NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
THE COMBAT WOUNDED COALITION 400 AT THE BRICKYARD
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 24, 2016
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S RED VEST CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
IT WASN’T A FLAWLESS DAY FOR THE NO. 48 TEAM, BUT TO COME AWAY WITH A THIRD PLACE FINISH AND RECOVER FROM THAT SPEEDING PENALTY SAYS A LOT ABOUT THIS TEAM
“It says a lot. We’ve been working really hard to get our cars where they need to be. We’re still not happy, but we’re getting closer. I’m very proud of the effort today. Unfortunately a mistake on my part in that second segment, trying to get in the pits I got dinged for speeding and then rallied from like 24th back. So, I’m just very proud of this race team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and I’m very proud to run this red car and represent all the men and women who work in Lowe’s stores all around the country. We got third but I wish we would have gotten a win.”
ON THAT FINAL RESTART, HOW DID YOU GAIN THAT HANDFUL OF POSITIONS?
“Yeah, this Chevy was running good. Once we got back into that lead pack of cars, we were good to go. It’s just so unfortunate about our speeding penalty. I just put a lot of pressure on the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) there coming off of Turn 4 and was able to get him. And then going up through the gearbox through Turns 1 and 2 I was able to get by the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) and then the No. 22 (Joey Logano) as well. I was just digging hard and we got it done.”
WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?
“Well I think we were definitely a top five car. I got into the top five and then I got caught speeding on pit road. I’ve got to look and see exactly what happened. I think I might have been released a little bit early into a segment to speed into my pit box and we got dinged on that. Unfortunate there, but these guys kept their heads down, worked hard, we got very lucky with the caution after we pitted so we could get the wave by. From that point on we have had a great car they were just mired in traffic trying to get back. I had a little bit of motivation and was able to get three or four spots there at the end.”
DOES TODAY’S RUN MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE EVERYTHING IS POINTING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?
“It was and then I stubbed my toe and it all started pointing in the right direction again. I’m just very proud of this race team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for all of their hard work. I’m very proud to run this red car representing all the men and women that work in Lowe’s stores around the country.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 ENERGIZER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
YOU GOT A TOP 5 TODAY BUT WERE EXPECTING SO MUCH MORE, BUT KYLE BUSCH WAS SO DOMINANT
“I don’t know that I was expecting much more than a Top 5 really. I didn’t know we’d have that speed in our car. And we were probably a fifth or seventh-place car. But I was able to get some good restarts there at the end. It was just a solid day for the whole Target team. The Energizer Chevy was good from the start, which helps. We qualified good for once, and it was just a solid weekend. It was a good one.”
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE HOT WEATHER CONDITIONS?
“Yeah, the first half of the race was pretty hot. But then the front half of the track gets kind of shaded and it gets cooler for myself. And then the cautions there, late, helped. During the red flag we got some water bottles from the guys here so that was good. I don’t know, these Cup cars aren’t quite has hot as the Xfinity cars. So, yesterday was probably tougher even with it being 100 laps shorter than this race. I don’t know why that is, but these cars aren’t quite as hot.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Yeah, I thought I had a flat tire and the car was just really tight. I am kind of disappointed there at the end I was in a pretty good spot and on the restart the pace car was consistently going way too slow. It’s unfortunate they can’t correct small problems like that. I just couldn’t get going and got the No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) and the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) in front of us and wound up on the outside and then we were just treading water from there. But, all-in-all everybody did a good job, we are definitely off a little bit.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW/MYCOGEN CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ON HIS DAY:
“Solid day. We struggled getting track position. We had one of the fastest cars during the middle of the race. We really had to work hard to get up through there. Restarts…we struggle man. I got to get going on those restarts. I tried something on that last one but it hurt me a little bit. I was able to get a bunch of it back and finish kind of where we were supposed to finish. I’m proud of my guys. We can keep working on this and see what we can do going forward. Good points day too!”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/CHEVY SUMMER SELL DOWN CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 11TH
ON HIS DAY:
“I really did the team wrong here. I got a penalty on the last stop and that is a green flag stop that turned into a yellow and got us a lap down. But we fought and got our lap back and I don’t know where did we end up 11th? So, fought back and got something respectable out of this. Didn’t leave anything out there.”
