MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
AAA 400 DRIVE FOR AUTISM
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 4, 2018
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner
DID YOU GET EVERYTHING YOU HAD HOPED FOR THERE? DID YOU LEAVE ANYTHING OUT THERE?
“I felt like I nailed that lap pretty good. Everything from coming to the green to (Turns) 1 and 2 were really good. (Turns) 3 and 4 I maybe left a little bit out there. I got in there a little hot and up the track. I planned on kind of moving up the race track each round. The first round caught me of guard. I was really loose getting in, but they made great adjustments on the DC Solar Chevy throughout the next two rounds. The second round we were probably a little too tight, but they kind of found the happy medium there for the final round. So, I’m happy about that. We’ve always qualified good here. I had yet to get a pole. I’ve raced well here but have yet to get a win. Maybe we’ll get both out of the way this weekend.”
EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT THE NEW CAMARO AND WHEN YOU GUYS WILL BE UP THERE AND WHEN YOU CAN CONTEND FOR WINS CONSISTENTLY. THIS IS THE FIRST POLE SINCE DAYTONA. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SUNDAY? WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO WORK ON WITH YOUR RACE CAR, IF ANYTHING?
“I’ve never been one of the guys that has said we’ve been behind where we were last year with the new Camaros. I’ve felt like our team has done a really good job of taking what we had last year with the SS and then putting everything that we learned through that into the Camaro and been just as fast. I think you’ve seen other race teams be a little faster than they were last year, but I feel like we’ve been kind of right where we’ve been, speed-wise, so now we’ve just got to execute and tweak on our stuff a little bit better to keep up, and hopefully we can start getting some wins.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I thought it was solid. Better than I think we have been qualifying at some places. I was pretty pleased with my balance. I thought that we had a really good balance through (Turns) 1 and 2 and I could do the things that I wanted to do on that end. I just feel like I gave up too much in the (Turns) 3 and 4 end over here. Some of it self-induced, I think some of it we could have gotten a little better, but a good Friday for us.”
DO YOU NOT THINK AS MUCH ABOUT QUALIFYING HERE BECAUSE IT’S A PLACE YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT?
“Well, I think that we see every week if a guy is good he will make his way to the front regardless of where he starts. It seems like every weekend somebody has a penalty or an issue where you have to start in the back. By the end of the first run, they are at the front of the field. I think it is more the pit stall selection there than it is the starting spot. Tomorrow is a new day. We all know Jimmie Johnson is not going to run wherever he qualified Sunday afternoon. So, if it was all about today, we would hand out trophies.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS A PLACE MORE THAN ANY OTHER YOU COULD GET YOUR FIRST WIN BASED OFF YOUR STATS?
“Well, I think we were last year more than we are right now. I think that and trust me I have heard plenty of the top five comments all week. My opinion I think it’s based off more of what is happening right now. I don’t think as a whole our performance right now is as good as it was last fall. That being said, I think we have some work to do. Now, we have made some improvements and some gains coming into the weekend that we hope improve on Sunday. Will that improve us to the point where we can go dominate the race? I don’t know, I hope so, but I think it’s more present timing as to how your performance is more so than past history at a race track.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
JUST MISSED MAKING THE FINAL ROUND:
“I don’t know it’s hard to say. We kind of fought a couple of different handling situations. We were free pretty much everywhere and then just got real tight off of Turn 4. I feel like our car is going to race pretty well. It’s pretty neutral driving it’s just hard to make a lot of speed with it since I’m so limited by being tight. I think we will be okay on Sunday it’s definitely the easiest car to drive around Dover that I’ve been in. That’s positive, our Nationwide 88 guys are working hard. We’ve got a lot of good notes, the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) being as fast as they are is a good thing for us and we will just continue to lean on our teammates, Jimmie (Johnson) has won here a few times and go from there.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 OLLIE’S BARGAIN OUTLET CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
ON TYING HIS SPEED WITH RYAN NEWMAN, BUT NEWMAN GETTING THE 24TH SPOT
“Today is his lucky day. To be 24th, we’re still not talking about a very good position. But, I was really tight in the front end around the whole corners. It’s like my second run in practice. The first run in practice was the exact opposite. So, we went back to that and it turned really well and then right here it didn’t. So, we have some work to do with our Ollie’s Camaro ZL1 so I’m looking forward to a couple of practices tomorrow to try to get better for Sunday.”
DARRELL ‘BUBBA’ WALLACE, NO. 43 ECKRICH CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 26th
“I love coming here and putting on a good show and having a good run. It’s just a bummer. I thought our Eckrich team made decent adjustments. It felt better. We know the track is going to slow down, but I’m just frustrated at how much speed we actually had and it wasn’t good enough. It’s just frustrating. I love coming to this place. I always have since 2011. And I’ve always shown decent speed. It’s frustrating.”
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