MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
AUTO CLUB 400
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 15, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATINGS CAMARO ZL1
8TH CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
11TH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1
14TH CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KROGER FLAVOR FILL UP CAMARO ZL1
15TH KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
2nd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3rd Aric Almirola (Ford)
4th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5th Joey Logano (Ford)
The Auto Club 400 is scheduled to begin on Sunday March 17th at 3:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATINGS CAMARO ZL1 = Pole Winner
“It was good. We had a good car off the trailer. They made some good adjustments going into qualifying. And we kept the speed that we needed. It came down to Round 2 and putting the placement right. Andy Houston (spotter) did a great job. We didn’t panic. And, that ended up putting us in a great position for Round 3. I’m really happy for our guys and everybody back at the shop, who has been working really hard. We’ve been frustrated the last couple of weeks because we’ve had fast cars and not gotten the finishes, so this definitely feels good.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 8th
WHAT WAS THE COMMUNICATION LIKE WHEN YOU GUYS REALIZED THAT YOU WERE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT BACK? WHAT WERE YOU HEARING?
“Well, I don’t know. Obviously nobody wants to be the first guy so it’s unfortunate. I don’t know what the fix is. I feel like it’s entertaining with us going out there and drafting and trying to set-up that gap to do it right. It’s just tough because nobody wants to be the first one. And obviously you’re not going to go if you’re going to be first.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
“I understand why we’re in this box. Single car qualifying isn’t all that entertaining. So, I guess we’ll just have to see what the opinion is from this and go with the lesser of the two evils in the end.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KROGER FLAVOR FILL UP CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
HOW DID THIS QUALIFYING SESSION PLAY OUT? WAS IT BAD OR WORSE THAN YOU THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE?
“Round 1 went better than I thought it would with everybody going and getting it out of the way. The caution almost got us within a second or two. We didn’t finish our lap. So, that was lucky. Round 2 went exactly like I expected the whole thing to go. We have good speed in our Kroger Flavor Fill Up Camaro ZL1. I’m happy with that. We should have been a little bit better based on practice, but I love this race track. And, it’s a fun race. It’s just been a lot of fun to race everywhere this year. I’m glad the qualifying portion is over and we can get into the race and have some fun.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th:
DESCRIBE YOUR RUN HERE
“I was the lead car for that big draft there. We ended up 15th. After last week you don’t want to mess up and not get a lap again. So, just trying to be as patient as you can be but still not be the lead car. But we wanted to leave ourselves some time. So we were just the lead car and were hoping that other people wouldn’t make it to the line in time.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 16th
ON HIS RUN
“I’m pretty happy with 16th place for our GEICO Camaro. That’s a massive improvement over last year’s results. And we’ve been really succeeding in this style of qualifying. It’s different, for sure, but we also we’re all out there trying to do the same thing and be the fastest car. So, I’m proud of our effort and proud of what we’re doing as a team and we’re definitely embracing this style of qualifying.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 LIBERTY NATIONAL CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 17th
It was definitely hectic. The whole format it nuts. Our Liberty National Camaro ZL1 was good. We just kind of find ourselves on the back end of a draft that put us side-by-side racing cars and that’s not ideal when you’re trying to run a fast lap. We’ll roll off in 17th and it’s good to see a Bowtie on the front row there with (Richard Childress Racing teammate) Austin Dillon getting the pole and it’s really cool for RCR. Those guys are putting in a lot of effort and Chevrolet and ECR and all our partners are doing a lot of good things to give us speed and it’s good to pay off. We thought we should have had two or three poles by now so it’s good for one of us at RCR to finally get one.)
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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.
