NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 10, 2013
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/SERTA CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
YOU JUST CUT A NEW TRACK RECORD. DID IT FEEL LIKE IT?
“It did and it didn’t. There is still maybe a little bit more time out there. I might have to hold my breath for 27 more seconds for a couple more other guys. I was real fast in (Turns) 1 and 2. Maybe I left a little bit on the table getting into (Turn) 3, but it didn’t feel that fast. And when it doesn’t, that means the car was stuck really well. So that’s just a tribute to these Furniture Row guys. The confidence they had coming here this weekend stems from the years ago when they won here with Regan Smith. All the changes we made in practice, all of them made sense. Sometimes we took a step back; sometimes we took a step forward. But we had a distinct definition on each of the changes. So the car has been feeling pretty good.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S EMERALD GREEN CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SECOND
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT LAP?
“Yeah, I am. White shoes, white car, Emerald Green paint stripes on it – the car looks good. I’m very proud of Lowe’s and all the cool things they are doing to raise awareness with what is going on with their stores. Great lap, we had some frustration in qualifying trim in practice. Luckily we got that corrected and the car ran a really nice lap. We will see if it holds up. I have a feeling it will probably be top four, top five with the sun setting quickly. Very happy with that lap, I can’t complain a bit.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 TIME WARNER CABLE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
WAS THAT ALL YOU HAD OR DID YOU LEAVE ANYTHING?
“For the conditions that were there, we could probably go a little faster if we went right now with this cloud, probably go two tenths faster. I felt really good, my car was really positive. It went wherever I wanted it to. Just wish I could have pushed a little harder. I enjoy qualifying here. This place is tough and you can really push as hard as possible, just try not to go over that line. I did once in qualifying; it wasn’t pretty off turn two.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN PRACTICE TODAY THAT IS GOING TO HELP YOU TOMORROW NIGHT?
“I think we learned some things in practice. When we started the balance wasn’t quite where we wanted it. The car moved around a little bit left and right. We got a lot of that out by the second practice and then for qualifying as well. I really look forward to tomorrow night. This is always a great race to be part of. We have a fast Time Warner Cable Chevrolet.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 10TH
YOU IMPROVED UPON YOUR TIME FROM PRACTICE. TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING LAP:
“Yeah, I think everybody is definitely picking up for sure. Our car has been driving good. Just had to commit to it now that it’s time and make sure that you keep your car rolling in practice. That is a big key here at Darlington, just keeping all the wheels going in a straight line with the right side still on it.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“It was good. Our Target Chevy has been really good. We didn’t unload as good as we wanted. Overall I think it’s a good day. I thought we executed we did everything we needed to do. Overall to be honest with you the biggest thing is just we bottomed out coming down the hill in (turn) two and pushed the nose when we hit that. The car has been great.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS/PITTSBURGH PAINTS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15TH
TALK ABOUT YOUR WEEKEND THUS FAR IN DARLINGTON AND YOUR QUALIFYING LAP:
“We picked up a lot from practice, but everybody has. The track is a lot gripper. Probably went just a little bit better than I thought. I was hoping for more, but realistically I didn’t think we would run quite that fast. We will take that. We have a good race car.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 16TH
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING LAP:
“I was hoping we would run a little bit better than that. I thought the car had real good balance and we just got into the splitter really hard around turn two. It cost us quite a bit.”
HOW HAS YOUR CAR BEEN ALL DAY?
“The speed has been great. The car has been comfortable. The car was really comfortable there, we just got into the splitter really hard trying to come down off of the top of (turns) one and two to get off of turn two. We had to lift a little bit there and you’ve got to be in the gas there. It costs us a lot of time. It costs us what I thought could have been a really good lap. Every time we have hit the track on stickers we have been really happy, good speed, comfortable. We will just try to take care of it in the race. I think we have a car, if we can get up there and have good track position we will be real competitive.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 21ST
ON HIS LAP:
“We’ve just been lacking a little bit of speed. I under drove the car a little bit in turn three and four there. Our Quicken Loans Chevrolet was better than that, but it seemed to be lacking just a little bit of speed. We’ll work on that for tomorrow. We’ve still got one night to think about it.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 40TH
ON HER QUALIFYING LAP:
“Probably biggest thing was just not doing any qualifying runs at all. These cars are quite different when they go into qualifying. As a driver you drive as hard as you can with what you’ve got. Qualifying requires you to commit to something before you can feel it based on the fact that you are coming to the green the first time by the start/finish line. I’m not happy with that, but it’s been a long day. Everyone worked really hard to put the qualifying, put the engine back in the back-up car. It’s going to make a lot of work for tomorrow night and the GoDaddy car. That is the bed that I made for myself.”
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