MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
COCA-COLA 600
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
MAY 25, 2017
CHASE ELLIOTT IS TOP CHEVY QUALIFIER AT CHARLOTTE
CONCORD, NC (May 25, 2017) – With a speed of 192.260 mph around the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott qualified his No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet SS to a third place starting position for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
In today’s knockout-style qualifying format, Jamie McMurray qualified his No. 1 GearWrench Chevrolet SS in 11th with a speed of 190.503 mph, to give Team Chevy two of the Top 12 starting spots for the longest Cup race of the year.
Jimmie Johnson, who has four Coca-Cola 600 wins to his credit, qualified 14th in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy SS. Paul Menard qualified 16th in the No. 27 Knauf/Menards Chevy SS, Ryan Newman was 17th in the No. 31 Grainger Chevrolet SS, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., will start 19th in the No. 88 Nationwide Patriotic Chevy SS.
Series point leader and last week’s pole winner, Kyle Larson, was unable to qualify his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS because it did not pass inspection. Larson will start Sunday’s race from the 39th position.
Kevin Harvick (Ford) won the pole, Kyle Busch (Toyota) qualified second, Matt Kenseth (Toyota) qualified fourth, and Erik Jones (Toyota) was fifth.
The Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 28 at 6 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd
WHAT WAS YOUR STRATEGY TO THE SESSIONS TONIGHT IN QUALIFYING?
“Just try to improve our ole NAPA Chevy. From the first round to the end I thought we made it better. I feel like I learned a couple of things driving. Just trying to pick up on that little bit that we are missing. I think we improved. I think that is all you can ask for. It’s a long race. Third is a plenty good enough starting spot. You don’t have to qualify really good if your car is driving well Sunday afternoon, Sunday night. Happy with third, this is an area we need to improve on in qualifying. I’m really happy we did that and get a great pit stall selection, which is helpful for 600 miles worth of racing.”
WHAT KIND OF RACE DO YOU THINK WE WILL SEE HERE SUNDAY?
“I think it will be interesting with what NASCAR did with the track and how the groove is going to move around. I think we are all going to be paying close attention to the Xfinity race tomorrow to see how those guys attack the race track and if it does make a difference I will be curious to see how it wears along during their race which is only half the distance of ours. I know they said they are going to reapply it for the race on Sunday, so I’m curious to see if that reapplication is enough to hold up throughout the entire race. The bottom is awfully fast here at night and as the sun goes down. I will be curious to see if it’s fast enough to take the long way around.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 11th
ANOTHER STRONG QUALIFYING SESSION FOR YOU AND THE TEAM. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT HOW THE TRACK CHANGED THROUGHOUT THOSE ROUNDS?
“Yeah, it didn’t change a lot for us and I was a little shocked. Normally, this is like a super weather sensitive track. So, it didn’t change a whole lot, the track didn’t really speed up a lot. It was pretty consistent. I think we were like 10th, 11th and 11th in all three rounds. We just kind of maintained what we had. I thought we would maybe be a little bit better than that in qualifying just based on practice, but it seemed like some of those guys found a little speed from stickers to scuffs and we weren’t able to pick up as much as they were.”
HOW IS AN 11TH PLACE QUALIFYING EFFORT GOING TO HELP YOU COME SUNDAY?
“Well, its stage 1 points. It’s so weird that is what you think about in a 600-mile race, but there are a lot of points in stages. There are going to be 30 possible points in the stage racing side of it. Starting up front, this is one of those… even the All-Star race is that way, one of those tracks there is not a lot of cautions at. So, starting up front is going to be super important.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 14th
YOU JUST MISSED MAKING THE FINAL ROUND. HOW WERE THE TRACK CONDITIONS AND WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED?
“They were a lot different than what we anticipated. So, we just didn’t get the balance right from practice to Q (qualifying). We thought we had a good idea of what to go on based on last week and it just didn’t repeat for us like we thought, so we just missed it a little bit there.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Did not make a qualifying attempt, was unable to get through pre-qualifying inspection
YOU DIDN’T GET THE CHANCE TO QUALIFY. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS RIGHT NOW?
“We’ll start last instead of from the pole. I guess I’m upset at myself for getting into the wall in practice there because it put us behind on getting to the tech line. We still failed a couple of times. The machine wouldn’t work there, late, and it cost us a minute or minute and a half, and we actually passed. But we didn’t have enough time to get out there. Had the machine worked, maybe we would have made it out there for that round. I don’t know. I won’t speak too much on it because I don’t know much about how that whole tech process works. I know all the teams hate it. The teams point at NASCAR. NASCAR points at the teams. It’s confusing to me.”
HOW HARD IS IT GOING TO BE COMING FROM THE BACK?
“I hope the VHT up top is nice. I don’t know, it’s going to be, I don’t know, Charlotte is a hard place to pass at, but you’ve got 600 miles to do it. I typically don’t qualify well here anyway, so I come from the back here a lot. So, I’m not too worried about it. I’ve won races from 24th in a sprint car in 30 laps. 600 miles should be okay.”
WHAT WAS THE ISSUE?
“I think rear tow or something. I’m not sure. There that final time it looked like the machine I guess wasn’t working. I don’t know if somebody stepped over one of the lasers or triggered a reset or whatever, but we sat on there for about a minute or so and waited for it to restart and then we passed and just didn’t have enough time. Maybe if the machine would have worked when we first got over it that final time maybe we would have had enough time to get out there and make a lap.”
IS IT JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS THESE DAYS YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A COUPLE OF TIMES DURING THE YEAR WHERE THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO HAPPEN?
“Yeah, it happened to us at Texas and we rebounded from that and finished second. Like I said, I’m not too worried about it. I know the teams are frustrated with the tech process. I know nothing about how it all works. I don’t really have much to say about it other than I know my crew chief hates it.”