NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

SYLVANIA 300

NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES & PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

SEPTEMBER 19, 2010

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEERIOS/HAMBURGER HELPER CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER:

ON THE UPS AND DOWNS OF YOUR DAY: “You know I don’t know what happened to our car there halfway through the race; the carburetor started missing.  I couldn’t get going on restarts, but it actually worked in my favor you know once the run got in.  I hate it for Tony [Stewart].  You hate win races like that but I tell you we’ve lost a couple here this year.  Just so proud of Shane Wilson, all the guys on this Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet.  Fourteen years General Mills has been in this sport and I finally got them a win.  BB&T, The Hartford, everybody that is involved on this—Coca-Cola, Richard [Childress]; this is awesome.  I just had a feeling that this race felt like back in 2007 and we did it again.”

YOU SAID THAT YOU CAN’T GO RUN HIM DOWN AND SAVE FUEL AT THE SAME TIME.  WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?  “It’s terrible you want to go and I thought I could run him down, but I was just using so much fuel through the middle of the corner that I had to back it down.  I could tell in his voice.  You can always tell, once you get that relationship with somebody, you can tell in his voice how nervous he was and he sounded pretty nervous.” 

YOU COME INTO THE CHASE 12^TH AND NOW YOU’VE JUMPED TO SECOND, JUST 35 POINTS OUT THE LEAD.  WHAT HAS THIS WON DONE FOR YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP RUN?  “It’s just momentum and that was exactly what this team needed.  The confidence, momentum—everything that a first win brings—the first race of the Chase, this couldn’t have come at a better time.  I’m excited.  Second in points, let’s go get ‘em!  Thank you to Sprint and the fans that came out; that was a hell of a crowd and a great race.  Thank you.”

 JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD: “It was a really good day for us, though.  I had a solid weekend and I think this is statistically my worst track so it’s really good for us to come in here and have a solid run. When I passed the 14 for the lead, really thought I was going to be able to drive away.  I ran a couple laps there and opened up about ten cars and I drove into turn one and the splitter started crashing the ground, I’m really looking forward to Dover.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR. NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: ON HIS RACE: “The setbacks we had today hurt us a lot. I want to thank AMP Energy and National Guard and the team, they worked really hard. We unloaded a great car, they did a good job preparing it at the shop. We worked on it all weekend. It was pretty good in practice and we approved on it a little bit. We had an eighth place finish last time and felt like we were really fast and competitive all day long. We can’t qualify very good here, but once we get in race trim, we just kind of go to the front or get near the front.

“It felt like we had a top-10 car and we had the jack-stop break and had to go to the back and then a miscommunication with the No. 78 (Regan Smith) on pit that cost us a half of a lap under green, just battling back from that stuff. Track position was what we needed at the end, we didn’t have it.

“We were able to start on the outside and gain some spots on some guys that were a little bit slower than us and get back to where we needed to be. I think if we had the track position, we were as fast as the No. 14 (Tony Stewart) at times and the No. 1 (Jamie McMurray) and all those guys that were up there battling for it at the end. We just needed the track position. The No. 33 (Clint Bowyer) had everybody covered. I don’t know if anybody would have been able to hold him off. He was pretty fast all day.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH:

YOU GUYS REBOUNDED AND GOT YOURSELF A TOP-FIVE FINISH.  THAT’S WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP ISN’T IT “We didn’t have a great day today.  We didn’t have a great weekend honestly and to be able to come out of here with a top-five says a lot about everybody on this Shell-Pennzoil team.   So we will just keep fighting and if we keep doing that on our bad days……we will be in good shape.”

“Congratulations to the whole 33 team.  That’s awesome for them.  We had an eventful day.  Track position was critical, and we fought it all day long.  We were too tight in the center, and then we adjusted too far, and our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet was just loose.  But we hung in there, we battled, and we came away with a top-five finish.  We need to get better, and we will.  With how the day unfolded, I am happy.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT/NATIONAL GUARD FACEBOOK CHEVROLET – Finished 6^th:

YOU WERE REALLY PATIENT. TAKE US THROUGH YOUR DAY AND GIVE US YOUR THOUGHTS GOING FORWARD

“I think that’s taking advantage of our experience of being in the Chase and being in championships in the past. We just fought it out. That’s what we do best. We just never give up. I thought (crew chief) Steve Letarte called an awesome race.

