CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 6 OF 10
HELLMANN’S 500
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 23, 2016
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION/MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – Finished 4th
“It was really a fun Every time I would make a mistake and get shuffled to the middle it seemed like the crew guys would bring back a solid pit stop to put us in position and to be in control. It feels good when we have that plus alongside our name in points. I was trying to ease it for Tony Gibson (crew chief) and all these guys that work so hard. There was some rooting and gouging at the end and I got some damage. I don’t even know where we finished, but all I was shooting for was top 15.”
WHAT HAPPENED THERE IN THE CLOSING LAPS?
“We were battling hard and had a great run. Our car just wanted to go to the front today. There were a few times I made a mistake and got shuffled back about 15th or so. We just worked our way back up and had good pit stops. This effort today just felt like that total team effort. The pressure is here, but we are going to get stronger and better as this Chase goes on. I’m really excited about this restrictor plate car heading to Daytona next spring.”
WHAT DID KEVIN HARVICK HAVE TO SAY TO YOU?
“He has a misunderstanding of the call at the end of the race. He will understand it and I’m sure he will clear it up in his interview. For us, we are great teammates. We are doing good together. We have to work together to beat all these other teams out there and he knows that.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 7th
DESCRIBE THE FINAL LAPS FOR US AND THE DISCUSSION WITH YOUR TEAMMATE AFTERWARDS:
“Yeah, the final laps everybody is just pushing and shoving and then he (Kurt Busch) cleaned the side of our car out after the checkered flag. I don’t really understand that, but all-in-all the Jimmy John’s Chevrolet team did a great job and didn’t have a scratch on it until then. That is pretty good for Talladega.”
DID KURT HAVE ANY EXPLANATION FOR YOU?
“Not really.”
TEAM MEETING LATER?
“Probably.”
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE RESTART?
“Everybody just got to pushing and shoving and we finished seventh.”
NEXT ROUND?
“One week at a time, same thing as the last 30 some weeks.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – Finished 9th
JUST SO CLOSE…
“Yeah it’s really close. I guess it wasn’t our day to do it. It wasn’t planned for us to do that. We tried. We didn’t really have enough speed all day to do much. I’m proud of my guys and all my teammates helped me as much as they could. We just couldn’t get another spot. We got a couple there at the end on the last little straight, but the No. 43 (Aric Almirola) was the car we needed and it didn’t work out.”
ON THE DAY OVERALL:
“Another top 10 at a speedway it’s pretty nice to get that, but obviously not what we wanted. The No. 22 (Joey Logano) won and the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) finished third, so it’s not what we needed, but we will take it and move on from here.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 10th
ON THE DAY:
“The car rolls, the car is going to roll back onto the hauler so that is probably our best superspeedway effort so far this year. Just kind of sat in the back there and bided our time. When it was time to go got a good line on the bottom there and it kind of got us back up to the lead pack there. From there it was just trying to hold the guys off. I thought we were going to be pretty good there coming to the checkered and I think the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) got kind of left out and lost all of his momentum, so I had to check up just a little bit. It cost us a couple of spots, but it rolls and a top 10 that is what we can do here.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 12th
YOU KNEW YOU LIKELY NEEDED TO WIN TO ADVANCE BUT CAME UP A LITTLE SHORT. IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE AGGRESSIVE OUT THERE. WHAT WAS IT LIKE FOR YOU OUT THERE?
“We were trying to be as aggressive we could and try to make stuff happen. It’s tough to do as you get back in the pack and try to make your way through the pack. It just takes time. There’s definitely a lot of power in numbers. We’re disappointed that we came up short. The NAPA team has been fighting hard the past few weeks. We’ve had some awesome racecars. It’s unfortunate to come up short.”
THERE WAS SOME HOPE YOU COULD WORK WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON TODAY AND YOUR OTHER TEAMMATES. IT SEEMED LIKE IT TOOK AWHILE TO GET TO YOU. HOW HARD WERE YOU WORKING TO GET TOGETHER?
“Those guys were awesome to work with. I felt like they didn’t hurt us. There weren’t enough folks to go with us the times we work together. I appreciate those guys helping us how we could. We’ll move on to Martinsville and try to go get them.”
YOU RAN UP FRONT EARLY AND HAD A CHANCE TO ADVANCE. TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“We just came up short. We had a really good car again. You try to make stuff happen and I felt like we were pretty aggressive trying to get to the bottom and try to make things happen there when it was at the top. I just couldn’t find myself in the right spot at the right time with the right folks behind us, or at least enough folks. We had some great pushers all day, and they knew our car was fast. It was helpful. We just came up short.”
WHAT PUT YOU BACK IN THE RACE?
“I don’t know what happened and how we got shuffled out. It was just kind of the sequence of events. All it takes is one move on someone’s part and it can take you from the top-five and outside the top-10. It doesn’t take much. We just came up a little short.”
YOU HAD A FAST RACE CAR AND LED SOME LAPS. IT LOOKED LIKE YOU DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD. DESCRIBE YOUR EMOTIONS:
“Well, maybe not everything. We tried hard. I felt like we tried hard again this weekend and we were able to lead some laps and stay up front for a good portion of the race there at the beginning. We couldn’t work our way back through there at the right time there at the end. It was just a matter of trying to get some power in numbers. Unfortunately we couldn’t get our lane to go when we needed it. By the time things started to happen, everyone was in a big rush. I don’t know what you can do. We’ll just look forward to Martinsville and go get it there.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 23rd
ON THE NEXT ROUND OF THE CHASE:
“We kind of knew who it would be and who we expected to be in the hunt. It’s time to go racing. We will see what happens in these next three races.”
HOW CONFIDENT DO YOU FEEL GOING INTO MARTINSVILLE?
“Yeah, we haven’t won there lately, so you are only as good as your last race. We will see how it goes.”
YOU ARE ADVANCING TO THE NEXT ROUND OF THE CHASE. WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL WITH THE NEXT THREE RACES COMING UP?
“Yeah, excited about the three tracks that are coming up. They are great for us historically. I hope they continue to be great tracks for us as we look for our seventh championship. Not the day we wanted here, we were certainly trying to work with the No. 24 (Chase Elliott) and help them. Didn’t get the finish that we were really after, but big picture we are going to a great race track next weekend and just have some fun.”
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – Involved in a multi-car crash on lap 114
WHAT HAPPENED?
“We were just on the bottom. I think we were probably about five (laps) away from pitting I think it was. At that point we just kind of move down to the bottom and were waiting for the cycle of pit stops to come around and something happen with the No. 16 (Greg Biffle). I couldn’t tell out of the corner of my eye, I thought maybe he got clipped on the outside and then it swung him back into whoever was below him. We were just cruising along there and all of a sudden just got taken out; a pretty hard hit to the inside wall. I felt like I had a car that had pretty good speed. It was a matter of kind of being up there inside that top 10 or 15 when it really counted to make a move.”