NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DUCK COMMANDER 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPTS
APRIL 10, 2015
KURT BUSCH PUTS CHEVROLET SS ON POLE IN TEXAS
Chevrolet SS sweeps the front row for the Duck Commander 500
FT. WORTH, TX – (April 10, 2015) – Kurt Busch placed his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS on the pole position for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS), the seventh race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. A fast lap of 27.857 seconds (193.847 mph) earned Busch his second pole of 2015 and 18th of his career. This is the first pole in 25 races at the 1.5-mile facility for Busch; his previous best start was second in April of 2013.
Busch’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS) set the second fastest lap of the qualifying session, giving Team Chevy a sweep of the front row for the third time this season.
“Everything is so tight in qualifying,” said Busch following his pole winning lap. “I wanted to run the same time each time out. With the track continuing to change, with the sun and the shade, then the track rubber built up, air pressures are changing and tires are dropping off… everybody chipped in. The guys at the track, the guys at the shop, the tire guy, the engine guy, everyone chipped in. That’s what this is all about – getting that little extra. We did that with our Haas Automation Chevrolet today. Thanks to Gene (Haas). The second pole of the year feels good. Now we need to dial it in and get that long-run speed out of the car.”
Eight other Chevrolet SS drivers advanced to the third and final qualifying round, giving Team 10 of the top-12 starting positions.
Chevy. Kasey Kahne will start fourth in the No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS followed by six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet SS) in fifth.
Ryan Newman was seventh quick in the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS. He was followed by his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, who qualified the No. 27 Quaker State/Menards Chevrolets SS in the eighth starting spot.
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates teammates Kyle Larson (No. 42 AXE Chevrolet SS) and Jamie McMurray (No. 1 Cessna/McDonald’s Chevrolet SS) will start ninth and 10th respectively.
Two-time TMS winner Tony Stewart will start 11th in the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS. Rounding out the top-12 starters for Team Chevy will be four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon piloting the No. 24 Panasonic Chevrolet SS from the 12th starting position.
Brad Keselowski (Ford) qualified third and Joey Logano (Ford) was sixth to round out the top-12 qualifiers.
Saturday night’s 334-lap/501 mile race is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will be available on FOX, PRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
TALK ABOUT THE RUN YOU GUYS ARE ON HERE AND WHAT YOU EXPECT TOMORROW NIGHT:
“It feels good to post a lap here at Texas. To bring home a pole award at Texas it is fast. You feel it in the car. The way the new qualifying format works you have to do it three times. You can’t go too quick on that first one and use up all the tires, but you have to be able to manage them all the way through the session. Tony Gibson (crew chief) has helped me do all that work. He is amazing with his adjustments. The engineering group, the body hanging group, the tire guy he is coming up last second and says ‘hey the track has cooled off another three degrees we might need to add something here.’ I’m like ‘go for it’, when you have everybody adding in and you are not second guessing anything then you are able to get everything out of a race car. Our Haas Automation Chevy is fast and it feels good to have our second pole of the year. Thanks to Monster Energy, Mobil 1, Rusty Rush from Rush Truck Centers is here, it’s a good feeling to have a fast car at Texas.”
IT SEEMS LIKE OVERALL IT’S A BIG GROUP EFFORT BECAUSE WHEN KEVIN (HARVICK) WAS IN HERE (MEDIA CENTER) HE WAS SAYING HOW YOU TWO PUSH EACH OTHER JUST LIKE YOU DID THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS:
“Yeah, it’s great to have Kevin (Harvick), Tony (Stewart), Danica (Patrick), all the drivers in our stable push each other. It was obvious last year how far ahead Rodney Childers (crew chief for Kevin Harvick) and Kevin Harvick were. It’s great to be able to shadow them right now and to get a couple of poles. He has a couple of wins so we still have our work cut out for us to keep up with his pace. But in short runs, qualifying sessions and things like that it’s great to push each other and to have the information going back and forth cleanly. It’s an exciting time to continue to make Stewart-Haas stronger. Thanks to Hendrick and their engine department, the chassis department, everybody seems to be pulling the rope in the same direction.”
