NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 19, 2015
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
WHAT A RESTART YOU HAD THERE AT THE END:
“Yes, is was a wild night. But I just have to thank my crew for all their hard work. They burned the midnight oilon Friday night to get some stuff ready to put in this race car for Saturday’s practice and turning it around. We were really bad on Friday, but my team never gave up. Just like all the Lowe’s associates, in store. They never give up. And, I’m just really glad we we got a second. I maybe had a shot at the win, but am just thrilled to get such a great finish here. This is one of the more tough tracks for me, as a driver. So, I’m very stoked to be here. Chevy was fast, and we go on to the next one.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
“I thought I got as good of a restart as I could ask for. And then you’ve got guys with fresher tires behind you. But I thought I got a really good re-start as soon as I could ask for to be on the bottom lane and I’m pretty happy with this 3M Chevrolet to come home third. Yeah, at one time I felt like maybe we could get second; but that was just chaos there. For us, it was just chaos the entire race. We had a really good car; we had the loose wheel, and we had to come from behind. I didn’t think we had the best car on that last run. I thought Carl (Edwards) looked pretty good. The No. 41 (Kurt Busch) looked really strong. And we were building a top five out of it. But, I certainly didn’t like NASCAR running us around under there under caution so long. I thought we were going to run out of gas. I hated it for the No. 3 (Austin Dillon). Happy for Matt (Kenseth). I think he deserved it. They had a good car. It would have been a shame for him to run out of gas. So, a great job to him. I’m just really proud to have 3M on board and we gave them a really good top-3 finish.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY OR NIGHT:
“Yeah, no, it was a day. It was all day. It was a decent run for us. I’m proud of Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and all these guys. We have just been battling and battling. Proud of them.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF NASCAR MAKING THE EFFORT TO GET THE ENTIRE RACE IN?
“Hey, we made it this far why not stick it out another 10 minutes. Definitely think NASCAR did the right thing there for sure.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
YOU GUYS DIDN’T GET ALL THE WAY BACK, BUT YOU MADE A LOT OF GROUND UP THERE AT THE END:
“Yeah, we got really lucky there after we had to pit under green. Everything seemed to fall our way after we made that green flag stop. We had a different strategy going on and when we had that caution late on that run and I was leading. We were going to end up 17th or something and then people started wrecking, we got the “Lucky Dog” and we came away with a seventh place finish. So a good overall day and I feel like it’s the first race where we haven’t had any issues really. You know, every race we have run so far….whether it’s been an issue with myself, the pit crew, or running out of luck on the race track. We just haven’t had a clean race and tonight I feel like we finally had that.”
JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 AUTO-OWNERS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
*Career Best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Finish
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE GREEN WHITE CHECKERED FINISH AND SHOULD IT HAVE ENDED UNDER CAUTION?
“I am sure there are guys that are going to go both ways. There are guys that are going to be frustrated that we went back (to green). But for me I felt like it was the right choice. You know, for me we have the greatest fans in the world and you know, here at Bristol it’s always exciting. And we gave them the proper finish to the race that they deserve for waiting it out in the rain and the nasty weather. So I feel they got the finish they deserved. Wish I could have been battling it out for the win, but we still brought home a top-ten.
YOU HAVE A POLE AND A WIN IN THE XFINITY SERIES HERE, AND NOW A SOLID TOP-TEN IN CUP. IS IT SOMETHING ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT YOU LIKE?
“You know, it just seems like the first time I came here I felt like it was my kind of race track. I just felt comfortable and have been fortunate enough over the years to have some good runs here with the pole and the win. It’s awesome, awesome to have good runs here. But at the same time, the Cup series is definitely an extreme challenge. It’s not been easy to break our way up through the pack but tonight we felt like that was a big step in doing that and getting respect by racing around a lot of these guys. We need to do that on a weekly basis so when you can do that here at a place you run good at, hopefully you can take that momentum and go somewhere else that you don’t run good at and use that same momentum.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ON HER DAY:
“I didn’t think this day was ever going to end. I’m proud of everybody for keeping their heads up and staying positive and these are the things that happen when you work together as a team. Just keep at it. We had some luck on our side and I really feel like that positivity feeds into getting some luck and being at the right place at the right time. We just were. We came out of here with a top 10. I got to tell you I did not think – I was hoping for a top 20 after our weekend. We were like 30 something in practice. Lucked out in qualifying and got 26th which like I said lucked out. It was a struggle of a weekend, but by all means you take these weekends because they tell you what you have a great weekends and you are running well and something happens. Either you make a mistake, somebody else takes you out, something breaks and steals you of a great finish so you have to take these that come a little easier in some ways. I promise you it wasn’t easy out there.”
YOU WERE FIGHTING FOR FREE PASSES AT TIMES. HOW HARD WAS IT?
