NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 20, 2015
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS WITH HAAS AUTOMATION RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD?
“This is huge for Gene Haas. That is what I wanted to start the interview with is thank you Gene for believing in me. This is my job. Come to the track, drive the car and put it up on the pole and go for wins. That is what Gene has told me to do from the get go and I’m glad I have this chance to go back out there and live up to why he hired me. It feels good. The guys were just spot on all day with all the adjustments. The car started off so fast and it is all due to the work back at the shop. Thank you Stewart-Haas Racing appreciate it, No. 41 car up front feels good.”
WELCOME BACK TO THE FRONT ROW:
“Thank you. It’s incredible to do it here in Gene Haas’ back yard. Haas Automation is over in Oxnard (California). Drove over there yesterday, battled that good L.A. (Los Angeles) morning traffic, that was fun. To do an appearance there to see all the employees and everybody that has been so anxious for me to get back and feel the love and the warmth from them it gives you that extra motivation. That is probably what got us on the pole today was all the love from Haas Automation.”
YOU WERE FAST ALL DAY YOU WERE AT THE TOP OF THE BOARD IN ALMOST EVERY PRACTICE SESSION. HOW MUCH PRESSURE DID THAT PUT ON YOU AS A DRIVER?
“I just wanted to focus on the car and my lap and the line that I needed to run. I felt confident with the cars ability to have that speed. You just don’t have to over think it. Luckily I was able to pull that off and not over think it and deliver for me team. Thanks to everybody with Haas Automation, Gene Haas, number one and Chevrolet, Monster Energy, it feels good.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
FIRST TIME STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW HERE; DID YOU HAVE A LITTLE BIT LEFT IN THERE?
“Yeah, I’m just really proud of everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Budweiser team. I want to congratulate Kurt (Busch) and everybody on the No. 41 and everybody at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), Hendrick engines and chassis for everything that they do for all these cars. I got down into Turn 3 and I was committed to the bottom and there were three cars on the apron that were cooling off. I wanted to run the apron because I ran it in the second round and thought that I knew what I needed to do in the third round. I got through (Turns) 1 and 2 fairly good, got to the green really good and then I had to abort down here, all-in-all still a good effort.”
HOW BIG OF AN ADVANTAGE WILL THIS STARTING POSITION GIVE YOU ON YOUR QUEST FOR THE WEST COAST SWEEP?
“Well it is definitely not going to hurt anything. I’m just really proud of everybody on the No. 41 and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and everybody on our No. 4 team for everything that they do. Just proud of Jimmy John’s and Budweiser for being around for this ride through everything we have gone through over last year and the beginning of this year. Hopefully, we can keep it up this week. I didn’t get to run where I wanted to run there were three cars on the apron down there where I wanted to be that had finished their lap. I had to kind of abort going down the backstretch and ran through the middle of the track. All-in-all the guys did a great job and it is still a good starting spot for us.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I’m proud of all my Target guys because we unloaded really bad I thought. Both me and Jamie (McMurray) were pretty bad. We got our car driving pretty good there in qualifying. I was surprised because the first run, I had been practicing on the bottom at both ends. I was too close to the guys that had shut down after finishing their laps so they were coasting around the bottom and I had to run the top in (Turns) 1 and 2. It ended up working out for me, so I just stuck with it the rest of the rounds. I was 10th the second round and watched a little video of myself and figured out where I was losing time. Made it better for the third round and got fifth. I’m pretty proud of that and like I said how our team made our car way better there for qualifying. We still have some work to do I’m sure for our race trim, but that is a great start to our weekend.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
YOU HAVE BEEN ON A HOT STREAK IS THIS CAR GOING TO MEASURE UP TO THOSE?
“Yeah I think so. I think that qualifying has probably been our weakest part of the weekend so far this year. We need to work on that. We are still trying to figure it out. All-in-all I think that the guys did a good job throughout qualifying. I was a little nervous after the first round, we were 20th. So, to recover to 11th the second round, 12th the third round I thought that was okay. I screwed up a little bit in the third round there. I tried to move around a little bit and change my line and costs us some time. I felt like we probably should have been 10th or so. All-in-all you can win from 12th here and we will get to work tomorrow. I look forward to see what we have in race trim.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PRO SERVICES CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 14TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“It didn’t hurt us. It was good to get down there. I think you are just trying to guess, I think we only had three hot laps in practice to know where our Pro Services Lowe’s Chevy would be. You don’t get a lot of chances to try stuff. Unfortunately in practice I didn’t try the apron. I tired up there in those two laps in qualifying. It worked well. I think I had my hardest time was down in (Turns) 1 and 2 just getting the car to turn. The wind to our backs really made the car tight for me through the center and trying to turn back through the wind. So a little disappointed with 14th, but we will take it. Real fast I just want to back up a second and give a big shout out to all the Pros that shop at Lowe’s and Lowe’s is saying thank you to all of them putting them on the side of the race car and I hope we gave them a good ride today.”
THIS IS A TRACK YOU ARE TYPICALLY GOOD AT WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?
“We had two decent laps we just needed a little bit more in the second round to advance. The conditions are a little bit different with the wind blowing down the front. I had a hard time in (Turns) 1 and 2 getting the car to turn like I needed it to. This track is so fun to race on and we know we are going to be good come Sunday afternoon in the race. We will keep working on this Pro Services Lowe’s Chevrolet and get it better.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 17TH
WHAT DID YOU NEED TO GET TO THE FINAL ROUND?
“(Turns) 1 and 2 I think we were running that third groove all day today and in between when we practiced and when we went out for qualifying the Xfinity cars really put a lot of rubber down and got the track too tight I guess or tightened up the track quite a bit. I went down there and just the car wouldn’t turn through the center. And you run that high groove to get that momentum. We really couldn’t capitalize on that momentum off of Turn 2. I think (Turns) 3 and 4 were decent. I don’t really know, go back and look at the dart fish, but was real happy with the car in race trim and qualifying trim today. Just a little disappointed. I think we have a better car than this.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 26TH
IT SEEMS LIKE (TURNS) 1 AND 2 WERE THE SURPRISE FOR MOST WAS THAT THE CASE WITH YOU?
“Yeah, we struggled with being loose most of our qualifying runs in practice. We didn’t make that many changes, so when I came to the green in (Turns) 3 and 4 I was a little bit loose, kind of expected. We have this trackbar adjuster now, so I adjusted the trackbar based on what I had in (Turns) 3 and 4 and then (Turns) 1 and 2 was just extremely tight. So, I aborted our first run, came in, we worked on the car and just really couldn’t get any better. (Turns) 1 and 2 were just extremely tight. The corners are so long here and it is so slick that when you miss it a little bit on entry you suffer for about 30 seconds it feels like before you can get to the next straightaway and try to recover. Not what we wanted, but we have a few things to try tomorrow and we will work on it. Fortunately it is at a track you can pass at, really wide and if you have a good car you can get to the front.”