NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FORD 400
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
November 19, 2010
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD:
ON HIS LAP: “That was a really good lap. Honestly, I felt like I got all out of that I could. I didn’t think anything left. We’ve been really quick right off the truck; we should have a good weekend.
“I went through turn one and was expecting the car to be loose and I got a little tight and then back through three and four it felt awesome and I heard (Crew Chief) Bono come on the radio and say ‘you have a really good lap’ and I knew I carried a lot of speed but it felt like off four that it felt really, really good but I am sure somebody will pull something down a little quicker but our Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet is running really good.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 5TH:
“That was definitely a good lap for us. Carl Edwards has done a lot in qualifying trim here lately so to be there at his pace I think is a good time. Unfortunately there are a lot of cars to go yet and the cars we’re concerned about are later in the session. But either way I think that’s going to be the best starting position I think we’ve had in a while.”
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CAR SO FAR IN PRACTICE?
“We came down really well organized with scenarios we wanted to work with on the car if the handling went a certain way and stuff worked as we had hoped, which was nice to see. So, I’m excited about how we’ll start the race and then I’m also looking forward to practice tomorrow. There’s some work to do there and we’ll get on top of things and have some fun.”
ON THE CLOUD COVER
“Yeah, it was a good lap for us. Carl Edwards has been the guy to beat in qualifying trim lately, so to be right there at his pace says a lot for our lap.
“I don’t really know what’s going to happen as the track cools down and what’s going to take place from here, but for the time of day and what we had going on, we’re really happy about that.”
YOU LOOK PLEASED WITH THAT QUALIFYING RUN
“We picked up a bit from our run earlier today. We normally pick up about half as much as everybody else gets but I think I picked up more than anyone at this point especially the top several guys so we’ll see where it goes and obviously we want to be as far forward as we can and we are off to a good start.”
DO YOU THINK THE TIMES ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE DEEPER WE GET INTO THE QUALIFYING ORDER?
“It’s hard to say because it’s a bit windy now and I don’t know if the wind is going to pick up because I could feel the wind pretty bad into one and I didn’t get the line that I wanted with the wind pushing me down the back or the frontstretch I should say off the corner so it’s a tricky track right now. You have some grip, lot of wind and we will see how those guys do.
MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH
ON HIS LAP: “Good run. Good run. Within a half of a tenth of the pole so far. Mighta coulda just got that if I had been a little less conservative in three and four. I really thought because the sun was out down there, I anticipated it to be a little slicker than what it was. I’m real happy to be this close.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH
ON HIS LAP AND TALKING TO CHAD KNAUS: “I talked to Chad a little bit after that run. I thought it was a decent lap for the DuPont Chevrolet. With an early draw like this, we will see.. With the sun going down, not to optimistic but all-in-all, been a pretty decent day for us. I feel like the car has been good. The early draw, like I said, it isn’t helping us out a whole lot. But, been really pleased with how the car has been driving today. That was a nice little pickup. Certainly a big improvement over how we qualified the last couple of times.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 22ND
ON HIS LAP: “The car drove pretty good but the car just wasn’t fast. I don’t know, we haven’t been fast all day but the car drove pretty good.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 28th
ON HIS LAP: “I thought we might be a little better, but not much. Everybody on the car did a really good job; we hit the chip really hard going into turn one and lost all of our timing getting into the corner in turn one because we hit it for so long, I couldn’t really judge how far I needed to drive it in there because it slowed it down so much. We’ve been talking about where we want to pit here. The same thing we do every week. Our car was very comfortable in race trim and we are ready to go.”
WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGE IS PIT ROAD HERE? “It is a lot less of a challenge here just for the fact that the pit stalls are much longer. So, even if somebody does pit in front of you, it’s not going to be a big deal where you get blocked in because you have so much room. I think we have a good plan on where we want to be as far as timing lines and what end of pit road we want to be on. So, business as usual.”
About Chevrolet
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