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CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 4 OF 10
BANK OF AMERICA 500
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 6, 2016

CHEVROLET TAKES TOP THREE STARTING POSITIONS IN CHARLOTTE
Seven Team Chevy Drivers Qualify in Top 12

CONCORD, NC – (October 6, 2016) – Kevin Harvick captured the pole position for Chevrolet for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a lap of 27.547 seconds, 196.029 mph in his No. 4 Busch Hunting Chevy SS. This was Harvick’s first pole and 17th top-10 start in 2016.

It was the 685th pole in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition for Chevrolet and 32nd top starting spot at the 1.5-mile, D-shaped, Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Alex Bowman, the interim driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS qualified second and Chase Elliott was third in his No. 24 3M Chevy SS to give Chevrolet the first three starting positions.

Tony Stewart qualified fifth in the No. 14 Mobil 1/Rev the Vote Chevrolet, and AJ Allmendinger was sixth in his No. 47 Kroger/Stouffer’s/Stouffer’s Kitchen Chevy SS. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS and Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevy SS qualified 11th and 12th, respectively.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) qualified fourth to round out the top five.

The fourth race of the 10-race Chase playoff from Charlotte Motor Speedway is scheduled to begin Saturday, October 8 at 7 p.m. Live coverage of the 334-lap/501-mile contest will be available on NBC, PRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUSCH HUNTING CHEVROLET SS – Pole Winner
POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

HOW DOES STARTING UP FRONT MATTER IN THIS FIRST ROUND OF 12?
“I think any time you can eliminate track position, that’s definitely a bonus for us. This hasn’t really been our strongest day all year, qualifying day, in general has not been very good for us. So, to see the speed that the car immediately had today and really through all three rounds… We’ve struggled to hit all three rounds this year and tonight it was just spot-on every time on the race track. I’m just really proud of the guys who will hopefully catapult us in the right direction to get the night started right. And then hopefully we can hit it pretty close for Saturday.”

AT THIS STAGE OF THE GAME GOING INTO A CRITICAL ROUND AND KNOWING YOU’VE ADVANCED IN EVERY ROUND IN THE CHASE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, IS THERE ANY PHYSIOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE TO PERFORMING THE WAY YOU DID TODAY? DOES IT PUT THE OTHER GUYS BACK ON THEIR HEELS? OR, IS THAT SOMETHING YOU GUYS DON’T CARE ABOUT?
“Here’s the deal. I think there are just so many good guys and team in this deal; I think anybody can hit it. If practice goes the way I think it’s going to go tomorrow, it’s going to be a little bit of a guess as to where the car needs to be for Saturday night. So, I think there’s a lot of good teams and a lot of good engineers that can hit it spot-on for the race. It definitely doesn’t hurt. Like I say, we haven’t had the speed that we’ve needed on qualifying day really, all year, and this is the first time it’s just fired off like it did today and run fast and had the speed that we needed.”

ALEX BOWMAN, FILLING IN FOR DALE EARNHARDT JR., IS STARTING OUTSIDE NEXT TO YOU. WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN OUT OF HIM THIS YEAR? HAVE YOU BEEN IMPRESSED OR IS IT EQUIPMENT OR HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE HIS PERFORMANCE?
“I think he’s done a good job. I think he’s finished all the races, most all of them, that he’s running. I think that’s probably the biggest goal. But he’s had speed everywhere he’s gone and he’s done a good job.”

THIS IS YOUR FIRST POLE OF THE SEASON IN SPITE OF HOW GOOD YOU’VE BEEN IN QUALIFYING. ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT IT TOOK YOU THIS LONG TO GET THAT POLE?
‘No, because we just haven’t had the speed on Fridays like we’ve had the previous two years with this particular downforce package and things that are going on with this car. We just hadn’t hit on anything all year that felt comfortable enough to drive it like you could tonight. They’ve continued to work on it and we’ve hit on his here and there throughout the year, but all in all this is definitely the best we’ve performed on qualifying day all year.”

FIVE CHEVROLETS IN THE TOP 10, AND IT SEEMS LIKE WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT A LOT OF TOYOTAS ALL YEAR LONG. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT CHEVY’S GAINING? IS THIS KIND OF A ONE-TIME DEAL, OR ARE WE EXPECTING TO SEE THIS THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE YEAR?
“I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of things. I know our guys have been working on our setup stuff. But you could probably walk across the street to the engine department and thank a lot of those guys, too. They’ve been continuously working on trying to make things better just like we have been on the cars. But, both sides have definitely continuously stepped it up and you see a lot of things starting to come together.”

