TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
KOBALT 400
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
MARCH 12, 2017
BOWTIE BULLETS
CHEVROLET WINNER’S CIRCLE:
Chevrolet SS driver, Jimmie Johnson, is not only a seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, but he is the most successful driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with four wins to his credit.
SPEEDING BOWTIE BULLET:
Kasey Kahne, pilot of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, holds the record for most poles at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with three top starting spots at the 1.5-mile venue on his racing resume.
LUCKY NUMBER 7:
Since the first race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1998, Chevrolet drivers and teams have gone to Victory Lane seven times, and are only two wins away from being the most successful manufacturer at the track.
WEST COAST SWING:
2017 marks the third consecutive year that the NASCAR schedule has taken the series on a ‘West Coast Swing’ visiting Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway and Auto Club Speedway in succession. Chevrolet has been the most successful manufacturer by earning four of the six races in the past two seasons that the series has made this mecca.
TUNE-IN:
The Kobalt 400 is slated to commence on Sunday March 12th at 3:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
BY THE NUMBERS:
Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships
Team Chevy drivers have scored 765 wins and 689 poles in MENCS competition
Chevrolet drivers have won seven of 19 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 KOBALT Chevrolet SS, has four wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (’05, ’06, ’07 & ‘10)
A Chevrolet driver has won one of the last two races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Las Vegas Motor Speedway four times
Team Chevy drivers have scored 40 top-five and 79 top-10 finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
A Chevrolet has led 2,128 laps (45.2% of possible 4,708 laps) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
FOR THE FANS:
Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the midway area at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Fans can check out great a great assortment of Chevrolet vehicles including: Malibu 2LZ, Impala 2LZ, Cruze Sedan, 2017 Equinox Premier, Colorado Z71 Crew, Silverado Double Cab Special Ops Edition, Camaro SS Convertible, Silverado 2500 HD Alaskan Edition Diesel
At the Chevrolet Display, fans can view the No. 3 DOW Chevrolet SS and No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro Xfinity Series show cars
Also on display is a Chevrolet R07 racing engine complete with electronic fuel injection. Fans can also see a sample of engines, parts and accessories available for purchase from Chevrolet Performance at their local Chevrolet dealer
Other activities at the Team Chevy Racing Display include a variety of interactive games for adults and kids
TEAM CHEVY QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS AT THE DISPLAY:
Friday, March 10th
12:15 p.m. – Brandon Jones
Saturday, March 11th
9:00 a.m. – Spencer Gallagher
Sunday, March 12th
9:00 a.m. – Austin Dillon
9:15 a.m. – Michael McDowell and Allan Habel the crew chief for the USAF Thunderbirds
Chevrolet Display Hours of operation: Fri. March 10th – 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Sat. March 11th – 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sun. March. 12th – 7:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – 4TH IN STANDINGS
ON WHAT MAKES LAS VEGAS UNIQUE:
“The surface out there is not very worn. I feel like it’s still pretty fresh, the track has a lot of grip. I feel like Turns 1 and 2 has a lot of banking, 3 and 4, to me seems kind of flat for whatever reason. It can be a challenge to try to marry those two ends of the race track together for a race.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – 6TH IN STANDINGS
“I love the city. You can get great food. The race track itself is pretty fun. I wish the groove would get wider than it does, but it will get there eventually.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 LIFTMASTER CHEVROLET SS – 9TH IN STANDINGS
“The West Coast swing is great. Las Vegas is really fast, but over the years it’s gotten rough and has some interesting bumps and things that you have to make sure your car handles over and maneuvers through really well.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – 11TH IN STANDINGS
“Definitely, just the area. It gets real sandy on the race track. Last year we had a, I don’t know what you call that a mini tornado blow through. It was so windy and the track changes a lot. It’s temperature sensitive and it’s definitely rubber sensitive. It’s a place that doesn’t get a lot of work used on it and all of a sudden, we go out there and we put a whole weekend of rubber on the race track. It definitely changes a lot as the course of the weekend goes on. Once it gets hot out it gets slick and just that sand in the air, you are always fighting trying to make sure the race track is clean. It’s a tough challenge. It has a couple of bumps in it now, so it’s a difficult race track.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CREDIT ONE BANK/CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – 12TH IN STANDINGS
