NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GEICO 500
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 3, 2015
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
“Just real emotional, man. Everything is just so good for me now. My personal life. My racing. The team I am with. I don’t know why. I don’t feel like I deserve it. I just feel overcome with a lot of emotion. It has been a long time since I won here. I’ve run so good here, and not to win here in so many races has bothered me. I want to thank Nationwide and my team, my guys. Greg (Ives, crew chief) Kevin (Meendering, engineer). All the guys from last year, Steve Letarte, I’m sure they are happy. All those guys that have moved on. It is a great day for a lot of people that have been a part of this and helped us get here. We just have a really good group of guys. I’m blessed, man. I’m blessed. We just have a really good group of guys.”
WITH JIMMIE (JOHNSON) BEHIND YOU, WHAT DID YOU THINK?
“I didn’t know what he had up his sleeve. Maybe they got busy behind him and he couldn’t form a charge. We had a real strong car. I didn’t know if the engine was going to last. I had faith in it that it would because we build fast cars and they are tough. All those guys in the motor shop and the body shop, they earn their money today. Another thing too, it was bugging me that we weren’t winning races. Now we are locked in that Chase, we can call these races so different now so maybe there will be more wins.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ON THE WHITE FLAG LAP?
“I knew that they were going to do something, I just didn’t know what it would be. Luckily enough when the No. 48 backed up the guys behind him would race. That helped me a ton. I would move and try to put him in front of the guy that wasn’t going to help him the most. I was just doing stuff trying to figure out what I needed to do and hopefully I did everything right. We ended up here (in Victory Lane). I really want to thank – we worked together great with all our teammates today. We raced and passed each other, but we also worked good together when we needed to and we should. I thank Nationwide, I thank Greg (Ives, crew chief) and all my guys. What a great group of guys I get to work with every weekend. I feel really blessed to have everything that I’ve got. I’m just real fortunate to be in the position I’m in, surrounded by so many good people. We have so much support. I want to thank all the fans I hope they enjoyed the race today. It sounds like they did.”
WERE YOU A LITTLE BIT SURPRISED THEY DIDN’T TRY TO MAKE A RUN?
“No. I thought for sure the No. 48 and I have come down to that situation before. He had me beat here one time when (Brian) Vickers got into him and won the race. I knew he would wait. That is what I would do. I wouldn’t want to screw it up for both of us to go too early. I would wait until the last lap where it would be just me and him. He tried to back up and just couldn’t get a run.”
HAD A LITTLE BIT OF DEBRIS ON YOUR GRILL DID THE WATER TEMPERATURES GO UP AT ALL? DID THAT CAUSE ANY CONCERN?
“Yeah, with 10 to go it was 285 (degrees) the water pressure was pegged. It started pushing water the last couple of laps. The oil got over 300. The oil cooled back down which scared me a little bit. That is usually not a good sign. I had the fan on doing everything I could just hoping it would last. The boys in the engine shop I have to go see them all and shake all their hands because they did a good job.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ANY SHOT AT THE WIN?
“Not really, we had such a small group single file there wasn’t a lot of energy coming from behind. I was definitely going to try taking the white. My plan was into Turn 3 to back up and try to get a run onto the front stretch. But Turn 3 coming to the white (flag) the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) got rid of the No. 21 (Ryan Blaney). We just had such a small group there was very little energy to create a run and to try to get the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) and he had a really fast car. I wasn’t going to be able to go up there and just take it away from him. Congratulations to my teammate 1-2 for the 48/88 shop. Awesome day for this Lowe’s Chevrolet, great pit stops and just a solid performance and a great month for us. If we really look at it I think our worst finish this month has been third.”
WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE DONE:
“No, I tried. I was waiting for guys to spread out with maybe three to go, and that didn’t happen. When we came around to take the white, it started. We had such a small group. There really wasn’t much energy in our single car draft. I was trying to back up to the guy behind me but all it would do is open up the gap between me and the No. 88 and I could never really close it. The No. 11 got rid of the No. 21 and that hurt me; hurt my opportunity. Then we just all kind of raced back to the finish. We got a great finish for this Lowe’s Chevrolet. We put the engine through a lot of hot situations today so a big thanks to Valvoline . An awesome oil they put in this race car. An awesome day all around. Great pit stops; fast race car. A lot of Hendrick cars up there. I am very proud to be in a Hendrick car.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 QUAKER STATE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
ON THE RACE:
“Everybody was just waiting for somebody to make a move. I didn’t want to be the first guy and I think Kevin (Harvick) or Denny (Hamlin) made the move and we just kind of all went wherever we needed to from there. Really fast Quaker State Chevy. We ran hot with oil all day long and the oil held up for us. Fast cars at RCR and ECR horsepower.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT KNOWING SOMEBODY HAS GOT TO MAKE THE MOVE, BUT NOBODY WANTS TO BE THE ONE TO MAKE THE MOVE?
