NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS RACE FOR HEROES 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 7, 2014
Kevin Harvick Leads Team Chevy Chase Drivers In Qualifying at Phoenix
Four Chevy SS Drivers Score Top-10 Starting Spots for Sunday’s
Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500
AVONDALE, ARIZ. (November 7, 2014) – Two of the three Team Chevy drivers battling in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup had strong qualifying runs for Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). A total of four Chevy SS drivers score top-10 starting positions for the second-to-last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race of 2014.
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS, sits eighth in the point standings in the ‘Eliminator’ round and did what he needed to do with a solid third place qualifying run of 25.353 seconds and 141.995 mph on the one-mile speedway. Harvick was fast in both practice sessions and will be looking for his sixth NSCS win at PIR on Sunday.
Jeff Gordon, who currently ranks fourth in the overall standings and is a two-time winner at PIR, posted the seventh fastest time in his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS. Chase contender Ryan Newman did not make it to the final round of “knock-out” qualifying and will start 20th in his No. 31 CAT Mining Chevrolet SS.
Kyle Larson continues his strong late-season performance by qualifying eighth in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS, and Kurt Busch, in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, rounded out the Team Chevy drivers in the top ten with a 10th place effort.
Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was the pole winner, Brad Keselowski (Ford) was second, Joey Logano (Ford) was fourth, and Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was fifth to round out the top five.
The Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway is scheduled to begin Sunday November 9th at 3:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage will be available on ESPN, PRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD:
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN: “I just didn’t connect all the dots on my laps there in the lasts round. I got about half on one lap and half on another lap, so it just didn’t put a very good lap together. But, our car has been really fast. It’s really good in race trim. So I think everything is good.”
(BRAD) KESELOWSKI SAID YOU HAVE A TENTH ON THE FIELD, AND YOU ARE THE FASTEST CAR IN RACE TRIM; DO YOU FEEL THAT? “I feel good about our car. It’s been fun to drive so far, so we just have to keep working on it. The nature of this garage is not to usually have an advantage by the time the race rolls around. Too many smart people in this garage to usually maintain that, so we have to keep working and keep trying to make our car better. But, they unloaded really well and every lap has been good for us.”
DOES A GOOD QUALIFYING EFFORT HELP WITH CONFIDENCE GOING INTO THE RACE KNOWING WHAT IS AT STAKE? “I don’t know about that. I think if we had to pick a track that we had to come to, and come to race, we’d come here expecting to win every time that we come to this race track. Or at least be in the mix. This is a good track for us to come to confidence-well. Obviously the first race (in Spring, 2014) went well. Unloaded well. Practice has gone well. Qualified good. So we just have to see how the weekend plays out. You are either going to hit a walk-off, or you are just going to race this week.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS CHASE FORMAT: “I think it is the best thing that has happened to this sport in a long time myself.”
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