NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 9, 2016

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
A CRAZY FUEL-MILEAGE RACE AT THE END. HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS THE EVENING?
“We had a good car. We really struggled, like most people did in dirty air. Track position was definitely key, but I’m proud of these guys on the Caterpillar Chevrolet; all the ECR guys, they obviously did a good job on the fuel mileage to make that happen. I think all us drivers that made it, knew what we were doing, it’s just a matter of it we thought we were as good as we were. And, I could have used this iced cold Coke about 30 laps from the end. I’m just proud of the guys. It’s our first Top-5 of the year, but we’ll keep digging.”

WHAT WERE YOU DOING TO SAVE FUEL?
“Saving fuel.”

HOW CLOSE WERE YOU?
“We were out. We didn’t have enough to do a burnout.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
YOU HAVE NOW FINISHED IN THE TOP FIVE AT EVERY TRACK ON THE CIRCUIT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?
“That is a nice feather in the cap. It’s special to have raced for good teams over the years to give me winning cars. Top five’s are special everywhere. As a driver it feels like you got something at each of the places to be competitive, give to the team, to give feedback and then the team can give better feedback to me on how we can win. Today, we persevered. I have never seen such an effort from everybody to dig deep and to just be back on their heels the whole time and just start to lean forward, lean forward and then right at the end to turn into fuel mileage and our car just came to us at the end. It was a perfect day for us to get a top five. We had to sweat it all weekend.”

YOU WERE ABLE TO RALLY TODAY FOR A TOP FIVE FINISH AFTER HAVING TO GO TO A BACK-UP CAR LATE IN FINAL PRACTICE YESTERDAY. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIS EFFORT?
“It’s tough to put words into it other than just teamwork. Everybody believed in each other, we all said that this was a day that would challenge our effort to see if we were championship worthy. To have a back-up car, to do it on fuel mileage, thanks to Monster Energy, Haas Automation, everybody that puts their thumb and their effort on this No. 41 car I’m very thankful for it.”

TAKE US THROUGH THE END OF THAT RACE:
“Well we started with our backs against the wall and kind of on our heels with a back-up car and just ill-handling all the way through. As we worked our way towards the end of the race, I saw that we had four sets of sticker tires left. Those seemed to be better than the scuffs. Goodyear brought a very hard tire, a very conservative tire, but we had to manage it. Then we had the fuel to manage at the end. I’m really happy we brought home a top five for Monster Energy, Haas Automation, everybody at Stewart-Haas. This was an effort where we never gave up; we had our backs against the wall and wow, fourth place we will take it.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 RUSH TRUCK CENTERS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
“It’s just tough conditions out there tonight. I mean especially when the sun was still out it was sketchy going into (Turns) 1 and 3 in a big pack of cars. We hope we were going to get more green flag stops where we could come in and take off on fresh tires without being in a was like that, but all the wrecks happened within zero to five laps after a caution. Really hard to figure out what to do, but just had to try to keep it stable to where you could race. It’s really nobody’s fault. I mean Goodyear is trying to do what they can to protect themselves and make sure they don’t have tire problems. They didn’t have to worry about that. It was the hardest thing on the planet. NHL doesn’t have anything on them on a hard puck. Like every other repave, as they get laps and more races on this track it will get to where they can come off the hardness of the tire and it will be better for everybody. This is as bad as it’s going to get. It will get better from here.”

BIG NIGHT POINT’S WISE:
“Yeah and especially with the way the first half of this race went we got in survival mode there and still wanted to race hard, but you didn’t want to do anything that was going to jeopardize finishing the race and capitalizing on the misfortune of the guys that are around us in points had. You are not really going to race anywhere else the rest of the year like this, so I don’t think it’s an indication of what our season is going to be like, but we ran anywhere from 11th to 22nd, pretty much just stayed in that range all day. It was just really tricky on restarts of being able to stay around cars. Kasey Kahne drove around me on the outside once and I about wrecked. It chattered the right-rear and all he did was just drive around me just like Pocono. It’s kind of hard when you have conditions like that. The track is going to be fine. NASCAR did the right thing. It’s easy to point the finger at Goodyear, but they had to do what they thought was right and what was conservative for them. It is just way too hard and the wrecks kind of proved that.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
ON HIS RACE:
“We had a really good car, probably the best 1.5-mile car we have had in a while. I thought I had a flat tire there at one point and we lost like 10 spots in three laps. Then it started shaking, so I just went ahead and came in to be careful. We got a little bit lucky because we were the lucky dog when the caution came out. It all just kind of worked out. My thoughts on the night are just that we had a little bit of luck and we haven’t really had that. We haven’t really been unlucky; we just haven’t had anything go our way. This sport is about having some luck every once in a while.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUSCH LIGHT CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
YOU APPEARED TO BE THE CAR TO BEAT EARLY IN THE RACE. CAN YOU JUST TAKE ME THROUGH THE ENTIRE EVENT AND WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND:
“Yeah, the event went great. We just had to put left-side tires on there. Couldn’t put right’s on and then the car went away really bad. That was really kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. Everybody did a great job. We kept our track position. I overshot our pit stall one time looking at my pit road speed, we got that back. But, all-in-all it just came down the fuel mileage, we couldn’t make it at the end and some guys could. That is just part of it.”

WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE ON THE NEW SURFACE?
“Hard, it was very hard to race. We had the track position we were able to keep it and that is really what kept us up front.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13th
HOW DID YOU GET THE DAMAGE ON THE REAR OF YOUR CAR?
“I don’t know who hit me. I did get a push trying to get into pit road because I was out of fuel. We run out with about a lap to go. That is why… we should have finished behind the No. 14, but it started running out.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE RACING OVERALL?
“Not fun. One groove, slick, slick, slick. Okay, so a new repave has a lot of grip. Goodyear brings a real conservative tire that is going to be extra careful on blistering. They had some blistering in the test that scared them, so they went really conservative on the tire. I think personally I believe they can make that right-side tire as hard as they want, go as safe as you want there so we don’t have the blistering, but soften the left up some. The racing will be better. We have issues with all the recent repaves with the left-side tires being a little bit too hard. It hurts the racing because you just can’t get any grip and turn and go underneath nobody. You just slide that left-front all night long through the center and on exit. You can’t drive around and underneath guys. There is nothing you can do to get that left-front tire any grip except for soften the tire up. That wouldn’t be hard to do. It’s a conservative tire. I understand why they did it because of the blistering they had in the test. We can’t come here and blister and blow right-front’s and have guys pounding the fence at 190 mph.

“And the low downforce…I don’t know if all that stuff is a great combination. The driver’s want less downforce. If you take me to Texas with the tire we have there and a worn out old race track and a softer tire or a tire that gets grip into the track would probably love this type of package. But, it’s just a bad combination for the new surface and how conservative that tire is. I mean you couldn’t hustle the car at all. You are just on pins and needles all the time on restarts like … uhhh… I don’t want to lose any ground and boy if I have a big slip I’m going to lose all kinds of track position, which happened over and over to a bunch of guys myself included. That sucks to race that way. You want to drive and hustle and try to get in there and beat guys. You can’t even run side-by-side. Guys who run side-by-side were a second slower. What the hell? That is awful; we have a problem man that is no good. But the track will take some time to get better and we have all heard about what they did with the pavement and stuff to try to make it age quicker. We will see how it goes, but I think the Trucks race well and Xfinity cars ehhh they were okay. They were closer together. They had a softer tire and a little more downforce, but I don’t want to say that I think we need more downforce. I just think the tire is super conservative, super hard; we need to change the left. We need the tires to wear out before the fuel runs out. We can’t just go out there and keep putting right’s on. That is not racing.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – Incident on Lap 103
WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OKAY?
“Uh, just trying to get some sympathy points now, at this point. I figured there would be more points in sympathy than I’m going to get on the race track. I’m fine. My thumb hurts a little bit. But we’ll figure it out. We’ll get it x-rayed later to see what the exact diagnosis is. But, I said I wasn’t having a lot of fun before; and I’m definitely not having a lot of fun right now. The guys will try to get the car back together, but I don’t know if we blew a tire, or what; the hood came up. It was a big hit. I’ve taken a lot of big hits lately and it’s getting a little bit old.”

REGAN SMITH, NO. 7 ADVANCE AUTO PARTS/QUAKER STATE CHEVROLET SS:
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Just blew a right-front tire. I don’t know how many laps we had on them or what not. We had seen a couple of issues with guys earlier in the night. I think we were just doing what we could to try and get back on a decent lap sequence with the leaders. We had kind of dug a hole for ourselves. It’s frustrating, disappointing we struggled all weekend long and it was just one of those weekends. We will work hard and try and get back to Loudon and see if we can’t figure something out there. I’m appreciative of Advance Auto Parts and Quaker State they are both the title sponsor of the race here and on our car tonight. I’m disappointed we couldn’t give them a better showing.”

WERE YOU MINDFUL OF TIRE WEAR?
“Well after you see the first two have a problem yeah you are mindful of it. You know something is going on, but I don’t know what their issue was compared to ours. I think we ran a lot more laps than they did on theirs. Tough to say, but you are always mindful of it at a repave. It puts everybody in a unique situation and they have to do at the track sometimes and that is just how it is.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE OUT THERE WITH THE NEW PAVEMENT?
“It was a challenge. Restarts were hairy, everything was hairy.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track accident on lap 88
YOUR CREW IS MAKING REPAIRS, BUT TAKE ME THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED. DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE GOING 3-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 them 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
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.”