NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 27, 2015
CHEVROLET SS ON FRONT ROW AT SONOMA
AJ Allmendinger Takes Third NASCAR Sprint Cup Career Pole
SONOMA, Calif. (June 27, 2015) – AJ Allmendinger piloted the No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Chevrolet SS to the number one starting spot in Saturday’s qualifying session for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. Allmendinger set a quick time of 74.385 seconds/96.310 mph to earn his third career Cup Series pole. This is his first pole in seven races at the 1.99-mile road course; his previous best start was second last year. The run also marks the third consecutive pole win for Chevrolet at Sonoma.
Allmendinger will lead a contingent of Chevrolet SS driver’s to the green flag. Kurt Busch driving the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS earned the second starting spot. This marks the sixth time in 2015 that Chevrolet has swept the front row for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year, Kyle Larson, set the track qualifying record in his No. 42 Viva Vantage Chevrolet SS during the first round with a lap of 74.186 second/96.568 mph. After advancing to the final top 12 to make a run for the pole, Larson ended the qualifying session in the fourth starting spot for Sunday’s 110-lap race.
Five-time Sonoma winner, Jeff Gordon, placed the No. 24 AARP Member Advantages Chevrolet SS in the fifth starting spot giving Team Chevy four of the top five starting positions overall.
Tony Stewart earned his fourth top-10 starting position of the season qualifying the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS seventh. Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS rounds out the Chevy power starting in the top-10. He will roll off in the eighth position when the green flag waives.
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) will start third, Clint Bowyer (Toyota) qualified sixth, David Ragan (Toyota) will start ninth and Brad Keselowski (Ford) starting 10th round out the top 10 qualifiers at Sonoma Raceway.
The 110-lap/350-Kilometer Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday June 28. Live coverage will be available on FoxSports1, PRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KINGSFORD CHARCOAL CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
WHAT LED TO THAT FAST LAP TODAY?
“Honestly, just hard preparation from all my guys. What they’ve done to get this car ready back at the shop and the work that they did here at the race track to get it ready for practice today and then for qualifying today, they just worked so hard. We talked about it a little bit yesterday and the last six weeks and kind of the struggles that we’ve had and they guys really put their heads down and worked hard on this car. The next few races, our cars are really prepared.
“It was a weird session because we got that red flag early-on when I was out there and I kind of had to re-set myself. It was strange because the lap times really didn’t seem that fast when that first wave of cars went out there, and then as soon as that red flag came out it was like cars fired-off back out there and put down some big laps. I knew if I went out there and hit my marks, we should have a good shot at it. Both laps were pretty solid. You can always nitpick and find a little bit more here or there, but I just tried to make sure I hit my marks and got everything I could out of it. And it worked out.”
HOW MUCH OF AN ADVANTAGE IS IT IN LEADING OFF THIS RACE AND HOW MANY PIT STOPS WILL YOU BE MAKING?
“Starting up front is always great no matter where you’re at. Here, there’s a lot of strategy that comes into play. The yellow flags when they fall, when you pit; and tires are really important around here. So, it’s interesting always how this race plays out. I think that’s why we see so many winners in so many years. Honestly, I focused on so much about our race package yesterday and qualifying today, we haven’t really talked about how many pit stops we’re going to do, yet. Here, more than Watkins Glen especially, the strategy changes a lot just because the tires are so important. So, if you run 10 or 15 laps and the caution comes out, more than likely you’re probably going to pit just because tires are that critical. So, starting up front is important. Hopefully we can go out there and kind of pace the field and get settled in early on and then kind of see how the race plays out.”
IN GENERAL, WILL FUEL MILEAGE BE BETTER HERE THIS YEAR WITH LESS HORSEPOWER? WILL THAT TRANSLATE TO HERE? IF YOU WANTED TO DO IT IN TWO PIT STOPS AND TIRES WEREN’T AN ISSUE, WOULD THAT BE THE WAY YOU WOULD DO IT?
“Yeah, but tires are so critical to run. To run that type of stint to where it plays out to 35 laps a stint if you were to do it in two, or right around there; maybe 36 or 37. It’s tough. Once you get to like lap 25 you’re hanging on. It’s just who can conserve their tires better than the other person. Last year I thought we had a really good short to medium-run car, probably the fastest car out there. But our long-run speed wasn’t good enough to win the race, so that’s something we tried to come here and I really tried to focus on yesterday. You kind of have a general idea, but you don’t really know until you get 25 laps in. So, we’ll see how it plays out. If you get a yellow flag that falls right in the middle of that, it changes everything anyway. We’ll just hopefully get a clean start and get into a rhythm and try to click-off the laps and see how it goes.”