“It was a bummer that we got a long run when I got the lucky dog. It was just so frustrating. There was a big accident after the rain. I should have got the lucky dog and I missed it all. I was in control enough to stay on the track instead of take the pit road. So I come around and I got on the apron and it was like it was still wet and the back-end just kind of slid around. I was like ‘ah well just restart it’. They said you are part of the accident you don’t get the lucky dog. I thought that was total crap. Then another time Jimmie (Johnson) gets the lucky dog and he goes and passes everybody and he is in front of me after getting the lucky dog. And I’m the lucky dog. I know it’s hard because it’s Bristol and everything happens very quickly here, but there were definitely quite a few mistakes by NASCAR just in making sure everything was right before we went green. We came out with a top 10 in the GoDaddy car. It looks terrible. I had to walk around it just to see what it looked like, but it’s Bristol baby.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
HOW DID THAT PLAY OUT FOR YOU?
“We had a great car, and that is the first thing. We worked hard all night and stayed in the top 10 all night. We get in a save fuel mode when we get a certain amount of heat and I guess it was dumping fuel and we just ran out of fuel. Then when we were trying to pull up there we might have finished ninth or eighth, but NASCAR held us back. I don’t know why. Because Danica (Patrick) moved around and she was the lucky dog and I was trying to follow her. I don’t know. Not happy.
“It stinks but the good thing is the confidence is up and it was a great run for our team and great run for Dow. Just wish I could have finished it off because we were there all night and it would have been nice to have a restart with those guys.”
WHAT A DAY TELL US ABOUT IT:
“It’s just really frustrating. We had a great car all night that is the first thing. I have to thank my guys and Dow for giving me such a good hot rod. We ran up front. We were sitting there at the end restarting third. We were overheating so our fuel mileage was going up as we were heating up like that. I thought they should have red flagged it. We were sitting out there and it was raining. As soon as we ran out they red flagged it. It was like they had to wait for one car to run out and it was us. It’s unfortunate. Then when everybody pulled up to come around because we didn’t pit on the right side of pit road we got held back again, could have had a few more spots. Just proud to know that we can run with these guys it was our best run of the year. Sitting up there running in the top 10 all night and having a shot. I wish we could restart it because we had a great car and man got to thank everybody back at home at ECR, RCR. We are coming we are going to be just fine.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 15TH
WORKING WITH A FILL IN CREW CHIEF, YOU HAD A VIBRATION EARLY, RIGHT-FRONT DAMAGE, A PIT LANE PENALTY AND YOU WERE STILL IN POSITION TO WIN THIS RACE. TAKE US TO LAP 476 WHEN YOU GUYS DECIDED TO COME AND PIT FROM THE LEAD:
“Well you forgot that the driver spun too. We had a very eventful day. I don’t even know how to describe it. This is a good sign. We had good long run speed and that is the most positive thing to take from the last couple of week where we didn’t have that long run speed. I think we found some good things in our Haas Automation Chevrolet. All-in-all 500 laps here you are right upon that edge. We had 100 laps on our tires. I thought we needed to pit. (John) Klausmeier (engineer) thought we needed to pit. Then I was thinking this is the Bristol of old we might be able to get away with staying out and it turned out that (Matt) Kenseth brought it on home to Victory Lane. Congratulations to him.
“We had fresh tires coming up through. (Carl) Edwards pushed the cushion. He hit some ice, I hit the same stuff or he was throwing the marbles out on the track and I just got sucked right in there. I was like I’m avoiding the wreck, but I couldn’t do anything to avoid them. We salvaged 15th. The car could have won. Thanks Gene (Haas) sorry we didn’t get a win. Gene Haas would have said to pit if you are watching. Thanks to everybody Monster Energy, State Water Heaters, Mobil 1, Rush Truck Centers, Hendrick Engines, the great group we have at Stewart-Haas Racing. We will get it. We are not going to get one win. We are going to get many wins.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car crash on lap 482
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“I was just on the bottom trying to get to the top. We had a big opening so I shot to the top. Then when we got to the corner and I hit the brakes I got hit from behind. They said it was the No. 14 so I’m guessing he was just mad that I took his lane. He wasn’t there, so I took it. He was mad about that. They said he spun me in (Turn) 2. I haven’t seen the replay at all so I don’t know exactly what happened. I felt I got hit and then spun around and it was over from there.
“Just a little disappointed I thought we weren’t going to win or anything like that, but when we were up front we could go hold our own. But we weren’t nothing exceptional tonight that is for sure.”
LANDON CASSILL, NO. 40 Chevrolet SS – Involved in a crash on lap 288
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“I just came down on the No. 42. I just didn’t know how close the No. 42 was to me and I thought I was able to get down and then all the sudden my spotter told me there was a car down to the inside.”
WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OKAY?
“I’m really frustrated I came down on the No. 42. I knew he was back there. I didn’t know how far back there. The No. 26 went to the bottom and I wanted to get behind him so the No. 42 could run on the outside and then all of a sudden my spotter said inside. He must have just had a huge run on me. You know it’s really frustrating. I hope the No. 42 didn’t get any damage. They are playing a really smart pit strategy. I hope it works out for them.”
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