NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2014
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – July 4, 2014 – After a bizarre and rain-shortened qualifying session for the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Daytona International Speedway, there were a few uncommon names at the top of the final time sheet, but another solid contingent of Chevrolets at the front. Reed Sorensen led the way for Team Chevy with his first top-10 start of the 2014 season by qualifying on the outside of the front row in his No. 36 Golden Corral Chevrolet SS with a lap of 45.176 seconds, 199.322 mph.
During the first 20-minute session a number of strategies were unfolding between the 44 teams vying for transfer spots. At times there were packs of cars on track but running considerably slower speeds on purpose and cars jockeying for partners on pit lane and on track. Just as the session came to an end, steady rain began to fall and eliminated any further qualifying rounds. NASCAR set the field based on speeds from the first and lone session.
Landon Cassill, No. 40 Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet SS, earned the best start of his NSCS career by qualifying third with a time of 45.182 seconds,199.194 mph. Bobby Labonte, making just his second NSCS start of 2014, scored a top-five start by qualifying his No. 33 Thunder Coal Chevrolet SS in fourth position. Jimmie Johnson notched his seventh top-five start of the season by posting the fifth fastest time in his No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet SS.
In Saturday night’s 43-car field, Team Chevy will occupy nine of the top 15 starting positions for race No. 18 of the season. Daytona 500 winner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will start his quest for a Daytona sweep from the seventh starting position in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS while Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and NSCS point leader, Jeff Gordon, qualified ninth in his No. 24 Pepsi Real Sugar Chevrolet SS. Stewart Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet SS and Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet SS will start 12th and 13th respectively. Kasey Kahne, in the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, qualified in the 14th position.
David Gilliland (Ford) won the pole for the race to round out the top-five.
The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday July 5th. Live coverage will be available on TNT, PRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT WITH:
LANDON CASSILL, NO. 40 NEWTOWN BUILDING SUPPLIES CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD
REED SORENSON, O. 36 GOLDEN CORRAL CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
WE HAVE OUR THIRD FASTEST QUALIFIER, A CAREER-BEST STARTING POSITION FOR LANDON CASSILL. TALK ABOUT THE QUALIFYING OUT THERE. I’M SURE THERE WAS A LOT OF CAT & MOUSE GOING ON. YOUR SPOTTERS AND TEAMS WERE TELLING YOU THE RAIN WAS COMING. THERE WAS A LOT OF DIFFERENT STRATEGY GOING ON
CASSILL: “Yeah, it’s kind of interesting the way this works out. I’ve been doing it pretty much every session because I run the Nationwide Series as well. And in Talladega I learned a lot because I drive for Johnny Davis Motorsports and we don’t have any major team affiliations. And we really don’t even run a big leased engine over there. We just run our own motors. And I made it through all three rounds driving the 01 car. And I really learned a lot about just focusing on our own deal and just knowing when you get to the end of pit road and getting an idea of who is forming a line; and really just kind of bullying way in and wedging myself in between two fast cars. And so I’ve kind of kept that in the back of my mind every time I’ve done a session. The problem with that is that it’s just kind of a crapshoot. You don’t really know how it’s going to work out.
“But, its kind of what I did today. I saw where I was at on pit road. I looked at the pit road qualifying order chart and kind of got an idea of what teams were doing what. Same thing on the Cup team; we don’t have any major team affiliations, but we do have Childress engines. So, I paid attention to the Childress cars. I know they qualified well at Talladega. And I saw that they were forming a line and I noticed that they’re pecking order was kind of in the line of their qualifying draw. And I knew that if I was towards the end of their line that I would probably have a good lap if I could run with them. So, I just followed them out onto the race track. And we rode around for a handful of laps. I don’t know what they were doing. I didn’t have any communication with them or anything. I assume that they were waiting for a big group in front of us, or something like that. But they just rode around and when it looked like they were taking off, I hesitated a little bit to let them get ahead of me. And when we came to the start/finish line as our cars were up to speed, I was right behind Reed (Sorenson) and we had a nice gap in front of us and I just pushed him as hard as I could and we sucked-up to the Childress cars in front of us and put up a pretty good lap. It was a plan that wasn’t really a plan. And it worked out; but its kind of luck. You’ve still got to know what you’re doing, but if somebody pulls out in front of you or the lead cars check up, there’s nothing you can do.”