WITH THIS POTENTIALLY BEING THE FINAL LAP AROUND THIS TRACK THIS WEEKEND BEFORE THE RACE (POSSIBLE RAIN), DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING THAT CAN TRANSFER TO THE RACE?
“Yeah, we learned a lot. When we unloaded in race trim and really only made one lap in qualifying trim today just because we needed to run through a bunch of things to see where the balance needed to be and applied all that to our qualifying stuff to adjust the balance. So, hopefully we can hopefully go back, and that’s usually what our guys do the best, is put all the pieces together and apply that to race stuff. So, we’ve already been talking about that some. But it is definitely going to be punching a lot of numbers and going through a lot of things that we did because that’s really what we focused on today, was race trim.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR YOU OR FOR THE OTHER 11 DRIVERS IN THE CHASE TO WIN ONE OF THESE FIRST TWO RACES IN THIS ROUND AND NOT HAVE TO GO TO TALLADEGA NEEDING A GOOD FINISH?
“It would be a lot easier on my blood pressure, I know that for sure. I think everybody has the same goal to try to win one of these two races to eliminate that possibility. But really, any of these races can jump up and bite you at really any particular time just because of the fact that you just never know. Obviously Talladega has the most things out of your control. So if you can get to Victory Lane it’s a huge benefit in this first round in the next two weeks.”

ALEX BOWMAN, INTERIM DRIVER, NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:

TALK A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR RUN OUT THERE AND THE OPPORTUNITY YOU HAVE THIS WEEKEND:
“A little frustrated I feel like I kind of messed up (Turns) 1 and 2 there in the final round there a little bit, but just so thankful to be here. It means the world to me for Hendrick Motorsports to take a chance and let me run these races. I really have to thank Axalta and everybody involved. It’s been a lot of fun and just kind of trying to make the most of it. Definitely, I feel like we unloaded a little off today and made huge gains all through practice and by the end of practice we were really happy with our car. Greg (Ives, crew chief) and all the guys have worked really hard it’s a brand new racecar. We’ve got great Hendrick horsepower under the hood and just ready to go Saturday night or Sunday or whenever we get to race.”

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE RACE?
“Obviously, I really hope we get to practice some tomorrow because when we unloaded we were on the splitter pretty solidly and just kind of off. We don’t really know what our car is going to do on stickers in race trim with where we ended practice. I would like to get some more practice in, but I really feel like we have a shot at it. I’ve always really liked Charlotte. I feel like our racecar was really balanced, it was only doing one thing all practice which was reassuring. Sometimes you fight loose in, tight center, loose off and our car was only doing one thing. We only had to work on one thing. I feel like we get that one thing right we can have something for them.”

HOW MUCH FUN ARE YOU HAVING RIGHT NOW?
“As much as I possibly can. I don’t know what my future holds. There are not really any rides open next year, so this maybe these however many races left we have maybe the rest of my Cup career. You never really know what the future holds. Not having anything set in stone, the one thing that I said I was going to do throughout all these races was to make the most of it and to have the most fun I possibly could. I’m not going to let the pressure kill me. I’m not going to let the people on social media dictate how I feel when I go home at night. I’m just trying to have as much fun as I possibly can. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports has made that great. We have a great group of guys on this No. 88 car. I love working with Greg (Ives, crew chief) and everybody. Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) has been so supportive and so awesome to work with. I get to work with basically all my childhood heroes between Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and I don’t think Chase Elliot was born when I had my childhood heroes, but he’s my hero now. It’s been amazing to get to work with all of them.”

HOW NICE IS IT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE RACES? IS IT EASIER TO GET IN THE CAR KNOWING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN THE CAR NEXT WEEK AND EVERY OTHER RACE EXCEPT MARTINSVILLE?
“Releasing the schedule or deciding everything that they did on the schedule really helped me personally just be able to prepare. Obviously, the previous weeks we didn’t know what was going on until Tuesday/Wednesday. The first Loudon race I didn’t know until Thursday afternoon, so just knowing where I’m going to run, when I’m going to need to be where and just being able to prepare more for those races definitely helps me a ton.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE ALMOST AUDITIONING TO BE A SUBSTITUTE DRIVER FOR SOMEONE ELSE NEXT YEAR?
“Yeah, we all hope that nobody needs a substitute driver. It’s obviously a situation that nobody wants to have come up. I don’t want to sit here and say that I want to take advantage of that, but it doesn’t hurt my feelings if that does come up if I’m the guy that gets called. In a perfect world I would love to run a fourth Xfinity car for JR Motorsports. Everybody at JRM worked really hard to try to put something together over there and unfortunately the chips didn’t line up in my favor. I don’t really know what’s going on. Obviously, if I win some races or run up front, I think it makes things better. There are not really seats available, but at least I’m the guy that will hopefully get called if something does open up.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN THE PIPELINE NOW FOR ONE OF THE TOP CUP SPOTS AT HENDRICK?
“You know I would really like to hope so. Obviously, Hendrick Motorsports signed William Byron and William is a great young race car driver and he is going to get in the Xfinity car next year. I think he is really their guy to be in line for that. He is their development guy. I don’t know. I would like to think that hopefully I’m that guy, but we will just kind of have to wait and see. You never know what is going to happen in the next couple of years and who is going to decide to do what and what is going to open up. Kind of just at this point I’m very happy to be working with Hendrick Motorsports. Not only in my role at the race track, but in my roles away from the race track. Next year if I’m just working with them in my roles away from the race track and get to be a part of such a great organization I’m pretty content with that.”