ON PARTICIPATING IN THE TIRE TEST AT LAS VEGAS:
“Every tire test is a little bit different. For the most part, when you go to the tire test, they know the tire that they want to bring back. One of the things that we worked really hard on was trying to find a tire that ran really quick at the beginning and then had a lot of fall off and also wore out. Ideally, we would like to have the tires wear out when we are out of gas, so we have to put tires on if the caution falls. So, they had a couple of tires that did really well. They had some that wore out too fast, which was actually a good problem. What I gathered from that was they were going to go back and try to give us something in between. I thought it was a good test.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 VALVOLINE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – 15TH IN STANDINGS
“Vegas, for being a fairly recently paved track it has a lot of bumps, but different than Atlanta. It has like a higher frequency chatter bump. Atlanta’s bumps are really big and rolling, where Vegas has these really high frequencies which almost wants to pick the tires up. So, it’s a shock guy’s nightmare.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – 20TH IN STANDINGS
“It’s got a lot of character really. For how smooth it is in (Turns) 3 and 4 it’s exactly the opposite and rough in (Turns) 1 and 2. That is the uniqueness about Vegas and I think as well, which sounds kind of weird, but the way that the sun hits the race track, (Turns) 1 and 2 is always shaded and 3 and 4 is always cooking hot. A big difference in track temperature from one end to the other.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 LUCAS OIL CHEVROLET SS – 23RD IN STANDINGS
ON WHAT MAKES LAS VEGAS UNIQUE:
“The bumps. I feel like it’s pretty bumpy, but also starting to move around quite a bit there. Move up to the top, move back to the bottom and chase that rubber. There is even some grip in the middle of the track sometimes. Really can move around and find speed.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – 26TH IN STANDINGS
“I think it’s a little bit different layout of a track. The track is starting to get more worn-out. It’s getting rougher and when you start adding characteristics like that the track takes kind of a name of its own. It’s nice to see that Vegas is getting more and more worn-out and getting rougher and there are starting to become more lines that you can use all the way across the race track.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, NO. 95 WRL GENERAL CONTRACTORS CHEVROLET SS – 27TH IN STANDINGS
ON THE WEST COAST SWING:
“I think no matter what going to the West Coast is difficult for the teams, especially small teams when most of the guys that are working at the shop are also coming to the race track. So, to switch cars out and to do the swap and all those things and we don’t have an extra hauler and all this other stuff, it’s definitely a challenge. But, it doesn’t matter if you throw Bristol in between there or another race in between there you are still going to have to do the mileage one way or another. I like the schedule. It’s good for a lot of reason, one is there are not a lot of places on the East Coast that time of year that are going to be nice to race in, so going to Daytona and then Atlanta and then being able to go to Vegas and Phoenix and California where the weather is nice I think that is an important part of the schedule. There are just a lot of moving parts.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT CHEVROLET SS – 32ND IN STANDINGS
ON WHAT MAKES LAS VEGAS UNIQUE:
“It is so fast for its configuration. There is not a lot of banking there. Every memory I have is just driving over my head and driving like a fool to put up lap time. There is a lot of grip in that race track.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – 33RD IN STANDINGS
“I like the steep banking at Las Vegas. They reconfigured it many years ago and it’s much more fun with the steeper banking. I’m looking forward to the next couple of racetracks – there are a lot of fun racetracks coming up. I love the low-downforce package. The cars are hard to drive and everyone is out there being challenged. It’s awesome.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 NATURAL LIGHT CHEVROLET SS – 35TH IN STANDINGS
THOUGHTS ON THE WEST COAST SWING:
“I have always flown back and forth and I have decided I’m going to stay out this time because 27 hours of flight time over three weekends is rough. I’m going to give it a shot here. I’m at least going to stay for two of the weekends and maybe come back for one, but I honestly might just stay out the whole time. I spend a lot of my free time, got a couple of Polaris’ we got and ride. It’s something that I enjoy doing. We spend all our off weekends riding and I’m thinking that the West Coast swing will be a good time to go try the dunes out in a Razor for the first time.”