“We probably could have made an adjustment that last time we came in to do a gas and go, because I was a little bit tight on that run but there at the end we just didn’t quite have the car but still sixth, and we didn’t want to gamble on the fuel like those other guys did. We gave up a couple of spots on the track but made them back up with fuel.”

YOU JUMPED UP THREE SPOTS IN THE POINTS TO FIFTH, LOOKING AHEAD TO DOVER HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES?

“Well, you know, I was hoping we were not going to lose any more points to somebody like (Denny) Hamlin and close the gap overall to first, but we lost some to him; but I felt like we made some big gains. It was just a really solid day for us and that’s what we need to do.”

A PRETTY SOLID DAY TO GET THIS THING ROLLING  

“It was. It wasn’t our best day but I felt like we really brought the No. 24 car home in the best position we possibly could. We had some high hopes when we got up there to third or fourth; even to second at one time, but I think Steve (Letarte) called a great race. He didn’t want to risk the fuel and it just wasn’t worth it. We did a gas and go and probably just needed to make one adjustment on that last set of tires; we got real tight there at the end, but when those guys didn’t make it on fuel it definitely made us feel that much better about the call that Steve made and come home sixth. It was still a good points day for us.”

YOU MENTIONED YESTERDAY THAT YOU CAN’T WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP HERE, BUT YOU CAN CERTAINLY LOSE IT. YOU DID A GREAT JOB HERE TODAY

“Well, I felt like our goal coming out of here was a top five. We ended up sixth, so we’re close. It’s not our best track in the Chase and we finished better than we did, well I guess better than the last time we were here, but we still finished really solid and we’re looking forward to going to Dover and some other tracks that we feel like are stronger for us.”

SEEMED LIKE THE THEME WAS TAKING CHANCES WITH FUEL OR WITH RUNNING INTO ONE ANOTHER
“I think that’s just sort of what happens with the Chase. I think everybody gets excited and the intensity builds up and it pushes guys to be a little bit more risky. But for us, we realize that we still have nine more races to go. I just don’t think you can win it here this weekend. You’ve got to make sure that you get everything out of your car and your team and we did that today.”

DID IT SEEM LIKE THERE WAS A LOT OF WILD DRIVING OUT THERE OR OVER-DRIVING, OR DOES THIS TRACK JUST LEND ITSELF TO THAT?

“It’s a tricky place on restarts. And it’s very tough to pass. I saw some guys fighting hard for position like what we see is pretty typical on double-file restarts, but you’ve got to realize that a lot of those guys that were battling were Chase contenders. And I think that maybe sometimes they pushed a little bit too hard.”

DOES IT PAY OFF MORE TO BE CAUTIOUS IN YOUR ESTIMATION, WHETHER IT’S WITH THE FUEL OR TAKING CHANCES IN THE TURNS?

“Well, I don’t think we played it cautious today. I just feel like Steve looked at whether or not it was worth gambling. That’s what we do every weekend, you know? We came into this race this weekend saying we can certainly lose this championship this weekend; we can’t necessarily win it. We’ve got to go and grind it out and work hard and put out that kind of effort for 10 weeks. That’s what’s going to win the championship for us. I feel like that’s the race that we really played today.”

DID CLINT BOWYER HAVE THE BEST CAR ALL DAY? WAS THERE EVER ANY QUESTION ABOUT THAT?

‘Oh, yeah; yeah. He was strong. Obviously Tony (Stewart) had it, had he not run out of fuel. So he had a strong car but wow, Clint was really fast. I’m proud of him. I like Clint a lot. I think he’s a great race car driver and a really good guy. He earned this one today. They worked hard to get here and he was fast all weekend. It kind of reminds me of a few years ago when he won this race in ’07.

“We know the Childress cars are going to be tough and I think this is probably the strongest track in the final 10 and this might give him some momentum to be even stronger for the next nine (races), but we’ve got to look at the ones that are strong for us too.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT THE FIELD IN ITS ENTIRETY TODAY ABOUT THE WAY THIS ARE MOVING FORWARD?

