MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
POCONO 400
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 1, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Autoguard Camaro ZL1
7th Kyle Larson, No. 42 Credit One Bank Camaro ZL1
8th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
10th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Camaro ZL1
12th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st William Byron (Chevrolet)
2nd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
3rd Clint Bowyer (Ford)
4th Erik Jones (Toyota)
5th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
FS1 will telecast the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway live at 2 p.m. ET Sunday, June 2. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HENDRICK AUTOGUARD CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner
YOU HAVE A CHECK MARK NOW NEXT TO POLE DAY. WHAT DOES THIS TEAM NEED TO FOCUS ON TO PUT THE ENTIRE RACE TOGETHER?
“It’s all about execution. It’s on me to know what I need throughout the race and I feel like I’m starting to learn a little bit of what it takes during the last 100 laps instead of the first 80, which we’ve been pretty good at. This is great. It’s an impound race, so it’s great to see our speed is there. I’m just really excited. The guys have worked really hard on this 24 car; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, the engine shop, the chassis shop. It means a lot. I’m excited for it. Like you said, Pole Day has been pretty good for us, so we’ll keep racking those up and hopefully we’ll rack up a better result on race day too.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 7th
DOES IT BOTHER YOU TO HAVE ONE LAP OF QUALIFYING TODAY AND THEN YOU’RE DONE?
“Well, we could go play golf. There are some really nice courses around here (laughs). Saturday is always a tough practice because the first practice is always so early in the morning that you don’t really learn a whole lot until the last few minutes of it anyway. Not that it’s a waste of time because you always learn something. But, this is a way for the teams to save a lot of money. If we can sacrifice a practice session, I think it’s good for the health of the teams.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 12th
DO YOU LIKE THIS NEW FORMAT? ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF IT GOING FORWARD?
‘Yeah, I love it. I think it’s one of the best things they’ve done. In my opinion, there is no need of rebuilding these cars for qualifying. Just tape them up and go run your lap and be done. I’m sure the same crowd will be up front either way. Why make it hard on everybody to put these cars in full-blown qualifying trim and also cuts time on garage time for these guys, which I think is good.”
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO RACE POCONO ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10?
“It’s pretty tough. It was a 10 for me just now. So, hopefully it’s less tomorrow.”
WHAT MAKES IT SO HARD?
“Just getting your car driving good everywhere is tough. Each corner is a little different. So, you just try to take your losses in one and be good in the other.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
“We were slower than we would like since we unloaded. And even when it’s driving well, it’s just a little slow. Hopefully it will race good but we’ll wait and see.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 KALAHARI RESORTS AND CONVENTIONS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 23rd
“I think we’re making strides as a group in what we want to have in the race cars to give us that ability. We’ve still got some work to do and that’s why we’re here. We’ll keep working.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
HOW WAS YOUR RUN TODAY?
“It was good. We picked up eight-tenths, I think, from our qualifying run in practice; so we’re really happy with that. We had some things kind of get away from us yesterday in practice. Our goal, well at least my goal, was to get in the 52-second range, and we did that. So, we’re improving each week. And, I’m really proud of that. And we continue to grow as a team and I think we’re really close to being where we want to be at short tracks and superspeedways. We have a little bit of room to grow at 1.5-miles, but this is a good start.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 26th
ON HIS QUALIFYING:
“We were sideways yesterday, so we made good adjustments, but maybe a little too much. But, I think being that it is an impound race, you can kind of get a read off of everybody else’s balances and go from there. But, I think our car was really, really good in race trim yesterday. So, I’m excited about that. But, we always know it’s never the same once you drop the green flag.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 29th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN
“Oh, I mean we were really just too loose. We couldn’t get into the throttle the way we needed to. That’s the big thing.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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