NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 6, 2014
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
YOU MISSED THE POLE BY TWO ONE THOUSANDTHS OF A SECOND:
“It didn’t feel that close in the car. Turn 1 we ended up on the tight side on the exit of the corner. I said to myself a lot of these laps aren’t perfect anymore. Go get what you can in other spots of the track. That is what it’s all about is the team work side of it. I just have to thank Daniel (Knost, crew chief) for putting us in position to have a shot at the pole. We haven’t been all that good this year with the Haas Automation Chevy. Just have to thank Haas Automation, State Water Heaters, Monster Energy and everybody who has been pushing us and keeping track of us. We haven’t done our job at the best of our ability and this is a good turn for the better.”
LOCKED INTO THE CHASE BUT THE IMPORTANT STRETCH TRYING TO BUILD MOMENTUM INTO THE SECOND PART OF THE SUMMER HERE:
“Yeah if we win one more race then we are definitely locked in, but it’s a matter now of developing the No. 41 team into a championship contender, not just a Chase contender.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO UNLOAD FAST HERE AND BACK IT UP WITH SPEED?
“I was just thanking all the crew guys for putting us in position to go for the pole. To advance through knock-out qualifying we have gotten to the second round a lot this year. We haven’t gotten into the final round much and this was a final round type car. We put ourselves in position for the pole and came away just two thousandths shy, which is cool. The car didn’t feel that good, but that is the compromise that you have to make in this knock-out qualifying. You have to do three qualifying runs. In the 15 years I’ve been doing this you only had to do one lap and make it perfect. Now you have to get three that are pretty good.”
WHICH ONE OF THESE THREE DISTINCT CORNERS AT THIS RACE TRACK DO YOU HAVE TO ATTACK? AND WHICH ONE DO YOU HAVE TO BASICALLY TIPTOE YOUR WAY THROUGH?
“Each corner is different on each day and how far back you are in traffic. For a qualifying lap most of your speed I think here is carried down the long front straightaway right here in front of the fans. Turn 3 is important because what Turn 4?”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I feel really good about it. We have certainly made some great improvements from practice when we first rolled off to make our first qualifying run. Great job to Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and all the guys on this Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet. We went faster each time out and qualified fifth. You always want to be faster and some guys put up some really good laps. Looking at just a few little areas where we could have gone faster. All in all I’m pretty happy.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 20TH
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE FIRST SESSION TO SECOND SESSION FOR YOU TODAY?
“The driver blew Turn 2. I just got too greedy down in two and lost the nose in corner exit. I knew it killed the lap. Sure enough when I came back around it was only good enough for 20th. I feel bad for my guys, but this one is one me.”
HOW WERE YOU IN RACE TRIM FOR SUNDAY?
“I couldn’t tell you we hadn’t been there yet that is tomorrow.”
JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 BRANDT PROFESSIONAL AGRICULTURE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 24TH
HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING RUN?
“Qualifying was okay. Our Brandt Chevy we had to make a second run there in first round and second round just missed it a little bit unfortunately. All in all really proud of all these guys at HScott Motorsports and the direction we have gone over the course of the season. We have a lot of work that we can try a lot of different things tomorrow in practice and see how that goes and hopefully on Sunday we can have a really good race.”
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 25TH
IT LOOKED LIKE EVERYBODY WAS WATCHING THE SKY IN THAT LAST ROUND YOU TOO?
“Well I mean it wasn’t as bad as it was in practice where the clouds were really in and out. We were all hoping that a cloud would come in and we could run a little bit quicker there at the end. Really we were just focused more on balance and then watching what everybody else was doing to try to get out there and make a last ditch effort to have a little better run. It was close we got a little bit tight in (Turns) 1 and 2 and the tunnel turn and Turn 3 felt pretty good, but lost some time getting down into Turn 1.”
HOW MUCH MORE NERVE RACKING AND STRATEGIC IS THIS KNOCK-OUT QUALIFYING THAN WHAT WE USED TO HAVE?
“It’s definitely more nerve racking when you are on the bubble. When you are well inside it you have the opportunity to start thinking about next round. We have been working really hard. We have been close it seems like we are right at this transfer spot when it’s three rounds of qualifying. We have to figure out how to get just a little bit better, not much and we can get well in that top 24 to make that second round.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 27TH
WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST HINDRANCE ON YOUR SECOND ATTEMPT?
“We just didn’t have quite the speed. I don’t know we were actually pretty slow. We will work on it tomorrow get our Great Clips Chevrolet a little better for the race on Sunday, hopefully a lot better. We will just have a little further on our ways to go on Sunday. Pit stalls are all good here so hopefully we can move up through there. Tomorrow will be key getting a couple of good practices in and trying to figure out where we are missing some speed.”
NOT MOVING ON TO ROUND TWO WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE OUT THERE TODAY IN QUALIFYING?
“We just didn’t have quite the speed we needed to go on to round two. We were a little touch quicker there than we were in practice, but not near fast enough. We just have to look at things for tomorrow. We have two practices so hopefully we will be much better for Sunday.”