“It’s one race, man. There is a lot more racing left to go. We’ve seen all this stuff in the Chase before. It’s still fun to talk about. To me it’s not anything out of the ordinary.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON AND TONY STEWART ENDED UP BACK IN THE PACK, BUT THEY DIDN’T LOSE THE CHASE TODAY

“Teams like the No. 48 are so good at rebounding; you can’t ever count those guys out. For us, our strengths are how consistent we are. And we haven’t won a race yet this year. So while we’re trying to win races in these final 10, we can’t necessarily just expect it to happen; maybe like some other guys might be feeling. So we can’t afford to go out there and have a 25^th place finish today.”

IF YOU WERE TONY STEWART, HOW TOUGH IS THAT TO OVERCOME?

“Yeah, that’s pretty tough to overcome. I’m sure he’s disappointed. I know they’ll go back and look at all the details and data from the race and figure out whether that was a risk worth taking.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 US ARMY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH:

TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY: “We’re proud of the effort today considering we put ourselves in a hole by qualifying 24th,” said Newman. “Tony (Gibson, crew chief) got together with the team after yesterday’s practice and made some quality changes to the car. The U.S. Army Chevrolet was strong all day and the pit crew was solid. The guys were on it and it was nice to come out of the pits and gain some spots today. We took a gamble early by taking two tires on our first pit stop to get track position and it paid off.

“It was just a solid performance today by our U.S. Army team.”

JEFF BURTON, NO 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH (RAN OUT OF FUEL AT END): ON THE RACE: “We weren’t very good yesterday and they did a great job making the car better. We just came up a little short. We thought we were good (on fuel). We saved on it under all the cautions and the first 3/4 of that run, I was saving too. We just didn’t get as good of fuel mileage on that last run as we had been getting. It is what it is.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/OLD SPICE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 24TH (RAN OUT OF FUEL AT END):

 A LAP AWAY FROM INCREDIBLE WEEKEND, YOUR EMOTIONS?  “I’m not happy, that’s for sure, but we went down swinging. It’s hard to lose one that way but at the same time it was fun racing Clint like that. He was definitely the fastest car and congratulations to those guys.  It’s a tough way to start the Chase but I’m proud of my guys. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) kept swinging at it all day and finally on that last set of tires we got it halfway decent.

YOU WERE GREAT IN QUALIFYING, FAST IN HAPPY HOUR AND SEEMINGLY UNBEATABLE ON RACE DAY, IF YOU HAD THE CALL TO DO OVER, WOULD YOU?  “Yeah I would have settled for second. If you exactly how much gas you have it would be different, but you never know. It’s part of the sport, always has been. It’s what makes it exciting when you never know until the last lap what’s going to happen.”

 MENTALLY WHERE ARE YOU AS FAR AS THE CHASE? CAN YOU WIN THIS? “Who knows? There is so much that can happen in nine races. I promise you this: This Old Spice/Office Depot Chevy team is not going to give up. We’ll do the best we can and give it our best shot.”

CAN YOU PUT IT IN WORDS WHAT THAT WAS LIKE? “Yeah, it sucks. It wasn’t much fun. Congratulations to Clint and those guys. He had a great car all day. He did a good job of saving fuel and I didn’t do a good job.”

TALK ABOUT THE GOOD THAT CAME OUT OF TODAY:  “It’s kind of hard to find some.” 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/JOHNS MANVILLE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 25TH:

NOT THE KIND OF DAY YOU WANTED: “No, it wasn’t. On that one restart, we just got turned around and got some damage that we had to pit and stuff. But, it is the way it is. We showed up today, we did what we could. We had a decent car today and ran in the top-five and top-ten but just didn’t end up finishing there.  We’ll go home and get back to work and go after it again next week”

JAMIE MCMURRAY NO. 1 MACDONALD’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3^RD

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

KERRY THARP: Let’s roll into our post race press conference for today’s SYLVANIA 300, first race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and we are joined up front by our third place finisher, Jamie McMurray, who drives the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

            KERRY THARP:    Jamie, certainly you led some laps, had an outstanding race car, and just a continuance of a very solid season for you.

