NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 16, 2015
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 HUNT BROTHERS PIZZA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
A SECOND PLACE FINISH AFTER STARTING DEAD LAST; WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE FINAL 10 LAPS?
“I thought we were in a really good spot there at the end with our Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy. As soon as Denny (Hamlin) moved up that one time it kind of took the air off. I had committed to the middle of the corner. Once I got to the middle of the corner the car just washed all the way up the race track and I had to lift way out of the gas to get the car back off the wall. All-in-all just really proud of everybody on this team; I’ve got to thank Hunt Brothers, Jimmy John’s, Budweiser, Chevrolet, Mobil 1, everybody who is a part of this program, DiTech and Outback for everything that they do.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WRAPPING UP THE ALL-STAR RACE?
“What a great night for the Haas Automation Chevy. We won a segment, but not the important one. We performed well, didn’t finish worse than fifth in any of our segment. The pit crew was great on pit road, we just didn’t deliver tonight. I don’t know why we are standing here third. I thought we had a better car than that.”
WAS THE TONE SET FOR THAT FINAL SEGMENT ON THE RESTART?
“Well we finished no worse than fifth in all of our segments. That put us in position for the pit crew to do their job. They did great. We restarted second and we are going to have to go to the tape and look at it and see if Denny (Hamlin) went too soon. I was anticipating the restart zone which is right here (points to zone on track). His car went two car lengths before that in my mind. We got a podium finish thanks to Chevrolet, Haas Automation, Monster Energy, it was a great night. We didn’t finish worse than fifth in any of our segments, we did our job and I was asleep at the wheel on a restart.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
“You need everything to go your way in a race like this. I almost had a shot at the No. 41 (Kurt Busch) but I just couldn’t quite clear him and then he kind of took off there. All in all it was a solid night. Congrats to (race winner) Denny Hamlin. Qualifying well and that number one pit stall means everything and once you get out front, it’s so hard to get by.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS BEING YOUR LAST ALL-STAR RACE AS A COMPETITOR?
“It’s too early for me to put that into perspective. I have so many races ahead of us before the season is over. I think Homestead is going to be the one that really impacts me the most. It was really amazing in pre-race to see all those signs. I was surprised. I didn’t know that was happening and I got out there and I was pretty overwhelmed by that. We would have liked to have had a win in our last one.”
DID YOU LIKE THE ALL-STAR FORMAT AND THE CHANGE THEY MADE TO IT?
“Yeah, the track is racy, the cars are racy; I just wish track position wasn’t so important. But I like the format. I think the format helps a lot because if you do get a bad restart, or you didn’t qualify as good, you can work on that average finish. I thought we had a pretty decent average and I felt like we were a third or fourth place car, and we finished fourth.”
TOP FIVE FINISH FOR YOU HERE TONIGHT TALK ABOUT YOUR NIGHT HERE:
“Yeah, pretty happy with that. Obviously we came here to win and this is kind of a win or go home type of situation, but we also know that this is a test session for next week. I thought we showed signs of some good speed, learned some things on some restarts and got a couple of things we can work on to be even better for next week.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KINGSFORD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 11th
“It was a good night. I thought we learned a lot. We made the car better I think every run. Overall I was happy with that. We have work to do. We know we have work to do. We have got to make these cars a little bit better. A little bit more downforce all the little things we have to do to make it better. Overall I was really happy with the night.”