INAUDIBLE
“It’s something I deal with here and there. I wasn’t the smartest guy in the world. I went karting last week in Wisconsin. I thought that would prepare me for road course racing and I got beat-up by 16 and 20-year olds. Everything is stiff. That’s the problem with karting. It’s good training, but it doesn’t help your body out. So, the nurses were great here. I’ve gotten my neck worked on a little bit. I’ll be fine.”
JEFF GORDON ASKED ABOUT OPENING THE CAROUSEL. WOULD YOU WANT TO RUN AGAINST HIM IN THE CAROUSEL?
“Sure. I can qualify on the pole in the carousel, too if you need me to (laughter). No, it’s funny. I ran it one time in a go-kart in like 1996 or something. Obviously Jeff has an advantage. So, he’s just trying to cheat (laughter). It would be interesting. He’s definitely have an advantage since he’s the only guys that’s run it.”
DO YOU CONSIDER THIS YOUR LOCAL TRACK?
“Yeah, it’s definitely my local track. My dad and I came here a lot watching Sprint Cup. This was always so close to home, here and Laguna Seca. My background a lot was being at Laguna Seca racing the open-wheel stuff. But I always enjoy coming to this race and watching the Sprint Cup Series. I hadn’t actually ever driven on it until I ran in this race. I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s a tough race track, for sure. It’s definitely a finesse race track. You can’t attack it. You can’t hurt the rear tires. It takes some time to learn how to get around here and pace yourself. But it’s always fun coming back home. It’s tough when you’ve got to manage family and friends plus your job. It’s big for us because Kingsford and Clorox, their hometown is in Oakland. So, hopefully it makes them happy and they want to keep giving us money.”
HOW HAS THE TRACK CHANGED YEAR AFTER YEAR?
“The track, actually, just in the eight or nine years that I’ve run here, hasn’t changed a lot. The grip level is low anyway and it feels like it really hasn’t changed much. The cars have changed more than the track has. With the cars now, compared to the COT cars that were real top-heavy, the cars rolled a lot and you’d see a lot of the right or left-front tires carrying all the way down through the esses; and now with the cars and the ride-height, and not having that rule anymore and you can lower the car as much as possible, it feels like a race car. You can kind of sling the car around a little bit and it doesn’t carry the tires as much. So, that’s more changed than the race track has.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THAT QUALIFYING LAP AND TALK ABOUT THE RACE TOMORROW?
“Yeah, it’s a great front-row starting position for us on the Haas Automation Chevy. It was an eventful Qualifying group, both the first session and the second session, with different cars having trouble and going off course and making it to where we had to abort our lap. And the one that was exciting was that my little brother (Kyle Busch) spun in Turn 10. And my spotter said there was a car off. When you hear ‘car off’, that mean you’re still clear to run through there. And I was just talking to NASCAR. There are the local waving blue flags that might have been out. And as I went through there, it was a dangerous situation. But the way it all turned out, that still didn’t allow us to go and complete our lap, which was disappointing, because that lap was two-tenths quicker than (pole winner) AJ Allmendinger’s pole lap. For us to come back in, cool the engine, and try to reset tires, it didn’t work out with the time that was left. And then we went back out to get what we could, and here we are second. So, it was definitely a day to challenge all the different things that we could have gone through with the car preparation, the track being clear, corner marshals, and then having the pole-sitting lap, which I thought was a good lap, to be omitted. Hey, we’re outside-pole. We’ll start there and just go from that starting position.”
IT LOOKED LIKE KYLE BUSCH JUST BARELY GOT OUT OF YOUR WAY, THERE. THROUGH THE HAZE AND THE SMOKE, WERE YOU ABLE TO SEE HIM OKAY?
“Yeah, with the spotter telling me that there was a car off in Turn 10, as I was coming through (Turn) 9, I could see the cloud of smoke. When you see the cloud of smoke, that means he’s been there for a while. The smoke was able to elevate. Therefore, there should be a clearing underneath. And I saw a clear track. And he was pointed towards the right side of the track and the exit of Turn 10, you’re on the left side of the track. So, I saw a clean shot to go through there. At the time, the track was still green. It was a hard call on whether I continue to come through a section where there’s trouble even though the track hadn’t been called off yet?”
WITH THE CHANGE IN HORSEPOWER, WE’VE SEEN THE TEAMS GET BETTER FUEL MILEAGE IN GENERAL THIS YEAR. WOULD YOU EXPECT PEOPLE TO GET BETTER FUEL MILEAGE TOMORROW AND BE ABLE TO DO IT ON TWO STOPS? OR, IS THERE A CHOICE BETWEEN TWO AND THREE STOPS TOMORROW?
