NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 6, 2016
KURT BUSCH POSTS SOLID QUALIFYING EFFORT AT KANSAS
Three Chevy SS Drivers in Top 12
KANSAS CITY, KS – (May 6, 2016) – Kurt Busch was the fastest Chevrolet in today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) qualifying session with a lap of 28.401 seconds, 190.134 mph in his No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet SS at Kansas Speedway. The Team Chevy driver will start fourth in the 40-car field in Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400.
“I told them to write down the driver needs to get (Turns) 3 and 4 done better so that our lap times can improve,” said Busch following his qualifying session. “I felt like I overdrove Turn 3 and I could feel the engine bog down a little bit off of (Turn) 4 just because I killed the speed, I killed the momentum of the car. I didn’t quite carry it smoothly through (Turns) 3 and 4. (Turns) 1 and 2 was alright, but all-in-all the Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevy, it feels good to be the top Chevy.”
Ryan Newman posted his fourth top 10 qualifying effort of the season with an eighth place effort in his No. 31 Grainger Chevy SS. Newman’s Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, will start 11th in his No. 27 Nibco/Menards Chevrolet SS for the 267-lap/400 mile race at the 1.5-mile track.
Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota) was the pole winner, Matt Kenseth (Toyota) qualified second, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) qualified third, and Brad Keselowski (Ford) was fifth to round out the Top 5.
All the action from Kansas Speedway and the Go Bowling 400 starts at 7:30 pm ET Saturday night May 7. Live coverage will be available on FoxSports1, MRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
QUALIFYING QUOTES:
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 4th
WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE MORE OR THE TEAM COULD HAVE DONE BETTER TO SCORE A POLE?
“I told them to write down the driver needs to get (Turns) 3 and 4 done better so that our lap times can improve. I felt like I overdrove Turn 3 and I could feel the engine bog down a little bit off of (Turn) 4 just because I killed the speed, I killed the momentum of the car. I didn’t quite carry it smoothly through (Turns) 3 and 4. (Turns) 1 and 2 was alright, but all-in-all the Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevy, it feels good to be the top Chevy. Congrats to (Martin) Truex and those No. 78 guys. When we were out here a few years back there is something special about racing in Colorado and calling this your home track. It just means you are going to go faster. We feel good with our car right now. We made three spring changes going into this qualifying run and we will probably leave those three in it for the race tomorrow.”
YOU ARE THE TOP CHEVY, TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT TODAY:
“Yeah, I feel good because we made three spring changes going into that qualifying run. Those are things we wanted to try for the race and we ran out of practice time to do so. It’s nice that it turned out positive and the pace in qualifying is fast, yes, but the race will be at night fall whereas we practiced in the daytime. This speed should be right in the middle of what we just ran and what changes we made. I think we are cooking up the right batch.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 GRAINGER CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 8th
“Well, it was a decent run. I’m okay with starting eighth. Track position is going to be important during the race. We’ve had a solid day and we have a good Grainger Chevy. I’m happy for my buddy, (Martin Truex, Jr.) even though he’s not the right brand, congrats to him.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 NIBCO/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 11th
ON HIS RUN:
“We made some good gains from practice. I feel like our race car was really competitive. I struggled a little bit in qualifying trim but made some changes and obviously picked-up quite a bit of speed for qualifying. Track position is extremely important here. It’s hard to pass. Tires don’t fall off that much so, it’s a game of track position and starting up front and getting a pit stall with an opening is a huge deal.”
ON SATURDAY NIGHT’S RACE:
“The line is going to be constantly changing. When we started the first practice, everybody was running on the bottom; and then kind of migrated up to about three-quarter’s of the way up. I think in the race, you’ll see us right by the wall at some point. It just depends on how cool it gets. The day’s going to be hot so I’m not sure how cold it’s going to get at night. If it stays pretty warm, we’ll be running all over the place.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 13th
YOU WILL START 13TH TOMORROW WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES YOU WERE FACING IN THAT SECOND ROUND?
“Just going faster. I don’t know, I thought I overdrove Turn 3 of our last run there pretty bad. I think that hurt us a lot. So, we will go to work on it tonight. It’s not the greatest starting spot, but it could be a lot worse. We will take it and try to get our car driving like it needs to for the race. I think if we can do that, that is all that matters.”
HOW IS THE CAR IN RACE TRIM?
“I was happier with it in qualifying trim than I was in race trim today. Hopefully, we can make the right guesses tonight and try to go get them tomorrow.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 15th
YOUR FIRST RUN IT WAS TURN 3, THE SECOND RUN WAS IT TURN 1 THAT COST YOU TIME?
“I feel like I struggled getting into Turn 3 the second outing. I guess, yeah, the second round first outing, you’re right, and then down here it was on the splitter getting into that final time. I hate we didn’t get in the first time through I had a great (Turn) 1 and 2. We didn’t have much time to cool the tires off to try to get in there at the end and it certainly didn’t put up any more speed. We’ve got a great Lowe’s Chevrolet. A bit of adversity to fight through today, but still a very fast race car and I think one that is going to race really well tomorrow night.”
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE? WHAT WERE YOU GUYS LACKING THERE?
“I had some trouble getting, worst of all I’m getting sick, but I had some trouble getting into Turn 3 on the start of that second segment. We didn’t have a lot of time to get the car turned around and get the tires cooled down to try to make another run. Unfortunately, I missed my marks a little bit going into Turn 3. Fifteenth isn’t the end of the world, we’ve had a very fast race car, very proud of my Lowe’s race team and the Chevrolet that I’m driving. We’ve overcome some adversity today and still shown a lot of speed.”
WE’VE HEARD THAT THE WIND OUT THERE WAS AFFECTING SOME OF THE OTHER DRIVERS WAS THAT THE CASE?
“It could have been my problem into Turn 3. I had a great (Turns) 1 and 2, went into Turn 3 and it just never turned. I just kept floating into the corner. It very well could have been the wind.”
IS EVERYTHING OKAY WITH THE ENGINE?
“Yeah, I think everything is fine. Fortunately, Kasey Kahne had an issue like this in Phoenix earlier in the year, so our engine shop has some experience with this very freak and odd thing that happened. We feel very good about the engine that is in the race car.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 17th
“The first run we were way too loose and had to make a second run that first run and that hurt our second run. I just wish we could have that first lap back and I think we’d be in the top 12. It was close there. I didn’t notice the wind, too bad. We just had one too many runs on our tires compared to everybody else in that first round.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 26th
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST ISSUE IN QUALIFYING?
“Just plowing the front tires like crazy. Our Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was terrible in qualifying trim in practice and it continued that trend in qualifying today. Hopefully, the extra time that we spend in race trim pays off for us.”