NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
PURE MICHIGAN 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 26, 2016
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU CAME OUT OFF PIT ROAD IN FRONT OF CARL EDWARDS? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO HIM?
“Plain and simple, sorry. I hate that he had to run a second run and put more laps and temps in his tires. It was just a simple mistake made. And it’s awfully confusing for the spotters to send us out as cars are finishing their laps. The two cars in front of him and the one car behind him were finishing and he clearly was not. We were under the impression that he was. I feel terrible. I’m glad that he still got a decent starting spot out of it.
“But through all of that, it was just an awesome day for this Lowe’s race car and this Lowe’s race team. We keep stacking pennies and making this car better and better. My hat’s off to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports and all the hard work they’re putting into things. Great practice and great qualifying. We need some more practice sessions tomorrow and roll them into a good race.”
JUST HOW CRUCIAL IS THIS TRACK POSITION TO BEGIN WITH?
“Michigan, since it’s been repaved, has been very sensitive and track position has been very important. So, we’ll take it. We’ll stack more pennies in the right direction and hopefully have a nice race on Sunday. Our past history shows good Fridays mean good Sunday’s and we’re off to a good start.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 4TH
ON QUALIFYING:
“We made some really good adjustments on our Jimmy John’s Chevy for the last round. It got all the corners right and I got way too confident by the time I got to the other end and got into (Turn) 3 and got to the center of (Turns) 3 and 4 and carried a little more speed than I needed to. Got the car pushing and just got it up the race track a little further than I needed to. All-in-all they did a great job from where we were in practice to the first round of qualifying and making good adjustments all the way through.”
CAN YOU TELL ANY DIFFERENCE WITH THE TRACK CHANGES THAT WERE MADE?
“No, honestly couldn’t tell you if they did anything outside of the groove. I don’t know if it got blown off or what it did. I know they worked really hard to try to help it, but it doesn’t seem like the rubber stuck anywhere, but where we are running.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON QUALIFYING:
“It was decent. I thought we made a few gains on our car and just came up a little short.”
WHAT KINDS OF ADJUSTMENTS DO YOU NEED TO MAKE DURING PRACTICE TOMORROW IN ORDER TO HAVE A SOLID CHEVY FOR SUNDAY?
“Just do whatever it takes to get it driving good. Try not to pay too much attention to the stopwatch and just try to make it drive the best you can and hope for the best.”
ALEX BOWMAN, INTERIM DRIVER, NO. 88 AXALTA/UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6TH
WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND KEVIN HARVICK?
“Well, he wanted to get on the race track and I wanted to get on the race track and we ended up about running into each other. It’s just part of this new qualifying deal. It makes it exciting for the fans a little bit. I’m just so glad to be here with HMS and I hate that it’s under these circumstances. Obviously we’re wishing Dale a quick recovery and hope he gets back in the car soon. I’m thankful for Axalta and the University of Michigan for putting some faith in me and letting me be here and drive their race car today.”
AT NEW HAMPSHIRE, YOU KEPT THE CAR IN THE TOP 10 FOR MOST OF THE DAY. YOU HAD A LITTLE MORE TIME TO PREPARE FOR THIS. HOW MUCH BETTER PREPARED DO YOU FEEL FOR THIS WEEKEND’S RACE?
“Absolutely. I feel like New Hampshire is not one of my better race tracks and this (MIS) is one of my best race tracks. I think that’s going to help me this weekend. Just having done it once is not as nerve wracking or as stressful. All these guys are so great to work with. They’ve stayed in close contact and I had a plan coming here with (crew chief) Greg (Ives) and it’s definitely been easier than Loudon was. I’m just really thankful for Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports to let me do this and I’m just glad to be here. Hopefully it opens some eyes and I can get a job or something for next year because having a day job isn’t much fun, but I’m just happy to be here.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 FREIGHTLINER CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 10th
YOU WERE 29TH ON THE SPEED CHART AT FIRST, BUT SOMEHOW ADVANCED TO THE FINAL ROUND. HOW DID YOU LOOK AT THE QUALIFYING SESSION?
‘Well, the track I think was a bit of an unknown for all of us after waiting for three or four hours. The Freightliner Chevrolet was fairly good in practice. We never got a really good lap, so we didn’t know. I kind of under drove the first run, which put us behind. And then, I just kept pushing it and pushing it until I ran and .88, .89, and .90 the last three runs. So that was all it had.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 11TH
ON QUALIFYING AND THE TWEAKS TO THE TRACK SURFACE:
“I didn’t feel like the track was a whole lot different from earlier this year to now. I was kind of surprised. I thought it would feel a little more like we had been on it, like there was rubber on it. To me it felt pretty similar, when we took off it was really slow and for the first 10 minutes of practice it just kept getting faster and faster. I hope we can move around more this race it would be nice to get higher like the old day, but that probably won’t happen. Some of that rubber stuff could help that down the road, you never know. Overall, we had probably our best Friday in a while. I felt really good in practice. Qualifying we didn’t feel near as good, but still ended up in the top 12.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU GAVE UP THE SPEED IN THE LAST SESSION?
“Well I lost it all in (Turns) 1 and 2. I felt like I drove in the corner just a little bit further than I did the second round. I just got a lot tighter. I’m sure that has something to do with it. I couldn’t get wide-open soon enough so that is a lot of mile per hour here. Probably just mostly my fault, so disappointed, but we have a really good Target Chevy. I know it’s good in race trim. We’ve just got to try and get to the front.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15TH
ON QUALIFYING:
“I don’t think the changes to the track did too much. We are not seeing it. Just missed it a little bit. Got a little tight in the center on both ends, just enough to seal our deal.”
CLINT BOWYER, NO. 15 5-HOUR ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 27TH
ON QUALIFYING:
“In practice earlier it seemed like every time we went out it went a little bit faster, truthfully, I anticipated that a little bit. We were a little bit tighter than where we were in practice and what I anticipated it being in qualifying trim. We tried to free up again for the second run and just couldn’t get enough out of it. That is better than we have been doing. Hopefully, we will gain on it tomorrow and have a better day Sunday.”
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