THE FALL RACE HERE LAST YEAR IS WHEN YOU AND CREW CHIEF TONY GIBSON BEGAN WORKING TOGETHER. HOW IN THAT SHORT TIME HAS THAT WORKING RELATIONSHIP EVOLVED?
“It has gone very smoothly and it’s matured very quickly. I respect him and his style. He manages a great group of people underneath him. He has had the same group for many years. When you can trust everybody in the group to know that they are the best guy in that position it was arranged by Tony Gibson. So it’s his team that I’m privileged to drive for and it’s obviously under the main umbrella of Stewart-Haas Racing. Gene Haas believes in me and Tony Stewart, it’s just a great feeling. A pole is a pole. We now have to settle in to 500 miles. To be there at the end of the race tomorrow night there are a lot of pit sequences that Tony Gibson is going to have to call. There are changes that we will have to make on the car throughout the night race and we hope to be there at the end and hopefully time out the right caution when it comes at the end.”
THE TRUST YOU HAVE WITH THE CREW AND THE TEAM GOING FORWARD. PEOPLE ARE CALLING YOU A FAVORITE NOW HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THAT AND CONTINUE THAT MOMENTUM GOING FORWARD?
“It’s one step at a time. (Tony) Gibson and I now have qualified seven times together. It’s not like the seven years that some driver and crew chief combinations have been together for. It’s nice though to have notes on when we were here last fall. We looked at the qualifying sessions and said this is what we can do better today. It’s nice to have that notebook to look back on. We will lean on Daniel Knost (crew chief for Danica Patrick) to help on some of the past experiences on what I went through last year when we were ‘oh so close’ so many times. But Tony Gibson his veteran status in this garage is what helps put me at ease. And I love his experience level and you put trust in guys and go for it. I’m happy that we have two poles so far.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 4th
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2nd
MODERATOR: WE ARE NOW JOINED BY KASEY KAHNE
KASEY, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN AND WHAT YOU EXPECT TOMORROW EVENING?
KAHNE: “We had a great day. The car felt good in race practice and also in qualifying trim. Right there, that was our best lap of the three that we made in qualifying. I just lifted off of Turn 2. I carried it a ways and just lifted and gave up the pole right there. Either way, Kurt (Busch, pole winner) won a good lap. We would have been pretty close if I would have stayed in it. But I didn’t. I’ve had a great Great Clips Chevrolet this weekend and it was super close. I think (crew chief) Keith Rodden) made a really nice adjustment there for the final run because we went our fastest on the oldest tires. So I was really happy with that. He played it perfect. I just missed it a little bit there for the pole.”
TALK ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE IN THE POINT STANDING. YOU’RE THE TOP HENDRICK CAR RIGHT NOW. DID YOU EXPECT THAT YOU WOULD EXCEL SO QUICKLY EVEN WITH KEITH RODDEN COMING BACK?
KAHNE: ‘Yeah, I thought we would excel right off the bat. I worked with Keith a lot over the off-season and we both were excited to get started. And he’s done a great job with the team and working with the guys. They’re preparing really solid race cars. So, it’s been really enjoyable to drive. We just have to stay after it and keep communicating and doing the right things to win a race. I think we’re getting closer. We haven’t finished great in all the races, but we’ve run well in most of them and been consistent and got the best result we could in the ones that we weren’t as good in.”
MODERATOR: WE ARE NOW JOINED BY KEVIN HARVICK. THIS IS HIS BEST CAREER START AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE KURT BUSCH HAVE STARTED ON THE FRONT ROW THIS SEASON. TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN AND THE MOMENTUM YOU NOW TAKE TO WIN YOUR FIRST COWBOY HAT HERE AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY.
HARVICK:
“Yeah, I feel really good about where the car is. We spent all but one run there in race trim. So, the guys did a really good job of preparing the car for qualifying. And I just kind of slipped a little bit through (Turns) 1 and 2 and got loose right in the wrong spot and kind of scrubbed the car down there and then got a little gun shy in (Turns) 3 and 4. The guys have done a great job for the last 18 months, really. It’s just fun to be a part of a group of guys like this and I’m just really proud of the No. 41 team and Kurt and those guys for doing what they do; and really everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. I feel like we all get better every week and that’s what we need to do.”