TALK ABOUT AFTER THE RACE YOU AND JEFF GORDON ON THE TRACK AND YOU AND JEFF
YOUR FINAL BRICKYARD 400, YOU GOT TO SHARE THAT HUG AND SOME MOMENTS ON TRACK WITH JEFF GORDON AFTER THE RACE, WHAT DID IT MEAN TO HAVE THAT WITH JEFF?
“It was cool. I knew when we got the checkered we just didn’t want to come in just yet. I wanted to run one more lap and Jeff was around us and before that last green run I told my spotter to go get his spotter and said after this thing is over, we need to go a lap around here together because most likely is the last time we’ll both get a chance to do that. I couldn’t think of a better guy to share that moment with than Jeff.”
THE SCORE SHEET WILL SHOW YOU FINISHED 11TH, BUT WHAT WILL STAND OUT MOST ABOUT THIS WEEKEND?
“This has been the most relaxing Brickyard I’ve ever had and the most fun I’ve had at a Brickyard. It was fun to win those two races, but it was stressful to do it. For some reason this weekend, Drew Brown and Eddie Jarvis and everybody just made my schedule as open as they could to let me enjoy it and we did. We had a lot of fun this weekend from start to finish.”
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE HAVING A LOT OF FUN RECENTLY. WHAT IS IT LIKE TO EXPERIENCE THAT IN YOUR FINAL SEASON?
“It’s a heck of a lot better than being frustrated all the time. There are so many cool people that we care about in this series and it’s other team owners, it’s team members and crew chiefs and drivers; and we’re just having fun with it and that’s what we said we wanted to do at the start of the year and we wanted to have fun and win a race and we’ve done all that. I don’t think we’re quite done yet. So, we’re just going to keep having fun and going for it. I put us way behind today with a penalty that got us a lap down and at the back of the longest line and to battle back to 11th, I’m pretty proud of that for our whole team.”
RIGHT HERE ON PIT ROAD AFTER THE RACE COMING TO TALK TO YOU:
“I can say that just ranks in the top three coolest moments of my 18 years in this series. To share that moment with Jeff here at Indianapolis I don’t know. I don’t even have the words for it. That is a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
TAKE US THROUGH YOUR EMOTIONS OF YOUR FINAL RACE AT INDIANAPOLIS:
“It was an awesome weekend. Everything went the way we wanted it to just came up short today. I had fun all day and had fun all weekend. I can’t thank everyone at Chevrolet and Mobil 1 and IMS, everybody that was with us this weekend. Everybody, Drew Brown (Stewart’s PR Representative), everybody tried to make my weekend as easy as possible. It really gave me the opportunity to savor the moment and enjoy it.”
JEFF GORDON, INTERIM DRIVER, NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
A YEAR AGO WHEN YOU RACED HERE AT THE BRICKYARD, WE ALL THOUGHT THAT WAS YOUR LAST HURRAH HERE. TODAY PROBABLY WAS. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO SAY GOODBYE TO THIS FACILITY?
“It was better than last year. It didn’t go very well and it was a fight. Wow. The challenges to be out there against the best, especially on those restarts; I got my butt kicked on those restarts. It was embarrassing. While I will fill-in for Dale Jr., and I hope he’s doing good, I needed a fill-in on restarts. It was pretty bad. Other than that, I thought it went really well. I really liked working with Greg (Ives, crew chief) and this whole No. 88 team. It took us a little while to get the balance right and the adjustments came to us, he made an awesome pit call to come in early one time. And he called it right as I was going into Turn 4 and that made up a lot of spots for us because we had a fast race car. We just couldn’t get the track position. It was pretty tough to pass. And I didn’t want to see those cautions there at the end. But, I’m going to need some practice on restarts for Pocono anyway. We finally actually there on that last one, got the car where it was decent on the outside. It was so loose on the outside before that and made up a bunch of spots off of Turn 4. On one-hand I’m relieved that this is over and on the other hand I would have liked it to have gone a little bit better. I’m looking forward to going to Pocono. Thank you to Tony Stewart. What a class act he is. It meant a lot to me that he invited me to come and make that last lap with him. It was a special moment.”
WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
“Well, Tony and I have gone through a lot over the years. But, he and I have become really good friends. I was with him when he got hurt this year. And to see what he’s done and how tough he is as a competitor; I’ve always know what a great guy and what a great race car driver he is, and now I know more about who Tony Stewart really is. I’m just so proud that I was able to be here and race with him in his final race. Maybe, I don’t know! I thought last year was going to be my final race. You never know with Tony Stewart. But it meant a lot to me to be able to stand in front at the driver’s meeting and recognize him and then do that pace lap here at the end.”
IS NEXT WEEK YOUR FINAL RACE?
“Whew! It it’s this hot, I hope so! My thing is that I can’t wait to talk to Dale Junior and debrief him on how today went and see how he’s doing. I want him in the car as soon as possible. I’m too old to be doing this stuff. But to come here and do this race and finish a decent 13th, I think I can do better next week for him and then we’ll just go from there.
“Oh, and I was glad I was in the Axalta Chevrolet; that was a lot of fun, and thank Rick (Hendrick) for calling me in France (laughs).”
DID YOU ENJOY TODAY?
“I enjoyed moments. When we were up in 12th and Greg (Ives, crew chief) made an excellent call to come in a little early. We got the car much better. I was having fun at that point. This is a challenging, challenging race track. Really hard to get all four corners. There were moments of fun. I didn’t want to see those restarts. I’m horrible on restarts. So those didn’t help us any, but I got a few back on that last one.”
HOW DID YOU WORK WITH THE TEAM?
“I thought that went really well. Their communication; their information they gave me to prepare for this race. I think there were many times when I was letting them down with some runs we made in practice, in qualifying, on the restarts today. But they never let me down. They did an excellent job. We had a little work to do in the beginning to get the car better. Greg made an awesome call to come in early that one time and that put us up there in 12th. We had a car that was capable of being up there. I just wish I was better on those restarts. “
ON THE LAST RESTART:
“It got hairy on a bunch of them. Seeing them wreck right in front of them, next to me, behind me. You have to understand part of it-the goal here today was not just to get a good finish, but to get points. Those are important. When you see all that chaos going on around you, you are trying to balance being aggressive, and being cautious. That last restart, my car felt pretty good and I was actually able to make a couple of moves. Then they started wrecking in turn three and I passed about four cars so that felt pretty good.”
A MESSAGE TO DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
“Nobody wants to miss a race, especially the Brickyard 400. He is friends with Tony. I’m sure he would have liked to have been here for Tony’s last race as well. Most of all, I think he should be very proud of his race team. He has an amazing race team. They can’t wait to have him back when he is ready. And, we are all going to work together to do our best to continue to keep that excitement and momentum in the team there for when he is ready to come back, so he comes back and doesn’t miss a beat and can win some races.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 18TH
“We had pretty good restarts throughout the race, but just real tight and we never really could get it out of it except after the tires would wear out it would free up just off tires getting hotter. We were just tight all day.”
WHAT WERE ALL THOSE RESTARTS LIKE THERE AT THE END?
“I don’t really know what was going on up front. I was kind of back trying to get the lucky dog, which was discouraging, we were in position to get it a couple of times, but then because of where the cautions came out we weren’t in position at that time. I don’t know, but we never got it, but we finally got it at the end. I think everybody was just being aggressive.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/KINGSFORD CHEVROLET SS – Out of the race due to a mechanical issue on lap 71
WHAT BROUGHT YOU BEHIND THE WALL SO EARLY IN THE RACE?
“Yeah, I mean just started off tight, which we were afraid of getting too loose. We kind of fought tight all weekend. We started off tight and the first adjustment under green wasn’t very good it kind of got me tighter. I learned some stuff at the end of the run I thought and we started making a little bit of time back. We had a good restart there on that second one and whatever the adjustments we made were really good there. The No. 6 car was just kind of slow off Turn 4. I was trying to time it. He was just kind of in the way, so I just tried to time it a little bit and make the pass. I just nicked him as I went by with my right-front. Honestly, I didn’t think anything of it and evidently it poked a hole in the radiator when it did it. Barely had any damage to the car so I’m not sure why it got the radiator so bad, but lost water pressure and it blew up. That last … whatever the adjustment was the car was really fast. That was something I could really work on. I think there are positives. I think we can get the back of our cars really good when we focus on that. Got to keep working on the front of the car. It would have been fun. I was finally having fun there working on the race car.”
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