‘That’s a great question. The way that the race has panned out, the majority of the time, two stops has been the better way to find Victory Lane. Last year, a lot of teams jumped off of that two-stop strategy and went to the three-stop, because of the tire wear. This year, I think the tire is slightly different. They were trying to bring back a tire with more tread on it so that it would last the full stint. And we’re still in that question mark zone. Do you go on two or do you go on three? And the fuel mileage is definitely helping us this year with the decrease in horsepower, to go on two stops. The problem is, when you have somebody that’s committed to three, and there is a group of them that are on the three-stop-strategy, it’s amazing how many weird lines you take on restarts and you’re jumping over guys and going through guys and it turns into a very aggressive race. And that’s what Sonoma has been known as here recently, as well as Watkins Glen. So, some of that road course gentlemen’s agreement goes out the window when it comes down to the end of these races on restarts.”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO THE INDY 500 AGAIN?
“Yeah, I really enjoyed everything that happened the whole month of May last year. This year, with the way that everything has panned out, the focus has been on the stock car. Honestly, I haven’t made much of an effort towards the communication with Andretti Autosport and looking to put that back together. It’s fun working behind the scenes and working behind the scenes and working on getting a top-quality ride in the Indy 500. And, am I going to say I was the smart one by not doing it this year because of the Hondas being at a deficit versus the Chevrolets? Possibly. But at the same time, the way that the world works, it’s all about timing. So right now there hasn’t been the right timing to even open up that discussion. I’ve been focused on the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevy on the NASCAR circuit.”
IT’S IMPORTANT TO START AT THE FRONT. HOW IMPORTANT IS THE LEARNING FROM THE PRACTICE SESSION THROUGH THE QUALIFYING SESSION FOR YOU TO BE AT THE FRONT?
“Well, it’s a benefit all throughout the race. Starting up front, you have track position. You can set your own pace. You have a good pit box selection. You stay out of the riff-raff on at least the first couple of restarts. And, the way that this race plays out, if you’re up front early, then you have the choice of going two stop or three stop. So, we’ve left ourselves with choices.”
CAN YOU REMEMBER A TIME IN YOUR RACING CAREER WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN AS HAPPY AND CONTENT AS YOU ARE RIGHT NOW WITH THE NO. 41 TEAM?
“Well, that’s a loaded question. There are so many times when you feel like you’ve got everything you need to win, and the results don’t come out of it. Then there are times when you surprise yourself and the team is surprised, or there was some mystery thing from the engineering department that helped you win. The team chemistry and the balance that (crew chief) Tony Gibson brings to me and the group of the guys working on this No. 41 car, even the guys back at the shop that respect Tony Gibson, this reminds me of Jimmy Fenning and 2004.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 VIVA VANTAGE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 4TH
TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF GETTING AROUND HERE AND THE LAP YOU TURNED IN:
“It was a better qualifying than I thought we might have. In practice yesterday we were okay in race trim, a little bit better in qualifying trim, but I didn’t think we were that good. I was really shocked that I went that fast in the first round. I think that was a whole second and a half quicker than I went yesterday almost. I was really surprised about that because I didn’t think it was that great of a lap. The second session I got to go right out and I guess the yellow came out right before we got to the line. I don’t know what that lap would have been. I think it actually felt worse than my third run. It would have been nice to have a little bit less laps on my tires for my good lap. To finish fourth in qualifying was good. I would have liked to have been on the pole after how fast we went the first round, but we will take it. It was a good day for the Viva Vantage team. Go on to tomorrow and try to work on our car. I think we will have to work on it quite a bit just because our long run speed wasn’t very good yesterday in practice. We will work hard.”
INAUDIBLE:
“Not yet, but you might experience some in the race for sure just being you will probably get lots of long green flag runs. You will have to take care of your brakes some, but right now it’s not an issue or at least it hasn’t been for my car. I have been happy about that. Usually when you run on the rumble strips down through (Turns) 9 and 10 it kind of vibrates the pads back and you have to pump your pedal up before you get to (Turn) 11, but I haven’t really had any of that issue yet this weekend. I’m sure we will experience some of it tomorrow.”
ASIDE FROM POTENTIAL BRAKE ISSUES WHAT SYSTEMS OF THE CAR ARE BEING MOST STRESSED HERE?
“I mean transmission, brakes, patience. This track is just really tough on a lot of things, tires. There is a full list of stuff. It’s a really tough, technical racetrack. Any road course I would imagine in these big stock cars are probably hard on them. You just have to take care of your equipment and try and keep a cool head throughout the whole race because there will be a lot of times where you get impatient and you don’t want to make a mistake.”
HOW MUCH DID RUNNING THE K&N RACE HERE LAST YEAR HELP YOU LEARN THIS TRACK?
“I think it helped for sure just mainly because last year I had never raced here. I grew up on the West Coast, but I did dirt track oval racing. It was only one of my few road course races at the time. It just helped getting laps around the track, getting to learn the elevation changes and just getting your rhythm down. This is really a rhythm racetrack. Anytime you can get extra laps it’s good. I was hoping to race it again, but we just kind of ran out of time there at the end. It will be alright we should be fine. It’s a long race. You will learn a lot throughout the whole thing.”