was really good at times and then other times I couldn’t figure it out. It was a tough race.”
THOUGHTS ON THE NEW DOWNFORCE PACKAGE:
“You just have a lot of driving to do. I don’t think my car was as good as some. When my car was good there were runs where it felt really good and I really enjoyed it. I thought you had to drive it and I thought you could still find speed and move around. When my car wasn’t as good on entry I was struggling. That would have been the same as any other three or four packages we have had at Michigan in the last couple of years.”
FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT WHEN YOU GO IN TRAFFIC IT SEEMED LIKE THIS PACKAGE IS A LOT MORE DARING:
“It was definitely hairy and it was tough because depending on where you put yourself compared to the cars in front of you, which is all just air or no air or where you had to go or ended up that would change everything. If you chose the right spot or got put in the right spot you were good. If you didn’t you were in bad shape. There was a lot going on with this package for sure. We are going to test Kentucky the next two days so hopefully we can make a few gains and understand it a little better for that race. That surface is going to be very interesting I would imagine.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car accident on Lap 60
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU TOOK A BIG HIT. ARE YOU OKAY?
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad, actually. I knew I was going to hit the wall. The No. 34 (Chris Buescher) just drove into the left front quarter panel. Oh, man. I don’t know; them restarts and all that. You’ve got a responsibility to try and take care of everybody out there even when you’re three-wide. I’m disappointed in that. But, we had a pretty good car and we were just kind of taking our time, there. And the car was great. So, it’s a shame.”
CAN YOU EVALUATE THE NEW PACKAGE? DID YOU RUN ENOUGH TO HAVE AN EVALUATION YET?
“It’s not a whole lot different than the other package. I think we talk about packages too much.”
TELL US WHAT YOU CAN FOR YOUR POINT OF VIEW:
“We were in the middle there and the No. 34 (Chris Buescher) ran into the left-rear quarter panel and knocked us in the fence. He must have just lost the nose of his car. I hate it, but you try to take care of each other out there. We all try to race hard and I wish he would have taken better care of us. He just lost the car and hit the quarter panel. It happens though. I’m angry, but I won’t be too upset about it later. It’s frustrating right now because we had a good car and I was happy with the way the car drove. We had good speed, we just needed to continue to work on getting our track position and we were doing that. We won’t get a chance to get the finish I think we could have got today.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/HUNGRY JACK/CRISCO CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car accident on lap 60
WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT INCIDENT?
“I’m not really sure. I think (Dale Earnhardt) Junior got hit and I was on the outside of him and that was it. It was kind of weird back there. I’m not really sure what kind of car we had. I thought in clean air we weren’t too bad, but I guess a lot of people could say that. Just not a lot of fun racing there.”
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