MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTE SHEET
FEBRUARY 11, 2018
ALEX BOWMAN NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner:
“It was a little nerve-wracking. Our Nationwide Camaro ZL1 has been great since we unloaded. All the guys back at the chassis shop, body shop, and the Hendrick engine shop have been top-notch. They’ve all worked so hard. And we knew we were going for the pole; that’s what we’re here to do. And I thought we were at a little disadvantage letting the car cool down as long as we did since we went pretty early in the first round. I was a little nervous for that second round. But it took off well off pit road and I did everything I could do, but it really comes down to the crew and all the guys back at the shop, whether it’s the aero group, the engine shop, the chassis shop. Everybody works so hard at these speedway cars, especially the 500. It just means the world to have Nationwide support and to be able to put it on the pole.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO FINALLY BE HERE?
“I think it’s still a little surreal. It’s a dream come true to get to drive for Hendrick Motorsports. I never thought it would have happened after the path my career took. I’m so thankful to be able to do this. I’m very blessed to be able to call driving a race car my job, and now to get to drive what I think is the best race car in the business, it’s a dream come true.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd
SO CLOSE TO THE POLE FOR THE DAYTONA 500, BUT THIRD IS NOT SO BAD:
“No, third is a fantastic starting spot. I’m just proud of everybody at Hendrick and everybody at Chevrolet. We were really going hard for a front-row and wanted that for Chevy more than anything. Just missed it by a hair, but very proud of our effort and happy that a Chevy Camaro ZL1 got the pole.”
WILLIAM BRYON, NO. 24 AXLATA CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1- Qualified 5th
WERE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR EFFORTS?
“Yeah, I was really happy. Our team has brought a really fast race car and I feel like the flames and everything look really cool. It’s going to be fun to race that in the Duel under the lights. The car is going to shine really good. I’m looking forward to that Duel and hopefully learn a little bit more in the draft and apply that to the (Daytona) 500. Great starting spot. Hopefully, we can keep it up there on Thursday.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 10th
WHEN YOU ARE ON THE POLE FOR THE DAYTONA 500 TWO YEARS IN A ROW IS ANYTHING BUT THE POLE OKAY?
“Well, everything is okay if your car drives good, I think come Thursday. That is the main focus. It’s a great honor to be on the pole and a great achievement for our team and the efforts they put in throughout the off-season, but there is a lot of opportunity to showcase their efforts throughout the season. First being Thursday and most importantly next Sunday.”
DO THE CARS LOOK AS STRANGE TO YOU AS THEY DO TO US?
“Yeah, it is definitely weird to see, opposite of what you would see everywhere else basically. There are guys that they have figured out ways to do it more than other teams, which is kind of interesting to me, the guys who have it over more than other guys. I think everybody wants to be that way, I just don’t know that everybody knows how to get as far over as other people. It’s interesting and hopefully, like I said, I’m just hoping our car drives good on Thursday. I think that is going to be important.”
WERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO LAPS?
“No, not really. I think everybody is going to pick up a little bit of time in the second round just because the engine is warm and so on. I think that is really the only difference in the two sessions.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
ON THE CARS LOOKING SO DIFFERENT:
“No, it’s just racing. I feel like the Camaro ZL1 looks really good out there and I’m proud of the performance so far. We are just going to go to work and see what we can do and learn from the Clash. I think it’s going to be a wild race really because not a lot of people have gotten to draft and you get big runs out there. I think you should see some big runs in today’s race.”
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOU QUALIFYING EFFORT? ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU DIDN’T MAKE THE TOP 12?
“I thought we had a shot at the top 12. We barely missed it there. The track could have gotten better. We probably should have wanted to go a little later so we could have laid up a better lap maybe and gotten a draft and put ourselves further back toward the back. It seemed like the track picked up there at the end. I was surprised by a couple of the cars that went fast there at the end. Yeah, a little bit.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 PROCORE CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1- Qualified 18th
NEW TEAM, NEW YEAR, TALK ABOUT YOUR DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I thought it was really good. We were right outside the top 12 right now, we will probably end up 15th to 18th, which is I think pretty solid for the guys just doing that in a pretty short period of time getting ready for speedweeks. I feel really good about it.”
