TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
TOYOTA OWNER’S 400
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
APRIL 30, 2017
BOWTIE BULLETS
LEADER OF THE PACK:
Chevrolet leads all other manufacturers with 37 victories at the 0.75-mile, D-shaped, Richmond International Raceway.
CHEVY HISTORY MINUTE:
Did you know? Chevrolet’s Jeff Gordon set the track qualifying record of 130.599 mph in his Chevrolet SS on September 6, 2013.
MANUFACTURER STANDINGS:
Following the first eight races in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Chevrolet leads the manufacturer standings by eight markers over the competition. Chevrolet has 39 total MENCS Manufacturer championship titles and is looking for an unprecedented number 40 this season.
RACE REWIND:
Last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and pilot of the No. 48 Chevy SS, Jimmie Johnson, recorded Chevrolet’s fourth victory of the 2017 season.
TUNE-IN:
The Toyota Owner’s 400 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, April 30 at 2 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN 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 769 wins and 690 poles in MENCS competition
Chevrolet drivers have won 37 of 121 races at Richmond International Raceway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS, has three victories at RIR (’00, ’04 & ’06)
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, has three wins at RIR (’07 – TWICE & ‘08)
Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, has made one trip to Victory Lane at RIR (’05)
Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS, has one trophy from RIR (’03)
A Chevrolet driver has won one of the last four races at Richmond International Raceway
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Richmond International Raceway 46 times
Team Chevy drivers have scored 230 top-five and 468 top-10 finishes at Richmond International Raceway
A Chevrolet has led laps 15,174 (41.8% of possible 45,503 laps) at Richmond International Raceway
FOR THE FANS:
Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Midway at Richmond International Raceway
Fans can check out great a great assortment of Chevrolet vehicles including: Cruze, Malibu, Impala, Volt, Camaro 2SS Convertible, Corvette Grand Sport, Colorado, Silverado 2500 High Country, Silverado 1500 Crew, Suburban and Equinox
At the Chevrolet Display, fans can view the No, 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, 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, April 28th
10:30 a.m. – Daniel Hemric
11:30 a.m. – Quin Houff
12:00 p.m. – Brandon Jones
Saturday, April 29th
9:15 a.m. – Brendan Gaughan
9:30 a.m. – Ross Chastain, Harrison Rhodes and Garrett Smithley
Sunday, April 30th
10:30 a.m. – Jamie McMurray
10:50 a.m. – Kyle Larson
Chevrolet Display Hours of operation: Fri. April 28th – 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Sat. April 29th – 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Sun. April 30th – 8:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CHEVROLET SS – POINTS LEADER
“We’re coming off another good race, and looking forward to having a good weekend at Richmond in the Credit One Bank Chevy. Richmond hasn’t been my best track, but we always seem to come away from here with a decent finish. We had a really solid run in last fall’s race, so I’m sure we’ll go back to those notes to help us start off on Thursday. I’ll also be running the XFINITY race with Credit One Bank on our Camaro, so it will be good to get a few more race laps in before Sunday’s Cup race.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA BRAKES CHEVROLET SS – 2ND IN STANDINGS
ON RACING DURING THE DAY VERSUS AT NIGHT AT RICHMOND:
“I think it puts on a better show during the day. I prefer night racing, but these cars seem to like day racing a little better. If it’s going to put on a better show and offer more opportunity as a driver then let’s race during the day.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – 6TH IN STANDINGS
“Winning back to back races is really amazing, and it does create some momentum, but Texas, Bristol and the upcoming Richmond racetracks are all their own unique entities. Like Bristol, we have had some struggles at Richmond, it’s one of those tracks for the No. 48 team and take it as it comes, but the momentum surely helps.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CHEVROLET SS – 7TH IN STANDINGS
“Richmond is a track where I always look forward to racing. It is typical short-track racing which is always fun and the track surface is pretty worn-out which adds an element of managing tire wear. The fall-off is pretty significant throughout a run. If we have long green-flag runs, it will be important to maintain track position. We are also excited to have a new partner on the No. 1 Chevy SS this weekend. GearWrench will have their first primary sponsorship race and I am excited to see many of our new partners at the track this weekend to cheer on the GearWrench Chevy.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 OKUMA CHEVROLET SS – 14TH IN STANDINGS
“For us going to Richmond is a confidence builder and carries momentum because Phoenix is a sister track to Richmond. We’ll take a lot of similar ideas from Phoenix to Richmond and hopefully parlay that into a good performance as well.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CHEVROLET SS – 21ST IN STANDINGS
“Yeah, the track changes a little bit there. Richmond was an Achilles heel of mine and I felt like we’ve had some really good runs the last two races. Learned a lot about saving tires and approach to the track, so now I feel like I have an approach to the race and it’s worked well for us.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – 24TH IN STANDINGS
“Richmond’s real slick. It’s really hard to get a hold of and hard to figure out exactly what line we’re running and where you need to put your car to get it to work. It’s been a bit of a challenge for us over the last couple of trips, but it should still be a fun race.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 ROCKSTAR ENERGY/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – 25TH IN STANDINGS
“Not really, it’s unique in its size and shape. It’s pretty wide for how small it is and races wide also, similar to an intermediate track. It’s abrasive on tires so the pace falls off quite a bit throughout a run, which changes how the car handles as well. So, you’re always fighting some changing balance issues. Because it is wide, and is abrasive, it allows us to move around and find a groove that works for what your balance is doing. Since we race on Sunday afternoon now, you can expect to see the track widen out more. Anytime you race at night, it’s obviously hotter at the start of the race then it cools off throughout the night so you just migrate to that bottom lane. I think under the sunlight, that groove just widens out more. It’s a lot of fun for us to race around on.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – 26TH IN STANDINGS
“Richmond has been a funny place to me. I loved it for many years. We were really good there no matter what team I was on. For whatever reason the last couple of years there, we have struggled pretty bad. We’re hoping to change that this weekend.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KINGSFORD CHEVROLET SS – 28TH IN STANDINGS
“Never practice in race conditions and we never even think about running the top side in practice and you haven’t in the past, but I think it is finally working that way. For whatever reason, I want to like Richmond. I like the idea, I like short-track racing. It’s a fun track. I just haven’t run that well there. That does bother me. I’m going to work on trying to make that better. I think that our short-track program over at JTG Daugherty is pretty good. Richmond, me and Trent (Owens, crew chief) have talked about it, is not really a strong suit for either of us, so we will have plenty of notes to lean off of from Randall (Burnett, crew chief for teammate AJ Allmendinger) and AJ (Allmendinger) this time around.”