NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 22, 2015

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 34TH
ON THE DAY
“It was a pretty eventful race. I spent the first 80 or so laps, just riding. And then we came down pit for green flag stops. My shifter had broken; and I couldn’t find my shifter and just got confused on pit road and missed my pit box and then sped leaving; so we got down a lap. I was able to get my lap back and we raced hard and then was in 12th or 15th and just got turned off (Turn) 2. But we were all just racing hard there on the last laps. That’s how this racing goes.”

WHAT HAPPENED THERE?
“Well, my spotter said four-wide, and I was in the bottom lane. So, whatever lane above me, they got kind of squirrelly and got into me. And then the guy behind me just turned me sideways. It’s nobody’s fault. We were just racing hard.”

AT ONE POINT YOU WERE STRONG AND MAYBE EVEN HAD A CHANCE AT THE WIN
“I don’t know if we had a shot at winning the race. We had a shot at a good finish. The No. 38 (David Gilliland) finished 11th and he was right behind me.”

REGAN SMITH, INTERIM DRIVER FOR KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMOTIVE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
HOW WAS YOUR RUN OUT THERE TODAY?
“Started off really tight with the race car and never got it turning. I don’t know, kind of frustrating. I actually anticipated a much better day and nothing much more to show for it. Those guys did a nice job all weekend but we just plowed through the corners.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
DID YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR THE RESTART OR WAS THAT WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU’D END UP? “I thought we were in good shape with the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) behind us. I was trying to back up to him to get a run up off of Turn 4. All in all it was a good weekend for our Jimmy John’s/Budweiser team and everyone at Stewart-Haas did a great job. I’m really proud of everyone and we’re looking forward to Atlanta.”

WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND ON THAT FINAL LAP AND YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO CATCH JOEY (LOGANO)?
“I really thought everything on our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was lined up pretty well coming down the backstretch. I was trying to back up to (Dale Earnhardt) Junior and get a run so we were lined up with a little distance coming off of turn 4. Just really proud of everybody from Stewart-Haas Racing, particularly on this No. 4 team. Just have to thank everybody from Outback, Ditech, Hunt Brothers and Mobil 1 for everything they put into this car to make it go around the track.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
ON THE RESTART, YOU MUST HAVE FELT PRETTY GOOD RUNNING THIRD. TALK ABOUT THAT RESTART? “I made a really bad decision on that restart with 19 to go. I made a poor choice and you can’t afford to do that. I got shuffled back and lost a ton of spots. I had one of the best cars out there and that gave me a ton of confidence to keep digging. We were able to get back up to third place. It’s really disappointing because the Nationwide team gave me the best car and we should have won the race. I’m just really disappointed that I didn’t do everything I needed to do. I’m definitely glad we came home safe. I’m definitely thinking about Kyle (Busch) in the hospital. I hope he gets well. We’ve been pretty tough competitors and haven’t always gotten along. But you hate seeing any of your comrades go through that. We hope he’s doing OK.

“We changed a lot of things about the durability of the car for the Daytona 500 after the Duels and that cost it a little bit of speed. We still had a great car and everybody was in that same boat in dialing it back a little bit for durability. All the Hendrick cars were real fast. I was trying to help Jeff lead a little bit and I wanted to lead some too. The balance on the car was not very good, even running second. I had to try to get to the lead some to try and protect the tires and hold my track position. It was a fun day out there. Just came up short and a little disappointed about that.”

WITH 20 LAPS TO GO YOU GOT SHUFFLED TO THE BACK WHAT HAPPENED THERE? 
“I just made a bad decision on that restart. I thought the No. 48 was on the quarter panel and he was going to get a good run down the back and I wanted to get in behind him. And get on the quarter panel of the guy in front of me. Somebody got on the outside and I was stuck in the middle then. Just a bad decision. I should have stayed on the bottom and been a little more patient. I thought I had a good opportunity there it just didn’t work out.

“We had a really fast car maybe the best car here. So I had a lot of confidence to keep digging and we got some of those spots back. Just a little disappointed I let the guys down. We should have won the race. Congratulations to Joey (Logano). Thinking about Kyle (Busch) over there in the hospital, hope he is doing good and hope he gets back real fast. We are ready to go to Atlanta. It’s going to be a fun year.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
DESCRIBE YOUR AFTERNOON. “With about 10 to go, I thought we were in position to win the Daytona 500. I wish we were in Victory Lane right now but with plate racing you honestly have no clue what’s going to happen. First and foremost, our Lowe’s Chevrolet is in one piece on pit lane so that’s a positive for the day. It was a great effort from everyone at Hendrick Motorsports and on the 48. Our line just did not go on the restart at the end. I looked up in the mirror at a big gap and knew we were in trouble, especially with the outside line as tight as they were to one another.”

