MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO SUGAR 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 6, 2018
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner
YOU KNEW THE CAR WAS FAST GOING INTO QUALIFYING, BUT DID YOU KNOW IT WAS TWO AND A HALF TENTHS FASTER THAN THE REST OF THE FIELD?
“No, I didn’t know it was that fast. Our Hooters Chevy has been nice all weekend. We made a couple of changes actually at the end of that last practice before the rain and made it go a little faster. I hope that translates to a good driving car tomorrow night. Obviously, a lot of speed in our Chevrolet’s. I’ve said this before, but we have put a lot of effort into our speedway program at Hendrick Motorsports. The engine shop, chassis shop, body shop, we take a lot of pride in coming to these races. They pay the same amount of points as the rest of them, so it matters and our team treats it that way and their hard work pays off.”
SO, WHEN A TEAM PUTS IN AN EFFORT LIKE THAT HOW MUCH PEP DOES IT PUT INTO YOUR STEP FOR TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE?
“Well, I think it gives everybody confidence. Having a good pit stall is certainly nice. That can matter at the end of these races. So, sharing the front row with your teammate is also nice too. So, we will just have to see. The race is a whole different ballgame, but to have speed in our Chevrolet is nice and to have Hooter’s for their first race of the season on the pole is cool too. Looking forward to tomorrow night.”
IS YOUR SPRAINED ANKLE OKAY?
“Well, I wouldn’t call the Infield Care Center the hospital. I didn’t really want to do that so I have been trying to draw as least amount of attention as possible to that. But, it’s all good, yeah, had a little ankle sprain, but we are good and ready to go. So, looking forward to the race and get to race tonight too, so ready to get started hopefully the rain holds off and we can keep the ole No. 23 rolling.”
YOU’VE GOT TO BE PLEASED WITH WHAT YOUR GUYS DO TO BUILD THESE TYPES OF RACE CARS:
“Yeah, they do a great job and in general Hendrick Motorsports we put a lot of effort into our speedway program, as we should, these races count the same amount of points as the rest of them, so they matter. To see everybody’s hard work pay off it is good to see. Anytime you put effort into a situation and it pays off that is refreshing especially for the men and women who do it every day. Our body shop, chassis shop, engine shop at Hendrick Motorsports has been great. We have some fast Chevrolet’s down here this weekend, great to have Hooters for their first race of the season on the pole, so that is pretty cool too, they picked a good one. Looking forward to the race.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
YOU GUYS WERE OBVIOUSLY FOCUSED ON RACE TRIM SINCE ITS AN IMPOUND RACE, SO WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT HAVING THREE OF THE TOP FOUR SPOTS WITH HMS?
“It says so much about our chassis shop, our engine shop and everybody at the body shop. They put a lot of effort in these speedway races and its great to get two Camaro ZL1s on the front row. Wish we would have been one spot better, but maybe we will be one spot better tomorrow night.”
DOES YOUR MIND GO STRAIGHT TO TOMORROW NIGHT BECAUSE WITH SO MANY TEAMMATES UP FRONT, IT MIGHT MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU GUYS
“Absolutely. Hopefully we can get together early and go from there. Its always great working with your teammates and obviously with these speedway races there is a lot that goes on and a lot that can happen. You look at some of the other manufacturers that have done a good job of working together. Hopefully we can take some notes from them and with our cars starting up front, it makes that a little easier.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4th
YOU GUYS ARE OBVIOUSLY FAST IN THE SINGLE CAR QUALIFYING RUNS, WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THE CAR IN PRACTICE FOR THE RACE?
“We thought it had good speed so that was pretty awesome to have in race trim alone. Sometimes what is fast in the pack doesn’t convert to single car, so we were hopeful we would be good today. And man, the cars were real fast today. Its one of those perfect storms where it drafted really well and qualified really well.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, NO. 62 BEARD OIL DISTRIBUTING/SOUTH POINT HOTEL AND CASINO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 16th
HOW DID THE LAP FEEL?
“Oh, the lap felt great. Thank you to ECR and Richie Gilmore and all the guys there and Darren Shaw and all the Beard Oil Distributing guys. They did a great job and it’s amazing this Camaro, we all know we get our stuff from old Richard Childress equipment and that is what we have is a great Richard Childress Chevrolet. Darren Shaw and the boys did great and I think we beat 30th by just a little bit it looks like. I’m excited. It’s a great race car and I can’t wait for the race tomorrow night.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO MILITARY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 19th
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE LAP IS GOING TO BE GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE THE TOP 12?
“It’s going to be tight, but I’m proud of my guys at Germain Racing. We put together a pretty good effort here for qualifying. We got the part that we could control, we’ve got some pretty good speed. Now it’s all about having confidence and getting through the crashes tomorrow night and being there at the end. We had a really good shot at this thing last year and hopefully we can finish it out this year. I know we have a few more bullets here in qualifying, it will be close. The Stewart-Haas cars were fast in practice, so if we can survive those guys we might be alright.”
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