NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
CHEEZ-IT 355 AT THE GLEN
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 6, 2016
KYLE LARSON QUALIFIES SECOND AT WATKINS GLEN
Team Chevy Earns Two of the Top Three Starting Spots; 6 of Top 12
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – (August 6, 2016) – Kyle Larson ran a fast lap of 126.233 mph/ 1:9.871 in his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS to earn a front row starting position for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International. Larson’s second place qualifying effort marked his fifth top-10 start of the 2016 season, and his second in three races at the newly repaved, high speed, 2.45-mile, 7-turn road course.
Tony Stewart was third quick in his No. 14 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS to post his 14th top-10 start at Watkins Glen and sixth in 14 races this far this year. Stewart is a five-time winner at the popular track.
Ryan Newman will start eighth in his No. 31 Caterpillar Chevy SS and AJ Allmendinger, who won here in 2014, will start ninth in his No. 47 Kroger/Kingsford Chevrolet SS. Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 McDonald’s Chevy SS and Michael McDowell, who pilots the No. 95 Thrivent Financial Chevrolet SS, qualified 10th and 11th, respectively.
Carl Edwards (Toyota) won the pole position, Matt Kenseth (Toyota) qualified fourth, and Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fifth.
The Cheez-It 355 at The Glen is scheduled to begin August 7th at 2:30 p.m., ET. Live coverage will be available on USA, MRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 2nd
YESTERDAY YOU WERE STRUGGLING WITH YOUR RACE CAR. DID THIS QUALIFYING EFFORT SURPRISE YOU?
“A little bit, yeah. I was super happy with all the effort that all the guys on the Target Chevy put in yesterday. We changed just about everything yesterday; and finally got some grip there late in practice. And we still could use some more. But, it was fun. I didn’t think I’d end up second. I didn’t even think I ran that good of a lap the first round. I missed the bus stop pretty bad. I think if I would have just not tried to brake as deep. That first run I had in the second round I probably could have run close to whatever was ran there, but I made a mistake. And then in the second run, I just butchered just about every corner. It was exciting, though. It’s always fun to qualify at the road courses, especially here because you’re going so fast and you’re on the edge, especially at the esses here. With the repave it’s really slick. It was a fun day. Hopefully we can get the Target Chevy in Victory Lane tomorrow.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT LITTLE SPIN COMING TO PIT ROAD?
“I messed up so many corners. I should have just bailed. But I tried to make it good (in Turns) 6 and 7; and just got into the last corner pretty hard there and got loose. I was hoping I wasn’t going to hit those barrels; but I was able to keep it going straight and keep it fired-up.”
ON HIS LAP:
“Yeah, it’s good to start on the front row. Everybody on our Target team worked extremely hard yesterday. I had them slinging wrenches and everything to try and fix our car. We got it better there late in practice and it paid off here for qualifying. Hopefully, we will have that same speed tomorrow in the race. I know it will be tricky and strategies and all that going on. But, just as long as we can keep a good balance we should be alright.”
IS IT ADVANTAGEOUS TO START ON THE FRONT ROW AT A ROAD COURSE LIKE WATKINS GLEN?
“Well, it’s just nice to start up front at any track, but especially road courses because it is hard to pass and yeah, the strategies are pretty crazy. Yeah, this is as far forward as I’ve started on a road course. I’ve qualified good every time. I always enjoy qualifying at road courses and seem to do well at it.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I was happy with the lap. It seemed like the track is a lot slicker today than it was yesterday. I’m sure all 12 of us that ran the final round if we could do our last lap over we would like to do it over. I’m no different. I would like to have ran that over I think we could have got a little more out of it. It’s still a solid run. I’m pretty happy with it.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/KINGSFORD CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 9th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“The track had a lot less grip than yesterday just figured that would happen from the rain and all that. Just too loose. I just never put a lap together, pretty much the worst I’ve driven here. I’m just frustrated with myself. We knew the track was going to be slicker we were trying to make the right adjustments. I never gave us a chance honestly.”
THOUGHTS ON TOMORROW:
“Just don’t know what to expect tomorrow honestly. It’s going to be a strange race. The tires aren’t wearing out. The track is going to keep rubbering up. It’s hard to say I’m not really sure what to expect.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 10th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“It was an interesting day because of the rain last night and then having to go out, I guess the K&N cars ran last. I was one of the first cars out for this qualifying session and it was just really slick. Fortunately, the tire that we have this weekend is really hard and you actually can go quicker on like warmer older tires than you could on new ones. It wasn’t that big of a deal to have to come in and go back out. But, yeah, it worked out good we had to make three runs in the first session to advance. Then maybe had too many laps on our tires for the last session, but both the No. 1 and the No. 42 are really good today. I look forward to tomorrow it is going to be tough to pass because the grip is obviously in the area of the groove that you run on. Because of the repave it’s pretty slick out of the groove, so, I think that is going to be interesting when you see people pull out and try to pass without locking the tires up or run off the track.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, NO. 95 THRIVENT FINANCIAL CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 11th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I think that is a great qualifying effort for us. We always want more. That is the hard thing you make it into the second round and I thought we had a shot at being in the top five there. Just didn’t have the last little bit, but happy for our team, Thrivent Financial, Levine Family Racing it is a good solid qualifying effort. We are definitely happy.”
YOUR EXPECTATIONS WERE HIGH COMING INTO THIS SESSION?
“Yeah, we were seventh yesterday in first practice so I thought we could be somewhere around there. Not exactly where we wanted, but like I said it’s a great effort for us.”
HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT TOMORROW WITH SUCH A GOOD STARTING SPOT?
“I think we are a top 10 car tomorrow for sure. If we play our strategy right and we can miss all the chaos and not make any mistakes then we can put ourselves in position to challenge for a win. That is all you can really do at these places is work the strategy and at the end hopefully you have track position and you’ve got enough fuel to make it to the end.”
JEFF GORDON, INTERIM DRIVER, NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 21st
WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE?
“Just the grip. I was pretty disappointed we were fast yesterday. I felt like we were going to have no issues moving through to round two. I was more thinking about whether we could get in the top five. That is not the way it went for our Axalta Chevrolet. The first run out I was a little conservative just because I knew the grip level was down. I just wanted to put a solid lap together and hit every corner. I got a little bit loose at the top of the esses. The second time out I tried to attack a little bit more and unfortunately when I did that I missed Turn 1 and my shift point and that kind of just got us off the whole time. We picked up time we just didn’t pick up enough.”
DID YOU GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS WHEN TALKING TO GREG IVES (CREW CHIEF) AND THE CREW TO HELP IMPROVE THE CAR FOR TOMORROW?
“Well, like I said I have been feeling good this weekend. I like this race track. I like the repave. The tire is a little tricky, but the team has done an excellent job and I’m having fun out there shifting and turning right and left. We’ve got 21st to 24th nailed in qualifying three weeks in a row. We want to see improvement. This team races amazing I wanted to make it easier on them and myself for tomorrow. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ve got a race car just like we have every weekend, so far I’ve been in the car, that can work its way forward.”