39-TIME MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPION – NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
NEW HAMPSHIRE 301
LOUDON, NEW HAMPSHIRE
JULY 17, 2016

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TEAM CHEVY IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
Bowtie Brand Most Successful Manufacturer at the ‘Magic Mile’

DETROIT – (July 12, 2016) – Chevrolet has 18 wins in 42 races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS), more than any other manufacturer. Chevrolet drivers Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman are at the head of the class with three wins each to their credit, leading all other active drivers. Newman, nicknamed the ‘Rocket man’ has seven poles, the most of any competitor at the 1.058-mile track.

This weekend Chevrolet is planning to continue its winning legacy in the Granite State. With one win in the last eight races at NHMS, Team Chevy looks to rekindle their historical success at the ‘Magic Mile’.

NHMS has been described as ‘Martinsville on steroids’. The tracks both have a similar paperclip shape, but New Hampshire has wider turns and longer straightaways. The track is infamous for being hard to pass, making qualifying of utmost importance. Drivers will have to manage brake usage throughout the duration of the race as they speed down the long straights and turn through the sweeping corners while maintaining track position throughout the day. The ones who can do that will be contenders to take the checkered flag first at the end of 301 laps.

“It’s all about getting track position,” said three-time NHMS winner Newman. “If you have lost track position for any reason, like if the caution comes out at the wrong time, just getting back on the cycle of being in the right group of cars that has the track position or being able to set yourself up for the end is the hardest thing to figure out. Track position is the key.”

As the races wind down to the Chase cut-off at Richmond International Speedway, Team Chevy continues to strive to lock more participants into the Chase field. Only eight races remain until the grid is set to determine who will compete for this year’s championship trophy. But this weekend, the ball is in Team Chevy’s court to score win number 19 at NHMS.

All the action from New Hampshire Motor Speedway is scheduled to begin on Sunday July 17 at 1:30 p.m., ET. Live coverage will be available on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), PRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.

TEAM CHEVY IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (NSCS) COMPETITION:
· Chevrolet has won 39 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Manufacturer Championships
· Team Chevy drivers have scored 758 wins and 683 poles in NSCS competition

CHEVROLET ON THE TRACK—NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
Chevrolet drivers have won 18 of 42 races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet SS, has visited Victory Lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway three times (’04 – TWICE & ’08)
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, has collected three trophies from New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’03 – TWICE &’10)
Ryan Newman, No. 31 Whelen Chevrolet SS, has three victories at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’02, ’05 & ’11)
Tony Stewart, No. 14 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, has three wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’00, ’05 & ‘11)
Clint Bowyer, No. 15 5-Hour Energy Chevrolet SS, has two victories at New Hampshire (’07 &’10)
Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, has one win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (’06)
Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS, has visited Victory Lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway once (’12)

A Chevrolet driver has won one of the last eight races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway 17 times
Team Chevy drivers have scored 93 top-five and 175 top-10 finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
A Chevrolet has led 5,978 laps (47.9% of possible 12,459 laps) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

ENGINEER EXPERTISE FROM THE GARAGE AREA – PAT SUHY, MANAGER, CHEVROLET RACING – GROUP MANAGER, NASCAR PROGRAMS:
“As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Loudon for it’s first of two annual stops at the tight one-mile track, our Team Chevy engineers and teams have been hard at work preparing for this unique race track.

“New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS) has tight turns banked at 12° on each end connected by two long straightaways. While both the shape and banking are similar to Martinsville, the other ‘paperclip-style’ track on the circuit, speeds here are much higher because the turns are about twice the radius, and the cars have about twice the distance to accelerate between the two ends of the track. What all of that means is that NHMS is more of an aero track than Martinsville; and yet is about equally dependent on brakes.

“Our and our teams combined suite of tools complements one another, allowing teams to build great foundations for crew chiefs and drivers to fine-tune for individual preferences and specific track conditions. Countless hours of computational fluid dynamics, wind tunnel testing, CFD and vehicle simulation work that goes on full time throughout the year will contribute to our combined performance this weekend. Having some of the best drivers, crew chiefs and pit crews in the garage helps too. NASCAR truly is a team sport where performance is determined by the results of hard work from the whole organization – front office to shop to race track and with great support from manufacturers and technical partners.

“Sunday is sure to provide an entertaining race for the fans; and I expect it to be a good one for Team Chevy. I’m confident that all the hard work this season will pay off with another opportunity to visit Victory Lane in New Hampshire.”

