NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 5, 2014
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 85
“We’re going to try to get the car back out on the track and run some laps and get a few points if we can, and then this just puts a premium on next weekend and the weekend after.”
DESCRIBE WHAT THIS DOES IN THE CONTENDER ROUND GOING FORWARD
‘Well, it just means we’ve got to be on our game at Charlotte and Talladega. There is still a lot of racing left. Stuff can happen. We’ll see how the other Chasers fare. If I can get taken out today, somebody else can later in this event or at Charlotte. We’ll do our best to get on track and then certainly need W’s, I would assume, going forward.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Just got tagged in the left-rear. I heard on the radio that it was the No. 16 (Greg Biffle). I haven’t seen the video or anything yet. I was cruising along the top, thought everything was fine, and then found myself sideways down the back straightaway.”
HOW WAS THE CAR UP UNTIL THEN?
“It was okay. We were stuck in traffic. Our problem really started on Friday not qualifying right there. We were moving forward and in a good position. I felt like our times had us capable of a top-five finish. But just back there in that mess and ended up being the mess.”
CAN YOU EVEN PROCESS THIS YET?
“It’s really fresh, just trying to get the car fixed and get back out there and go to work. Definitely disappointing, but not much I can do. I hit from the inside. If I can put any blame anywhere it would be on our qualifying effort on Friday. If you are going to be in the back in qualifying you are putting yourself in harm’s way and today is proof of that.”
NEVER SAY DIE NO. 48?
“Oh yeah.”
WAS THE CAR GOOD ENOUGH THAT YOU COULD HAVE RAN IN THE TOP 10?
“For sure the top 10 was definitely within reach. I think a top five would have been in our cards. Just listen to lap times and watching myself catch the big group of cars in front of me I felt like we would have been a top-10/top-five.”
JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 BRANDT PROFESSIONAL AGRICULTURE CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 85
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I wish I knew. I haven’t really seen a good replay of it yet. Unfortunately I think I just got turned. We were going along straight everything was good and all of a sudden I was sideways. I really hate it for our guys they gave me a really good Brandt Chevy today. Just kind of biding our time and got back on the lead lap and felt like we had a strong enough car to contend to have a good strong finish today. Unfortunately we are sitting back here. Huge thank you to everybody that puts all the effort into these race cars because it was a hard hit and it wasn’t that bad inside the car. Thank you to the man upstairs to keep me safe through all of it and we will go on to next week.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – EXPERIENCED A TIRE FAILURE LEADING THE RACE ON LAP 122
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I was going into Turn 3 and the surface of the tire unwound all the way across the surface. And I don’t know; just the whole surface of the tire unwound like a string. It just came off the tire and it popped off the corner. I felt it coming apart through the corner and the surface of the tire is gone. The whole cap came off. Must have been a recap (laughs). But I’ve got to hand it to the guys. Man, that was a great race car. We hadn’t been running very good the last several weeks. But man, when we came in here with a great attitude and a great fast car; this is the car that we won Pocono with both times. It’s a good car. Hopefully we didn’t hurt it too bad and we’ll just try to go to the next one. This is going to hurt us in the points, obviously, but we’ve got a lot of racing left and a lot of racing to win. We’re running good.”
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“The tread unwound off the tire going into (turn) three all the way through the middle of the corner. I felt the tire unwinding and the surface of the tire was gone by the time I got to the exit of the corner and it blew.”
WE WERE TOLD IT WOULD BE ON THE EDGE TODAY DID YOU NOTICE ANY OF THAT?
“No, my car was good it was turning. Really wasn’t running that hard. Sometimes the tires just unwind. I don’t know why they do that. We have had it happen a couple of times this year. It just happens every once in a while. We haven’t had any tire wear. We didn’t wear the inside edge out down to the cords and pop the tire, the tread just came off.”
WHAT ABOUT THE CHASE IMPLICATIONS? NOT THE WAY TO START THIS ROUND:
“Yeah, the points – it’s going to hurt. It is what it is. We just have to go to the next race and try to win.”
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 5, 2014
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
WHERE WAS JOEY (LOGANO) JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER THAN YOU AT THE END?
