NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
APRIL 19, 2013
RYAN NEWMAN LEADS TEAM CHEVY IN QUALIFYING AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY
KANSAS CITY, KS (APRIL 19, 2013) – Ryan Newman, Code 3 Associates Chevrolet SS, led all Team Chevy drivers in qualifying at Kansas Speedway on Friday in posting the ninth-fastest lap for Sunday’s STP 400. This is Newman’s third top-10 start of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/Pittsburgh Paints Chevrolet SS, qualified 12th; Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet SS, was 13th and Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonalds Chevrolet SS will start 14th.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS, spun during his first qualifying lap and made contact with the outside wall. He will start at the rear of the field in a backup car.
A total of 17 Chevrolet SS drivers will take the green flag for the eighth race of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was the pole winner. Carl Edwards (Ford) – second, Ricky Stenhouse (Ford) –third, Sam Hornish (Ford) – fourth and Kyle Busch (Toyota) – fifth, complete the top-five qualifiers.
Live coverage of the STP 400 will be provided by FOX TV, PRN Radio and Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and coverage will begin at 1:00 pm ET.
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 CODE 3 ASSOCIATES CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED NINTH
HOW WAS IT ON YOUR QUALIFYING RUN OUT THERE?
“It was good it was fast. This place is so fast. There is so many grip up until the point that you lose grip then you better hang on because it’s going to slide. We take the cars to the limit, but a good run for our Code 3 Associates Chevrolet. Matt (Borland, crew chief) and the guys did a good job off the truck the car was really good. Even though we are not on the pole I’m much happier qualifying that lap than I have on a lot of the intermediate tracks we have qualified on this year.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 14TH
TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING LAP:
“So not a bad lap my balance was too tight. I kind of told them the wrong adjustments after practice so all on me. The car still seems to have good speed even though the balance wasn’t good. Just looking forward to tomorrow.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 21ST
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? DID THE WIND AFFECT YOUR LAP AT ALL?
“Yeah, that is definitely part of it. We have lacked a little speed today in Q (qualifying) trim. That is certainly frustrating at times. The wind it is a little higher, but it’s been there all day. I didn’t feel like it was a big contributing factor in what I had going on.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 23RD
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF YOUR QUALIFYING LAP?
“I was pretty disappointed. I think only three out of four of us have gone right now, but as a company we are not showing a lot of speed today. The car doesn’t have glaring issues handling wise. It’s not really a deal…the car should just go right around here rather easily when it’s good. My car is not very easy to drive in qualifying trim. We ran some race trim in practice though and I was really pleased with that. I thought the laps were great. I thought the way the car drove was really good. We just maybe way off on something with air pressure who knows something odd.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY.COM CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 25TH
ON HER QUALIFYING LAP:
“We improved from practice, which was good. Qualifying has been a struggle for us this year, except for Daytona obviously, so this was a good gain for us. We would have liked to have been top-20 with the Go Daddy Chevrolet, but we’ll take the small gain. It’s just a matter of improving each week.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 27TH
YOU ARE A CONTENDER EVERY TIME YOU COME TO A PLACE LIKE THIS. HOW DOES YOU QUALIFYING LAP EQUATE TO SUNDAY?
“Not as good as what we would have liked. We have a great car this weekend with the 85 years of Farmers Insured and Chevrolet and we just didn’t get a very good lap. I was tight wasn’t turning so I wasn’t able to push the throttle down.”
WITH THE EVER CHANGING WEATHER TODAY DID YOU GET WHAT YOU WANTED WHEN YOU WERE QUALIFYING?
“I think the track conditions were fine. We had one end in sun and one end was cloudy and it was windy everywhere so I think we had as good as anybody. We just got a different set of tires there just didn’t feel near the same as the other ones. Just need to work on that and get a little better prepared for Sunday.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – HIT THE WALL DURING HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT AND WILL GO TO A BACK-UP CAR AND ENGINE – WILL START 43RD
I BELIEVE THE WORD YOU USED WAS COMMITTED:
“I was committed. We have been tight, and I wasn’t tight. It felt great coming to the green and I was pretty happy with it through (turns) three and four and I got down into (turns) one and two and I arced it in there just the way I wanted to and got to the yellow line and started picking up the throttle and it just slowly came around. For a second I thought I was going to save it. I lit the tires up to keep it from hitting too hard and now we have a car and an engine that are pretty much done and it’s been a while since I wrecked qualifying. So you know what? I really meant what I said about the commitment. I felt these guys deserved a better lap than what we put down in practice and I thought the car was better than that and it felt so good coming through (turns) three and four that I wanted to get back to that gas early and hard down there and run some of the lap times that some of these guys are running, but obviously it didn’t sti