HOW HAS RUNNING WITH THIS TEAM IN TOP QUALITY EQUIPMENT IMPACTED YOUR CONFIDENCE AS A COMPETITOR?
“I don’t necessarily know if we made the second round a single time last year and to contend for a pole here today and Michigan we obviously qualified really well as well. To do that definitely kind of … and to run and to race how we have raced has really changed my outlook going to the race track a lot. What I’ve done for the last couple of years is been to manage expectations and realize that 20th to 25th is a great day. I come to the race track with Hendrick Motorsports and a win is a great day. It’s so cool to go to the race track knowing that you have equipment capable of winning if you give the right feedback and make the right calls throughout the race. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been the most fun I’ve had in a long time probably since I ran ARCA and won a bunch of races back then. That is the biggest thing. For a race car driver you want to go to the race track with a chance and that is what Hendrick Motorsports has given me.”

HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR CAR BOTH DURING THE DAY AND DURING THE NIGHT TIME?
“Yeah, I would say qualifying second in a Cup race is probably the best car we’ve ever had. It’s hard to say. I think Michigan we had a solid chance at the win obviously with a mechanical failure there was really unfortunate. Michigan it was a little easier to be confident just because we had so much practice. We don’t know what we are going to get tomorrow and when we unloaded we were a little bit off, so really interested to see what our car is really going to do in race trim with the changes that we’ve made since we unloaded. We made those changes on older tires and we didn’t get enough time to put another set of tires on and see how it was going to go throughout the whole course of a run. Very interested to see how that goes. I think our car is definitely very strong. Starting up front in clean air is always helpful.”

HOW HAS BEING PART OF HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CHANGED YOUR OUTLOOK IN YOUR CAREER?
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot of just how we do things at Hendrick Motorsports and how we approach a weekend is very different than anything I’ve ever been a part of before. Even on the JR Motorsports side really, so it’s just a different process. It’s a different kind of mentality and it’s great to be a part of. Definitely feel like I’m always learning. Whenever I’m at the shop I’m learning whatever I can and it’s been so cool to get to lean on the five other drivers that are a part of the organization and get advice from them. It’s so much about, you know for the last two years we would get a new car or a new body or a different engine package and be like ‘man that one thing is so much better than we’ve had we are going to go to the race track and be so much better’. Well at Hendrick Motorsports every single little thing is the absolute best that we can make it. There is no reason; nothing holding us back from making everything that we have better and maxing everything out. It’s a different way of thinking as far as every single thing what can we do better, what can we do to completely max it out. Whether it’s nutrition what you drink during the race, to the race cars, everything is a different way of thinking.”

DOES HAVING A FAST CAR EARN YOU MORE RESPECT OUT ON THE RACE TRACK?
“Yeah I would say so. It’s very interesting how the garage works. I feel like if you are in one of the back 10 cars you are not really almost even looked at as a race car driver sometimes until you do something that you are not supposed to do. Like if you run better than you are supposed to, you pass somebody you are not supposed to or you out qualify somebody you are not supposed to. Once you do that I feel like that kind of changes, but showing up to the race track in a Hendrick Motorsports car it’s definitely I feel like I walk in and I’m viewed differently. I’m very thankful to be put in a position to be able to be viewed that way and really enjoying it. I think that I mean nobody on the Cup side really knew who I was until I out qualified Dale, Jr. at Richmond two years ago and he gave me a shot in his Xfinity car. I did something I wasn’t supposed to do in the car that I was driving and opened one person’s eye that I got an Xfinity ride from. You are definitely viewed differently depending on what you drive and what you do with it.”

WITH THIS POTENTIALLY BEING THE LAST TIME ON TRACK FOR YOU UNTIL THE RACE DURING QUALIFYING DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FOR NIGHTTIME CONDITIONS?
“I think so. I think the race track gained a lot more grip than we all thought it was going to. In the past looking at previous years qualifying we haven’t really picked up from practice speeds and we picked up four tenths of a second. Kind of we know a little more of the direction it’s going to go, but at the same time I feel like a lot of the rubber is going to go away with the rain. We are kind of just going to have to wait and see what it does. We could very well be racing in the day on Sunday. I don’t think any of us really know what is going to happen here. Hopefully, it’s a night race, I feel like that is going to suit our car a little more. Charlotte tends to free up at night and we were pretty tight in practice, but either way I think we are going to have a great car.”

HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL KNOWING DALE, JR. IS SITTING THERE WATCHING YOU QUALIFY TONIGHT?
“Dale Earnhardt, Jr. saved my career two years ago when he gave me that chance in the Xfinity car. It just means a lot to have him help me as much as he has and be the friend that he’s been. He has been a big part of my life and I will definitely cherish that friendship forever. Without him I wouldn’t have got the ride I did last year and going forward obviously I hate the circumstances, but without him saying ‘hey put Alex in it’ I don’t think that Hendrick Motorsports really would have thought of me. Maybe they would have, but who knows. I’m definitely thankful for all his support.”

Co