MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 29, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
2nd William Byron, No. 24 Axalta/Primeline Camaro ZL1
3rd Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
5th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Realtree Camaro ZL1
7th Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Bulwark FR/Wayne Workwear Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
2nd William Byron (Chevrolet)
3rd Chase Elliott (Chevrolet
4th Daniel Suarez (Ford)
5th Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, March 31st at 3 pm ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1- Pole Winner
GREAT WAY TO SHOW SOME RESULTS OF YOUR EFFORTS TO COME BACK: “It’s been a long couple of years, and we still have a ways to go. And, certainly race daquy is much more important than Friday, but we’ve been working so hard, and I think we are a bit guilty of trying too hard and maybe stepping outside of our comfort zone at times, and putting setups on the car at times that just aren’t proven yet. With all that said, we were very aggressive coming here and changing a lot of stuff on our mile-and-a-half program. Top of the chart all day long, and a great start for this Ally tean. I’m really proud of everybody for keeping the faith and working hard.”
THERE HAS ONLY BEEN ONE CAR NUMBER AT THE TOP OF THE BOARD ALL DAY THROUGHOUT PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING – THE NUMBER 48. WHAT HAS CHANGED FOR YOU GUYS? “We are working hard. I know I post it, and I say it, and I know my team does, some believe us and some don’t, but this is a tough, tough sport and we are guilty of trying too hard and being too aggressive with setups at times. But, with all of that said, very aggressive coming here to Texas and it paid off. We really put speed in the right areas of that car, and had a solid practice session and three rounds of qualifying.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA/PRIMELINE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
“That is just a credit to the guys really, just giving us a fast car. Teamwork man! Just keeping the communication down to get that hole that we did. Just teamwork. So its all good; its awesome!”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1- Qualified 3rd
“The rules are the same for everybody and we did a good job and had a fast car and got a good tow and Chevrolet got a one-two-three. Definitely last week was a great effort for us from the car perspective. We had a contending car, which was nice; and then obviously Jimmie (Johnson) being fast here now running one lap fast, obviously Sunday is going to be different. I do think your car is going to have to drive decent to contend. Hopefully we can get all that stuff dialed in right and go from there.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 REALTREE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 5th
“I didn’t do a good enough job of getting the gap to Denny. I had a huge run on him and it happened on the first lap. It needed to happen on the second lap. It was pretty much bumper-to-bumper the second lap. But, we just needed a bigger gap, that’s all and I think we would have had a shot at the pole. We have a really fast car. The car drove good. I’m proud of our Realtree team and hopefully we can keep progressing.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 BULWARK FR/WAYNE WORKWEAR CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 7th
“I’m just proud of these guys and for everybody on this Bulwark Camaro ZL1 for making our race car better each round. It’s the best execution we’ve had from spotter to myself to the crew chief throughout out team going from round to round. So, I’m happy about that and we’ll go work on race trim to see what we have on Sunday.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 TWISTED TEA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 9th
“We were really happy with that. I think we should have ended up fifth or fourth if that second lap would have kicked-off. We’ll have to look at it closer. I think we ended up 9th. But all in all, it was a great round of qualifying for us. I’m proud of our effort.”
DARRELL ‘BUBBA’ WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 10th
“We had decent speed. We have World Wide Technology on our Chevrolet and that usually ends up finding some speed. It’s fun to have them on here. Had a great meeting with them this morning. They’re new office opened up in Plano. So, it’s starting out to be a good weekend.
“Starting 10th, this place is tricky, but there’s something to do with the PJ1. I think it’s going to be a little bit better on the restarts. You’re not going to be fighting for the bottom as hard. But who knows? It will be a handful, for sure, but I’m just excited. This is a run that the team needed. I know it’s qualifying, but hell; it used to be it’s not where you start but where you finish. But now, it really matters where you start.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 LLUMAR CAMARO ZL1 – Crashed in first qualifying round. Will go to back-up car for Sunday’s race. – Qualified 24th
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t know. It just freed-up more than I anticipated. There’s not much room for air when you’re running wide-open around this place and it’s so narrow when they paved it. That PJ1 hasn’t worked in yet so there was no saving it, but that’s on me. I hate it for the guys that worked really hard on this car. It was really fast earlier and I just messed-up.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 30th
WHAT HAPPENED?
“We were loose. We just missed it again.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
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