            JAMIE McMURRAY: Yeah, when I passed the 14 for the lead, really thought I was going to be able to drive away.  I ran a couple laps there and opened up about ten cars and I drove into turn one and the splitter started crashing the ground, so just going to assume that a bump stop or something maybe failed and just let the car over travel, and the whole last run, I couldn’t use    I couldn’t really use any brakes.  If I pushed on the brake hard at all, it would make the splitter crash into the ground.

            So it was a really good day for us, though.  I had a solid weekend and I think this is statistically my worst track so it’s really good for us to come in here and have a solid run.

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  You can’t ask me about Denny (Hamlin), either, okay.  You can ask me anything you want, just not about Denny.  (Laughter).

            Q.  Knowing what you know about how far you guys can go on fuel at this place, Clint went 92 laps on his final tank.  Is that astounding or plausible?  How does that number strike you?

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  I know he went 92 laps but 20 under the caution; and I know before the race we talked about 75 laps under green.  I would say he was really close to being out.

            Q.  Can you talk about the intensity of the restarts?  We saw a lot of three wide racing and seems like things have picked up from your perspective.

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  I only started outside the Top 3 on one restart.  Most restarts I started on the outside of the front row.

            So it’s a lot different when you start in the first couple of rows because guys are willing to give and take a little bit.  I did have one restart in 25th, and it’s significantly different.  The thing about this racetrack is that you race on the apron at certain points in the race.

            However, on the restarts, this is like the worst track that we go to for getting    for like getting the car going.  I mean, you saw two or three guys spin out Friday just leaving the pits because it’s so slick, and when the inside guy enters on the apron, it’s really hard to hang on to your car.  So it’s different than what you see at Pocono when people talk about wild restarts.  Here, it’s just hard to keep the car underneath you.           

            Q.  You were right up there in front and you had Chase people around you all day; do you have to separate the fact that they are in the Chase and just race your race?  Is it too much to think about to say you have to be careful around him or you can race him hard?  Do you just have to say, I just have to race?

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  Yeah, honestly you probably can be more aggressive around the Chase guys because they are thinking differently than what the guys are that are not in the Chase.  But really, I didn’t    you know, over the last few years, you don’t think about that until it comes down to the last two or three races.

            There’s a ton of racing left.  I know you guys, there’s only ten left, but a lot can happen, even in two or three races.  So really until it gets down until the last couple of races; I don’t pay a tremendous amount of attention to that.

            Q.  You were quoted as saying I guess before the Chase, you would gladly trade your two big wins this season with Clint for that 12th Chase spot.  Given how he won today, would you still make that trade for a win in the Chase, and this result for you being as good as it was, does it make it bittersweet for you?

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  What I said was that I wouldn’t trade winning those races to be in the Chase and finish tenth and I still would not trade those two wins to be in the Chase right now.  It’s a really big deal to win those two races.  To win Loudon is a big deal, but it’s still not the Daytona 500 or the Brickyard 400.

            Q.  Or to be in the Chase?

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  No, still wouldn’t.

            Q.  How confident is your team for next year?  You guys are really on a roll and you just missed it, and today you proved that you belong perhaps in the Chase.

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  Yeah, we just were really inconsistent earlier in the year and the last couple of weekends we became a lot more consistent.  We did not have a good car at Richmond at all and we still fin 17th; where earlier in the year we would have finished 25th to 30th and that certainly would have put us in the Chase.

            We have done a good job, for me, of staying out of trouble and we have had good cars all year long.  I know Denny (Hamlin) is not looking forward to Dover but for me, that’s my favorite track to get to go to.  We ran really well there in the spring, so certainly running well here, I can’t wait to get to Dover on Friday. 

            Q.  You probably worked just as hard the first year you broke into Cup, but given the year that you’re having, can you share the emotions that you have from when you first started out to what you’re feeling this year, having such a great year?

            JAMIE McMURRAY:  My first year, certainly filling in for Sterling (Marlin), that was tough to get into somebody’s car that had led the points up till the Kansas race.  It’s an awkward position to be put in and then to go out and the win at Charlotte    and I don’t know if you guys remember, but they put a cell phone with Sterling on the other end while I was on national TV and me on the other end.

