NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TOYOTA OWNERS 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 24, 2015
FIVE CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS EARN TOP TEN STARTING SPOTS AT RICHMOND
Kurt Busch Leads Team Chevy With Third Top-three Start of 2015
RICHMOND, Va. – (April 24, 2015) – Kurt Busch led the way for Team Chevy in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) during qualifying for Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race. His lap of 21.326 seconds (126.606 mph) was fast enough to earn him the third starting spot for the Toyota Owners 400, round 9 on the NSCS 2015 circuit. This is Busch’s third top-three start of the season.
AJ Allmendinger qualified fourth in his No. 47 Scott Products Chevrolet SS to post his first top-five starting spot of the year while Busch’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and current point leader, Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy Johns/Budweiser Chevrolet SS, posted the fifth fastest lap of the qualifying session. Martin Truex, Jr., behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet SS will start sixth.
Jamie McMurray scored his third straight top-ten qualifying effort with a ninth place run in his No. 1 Energizer Chevrolet SS giving Chevrolet five of the top-ten starting positions for Saturday’s race.
Four other Chevrolet SS drivers narrowly missed making it to the top ten: Jeff Gordon (No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS), Kyle Larson (No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS), Tony Stewart (No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS) and Paul Menard (No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet SS) will start 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th respectively, giving Team Chevy nine of the top 15 starting positions overall.
Joey Logano (Ford) won the pole and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) qualified second to round out the top-five qualifiers.
Saturday’s 400-lap race is scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm ET. Live coverage will be available on FOX, PRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3rd
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I think we surprised ourselves a little bit, which is a nice gift. The car was on the tight side all three runs. Heck I ran an extra lap which was a fourth lap and that was our 12th timed lap in qualifying here at Richmond. It got us all the way to third. So, a nice pleasant surprise. We need to work on the front to gain grip in race trim as well and go from there. All-in-all real pleased with this Friday practice and qualifying.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 4th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“It was a solid day. We brought a brand new racecar this weekend and just all day today the car has had good speed. I felt good in it. I wasn’t sure. We didn’t make a qualifying run late in practice qualifying in the second practice there. I wasn’t sure how much time the track was going to pick up. The first run that I made I didn’t get enough out of the car, but each run I felt like I got a little bit better and better. To be top five is good. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow night’s race just in the fact of how the car has felt all day.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5th
ON HIS QUALIFYING SESSION AND WHAT MORE HE NEEDED TO MAKE A RUN AT THE POLE:
“Honestly, we really weren’t expecting to qualify that well. Just happy with the adjustments that they made and the things that they did to the car to get us up in the front of the pack like that. They did a good job as usual. We struggled with the center and took a little chance there to try to make it turn in the center. It still didn’t turn in the center and struggled with a little bit of grip up off.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6th
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR STARTING POSITION FOR TOMORROWNIGHT?
“It was okay. We were looking for more obviously, hoping for pole. I thought we had a shot at it today. Just off just a little bit on speed. Had a good balance and made good adjustments there, just missing just a little bit for the fast guys. I thought maybe I screwed up a little bit in the third round on my second lap, which was my best lap. I missed Turns 1 and 2 a little. Probably gave up I want to say probably two or three spots there, all-in-all a good pit stall. We have a really good racecar so looking forward to tomorrow.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH
WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED TO TAKE A RUN AT THE POLE?
“That is better than I normally qualify here at Richmond. I can’t really complain. It would have been nice to make it to the final round, but still was pretty impressed with our effort. I thought the guys did a good job today. I’m not much of a qualifier here so I will take that today.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 25 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 16th
HOW WAS YOUR RUN OUT THERE WITH THE TEAM?
“Didn’t want to get greedy but we wanted to get to that last 12 and we gave it a good effort. We picked up our second time out but it wasn’t enough. So I just can’t say enough about all these guys, Kenny Francis, the 5/24 shop and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. For NAPA in coming on board and being here for a really strong qualifying effort in my second race; I am really excited to be in the show and hopefully we can make the right adjustments overnight. I felt like our car in race trim was okay today and actually felt like we were better there than in qualifying. So hopefully we can improve from where we start and try and move forward.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS?
“I’m just happy that we made it into the show, for now. You make it that far and you get greedy and you want to make it into that top 12. We gave it a good effort and picked-up our second time out, but it wasn’t enough. So, I just can’t thank (crew chief) Kenny Francis and all these guys in the Hendrick Motorsports shop, and Napa for coming on board. I felt like it was a really strong qualifying effort for us and my second race. So, I’m excited to be in the show and hope that we can make the right adjustments overnight. I feel like our car, in race trim, was okay today. We were better there than we were in qualifying. So hopefully we can improve upon where we start and try to move forward.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 26th
“Our race stuff seemed great and we didn’t do very well in qualifying. I don’t know. The car just didn’t have speed. Balance-wise, I can’t say there’s a lot of problems. But we certainly don’t have in there what we needed to be able to get in there and compete. We didn’t really focus on qualifying today. We seemed to struggle here in qualifying. I’m glad we got the extra race practice in, and hopefully that will help us tomorrow night because I feel like we did learn a lot.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PRO SERVICES CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 36th
“I’m really puzzled. We had such a great practice session, in race and qualifying trim; so I’m just scratching my head, big-time, right now. We’ll try to figure out what happened and then prepare for the race. Like I said, we had a great race practice in the first session. A tenth there, in qualifying trim in the second session. And I really had high hopes for a good starting spot, but we’re far from that.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 40th
“To me, it was definitely something with the tires because we didn’t change anything. So, I’ve been bouncing on the splitter in practice and right there, I never even felt it. So there are obviously some differences in the tires or something. I guess that could be the only thing. Other than that, everything is the same. But I had no turn there in qualifying. In practice, I was actually on the loose-side with really good turn. So, hopefully we’ll put on a good set of tires for the race and be able to drive towards the front. I feel like our Great Clips Chevy was actually pretty good in practice race and qualifying. So, we’ll see how tomorrow night goes.”
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