QUESTION FOR KASEY KAHNE:
YOUR DAD CAME IN FROM WASHINGTON THIS MORNING. HOW SURPRISED WERE YOU THAT HE CAME AND HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO DO WELL WITH HIM HERE THIS WEEKEND?
“I was really surprised. I had made my first qualifying run in the second practice. He got a new knee about three months ago, so he hasn’t really done much. He hasn’t gone to any Sprint Car races with my brother or any Cup races and this is usually his third race by now. So he walked up to the window net and I was in the car and I looked over and I couldn’t believe who I saw (laughed). So it was pretty neat. I’m glad he’d here. That was a cool surprise for my birthday. And for him to be in Texas, this is a track that he enjoys watching also.”
QUESTION FOR KASEY KAHNE:
YOU SAID YOU HAD TO LIFT IN TURN 2. IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO, TO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE ON A POLE RUN?
“I think it would have been close. I missed it I think by a little over a tenth or so. But I did life in (Turn) 2. I got a little free in the center; maybe like what Kevin was talking about, and I lifted and just didn’t stay in it. I maybe could have, but I don’t think it would have worked. So, I back-pedaled and just gave up a bit of time off Turn 2. But we’ve still got a fast car. We’ve had a fast car all day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”
QUESTION FOR KEVIN HARVICK:
THIS IS THE BEST STARTING SPOT YOU’VE EVER HAD AT THIS TRACK. DOES THAT HAVE ANY IMPACT ON YOUR PREPARATION OR PLANNING GOING INTO TOMORROW’S RACE?
“This is definitely one that we’ve circled and that we want to win. We ran really well here at the second race and ran well at the first race as well and had a little bit of a mechanical failure. I just want to win here so Eddie Gossage will leave me alone (laughter); that’s really the biggest reason. As you come to a track where you haven’t won and we’ve been fortunate to knock a lot of those off the list over the last year and a half, or so; so it’s definitely something that everybody knows that I want to do, personally. And a lot of them haven’t gotten one here either. So it’s definitely a race that we circled to start the year.”
QUESTION FOR KEVIN HARVICK:
KURT BUSCH HAS BEEN FAST. YOU’VE BOTH BEEN FAST. WHAT HAS KURT BEEN ABLE TO BRING TO THE TEAM MEETINGS OR JUST FROM BEING BACK AND RUNNING WELL AND COMMUNICATING? WHAT HAS THAT BEEN LIKE?
“It’s just good to have his feedback because Kurt is really good with the cars and really understands what he wants to feel and what’s going on and understands the set-up sheets and looks at the tires and pays attention to everything that’s going on. So, when you have that type of feedback, it just helps everybody push things along. And when you have common problems, you can solve those problems and push those problems forward, especially when you’re starting to knit-pick at things. And when you have multiple cars that are doing that and are able to knit-pick at the same problems, you can fix those problems faster because they are common problems for the team. This will be the third year that I’ve worked with Kurt. I’ve really enjoyed how much he is in tune with the cars and we’ve gotten along really well and have the same focus and goal. And that’s to try to run fast and win races. It’s been really good.”
QUESTION FOR BOTH KASEY KAHNE AND KEVIN HARVICK:
LOOKING AHEAD TO BRISTOL NEXT WEEK AND THE INSTALLATION OF MORE SAFER BARRIERS AT THE TRACK, HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY THOUGHT AS TO HOW THAT WILL AFFECT THE DRIVELINE AROUND THE TRACK?
HARVICK:
“The straightaway is going to be narrower. It’s just going to be tighter. You already have to kind of come back off the corners when you’re running the top. If you’re running the bottom, it’s just going to give you less space to let the car have its head up off the corner. So, it’s probably going to make the bottom even worse than it was.”
KAHNE:
“I was thinking the same thing. Now, on the straightaways, when we run the outside we kind of come back down away from it, because the SAFER Barrier has always been off the corner a little bit. So you come back down. And they just filled in a spot that we really don’t use much when we’re running the outside. I guess we do a little. But I think it will hurt the bottom more as you try to use race track to get off the corner and be wide open. You’re already at a deficit down there, so now it’s probably going to hurt you a little bit more.”