            And that’s a really tough position to be put in.  That’s hard for any driver to get out of their car, but for a young guy to get in your car and win immediately, that’s just    I mean, that’s tough.  That was odd for Sterling and for me.  Certainly the racing is a lot different now than what it was in 2002 or 2003.  I remember the restarts, being able to pass five or six guys on the outside of every restart and some of the guys that had been around for a long time, whether it was Rusty or Mark or those guys yelling at you after the race, just hang on until we get strung out.  And now, when they have, you can’t hardly pass anybody on a restart now because everybody goes so fast and so hard, it’s a lot different than it was then.

            KERRY THARP:  Great first race in the Chase.  Good luck next week.

            FastScripts by ASAP Sports …

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Denny Hamlin (second) was the highest finishing Camry driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Hew Hampshire Motor Speedway.  

David Reutimann (seventh) and Kyle Busch (ninth) also recorded top-10 results for Toyota at the one-mile oval in Loudon, N.H.  

Other Camry drivers in the field included Martin Truex Jr. (20th), Robby Gordon (26th), Reed Sorenson (27th), Marcos Ambrose (30th), Joey Logano (35th), Scott Speed (36th), Casey Mears (38th), Joe Nemechek (40th), Mike Bliss (41st) and Landon Cassill (42nd).  

Hamlin maintains the unofficial points lead with a 35 point advantage over second-place and race-winner Clint Bowyer after race one of 10 in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff.  Fellow Camry driver and JGR teammate, Busch is fourth (-62 points).

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Small Business Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  2nd How was your car after the spin? “Yeah, our car was good.  We just fought restarts all day.  It took us half the race or three quarters of the race, actually, to get up front to the two, three or four and then as soon as we got there, we got spun.  So it was so frustrating on my part to have to battle back from 22nd there with 80 (laps) to go.  And just Mike (Ford, crew chief) worked on the car and got it super fast there at the end.  I was just trying to make those guys run as hard as I could, but it wasn’t enough.” Were you surprised with the amount of gambling going on in this race? “I was very surprised, really, to see how aggressive guys were on restarts.  It is such a balance, because you’ve got guys like Jamie (McMurray) that are like, ‘win, win, win, win,’ and we’re like, ‘you know, I just don’t want to get hit on restarts.’  I’m just trying to not get run over and whatnot.  So it’s a balance out there.  And this is one of the toughest tracks to have restarts.  So I was really worried about this track in particular, getting out of here unscathed, and we didn’t, but we just battled back right there.   So overall it was pretty surprising to me to see really how aggressive it was. Are you disappointed you didn’t win or satisfied that you leave with the points lead? “The 33 (Clint Bowyer) had a really good car today, the 1 (Jamie McMurray), the 14 (Tony Stewart).  Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day.  We never really got to show where our car was at.  As soon as we got to the top three is when we got spun.  We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win.  Luckily, it’s a double-edged sword, it made us come in, we had to get fuel and get tires and it gave us the fuel for the end.  Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end.  Top-six was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished.” Could you have won today’s race? “I needed one more lap.  We gained a ton right there.  It’s tough to say, once he (Tony Stewart) ran out of fuel — the way they were running, I’m not sure how much they were conserving if any, but our cars with a really fast the last run, and obviously the fastest car on the track, but yeah, it was — I guess Carl (Edwards) just got loose.  He hit us and we saved it, and I moved way up the track, because, you know, just in case somebody else was up under there, and then he just hit us a ton again.” How does this finish affect your confidence for the remainder of the Chase? “It’s good.  It gives me somewhat of a buffer at Dover.  We all know how Dover is for me.  We’ve just got to minimize a bad day again at Dover next week.  That’s our goal.  You’ve got to set a number, a number that you’re satisfied with, and try to reach that goal at Dover next week.  So the good news is we finished I think third or fourth there in the spring which is a heck of a lot better than 22nd and two laps down last year in the Chase race.  Just if we can get past Dover, we’ve got a lot of really good tracks for us.” How do you think you’ll perform at Dover after finishing second at New Hampshire? “The number in which I hope to run just moved up like five spots.  So that’s just what we have to do.  And it’s not that we just run bad at Dover every time, it’s just every time I went there, I either wrecked or broke something or ran terrible.  So with the exception of the spring, that’s about the only good run I’ve had there, so, yeah, we do shift our expectations based off of this week.”