ARE YOU READY FOR THE DUELS?
“No, I’m ready. I’m ready for the Duels. You can’t control what is going to happen, so you just learn that as the years go. We will just race hard and try to get to the front. Looking forward to today. I think we can learn a lot. Can’t really help us for the Duels because it’s an impound, but we can learn a lot from today’s race, try to win that and then what we do the rest of the week after the Duels.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CLICK N’ CLOSE CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR CAR?
“It’s not good enough, clearly, no… it’s Daytona it doesn’t matter. We didn’t really so a ton of speed yesterday in practice by ourselves. We picked up a little bit, but we are still off just a little bit. Not sure where, but Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and I talked about it he says he is going to go be mad and pout for the next hour and then be fine. I’m fine. I’m not letting it get to me. Hell, I qualified 35th in the July race and I finished 15th, almost went to the lead there at the end. We’ve just got to keep our nose clean on Thursday for the Duels, but our Click N’ Close Camaro ZL1 … there are so many C’s in my sponsor this weekend… Click N’ Close Camaro ZL1, it’s cute, it’s challenging what other C’s can we give it?”
YOU MAKE KEEPING YOUR NOSE CLEAN SOUND EASY:
“It’s going to be a challenge. Obviously, those guys you want to improve your position on those Duels, but at the end of the day we all have to remember that it doesn’t really matter, we are all going to be in the Daytona 500, the Great American race, my first Daytona 500, so I’m excited about that. We’ve just got to be smart. We can learn a little bit, I can learn a lot in the Duels, see how our car drives in a pack and just move on from there.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 7 GODADDY CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 28th
ON HOW SHE FEELS IN THE CAR:
“Yeah, I mean I haven’t made very many laps, but I feel pretty comfortable. Everything is the same as it was before as far as showing up to Daytona without having driven since Homestead, so that is no different. But, obviously I’m with a different team, so, I was super comfortable in the car right off the bat and I have my old seat and I have all of my old stuff, so it’s nice to fit right in. And having Tony Eury, Jr. I mean look I don’t always know who to talk to, but I can go to him. He knows who to talk to from there. It makes it pretty straight forward for me, so, yeah, we started off we were not super-fast and we are continually getting better and we are going to continue to do that as the week goes on and we can work on things. I’m sure we will practice a little bit, it’s a question of how we are going to run the Duels, but we want to keep this primary car for sure.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KLEENEX CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1- Qualified 29th
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“It was uneventful in a good way, I guess. For the first time having the Camaro ZL1 on-track here in Daytona I thought it was pretty good. We’ve worked really hard through the off-season and why everybody has been putting in a lot of effort, especially once we get to a lot of these downforce tracks. Daytona, we have really nice cars. Our Kleenex Chevrolet looks really good, but our focus is on a lot of these downforce race tracks and short tracks. Still feel pretty good about our qualifying effort. We picked up a lot from yesterday. Really proud of the guys for that. Usually don’t see that kind of improvement and they worked hard to get it. That is pretty neat.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, NO. 62 BEARD OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 31st
“We came here with the goal to be the fastest open car and we are by at least a half second right now. I wanted more ECR gave us a great motor and Richard (Childress) helped the Beard Oil team put together a really nice Camaro body. I was wanting a little bit more. I’m greedy. Now that we did so well last year, my expectations get higher for this team and hopefully we will race well again, but this is the race car I want to race, so we are going to be very conservative in the Duels, but if there were 45 cars or 40 cars we are the fastest open team we would be locked in. That was our goal.”
Connect with Team Chevy on social media. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TeamChevy<https://www.facebook.com/TeamChevy>,follow us on Twitter @TeamChevy<https://twitter.com/TeamChevy>, and follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/teamchevy/?hl=en
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