TEAM CHEVY FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT:
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – POINTS LEADER
“I’d say the most important thing at Loudon is track position just because it’s hard to pass. You want to be up front and on the right strategy no matter what you do. If the caution flag falls in the wrong spot and you lose track position it usually becomes a longer day than it could have been.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – 3RD IN STANDINGS
“It’s a track that has been pretty good to me since I started racing in the top series of this sport. I raced there for the first time in the Truck Series and won that race. Then, it’s a track where I have three wins in the Cup cars and, when you’re able to go to a track where you’ve had that kind of success; it just gives you that confidence. Because of the wins and everything, it’s a place we go to where I feel like I especially know what it takes from the car and the driver to be successful.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – 8TH IN STANDINGS
“It will be my first time racing at New Hampshire in a Cup car, so I’m sure that will have some new challenges from what the XFINITY cars brought the past couple of years. It’s going to be different, but I’m hoping we can go and try to figure it out.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – 9TH IN STANDINGS
“We’ve had a tough stretch here lately. I hate it for my Lowe’s team. This sport is tough and humbling. I’m glad we have another week to turn things around. New Hampshire is a scrappy track – it’s tough. We’ve run decent there lately but haven’t been challenging for the win. I love visiting the area, there are great places to ride bikes and get outdoors. This is a busy week with the Brickyard test but hopefully it will be productive.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 WHELEN CHEVROLET SS – 12TH IN STANDINGS
“It’s all about getting track position. If you have lost track position for any reason, like if the caution comes out at the wrong time, just getting back on the cycle of being in the right group of cars that has the track position or being able to set yourself up for the end is the hardest thing to figure out. Track position is the key.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – 13TH IN STANDINGS
“I enjoy racing at New Hampshire. The track is great. It’s always been one of my favorite stops – it’s always a nice challenge to figure out how to get around the track itself and the racing is pretty fun. I just want to get a win there. We’ve been a top-five or top-10 car pretty much every trip, but we’ve never had the fastest car. It seems like such a short race, so you need to be THE guy. There seems to always be one guy who just stands out above the rest of the field, so hopefully the opportunity we had to test there is going to give us a chance.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW (OLYMPIC/USOC) CHEVROLET SS – 14TH IN STANDINGS
“I think you’ll see some affects under braking. Braking has been key this year to a lot of these tracks. We’ll be trying to get in there as hard as we can but we’ll have less downforce so I expect there will be some issues there getting into the corner.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CREDIT ONE/CREDITCARDS.COM CHEVROLET SS – 15TH IN STANDINGS
“I enjoy racing at New Hampshire, I feel like we usually have pretty good cars there. Loudon isn’t a really fast track with the flat corners and it is a really hard track to pass on, so it is hard to hit on the right set-up. I’m confident that the guys will have a good car, we will just have to play the track position game and be solid on pit road because of how difficult it is to pass under green.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – 17TH IN STANDINGS
“New Hampshire is a tough track. Obviously track position is very important due to the track’s size and it can also be a tough place to navigate traffic. I remember winning there in 2012 for Hendrick Motorsports and what a great feeling that was. It was neat to receive congratulations from so many fans and drivers.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – 19TH IN STANDINGS
“Loudon was pretty good to the Target team my first season, and had been a pretty good track for me in K&N and XFINITY, but we kind of struggled there last year. I’m hoping we can get back to a solid race there and keep making up ground in the points. We’re obviously focused on winning the race, but we’ve been a lot more consistent lately and that’s helped us move up some in the points. So, just have to keep running well consistently and hopefully we can take some of what we learned earlier in the year at Martinsville and have another good short track race.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S GRILLIN’ BEANS CHEVROLET SS – 20TH IN STANDINGS
“I don’t think it’ll be a ton different then we usually see there. Always track position, and passing race cars is really difficult there, so track position is everything. Basing off of how the short tracks have felt; Bristol, Martinsville, Richmond, those types of places, it’s not a big difference in feel. Phoenix wasn’t to me a big difference. I think it’s going to be the same normal race that you see. If you can get your car rolling through the center and turning, and get that bite off, that’s really where you can make moves on people. I’ve always liked Loudon, well I shouldn’t say always. When I first started I hated Loudon and then I kind of figured it out. It’s a fun race track, but definitely being up-front and keeping that track position makes your day a lot easier.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 DUTCH BOY/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – 23RD IN STANDINGS
“New Hampshire is different. It’s pretty single groove, but you have to kind of run in the middle of the track so it makes it hard to pass because you can drive underneath somebody but you can’t finish the pass. A lot of the other short tracks you can get position on the inside and be gone. New Hampshire is a tough place to pass for sure and everybody is fighting for track position looking for the fast groove.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 NATURE’S BAKERY CHEVROLET SS – 24TH IN STANDINGS
“It’s flat and tough to get around sometimes. You just have to make sure you get through the corners OK and are able to get on the gas quick on the straightaways. It’s tough but, if you have a good car, you can pass and move up through the field. But it can be challenging if it’s not working in your favor.”

CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – 27TH IN STANDINGS
“I like New Hampshire Motor Speedway and after last year, with two top-20 results for this Germain Racing team there, I’m thinking we are all anxious to get back. Loudon is a difficult track because it’s flat and you want to set up the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS to not roll, and stay sealed up, yet not be too harsh and bounce too much. When we started the July race there last year, we weren’t where we wanted to be but this team was able to adjust the GEICO Chevy and we came home 16th. I think we can go back to New Hampshire and run well there. We have a decent baseline.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – 30TH IN STANDINGS
“There’s nothing tricky or fancy about it. It’s just a fun track. It just seems like it’s always been a fun driver’s track. Your car has to work well there but, when you get to racing guys, you’re trying to out-brake them, trying to get your car to turn and you struggle for forward bite. It’s just got a little bit of everything the drivers look for to have a good race.”