DAVID REUTIMANN, No. 00 TUMS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position:  7th Are you satisfied with a seventh-place finish? “That was ugly, but I’ll take it.  To struggle the way we did today and still come out of here with a seventh-place finish is pretty amazing.  Our TUMS Toyota was loose in and off all day and really couldn’t get a handle on it.  Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and Dax (Gerringer, race engineer) really did a great job working on our fuel and pit strategy.  We took a pretty big gamble by staying out toward the end and not pitting, but with the way the cautions worked out it was pretty good — we saved fuel and picked up a top-10.  I can’t thank our team enough for the job they did today and TUMS for their support.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  9th How was your race? “Where do I begin, I don’t know.  I guess I’ll start with yesterday.  I thought I was driving the car right and apparently I didn’t set the car up right.  We were about two-tenths off yesterday and I thought it was just a factor of those guys getting more speed out of their cars.  In essence it was off.  We just didn’t get it setup right.  It was mainly my fault.  You know the guys fought hard and Dave (Rogers, crew chief) made some good calls.  Any time that we got speed off the corner and then we missed it in the center of the corner — any time we got speed through the middle, we couldn’t get down the straightaways.  We were battling back and forth with tight and loose.  We just got what we could out of it today.  Fortunately our bad day right now is ninth versus some other guys.” What happened when you spun and were hit from behind? “Both wrecks, there was a time when someone spun out in front of me but Jimmie Johnson never saw it and drove over the back of me and spun me out the second time.  It’s just a product of not being able to see I reckon.  Unfortunately we had to battle back and fight back through there.  We were the best to recover of our spin but that was it.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing Finishing Position:  20th

ROBBY GORDON, No. 7 SpeedFactory.TV Toyota Camry, Robby Gordon Motorsports Finishing Position:  26th

REED SORENSON, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position:  27th

MARCOS AMBROSE, No. 47 Kingsford/Bush’s Baked Beans Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Finishing Position:  31st

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position:  35th

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Red Bull Racing Team Finishing Position:  36th

CASEY MEARS, No. 13 GEICO Toyota Camry, Germain Racing Finishing Position:  38th

JOE NEMECHEK, No. 87 Toyota Camry, NEMCO Motorsports Finishing Position:  40th

MIKE BLISS, No. 55 Toyota Camry, PRISM Motorsports Finishing Position:  41st

LANDON CASSILL, No. 64 Little Joe’s Autos Toyota Camry, Gunselman Motorsports Finishing Position:  42nd

Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Dodge Motorsports PR

Sylvania 300

Post-Race Quotes

Tweets by TeamDodge

www.media.chrysler.com

KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) Finished 13th

“I feel like we had a rough day with our Miller Lite Dodge Charger; maybe I was overdriving it. I got into Turn 1 a couple of times over my head, trying to get what seemed to be a sixth to a 10th-place car up into the top five. I almost clipped (Jeff) Burton once, just trying to drive in there and ended up getting (Joey) Logano. I apologize for that. I was just over driving. I wasn’t quite in the zone. I wasn’t quite feeling it today. We survived. We needed to have a good day today and not just survive.”

ANY IDEA WHY YOU WEREN’T IN “THE ZONE” TODAY? IS IT THE PRESSURE OF THE CHASE? “It’s just trying to carry a car on your back that’s only good for eighth-place. I should have settled for eighth. I wanted more. I wanted a good finish today and when you do that, when you stretch yourself thin, you get in trouble. That’s what happened today.”

STEVE ADDINGTON (Crew Chief, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) “I didn’t think what we were going to be that bad when we started the day with the Miller Lite Dodge. We have to work on our stuff. We have to work on our front ends to get them to turn better. We have to free the back of the car up. Kurt just got loose a couple of times and spun. That cost us. That’s not Kurt Busch-style.”

IS TODAY ONE OF THOSE DAYS THAT YOU WILL LOOK BACK ON AND BE HAPPY WITH A 13TH AFTER WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE? “I think so. When you spin out once and about spin out again and come back and get a top-13 out of it, that was amazing. You have to point to the driver for that. He drove his butt off those last 50 laps.”

