MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 3, 2017
Ryan Newman Sets Quick Time for Team Chevy at Atlanta
Five Chevy SS Driver’s Make it to Final Round of Knock-Out Qualifying
HAMPTON, Ga. (MARCH 3, 2017) – Ryan Newman led the charge for Team Chevy in qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) laying down a lap of 29.199 seconds/189.870 mph in the final round of knock-out qualifying for Sunday’s Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race, the second event of the 2017 campaign. Newman leads all active drivers with seven career poles at the 1.5-mile, Hampton, Georgia track. The driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS led a contingent of five Bowtie branded drivers in the final qualifying order.
“I’m just proud of everybody at RCR and ECR with this Caterpillar Chevrolet,” said Newman after qualifying on the front row for the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500. “We were so close. I really wanted to beat my old buddy, Buddy Baker’s record there. Been tied with him for a while so that was kind of rough. It was a good start for sure.”
Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS and Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS will start side-by-side when they take the green-flag for 500 miles of racing on the last race before AMS gets a new racing surface.
Georgia native, Chase Elliott, No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet SS and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS will start 11th and 12th respectively.
Current 7-time MENCS champion, Jimmie Johnson, a five-time winner at Atlanta will be looking to defend his 2015 and ’16 victories on Sunday, qualified his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS in the 18th position.
Kevin Harvick (Ford) won the pole, Kyle Busch (Toyota) will start third, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (Ford) will start fourth and Brad Keselowski (Ford) will start fifth to round out the top-five starters.
The Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 is slated to begin Sunday, March 5th at 2:30 pm on FOX, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 2nd
HOW SATISFYING IS TO COME TO THE TRACK WITH THAT KIND OF PIECE UNDERNEATH YOU?
“Well yeah, it’s definitely nice. I’m just so proud of the guys. And this is not at all the answer to our season, but it was a good effort to improve on where we were at this point last year and overall just to have a shot. Being real competitive and winning practice, which is the first time we’ve done that in a while. I think we were basically top two in all the rounds. That was good. (Kevin) Harvick just slipped in there and beat us. I really thought the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) would have been good enough just based on the third run on tires, but either he found something or just got his ultimate lap and I had been clipping off mine. I’m proud of the guys with the Caterpillar Chevrolet. Everybody at RCR and ECR. The effort that went into this is big and I feel like we have a good competitive car for this weekend.”
HOW TOUGH IT IS TO BALANCE BEING HAPPY WITH THAT EFFORT BUT AT THE SAME TIME KNOWING IT’S NOT THE ANSWER THAT YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR:
“Yeah, I mean it’s I guess a baby step and it’s a lot of effort that goes into that one little baby step, but it’s huge. You can see the emotions on the guys faces in the garage on our No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet that is something I didn’t see for a while last year. Even in Daytona we never really were anything anybody talked about. We were there, we had a competitive car, but we did not meet the… we never were on anybody’s one hand of guys that were going to win the race. Not to say that Kurt (Busch) was, but in the end just proud of the effort that went into it. It was a very well run day by Luke (Lambert, crew chief) and all the guys on the team and we’ve got personnel changes so it’s important for us to have those personnel changes so up and when they show up immediately in the season it is nice to see.”
BECAUSE YOU HAVE SEVEN POLES AT ATLANTA ARE YOU MORE COMFORTABLE HERE? WITH THE STAGES AND ALL THE TIRE STRATEGY IS TRACK POSITION EVEN GOING TO MATTER IN THIS RACE ON SUNDAY?
“I definitely have confidence when I come here to qualify. I think my guys see that and know that. That doesn’t always mean that you are going to be fast or win the pole, obviously, like today, but in the end, it’s a good starting spot, a good baseline to perform. We unloaded good, we made the car better. We didn’t make it quite good enough, but in the end, we are still in the hunt and we have a good shot on Sunday.
“With the stages with the race track position no matter what is always going to be important. This track here probably one of the least important when it comes to being able to have room to pass and make things happen, but in the end, track position is track position it is always nice to be number one.”
WAS GETTING THROUGH INSPECTION A CONCERN FOR YOU COMING INTO THIS RACE?
“I mean it should be a concern of mine, but in the end, it is ultimately it is Luke Lambert’s concern and the other crew chief’s out there that are responsible and carry that weight on their shoulders to get the cars through tech. With the different process this year, yeah, I think it was on a lot of guy’s mind, but in the end, I didn’t really focus on it. I just wanted to go out there and hit my marks and do my thing. I don’t think it necessarily had any outcome on who won the pole today, but it was obviously something that had concern with the whole change of schedule and change of timing of things.”