THANK YOU. REED SORENSON HAS JOINED US AS WELL.
THIS IS YOUR FIRST TOP 10 START OF 2014 AND YOUR SECOND TOP 10 START IN 11 RACES AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY. TALK ABOUT HOW THE QUALIFYING WENT FOR YOU AND SOME OF THE STRATEGY THAT CAME INTO PLAY KNOWING THE RAIN WAS COMING.
SORENSON: “I really didn’t know too much about the rain. But Landon was behind me and I was behind the No. 7 (Michael Annett) and I had a good idea that Landon was going to stay with me. I knew I was going to stay with the No. 7. I felt like we rode around for 20 minutes going half speed. I don’t know if that was part of the plan or what. We just all stayed in a line and finally took off. There was actually a gap in front of Landon and me; and the No. 33 (Bobby Labonte) was able to get in between that gap. And when our three cars got together, we started catching the pack that had gotten away from us. That enabled us to put down a good lap and it was right at the right time.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM AND WILL YOU HAVE TO DROP TO THE BACK OF THE FIELD FOR TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE?
SORENSON: “Nope, we’ll start up there. Hopefully we won’t have any problems once the race starts. We were probably eighth or ninth in line and they are going and stopping and going and stopping. I almost hit Michael (Annett) my teammate, probably six or seven times. And one of the times where I think I actually had to swerve over to keep from hitting Michael, he got into me. It’s not really his fault. I had my foot on the brake the whole time. So it was like a chain reaction. Once the guy in front lifted or got on the brakes, it just trickled through us. We had to do it for what felt like 10 laps (laughs). As long as we don’t get hit there, again, I think we’ll be all right.”
FOR BOTH OF YOU, DOES STARTING UP IN FRONT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH TO THE RACE AS FAR AS WHAT YOU PLAN TO TRY TO DO?
CASSILL: “It probably helps my approach a little bit just because we like to run up front for the entire race if we can for multiple reasons. The biggest reason for me is because we don’t typically have the reputation of being fast week in and week out; but we invest everything we have into our superspeedway program. And we actually have equipment for this race that’s as good as anybody’s. We finished 12th at the Daytona 500 and 11th at Talladega. And we obviously qualified third today. So, we’ve got good equipment. I just need to show the other people out there how good my car is. This helps because I’m going to do the best I can to run in the top 10 all day.”
SORENSON: “Same for me. People have strategies of running in the back or running up front. For us, even if we started in the back, at Talladega we started in the middle of the field, I try to get towards the front and get our sponsor there and it’s good for Golden Corral. We’d like to stay at least in that first group. Hopefully all the trouble is behind us. We’ll try to stay up front all day and use pit strategy to stay up there. At some points in the race it seems a lot calmer in the front. Usually from tenth on back is when it gets hairy in the first part of the race. Hopefully we can stay up there and keep it a little safer.”
FOR BOTH, YOU MENTIONED THIS IS LIKE A CRAPSHOOT. DOES THIS CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY?
CASSILL: “We all call it a crapshoot and it definitely is. There’s a lot of luck in it. I will say that I’ve been in a lot of superspeedway races and when I was a lot younger than I am now and was racing a handful of superspeedway races, I wrecked. It was never my fault. I knew it wasn’t my fault. The wreck always happened in front of me or someone got into me. Eventually I got tired of saying it wasn’t my fault. And I really started looking at what was causing these wrecks and why I was getting in them. And I feel like I found trends and I found reasons and stuff that I keep to myself, obviously; but it’s just being more of a student of it. I do think there are ways that you can improve your odds. And I feel like I’ve had more success since then, but it can still be a crapshoot.”
SORENSON: “Yeah, everything he said is right. For me in the past, usually in certain parts of the race, if I get around people that usually finish up front in these races like the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and guys like that, I try to stick around some of those guys when you can and start working with them early in the race. Maybe by the end of the race they’ll have that respect for you to work together with you toward the end. That has a lot to do with it as well.”
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