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[/media-credit]HARVICK LEADS THE WAY IN QUALIFYING FOR TEAM CHEVY AT RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
RICHMOND, VA – April 27, 2011 – Kevin Harvick led the way for Team Chevy in today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying session at Richmond International Raceway by putting his No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet on the on the inside of row two, in third place, with a time of 21.067 seconds and 128.041 mph for Saturday’s Capital City 400 Presented by Virginia is for Lovers.
Seven of the top 15 starters for Saturday’s race are Chevrolets including: Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet rolls off 6th, Kasey Kahne in the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevy starts 9th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet starts 10th, Ryan Newman, No. 39 Army Reserve Chevrolet qualified 12th, Kurt Busch, No. 51 Phoenix Construction Services Inc. Chevy qualified 13th, and Reagan Smith, No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Farm American Chevy will start 15th.
The Capital City 400 takes the green flag on Saturday, April 28th, at 7:30 p.m. EDT and will be aired live on FOX.
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 JIMMY JOHNS CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 3RD
YOU ARE STARTING UP FRONT IN THIRD PLACE FOR TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE; YOU MUST HAVE A PRETTY GOOD RACE CAR?
“We have had a terrible race car all day to be honest with you. We just sat in the trailer after practice and said that what we had wasn’t cutting what we needed to in the center of the corner and up off. So we went back to our notes from last year and were able to make some small adjustments to that and that is why you have notebooks. It has worked out good and hopefully we can do the same for the race and make it a little bit better than what we were last year.”
WHEN YOU HAVE PRACTICE IN THE AFTERNOON AND THEN QUALIFY THIS LATE ARE YOU GUESSING A LOT AS FAR AS THE SETUP IN QUALIFYING AND WERE YOU SURPRISED THAT MARK MARTIN WAS ONE OF THE ONLY ONES TO BACK UP WHAT HE DID IN PRACTICE IN QUALIFYING?
“I think for us, you pretty much know that qualifying has pretty much been the same time for the last…as long as I can remember. So you kind of know that the track is going to pick up speed and you know what you need to do to your car from practice to a certain degree, but you never can tell. It seems like the track has less grip up off the corners this time than it has any of the races in the past couple years, so that was the biggest thing that we had to try and make better.”
DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES:
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 6TH
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR LAP?
“It was a pretty good lap; you know the car was well-balanced. You know it’s just something we have been struggling with in practice and I felt like we guessed really well today and it’s such a guessing game just in the track temps coming down. The track picks up so much speed so I am anxious to see where we end up. The fact that we just beat the 56 is a sign that we put a decent lap up there.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 9TH
HOW WERE YOUR LAPS?
“The car seemed pretty good but I overdrove turn one on my fast lap and screwed it up pretty bad. I should have gone a little bit faster, I just missed my entry.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 51 PHOENIX CONSTRUCTION SERVICES INC. CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 13TH
TELL US ABOUT YOUR LAP:
“It was a good lap for us. After struggling through practice you never know what to expect going into qualifying and there’s times when you will pick up a lot of speed and there are times when you won’t. And we needed to pick up some speed but we will get beat by some of the other guys but all-in-all we just needed to get the car to feel the four tires and we got that so far.”
REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 15TH
HOW WAS YOUR LAP?
“To be honest with you I don’t know where it stacks up right now but I just probably underestimated the grip a little bit for our car. So, little disappointed with that but we will be somewhere in the top 20 for a starting spot and we’ll get in to Saturday.”
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