“You want to make sure you don’t make it too early. I think everybody was on the same plan they were waiting with one to go, waiting for the last lap. Because if you make a move and it doesn’t work you are going to lose a lot of spots and you try to minimize that. All-in-all we had a good day. We took a shot there on the last lap and had a great run going into (Turn) 1 got up to third, got blocked by the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) and lost our momentum. I felt like we had a shot at it there. The No. 88 and No. 48 were super strong all day long. That was no surprise that they were up there. Nobody could really pass them, but everybody at Talladega is happy, so it’s all good.”
AFTER A COUPLE OF ECR ENGINE FAILURES DID THAT COME INTO PLAY IN YOUR MIND?
“When the No. 33 (Brian Scott) broke I was like nah that’s not a big deal because they are a part-time team. Usually they do R&D stuff on that car. When the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) blew up I was like ‘okay’ that is two. You think about it a little bit, but there is nothing you can do but hold it on the floor here. So it was all good.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
ON HIS RACE AND FINISH:
“It was a decent finish. We come here to win. I guess when you can roll the car on the trailer that is a small victory in itself. I’m proud of the guys on the Caterpillar Chevrolet. It’s one of those deals at restrictor plate tracks our best lap is the last one, running position wise. I guess a decent point’s day if you are counting points.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
ON HIS EVENTFUL DAY AND BEING INVOLVED IN AN EARLY ACCIDENT:
“They did a good job of fixing it and it really didn’t slow the car down any. We had to make some handling adjustments, but all-in-all I wanted to make something happen there at the end and it just didn’t work out.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE NO. 2 CAR?
“The last pit stop we executed well we came out in the lead, but it was the guys that pitted before the yellow that got to stay ahead of us because at a big track that is 2.66-miles you don’t lose a lap if the yellow comes out during the sequence. So we restarted ninth basically, and when (Dale Earnhardt) Junior took the lead he stayed high on lap two of that run. So for the next, I don’t know, 40 laps we all ran the top side. It’s a shame, but it’s a move where you block everybody where the No. 88 was using the wall to keep everybody in line. Which is a good move, it’s tough. We couldn’t get a run from the back to catch everybody and then with the wreck happening in Turn 2 I had to go to the safest route down on the apron and we were able to get through there clean. If it’s a top 15 finish, we will take it with the Haas Automation Chevy.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/HUNGRY JACK CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17TH
“We had a bad vibration in the car which made it hard for me to just even see straight. I don’t know if it was because of that or what, but once everybody got single file I had no speed in the car. I was just doing all I could to hang in the draft. Just not a lot of speed. They started crashing I am not sure just tried to avoid it the best I could. Almost got through completely clean which would have helped the result, but it could have been a lot worse. We could be on the hook right now coming back. The car rolls, top 20 finish which is sometimes all you can ask for here. Just a rough long day.”
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN LAST LAP MULTI-CAR CRASH, FINISHED 28TH
WHAT HAPPENED THERE IN THE END?
“The No. 55 (Michael Waltrip) gave me a really good shot out of the short shoot, and got me going real fast. I caught the No. 19 (Carl Edwards) real fast and got on his right rear and turned him sideways. I just got a really good shove. Right about that time, the No. 19 was trying to stay off the guy in front of him, I had a good shove and I ended up getting into him and sending him. And then when that happened, the No. 15 (Clint Bowyer) tried to avoid the No. 19 and when that happened, he collected us in the left front and put us in the fence. But it was just a timing thing. He gave me a really good shove and I got into the No. 19 and just hit him wrong and turned him sideways.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN LAST LAP MULTI-CAR CRASH, FINISHED 31ST
YOU LED 47 LAPS FROM THE POLE, THEN DAYTONA ALL OVER AGAIN:
“I was up in the booth yesterday talking about this – man you have to get to pit road without locking up the tires up and not speeding. I thought I was plenty conservative there but the tires were worn out and I just carried too much speed to pit road and kind of locked the tires up I was just speeding. I couldn’t get the car slowed down. We had an awesome Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet. We had gotten shuffled back there a little bit. Hats off to Dale, Jr. and that whole team, and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. Boy, we had amazing cars this weekend. Dale Jr., you could tell, he was driving super aggressive and you knew he wanted to win this race bad, and certainly all his fans are enjoying this show here, they love seeing Dale, Jr. win this race. But, yes, after that issue on my part, then we were just in the back and trying to make our way to the front. We did a pretty good job making some spots up and we were going to see what happened that last lap. Then they started wrecking we avoided one of them, but couldn’t avoid the second one.