SAM HORNISH JR (No. 77 Mobil 1 Dodge Charger) Finished 10th “We’ve gone through a lot of different things trying to figure out why we haven’t been able to run as well as we did last year. We didn’t have a great run today, but we did what we need to do. I passed about six cars on a restart to get back in position for the lucky dog. It took about 30 laps before we finally got the caution. The Mobil 1 Dodge was pretty good today. It just wasn’t as good as we needed it to be at the end. We were way too tight the last couple of runs. I think if it had played out without those last two restarts, we would have had a top-five car. Every time you bunch everybody back up and are on older tires, it’s hard to get going again. Since we started using the spoiler, we’ve had problems in the middle of the race and had to battle just to get the track position back. We need to work together and not let that happen, get us down and have to battle back.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 12 AAA Dodge Charger) Finished 18th “We had a lot of speed for qualifying, but not a lot of speed in race trim, not the speed that we needed. We were probably a 15th place car and then lost some spots there at the end. We had a good qualifying effort. It’s disappointing we didn’t capitalize on it. We qualified well and raced OK the first half of the race. It just didn’t’ work out for us toward the end of the race.”

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) – ON HIS 10th PLACE FINISH  “The car ran well. Everyone was about the same speed. I just got loose under Denny (Hamlin). The first time I chattered the rear tires all day and I took him out. He probably had the car to beat. I am proud of my team and the Aflac Ford Fusion was really good, it was just unfortunate that we had that situation out there.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 14th)  – ON HIS 14TH PLACE FINISH  “Our Crown Royal Ford was just tight in the middle and needed help turning in the front today.  The guys made adjustments all race long but we just didn’t run very well. We got caught up in that wreck, had a lot of damage to the car, and it was just a really long day for us.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion (Finished 8th)  – ON HIS 8TH PLACE FINISH  “It was something we weren’t pushing. We just ran out two laps earlier than we expected and that put us behind. The car was good all day, it just was so hard because we were back there in traffic and it is so hard to fight back. At the end we were pretty good. We were stuck behind Carl and racing him clean.  We were trying to help him out as much as possible on points. If I could have gotten around him clean I would have done it. The last two or three laps I was just trying to not force the issue. It felt like if we could have gotten around him then we might have been able to run up to seventh or eighth with what happened out there.  We had a real good car. It was just something that happened. The car was fast though and it was a solid weekend all around. We definitely have things to work on, but it was a lot better than we have been.”

MIKE SHIPLETT, Crew Chief, No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – FUEL MILEAGE WAS AN ISSUE FOR YOU AND FOR GUYS AT THE END OF THIS RACE  “Yeah, fuel mileage is usually something that happens at this track, we just have to figure out what happened to us on that second pit stop there when we ran out of gas. We will just go back and try to figure out what happened.” 

ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT IT CAME INTO PLAY AT THE END WITH THE CHASE GUYS? “No, they are just trying to win races and get the most points they can, so I am not surprised by that at all.”

 
DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 22nd) – “We just lost all of our track position when we stayed out on old tires but I felt like that was the right move early on in the race to try and stay up in the top 10 or top 15. It turned out to be a long run and we just really fought an ill-handling car that entire run. After that, we worked on trying to get our UPS Ford to turn better. We made it a little better, but we were already too far behind. If a couple of different things could have taken place during the race, we could have finished up in the top 15, but we just weren’t good enough when it counted.”

CHEVY FAST FACTS

SYLVANIA 300

NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

September 19, 2010

CHEVY FAST FACTS

SYLVANIA 300

NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

September 19, 2010

A total of 15 Team Chevy drivers will start the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, race 27 of the 2010 season. Chevy drivers starting in the top 10:

• Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, will start 2^nd in the 43- car field for the 300-lap/317.4-mile race
• Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet starts 3^rd
• Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet will roll off 4^th
• Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet, will start 5th 

TEAM CHEVY ON THE TRACK-NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY:

• Team Chevy drivers have won 14 of 31 previous NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS)
• Chevrolet drivers have won 13 poles at NHMS
• Team Chevy drivers have scored 68 top-five finishes and 124 top-10 finishes at NHMS