WHERE DID IT SLIP AWAY AT THE END? 
“Really the last two restarts just didn’t work for us. I was ahead of one lane and the guys behind us just weren’t bumper to bumper. Then on the last restart the same thing on the bottom. So it is just the way things happened. So many other circumstances kind of determine who wins these races and that is what makes them such a crap shoot. I’m just excited that we are sitting there three wide however many deep with five (laps) to go putting on a killer show. A fun day here in Daytona, of course I wish I was in Victory Lane right now, but we had a very strong day nothing to be embarrassed about.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 33RD
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING AND FEELING RIGHT NOW KNOWING THIS IS IT? 
“For some reason I’m still smiling and enjoying every moment of it. Obviously, I enjoyed the first half a lot more than the second half. What an amazing car we had. Just out there in the front with our Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet just controlling the race. Had one restart where I started on the outside and just couldn’t get our line going. We got shuffled back and kind of played catch up from that point on. This was an amazing week and an amazing day. I am just in a different place that is so foreign to me, but so incredible. To just be taking it all in and enjoying every moment. Yeah, right now I’m a little bit sad this is my final Daytona 500, but I’m more upset we didn’t have a shot at winning there at the end.

“Congratulations to Joey Logano. That moment you saw there with his dad that is what it’s all about. These types of moments, such a big race it means so much to all of us. You want to share that with the people that you are closest to that have been there along the way. Congratulations to him and I don’t know what else to say other than I enjoyed it. I’m not going to miss those final laps. That was just crazy, but certainly would have liked to have had a shot to win. If you are over there in Victory Lane it is awesome and you enjoy it. If you are not in Victory Lane you are like ‘oh gosh when is that next restrictor plate race.”

DID YOU ENJOY YOUR FINAL DAYTONA 500? “I enjoyed every moment of it. I enjoyed the pre-race and the race; all the way up to that wreck.”

WHAT PUT YOU OUT OF POSITION BECAUSE THE BOTTOM DIDN’T MOVE? “The biggest thing to me, you saw there weren’t a lot of lead changes out there because the leader has such an advantage. We were just dominating and it was really easy in some ways. I was just having to really watch my mirrors. My pit crew did an amazing job. So it was kind of business as usual, but that one restart, I chose the outside, I was really basing it off who I thought was behind me that could push me. We just didn’t go. The inside lane went better. We got shuffled back. And we just never recovered after that. We were doing everything we could. I think we were between fifth and 10th and I could never break through to get any further forward.”

DID THE BOTTOM LINE JUST NOT GO QUICKLY? “The bottom lime was not as organized and then we stacked them in the middle of one and two. The outside line formed and got a little bit of a run. At that point everybody is just trying to shuffle and take their momentum and do something with it. Believe it or not I actually got a good run with Kasey Kahne up the middle. It was hairy. I knew there was high potential of a wreck. I was just following him through that hole and was just holding on tight to get through the corner. I saw where I had a pretty good amount of momentum coming. I think we maybe could have gotten a top-five out of it. Then they started wrecking, or somebody hit me. I don’t know.”

WAS THE BOTTOM GROVE GOOD EARLY ON AND THEN THE HIGHER GROOVE? “It just depends on who is pushing, how you are pushing. Sometimes if you push too hard you actually stall the momentum because the cars start getting out of shape. If you take five cars and they all go at the same time, you take five cars and their kind of domino affect then the ones on the outside are going to prevail. It wasn’t an inside/outside lane thing to me, it was just how the guys restarted.”

HOW TOUGH FOR YOUR LAST DAYTONA 500 TO END LIKE THIS? “It is disappointing because things were going so well, especially that first half. That first half was amazing. I was enjoying that moment very, very much. Just being out front. Being in control of the race. I felt like we were just doing everything perfectly. The car was amazing. I knew it was going to be crucial to maintain that track position. That one restart I chose the outside and that line just didn’t go. From that point on, we were just playing catch up.”