ASIDE FROM A BAD ENDING, HOW WAS THE REST OF THE RACE FOR YOU TODAY?
“We had a strong car today. I feel like we could have been in the top 10 for sure. We had a really good run at the end.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – Experienced an engine failure on lap 157
WHAT HAPPENED?
“A motor blew. I don’t know. It’s frustrating. We’ve had two blown this year and it just kills you in the points when you blow a motor. We were having a good day running in the top 10 pretty consistently. I felt like something was wrong because we couldn’t get the runs we were getting at the beginning of the race. I’m just disappointed. It was one of those races where I felt we had a shot to possibly win. We were dicing up-front early and often. So, I’m disappointed for all our sponsors and everybody back at the shop.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE CAR WITH THE FIRE?
“There was a little bit of smoke, but my spotter did a good job getting me to the area where the fire truck was and I got stopped. The only thing that got me was the fire extinguisher sucks the air out of you.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 46
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t really know I was on the outside so I couldn’t really see what was going on. I saw him try to really ditch the No. 6 for a while inside, middle, wherever he was at I saw him trying to ditch him. Then I saw him wreck in front of me. I don’t know what happened there if someone hit him, or he spun. I felt like our Farmers Insurance Chevy was pretty fast. All the Hendrick cars are. It is discouraging but we will get it fixed and try to pass the guys that wrecked.”
WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“They started wrecking in front of me off the corner there and kind of slip up. The No. 6 probably got clipped. It seemed like everybody was trying to ditch him for a while the finally someone clipped him and spun him or something. I don’t know. I haven’t seen a replay”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 46
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I think I saw the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne) get loose up ahead, which is kind of been normal the last couple of years it seems like on superspeedways. So, yeah, just got caught up I thought I was going to miss it there and then the No. 40 (Landon Cassill ) slid across the track. I tried turning back down the race track to avoid him and just got into him and started spinning and hitting the wall and stuff. It sucks because we haven’t really had very many good finishes this year and we have already had a couple of DNF’s (did not finish). We have some work to do to get back up in the points and hopefully make the Chase later this year.”
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“I didn’t see a whole lot. I saw the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne) get sideways in front of me. I don’t know if somebody got in to him or not, or if he just got the air taken off of him. From there just trying to miss the wrecks and I thought I was going to clear it all then the No. 40 started coming back up the track and I clipped him. It’s tough. We haven’t had many very good runs this year and then I missed that race in Martinsville, so these bad finishes aren’t really helping us out for points. We are going to hopefully start to get some luck here. All the luck we had last year, we haven’t had much of this year. But we will work hard though.”
HOW FRUSTRATING THAT IT IS THIS EARLY?
“If you are going to wreck I would rather get it over with early in the race rather than run a bunch of miles and then get into something. At least the day is over early. I’m sure we will probably try hard to get back out there and salvage some points. I know there will be some more wrecks and stuff. Got to do some work to gain some points for later this year.”
LANDON CASSILL, NO. 40 CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 46
WHAT HAPPENED?
“It just got a little disorganized and unpredictable for a few laps. So when they are switching from two lanes to three; from inside to outside, it is hard to tell which guys are going to go where. It is unfortunate. I want to win this race so bad. It was going really well. We started 30th so I knew that I needed to either hang out in the back or get myself to the front. It just seemed like lap by lap I could pick my way up through there until we were in the top-10 and had myself in a pretty good line. I actually had just made a move to put the No. 4 car behind me. He gave me a really good push. I felt like in the next lap or two I could be in the top five even have a shot at the lead. It is really unfortunate but when it starts to get unorganized like that, it is hard to tell where some of those guys are going to go.”
BRIAN SCOTT, NO. 33 SHORE LODGE CHEVROLET SS – Experienced an engine issue on lap 18
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Unfortunately blew an engine, no warning. The temperatures were fine. I blew it going into Turn 1. I have to apologize to the other teams that we took out. Of course the bad thing about Talladega is when something happens other cars are all around you, unfortunate short end to our day. ECR engines and RCR everybody at the shop does a great job. I’m sure they will bring it back and they will diagnosis it and they will fix the problem whatever it was. But their horsepower, our engines everything has been great. On the XFINITY side they ran flawlessly. I hate it for our partners Shore Lodge, Whitetail, Albertsons, everybody to have a day ruined like that.”
Connect with Team Chevy on social media. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TeamChevy, follow us on Twitter@TeamChevy, and add +TeamChevy into your Google+ circles.
Team Chevy racing photos are available at:
About Chevrolet:
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4.8 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive & active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
