MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
OVERTON’S 301
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 14, 2017
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Pole Winner
YOU USED TO STAY THIS WAS ONE OF YOUR WORST TRACKS…
“We haven’t got to the race yet. No, our Target Chevy has been really fast all day. It has a lot of speed. Like I really don’t have to drive that hard and it just makes a lot of speed. So, that is good. We are missing Chad (Johnston, crew chief) this weekend and for the next couple of weeks, so good to rebound with a pole. That is pretty strong out of our organization. I’ve got a great lineup of guys and gals. Hats off to everybody at the shop. It’s been so much fun this year. I have never really been a great qualifier, but this is our fourth pole of the season. Hopefully, we can keep it going and figure out where our car works best in the VHT or PJ1 or whatever they are calling it this weekend and hope we have a good race on Sunday.”
I GUESS LOOSE WAS FAST FOR YOU CORRECT?
“I think everybody was pretty loose, especially on their first lap. So, just had to be patient on the first lap and then try and go hard the second laps of my runs. Cool to get the pole here in New Hampshire it’s a tough track for me in the past. I hope we can race well. I feel like our cars has had a ton of speed in it so far. It’s had a lot more speed in qualifying trim than other people. Race trim, the couple of runs we did I thought were pretty good. We will see how it goes. The track is going to go through a lot of changes with the VHT getting worn out, so we just have to keep up with that. But, happy to get our pole here. Missing Chad (Johnston, crew chief) I wish I could have him on the box on Sunday, but we will be strong these next few weeks. We have a great lineup of guys and gals at Chip Ganassi Racing. To get a pole in our first weekend under his suspension is a pretty neat thing to me.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd:
It was a great qualifying effort for us. We’re trying hard to find the right combination to produce a fast lap time. Clearly we’ve had good race pace. But we’ve tried some different things this weekend, especially halfway through that practice session, and really put some comfort in the car and started to do some good lap times. So, I’m optimistic and excited and we’ve got a direction for this weekend. From this, I think we can build on this mindset and I think make our cars pretty much better everywhere else.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 26th
THOSE FIRST FEW LAPS SEEM REALLY SLICK:
“Yeah it is. It is really slick on these tires for whatever reason and then your brakes are really cold too and you’ve got to use so much here at New Hampshire to get your car slowed down. It’s a fine balance on not stabbing the brakes too hard early, but getting the most out of your tires and these laps. But, proud of Bootie (Barker, crew chief) and my guys on our GEICO Chevy. We were quite a bit off in practice and made a big gain and kind of got to where our teammates are. We’ve got two more tries of getting this thing better tomorrow, so if we keep taking steps like that, we will have a good shot on Sunday.”
IT’S INCREDIBLE HOW CLOSE THE RCR CARS AND THAT ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATES ARE. ANY IDEA WHAT MIGHT BE MISSING AT A PLACE LIKE THIS?
“Right now, about a second it looks like. We need to go to work and everybody at RCR and ECR and Germain Racing and all of our partners, all of our technical partners too, we are all working hard. But, there is an obvious lack of speed in our race cars, but us drivers have to buckle down and give us the best information and give our crew chiefs and our teams the best information we can for the rest of this year so we can rebound from this. It’s going to take some hard work, but we’ve got some of the best people in the business working for our company. Everybody knows where we are at right now, we’ve got a big step to go, but we have won a couple of races this year. For Germain Racing we’ve lead a lot of laps this year and have had opportunities, so you are never out of the fight.”
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