NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 9, 2016
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track accident on lap 89
YOUR CREW IS MAKING REPAIRS, BUT TAKE ME THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED. DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE GOING THREE-WIDE?
“Yeah, kind of at the last second I heard them say three, and I really didn’t know how that was going to work. And there’s really not enough room. I felt like I was I was about at the top of the gray; or the bottom of the gray; as about at the top as I could be without getting up in the mess. I tried to give as much room as I could do as possible. That’s racing, I guess. We’ll just try to go get ‘em next week. The good news is we had a fast NAPA Chevy; the bad news is that we’ve had three bad weeks in a row. So, for us; we’ve just got to go back and get the job done, bottom line. So, we’ll try again next week.”
WE JUST SAW ANOTHER BIG WRECK THAT TOOK OUT A LOT OF CARS. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU TO TRY AND MAKE THE REPAIRS AND GET BACK OUT?
“Well, it’s definitely important. It’s not as important as winning. That’s the most important thing, for us, at this point. That’s our goal. Just because we had a bad night tonight doesn’t mean our goal has changed. So, we’ll try to get ‘em next week.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW THAT ALL TRANSPIRED?
“Just being top of (Turn) 3 and there is really not enough room to be three-wide, so I heard at the last second we were three-wide and I had a feeling that we were just because we got bottled up there off of (Turn) 2. I tried to give as much room as I possibly could to stay at the top of the black and out of the grey. I didn’t know how much further out I could get without wrecking myself without any help. I guess Ryan (Blaney) just got loose and got us, but that is racing. The good news is we had another fast car, the bad news that is the third bad week in a row. We will try to regroup and go get ‘em wherever we go next.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Just got three-wide, had a bad corner there in (Turn) 2 and got us bottled up. Once that happened guys obviously tried to pounce and make things happen. For me, I was kind of the guy on the outside lane. I tried to get out as far as I felt like I could without getting up in the grey. I know every time somebody has got in the grey this weekend it has been bad news. I was trying to stay out of that myself. I guess Ryan (Blaney) got loose in the middle and that is an easy thing to do. It’s slick.”
HOW SLICK WAS IT? WAS THE DRIVING TONIGHT AS CRAZY AS EVERYBODY THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE?
“It’s just such a fine line. There is just not a lot of room for error. The groove is so narrow that if you make a mistake you just kind of have to stop in your tracks. You can’t necessarily slide up and gather yourself back up in a wider spot. You just kind of have to try to keep it wherever you are and obviously the people coming behind you. That is part of it I guess and like I said we will try to come back and have a better week next week.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 94
WHAT DID YOU SEE OUT THERE?
“Just a lot of crashing. I won’t say we deserved it, but we put ourselves back there. We weren’t very good all night. Randall Burnett (crew chief) and everybody we were trying to figure it out. We just missed it all weekend. I thought we had a really good test here. They changed the tire and it’s our own fault we didn’t figure the tire out as good as other guys did. It’s disappointing this is Kroger’s backyard and having Clorox on the car… yeah; when you race back there things are going to happen. It’s happen for a couple of weeks, two out of the last three or four weeks, and it’s tough. We are working hard. I feel like we are not getting a lot in return. We are making our own mistakes. I didn’t do a good job, but put us back there and it’s not any fun anymore.”
DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE USING MORE BRAKE THAN NORMAL?
“I thought at times in traffic I would use more brake. When I would kind of get by myself I could kind of pace myself. I was just fighting tight for the most part. It could be a little loose in, but was definitely fighting tight off the corners. But, yeah, you could see when everybody would come barreling in there and had to get on the brakes. My brakes weren’t as good as I thought they would be. But, it’s a product of the beast. I have to give Kentucky credit they did a good job trying to widen the track out more than I ever expected after the test. They have done a good job. Had to bring a harder tire because certain guys were blistering tires at the test, but in the end it’s our own fault.”