CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 2 OF 10
BAD BOY OFF ROAD 300
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RESULTS (TOP 12):
3rd – Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS
4th – Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS
6th – Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS
7th – Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS
9th – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS
10th – Chase Elliott, No. 24 Napa Auto Parts Chevrolet SS
POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd
ON QUALIFYING:
“We made improvements. We were borderline on making the Round 2 to Round 3 cut there, but good job by James (Small, lead engineer) is filling in for Luke (Lambert, crew chief) right now. Luke is home just had a baby, so that is cool. Good qualifying effort like you said for the Caterpillar Chevrolet. Closest we’ve been in a while so that was good. But definitely want to be up front with all those Chase guys. It’s been a disappointing year because of that, but we’ve still got the opportunity to make some big gains here the last nine races.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 4th
YOU’VE FOUND SPEED THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS INCLUDING HERE IN QUALIFYING. WHERE HAS THAT SPEED SUDDENLY COME FROM FOR YOU GUYS?
“It’s really just a lot of hard work from everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. We’re digging in all areas and finding a little in all areas. It hasn’t been just one thing. It’s nice to have speed on the big tracks, which we’ve seen; and now to come to a short track and qualify well and have that speed is pretty awesome, too. I’m very proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and especially everybody on this Lowe’s team. They’re building a fast Chevy for me and it’s starting to be a lot of fun.”
LAST WEEK SEEMED LIKE A BREAKOUT WEEK FOR YOU AND THE NO. 48 TEAM. WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT’S GIVEN YOU COMING INTO THIS RACE?
“Definitely momentum, but unfortunately I made a mistake again, and it hurt us. We could have finished much better than that. So, I’ve spent a lot of time this week working on pit road speed again.”
HOW?
“Any way we possibly can, from simulators; and looking at the simulator that we have for the dash which is on a workbench, to looking at my teammates to looking at everything. I was fine on pit road; I just left about two feet too early in the last segment. I thought the nose was at the line and evidently it was a couple of feet early and I got burned on that. So, I just might wait a bit longer before I punch it at the end of pit road (laughs).”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 6th
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN?
“I’m happy with sixth. I made a couple of mistakes there on the ‘money lap’ of the last round there and slowed down a little bit. Starting sixth is better than where I typically start at short tracks. The last couple of short tracks have been good for me. So, I’m looking forward to it. We made some gains, I think, with our Target Chevy at Richmond and have taken some of that stuff to here at Loudon. I have a little bit more speed than normal. And I’ve figured out some things inside the cockpit that have helped me get a little bit better. I was looking at Jamie (McMurray’s) throttle data and how he’s driving a little bit different than me and it’s helped a lot. I’m excited to get into race trim for tomorrow and practice and hopefully have some good speed in that, as well.”
YOU SAID YOU MADE SOME MISTAKES. WHAT WERE THOSE?
“I’ve been trying to pick-up the throttle just a little bit earlier than I typically do here and I was just too aggressive and got the back tires out from underneath me the first lap. And then the second lap I just carried too much speed into the corner and got over the seam in (Turns) 1 and 2 and really got tight. That’s a lot of lap time making little mistakes like that. So, I’ve just got to clean that up and be as mistake-free as I can.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 7th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN
“It was a good run for the McDonald’s/Coca-Cola Chevy. I thought, in practice actually, that we had one of the best cars on scuffed tires. The qualifying format is interesting because it doesn’t really matter how quick you are on stickers, it’s all about being good that second and third run. But, with the temperatures cooling down, we struggled with being a little bit loose in, but it was a good run for both of our Chip Ganassi Racing cars. I think Kyle (Larson) ended up 6th, and we’re 7th; so I’m pretty excited about that. And we’ll probably get a good pit stall, which is really important here.”
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE START OF THE CHASE, YOUR FIRST RACE; AND NOW WE’RE INTO RACE #2. HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE START?
“It was good. Honestly, for the last six weeks we’ve been like a 6th to 12th place car. And some of the races we’ve capitalized on and finished better and some of them, we’ve lost a little bit. But last week was another solid week. Both of our cars ran really well. When I saw that there were some penalties that were maybe going to be assessed. After the race I heard a couple of cars didn’t pass tech. I thought that was going to help us a little bit and it turns out that it didn’t. But, overall I think it’s started off really well for both cars.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 13th
WHAT ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH?
“We just made a few changes and had a really loose exit since practice. In practice I thought we were okay. But, just really loose exit there. What’s queued on the dash with the lap time we’re having, it said I ran a .32 with a nine, but our register time was a 34.34. So, it’s like the car said I ran fast enough to advance, but the beacon must be in different spots. But, it’s all good. We’ll go into race trim tomorrow morning and make sure we get our exit fixed. We were loose on exit here in the first race, so we’ve got to get that fixed.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 BUSH’S CHILI BEANS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 17th
“I felt off on the race track there. We were only, I think half a tenth to the final round. My guys have done a lot of work to make us better here. I think the car is definitely a lot better. We will see how tomorrow is going to be. It’s going to be really cold these next couple of days. We will work on the thing. I think for Sunday we are going to have a pretty good Busch’s Beans Chevy and everything that we’ve done has made us more competitive here. Disappointed to be 17th, but know that we are in a lot better spot than we’ve been in the past here.”
ALEX BOWMAN, INTERIM DRIVER, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 18th
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON YOUR CAR IN QUALIFYING?
“Just lacked overall grip. We were a little free in, tight through the center, a little free off. Kind of needed both sides of it, but I just really have to thank everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for doing a great job. We are a little better than we were in the spring. We are starting two (positions) forward of where we were. We were up in the top 10 all day in the spring, so I think if we can just get our race car where it was in the spring we can be really good on Sunday.”
ON THE TEMPERATURE CHANGES:
“I don’t know. We are really just going to have to see. When the temperature drops it gives the race track a lot of overall grip. Hopefully, it will play into our hand because that is kind of what we are lacking right now. It gives everybody grip, so we are all going to be a little faster. Just can’t thank everybody at Nationwide Insurance and Hendrick Motorsports enough. It’s been a lot of fun filling in for Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.). I hope Dale is feeling better and can get back in the car and is ready to go for Daytona. Just thankful to be here and having fun with it.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 PUMPKIN SPICE CHEERIOS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 29TH
THIS WASN’T THE START OF THE WEEKEND THAT YOU WANTED, BUT WHAT CAN YOU AND YOUR TEAM DO TO GET THIS CAR READY FOR SUNDAY’S RACE?
“We’ll just go to work on it. We’ll try to figure it out as a team. And we’ll work hard as a team and won’t give up because of qualifying. We’ll just go to the next practice, two practices tomorrow, and it’s a long race on Sunday, so we’ll be just fine.”