MARTIN TRUEX, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
IT WAS A STRONG RUN FOR YOU.
“It was a good run and has been a good 10 days down here. The Furniture Row guys brought me some really strong cars down there. I have to thank them for that. I had a lot of fun today. We had to go to the back a few times but our car was strong enough to drive up through there. I thought we had a shot there until that last caution. I got in the wrong lane on the last restart and got held up a little bit. All in all, we came out of here last year with a 43rd and to come out of here today with an eighth-place and top-10 is a good start to the year for us.”

YOUR THOUGHTS AND OPTIMISM AS YOU ROLL INTO THE SEASON WITH A STRONG SPEEDWEEKS? “I feel good about it. This isn’t a guarantee that we’ll run real good all season long. But with the things we did over the winter, the testing we did toward the end of last year, the momentum we gained and the team changes we made, I feel really good about our stuff and what we’re going to do. We’ll have to see how we do at Atlanta. We’re looking forward to going there. It’s one of my favorite tracks and we’ll see if we can’t come out of there about seven spots better.”

TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY OUT THERE
“You know, last year we came out of here with a 43rd so to come out of here in eighth……yeah, I mean I felt like we had a better car than that. But plate racing is a lot about circumstances so I am definitely happy with it. You have to walk before you can run and I am very proud of the guys for all their work over the winter and the race cars they brought down here were really good. They did a great job in every aspect of what we needed throughout the last 10 days, so definitely excited to get to Atlanta and get to a track where it’s a little more in your own hands.”

CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS RUN:
“It was a really solid day. We have run up front at a lot of these things now or towards the front. We are getting a little bit greedier. We definitely want to win one of these races. I think our standards are getting a lot higher. From going from possibly not being in the show to finishing sixth that is definitely a good spread and a good way to start the season for sure.”

TALK ABOUT THE LAST LAPS OF THE RACE THERE: 
“Yeah there were a lot of moments. We were sideways a lot. The middle seemed to work really well for us, but it was also the sketchiest place to be as far as handling goes. The GEICO Chevrolet would get really sideways and really slide a lot. It felt like we were able to maintain some momentum and dictate a little more bit more what I felt like our car was going to do. For sure there were a couple of big times I got real loose and was able to hang on to it and finish it out.”

WHAT IS COMFORTABLE ABOUT RUNNING THE MIDDLE? 
“It is not comfortable. There is a difference in being comfortable and actually liking it. I like it because I feel like I can dictate a little more what the car does. I think if I’m in the outside lane I’m kind of stuck to one thing. If I’m on the bottom I’m stuck to one thing. But if I’m in the middle it gives me the option to make my car do different things and makes it a little bit easier. It’s not really the safest place to be or the easiest place to be, but it definitely works well for us.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined with suspension problems due to multi-car accident on lap 41. Completed 72 laps; finished 42nd:
MISSED QUESTION – “As long as we were two wide, then when it got three wide that particular lap it got away from me, and I got out of the gas and couldn’t even get the front end caught up when I got out of the gas. I’m not sure if Ryan (Blaney) wasn’t there, I still was going to hit the fence.”

GOOD EFFORT BY YOUR CREW TO REPLACE THE WHOLE FRONT END. “It was fast enough to stay with the pack there. I actually just stayed with MIke Wallace to help my buddy out there. We ran as many laps as we could that would get us….we couldn’t run any more laps and gain anything. It’s the biggest race of the year and the last thing you want to do is stay out there and have something else happen to get in the middle of something. Let’s just let those guys have their day.”

HOW FRUSTRATING: “Well, it is just part of it. Yes, it’s not what we had planned, but we stuck with the plan from the start of the race and that was to stay up front as much as we could. We knew the first two runs of the race we were probably going to have to adjust on the car; I just didn’t make it far enough into the second run there to get a chance to adjust on it.”

LANDON CASSILL, NO. 40 CARSFORSALE.COM CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined with engine failure on lap 41
COULD YOU TELL THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING SOUTH IN THE ENGINE OR WAS IT SUDDEN?
“Ah, it was sudden. Just a typical engine failure where you never see it coming. Really unfortunate for my team because we really worked hard on this car and for this race. The most important thing is that we raced our way into the Daytona 500 and we would have liked to have scored a few more points than what we are going to end up scoring today. We have a long season ahead of us and we are going to work hard to gain these points back.”

HOW WERE THE CONDITIONS OUT THERE?
“It was getting really slick and I felt like this was going to be a handling race. So it should be a pretty good finish.”