“I don’t know if he was better than us, and I don’t know if we were better than him. I thought we were pretty equal and were running about the same laps there on the last run. Our Target Chevrolet SS was really good and we had to work on it just a little on the first run because we were pretty loose but we got some track position and held it the rest of the race. Just a good finish and we were so even that I couldn’t do anything. I was hoping I would get a run on him in traffic and all the lappers were giving us the top so it kind of made it kind of easy for him to run the top. Another second and can’t be too disappointed with it. The wins will be coming, so I just have to be patient and with every time I am in the top three, it’s just going to make the wins feel that much better. So thanks to Chip, Felix, Target and everybody that sponsors this race car. We have been really fast lately, so hopefully we can start clicking off some wins.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
ON HIS RACE:
“I wasn’t sure when the race started I felt good about it. Honestly, the guys have done a very nice job on the Furniture Row team bringing good race cars the last few weeks. They have been working really hard to get this program turned around. It’s nice to get some good results. They really deserve it they have been working hard for it. Just hope we can keep these good runs going the rest of the year and hopefully be able to come out of the box next year strong. That is what we are planning on.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS DAY AND RESTARTS:
“I just knew we were a sitting duck (on restarts) on the high side. Just kind of really struggled with restarts, I think mostly our set-up more than anything. Just a good run for the Caterpillar Chevrolet, it was nice to lead some laps. First time in a long time we have done that, but didn’t lead the right ones. We will just keep working on it. Proud of the guys they are coming to the race track with really good race cars and improved on it the entire weekend. We took advantage of some other people’s misfortunes today, a good point’s day for us.”
ON ALL THREE RCR (RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING) CHEVROLET SS’S FINISHING IN THE TOP 10:
“That is good. That is a motivation for our company.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 QUAKER STATE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ALL THREE RCR CARS IN THE TOP 10 AND A STRONG DAY FROM THE NO. 27 CHEVROLET:
“We fought hard all day. We didn’t quite have the speed our teammates did. We made some really good adjustments to get the car balanced out good. I’m pretty happy with a top 10 after struggling most of the race. We hit on a couple of things throughout the race that got us better.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 11TH
ON THE RACE:
“This is the best weekend we have had in a long time for sure. Happy with the car throughout the whole race, we are just lacking a little bit of overall speed. Just going back and forth fighting between tight – mostly tight we got a little bit loose one time. It was a good car, by far the best we have been. I hate that I gave up that spot on the last restart, but overall points wise it’s good. We beat who we need to beat that is behind us. I thought we learned some stuff and made the car way better. That is the best 1.5-mile car I’ve had in over a year. Hopefully, we learned for Charlotte.”
ON CHARLOTTE NEXT WEEKEND:
“Hopefully, we can take some of the stuff we have learned this weekend to Charlotte. It’s a little bit different, a little bit rougher. We will see. We tested there. I was happy with the test. Everybody at our shop has worked hard. They tell me that we have a great car going to Charlotte. The best car we have had in the shop. We will see, just keep building on it.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE DAY?
“I thought I had a flat tire and pitted because you see all the trouble that is going on. So missed it on the handling a little bit today. We qualified well and had good track position. That saved us in the beginning of the race and when I thought I had a flat, just got us behind.”
WHAT EXPLANATION DID YOU GET ABOUT THAT AND DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT WAS?
“Didn’t turn.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
HOW WAS YOUR DAY
“It was a handful. We were having a pretty solid day with the Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet until the No. 1 car (Jamie McMurray) got loose and got into our left rear; was just way over his head. I knew he had a good car. He’s been running good, but he just got loose and got into me and got me in the wall. We had a little damage but we just lost all that track position. It is so hard to get it back at this place. We somewhat got it back; and on that last restart, I was just real loose. I’d been a little loose but not that loose. We just fell back. It just wasn’t good. We just kind of struggled there.
“A lot of people had trouble today. So today was a real survival day. We did that. It just felt like we could have finished a lot better than that. We had a good race car. We actually really had a great race car.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMER’S INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 22ND
YOU SEEMED TO HAVE AN UP AND DOWN DAY
“Oh man, the whole race was good except when running third, there was something going on. I was catching the leaders again. The last half of the run I could usually catch the leaders. I was slowly reeling them back in and something happened to my tire. I was just ready to crash for a lap and made it to pit road before it blew. And then we got behind. I tried to come from 19th and on the outside I passed five or six cars and was feeling pretty good and lost the back and hit the wall. My day was over at that point. But we had a great Farmer’s Insurance Chevy. The pit crew and pit stops were awesome. The guys prepared a great car and Kenny (Francis) called a good race. So, it was all there. We had an easy top 3 car for sure.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS MOVING FORWARD IN THE CHASE?
“Well, we just want to go win Charlotte. If I won today, my thoughts would have been to go win Charlotte. But we lost and so we’ll still try to win Charlotte next week. I don’t feel like I have to win. I know I’m not 12th in points, but I feel like it would help a lot if we win. But more than anything, I just want to win. I want to win Charlotte. It’s been a while since we won there and I know that we can.
“We had a great car. Ever since the Chase started, minus Chicago, we’ve had a top 5 car. And now again I thought we had a top 3 car. So, I feel good about all that. We have to finish. We were there. We had a tire issue and got behind and just tried passing too many cars at once and got loose and hit the wall. But we had a great Farmer’s Insurance Chevy today.”