• A Chevrolet has led 4,401 laps (48.1% of possible 9,146) at NHMS
• Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, holds the record for the most wins at NHMS – four (4)
• Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/National Guard Facebook Chevrolet,  has three (3) NHMS wins
• Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Johns Manville Chevrolet, has won three (3) races at NHMS
• Ryan Newman, No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, has two (2) NHMS wins
• Tony Stewart, No 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, has won at NHMS twice (2)
• Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, has one (1) win at NHMS
• Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, has won once (1) at NHMS
• Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.Com Chevrolet, has one (1) NHMS win

TEAM CHEVY IN 2010 NSCS COMPETITION:

• Race wins – 13 as of race 26 of 36
• Poles – 11 as of race 26 of 36
• Laps led – 3,809 (49.6% of possible 7,676)
• Top-five finishes – 68 (52.3% of possible)
• Top-10 finishes – 130 (50% of possible)
• Team Chevy has six (6) drivers seeded in the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
  • Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Johns Manville Chevrolet – 2^nd seed
  • Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet – 3^rd seed
  • Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice  Chevrolet – 6^th seed
  • Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/National Guard Facebook Chevrolet – 8^th seed
  • Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet – 10^th seed
  • Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet – 12^th seed

·        Chevrolet has won a record 33 NSCS Manufacturers’ Cups and Team Chevy drivers have collected the coveted NSCS driver’s championship 26 times and won 661 races

·        In claiming the 2009 NSCS championship, Johnson became the first driver in the history of the NSCS to win four consecutive titles, ’06, ’07, ’08 and ‘09

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

• Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, will start 2^nd in the 43- car field for the 300-lap/317.4-mile race
• Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet starts 3^rd
• Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet will roll off 4^th
• Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet, will start 5th 

TEAM CHEVY ON THE TRACK-NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY:

• Team Chevy drivers have won 14 of 31 previous NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS)
• Chevrolet drivers have won 13 poles at NHMS
• Team Chevy drivers have scored 68 top-five finishes and 124 top-10 finishes at NHMS

• A Chevrolet has led 4,401 laps (48.1% of possible 9,146) at NHMS
• Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, holds the record for the most wins at NHMS – four (4)
• Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/National Guard Facebook Chevrolet,  has three (3) NHMS wins
• Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Johns Manville Chevrolet, has won three (3) races at NHMS
• Ryan Newman, No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, has two (2) NHMS wins
• Tony Stewart, No 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet, has won at NHMS twice (2)
• Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, has one (1) win at NHMS
• Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, has won once (1) at NHMS
• Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.Com Chevrolet, has one (1) NHMS win

TEAM CHEVY IN 2010 NSCS COMPETITION:

• Race wins – 13 as of race 26 of 36
• Poles – 11 as of race 26 of 36
• Laps led – 3,809 (49.6% of possible 7,676)
• Top-five finishes – 68 (52.3% of possible)
• Top-10 finishes – 130 (50% of possible)
• Team Chevy has six (6) drivers seeded in the 2010 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
  • Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Johns Manville Chevrolet – 2^nd seed
  • Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet – 3^rd seed
  • Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice  Chevrolet – 6^th seed
  • Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont/National Guard Facebook Chevrolet – 8^th seed
  • Jeff Burton, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet – 10^th seed
  • Clint Bowyer, No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet – 12^th seed

·        Chevrolet has won a record 33 NSCS Manufacturers’ Cups and Team Chevy drivers have collected the coveted NSCS driver’s championship 26 times and won 661 races

·        In claiming the 2009 NSCS championship, Johnson became the first driver in the history of the NSCS to win four consecutive titles, ’06, ’07, ’08 and ‘09

About Chevrolet: Chevrolet is a global automotive brand, with annual sales of about 3.5 million vehicles in more than 130 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. In the U.S., the Chevrolet portfolio includes: iconic performance cars, such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long lasting pickups and SUVs, such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers, such as Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including the Cruze Eco and Volt, both arriving in late 2010. Cruze Eco will offer up to 40 mpg highway while the Chevrolet Volt will offer up to 40 miles of electric, gas-free driving and an additional 300 miles of extended range (based on GM testing; official EPA estimates not yet available). Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security, and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models, fuel solutions, and OnStar availability can be found at www.chevrolet.com.