NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES 2011 DAYTONA 500 DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER NOTES & QUOTES February 20, 2011
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – Sidelined with engine failure on lap 22 (Note: last engine failure was 9/24/06 at Dover): YOU NEVER BLOW MOTORS. WHAT HAPPENED TODAY? “We had just a 10 – 15 more degree oil temp than what we had been (running). I pulled out from behind the No. 17 (Matt Kenseth) when I felt like I got to the point where I needed to pull out, and the bottom fell out of it. So, I hate it for everybody on this Budweiser Chevrolet and everybody from Jimmy Johns and Budweiser. A tough way to start the year but man, like you said, we never blow motors. Everybody at ECR does a great job.”
THERE WAS A LOT OF SMOKE WHEN YOU PULLED IN THE GARAGE, DO YOU SPECIFICALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED? “I don’t know for sure. I just blew the water out of the bottom of the thing. I hadn’t done anything different. We had a little bit more oil temp, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
DO YOU THINK THIS IS A RESULT OF PUSHING AND OVERHEATING? “I don’t think so. Like I said, overheating would be getting it to the point where it blows off and you see the water start to come out. We had a touch more oil temp, but nothing out of the ordinary. And I had just pulled out. And that early in the race, even if you do get it hot, it’s usually not a catastrophic failure like we just had.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING? “No, it just let loose.”
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE POINT SITUATION NOW THAT YOU’RE STARTING OFF THE SEASON SO FAR BEHIND? “This is the first race. You don’t come very much do you? (laughs).
YOU’RE A FAVORITE AND HAVE A STRONG CAR, HOW FRUSTRATING IS THIS FOR YOU? “Obviously, you come to the first race of the year and have that happen right off the bat is just something you don’t really want to have happen and it’s just one of those things. It happens. We go years and years without engine failures and they do a great job on that. So, it happens.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, INVOLVED IN MULTI-CAR ACCIDENT ON LAP 29: ACCESS THE DAMAGE TO YOUR RACE CAR:”It doesn’t really matter at this point, our chances to win the Daytona 500 are over. That is the disappointing part. The Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet was really fast. I had just got with Trevor Bayne again, I had some help from Kasey Kahne in the beginning. We were having a lot of fun. You know, I totally get the two-car drafting and I think we are going to see a lot more of it. What I don’t understand is why guys are doing it three-wide, three-deep running for 28th. We need to let it thin out a little. As soon as it thins out, then go to it and they can do it pretty safe and pretty harm free. Like right there, I was sitting there just kind of riding along just waiting for it to thin out. I probably should have waited even farther in the back, but you see them and they are pushing and shoving up the middle down the back straightaway. I’m like ‘what are they doing’, you know. You can understand those guys in the front two or three rows, go ahead…they are going to go out there and do it. But, anyway, it is disappointing. It is going to be a heck of a race to watch. I think the finish is going to be unbelievable. We are going to see a lot more of what we just saw. It is hot and a little slicker today. The cars aren’t sticking quite as good as they were the other day. Unfortunately for us, the damages are going to take awhile for us to fix. We will get back out there and get as good of laps as we can.”
WHAT HAPPENED?”We got into the NO. 7 (Robby Gordon) when the No. 29 (Kevin Harvick) blew up. He got down in front of me, I just couldn’t get slowed down enough and got in the back of him and tore his car up. We had a little damage to the grill opening so we came in and patched that up. That got us in the back and we lost our drafting partner Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne. Back there you could actually just use the draft, you didn’t need a partner. I was watching these guys in front of me like bumper cars. Bumping off of one another, three deep, four deep and three and four wide. Unfortunately we go caught up in it. I saw the 00 (David Reutimann) get turned and I was doing everything I could to avoid it and we got caught up in it.”
HOW DISAPPOINTED ARE YOU?”It is such a bummer. We had such a fast race car, such a great race team. You have to take what you can from this. The most disappointing thing is we don’t have a shot at winning the Daytona 500. We prepared so long and hard, these guys worked so hard and built me such a great race car. So that is the bummer. But at the same time, this could be a good lesson for us to repair this car and get back out there and get ourselves prepared to win a championship.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE RACING OUT THERE?”In the first eight or 10 cars, it is good, it is fun. But everybody is trying to do this two-car draft all the way to 38th and that is where you have to be careful. You can’t be three and four wide and five rows deep trying to push and shove one another. You have to use your head a little bit more and you have to be a little more patient. When it thins out, then we can go. A lot of guys aren’t waiting for it to thin out, they are just pushing and they are getting themselves in trouble.”
DO YOU KNOW HOW THE WRECK HAPPENED? “I don’t know, somehow the 00 got turned, I’m not really sure how. I’m pretty sure somebody was pushing him and he had to check up or something happened. You are going to see a lot more of it. It is just not going to work until we thin out the field. Unfortunately we are one of those cars that got thinned out of it. We’ll do what we can to get this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet repaired and get back out there and get as many points as we can.”
MICHAEL WALTRIP WAS JUST DISCUSSING HOW INTENSE IT IS OUT THERE WITH THIS TYPE OF DRAFTING…”That’s true and I don’t think that is very smart. For the first 10 cars, I think, yes, that makes sense. And when the field thins out, yes that makes sense. But on the restarts when they are two and three wide, to be that intense at the start of a Daytona 500, it is a long race. That is the part I don’t quite understand. Everybody is getting on the brakes backing up to the guy to get the push when you are running 26th, 28th, 30th. I think we saw yesterday in the Nationwide race that you can kind of ride there in a pack if you don’t get connected out there early and you can survive and ride. You don’t want to get too far back, but you also don’t want to be shoving people and spinning people out early in the race. That is what we are going to see here. It is new for all of us. First time with 43 cars in this type of situation. It is going to be a learning situation for a lot of them. We were learning. We were out there having fun with Trevor again and having some fun with Kasey Kahne. We had a fast race car so it is very disappointing we aren’t going to win the Daytona 500.”
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, SUFFERED ENGINE FAILURE ON LAP 94: WAS IT THE SAME ISSUE AS YOUR TEAMMATE KEVIN HARVICK?”We are asking a lot out of the engines here for sure. These are tough situations. To run at all, you got to run them 240 (degrees) or so and that may be a little more than we need to be running. We thought we were well within our limits, but maybe not. But listen, I’m proud of everybody. Everybody busted their butt to come own here and put their best foot forward. We ran well all week and I am proud of everybody. Disappointed. Exceptionally disappointed. But I am really proud of everybody. “It is a little early to know [what happened] yet. It could be [the same issue] but it is a little early to know. They had similar reactions and that is a possibility that is the case.”
SO STRONG OUT THERE WITH CLINT BOWYER, DESCRIBE THE RACING CONDITIONS:”It is hard. I know it’s not a 30-car pack, it is a lot of twosomes. It is very very difficult to do this. You can run nose to tail all day long but to keep the temps down like you need to and do that, it gets very difficult. I am really proud of everybody on the Cat Chevrolet. Everybody worked hard and came down here trying to put their best foot forward but it didn’t work out for us. But I’m not going to hang my head. The effort was too good to be disappointed about.”
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