MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 18, 2017
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CARS 3 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
WAS THE RESTART THE WINNING MOVE WHEN YOU DROVE PAST KYLE BUSCH TO GET LANE CHOICE AT THE END?
“Yeah, Ryan Blaney gave me a heck of a push. So, I’ve really got to thank him a ton. I knew the Penske cars took off good, so I was happy to see him behind me. For us to withstand a few restarts there with some tough competitors there was pretty important. I can’t thank these guys enough. The Cars 3 Chevy was really, really fast. And it was cool to win it. What a great Father’s Day present for myself and all the other fathers out there. My dad is here today, too. So, I’m looking forward to celebrating with him. We’ve been so close to so many other wins. This is our second Cup win of the year, but we’ve had six second place finishes. All-in-all, it’s a good season so far and we’ll continue to keep building on what we’ve got.”
YOU HAD TOLD US SEVERAL TIMES THIS YEAR YOU HAD TO WORK ON RESTARTS. YOU HAD TWO OF THE BEST TODAY. TAKE US THROUGH THE FINAL TWO RESTARTS:
“Yeah, thankfully, Michigan has got some decent grip where you don’t spin your tires too bad. We were able to just have good pushers every restart there and sucked down on their door into (Turn) 1 and get them loose underneath me. I was a little bit nervous, but I thought with the people behind me, I would be okay. The Cars 3 Chevy was good all day. I thought we were probably a third to fifth place car. The No. 78 and No. 18 were definitely better than I was, but we kept working on it and had good restarts there when it mattered.”
YOU WERE THE ONLY GUY ALL DAY LONG THAT RESTARTED SECOND THAT WAS ABLE TO COME OUT OF TURN 2 WITH THE LEAD HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
“I just had a hell of a push from Ryan Blaney behind me. I can’t thank him enough for shoving me like that. It was cool to see him get his win last week and then he helped me a ton today to get this win. He stayed committed to me all the way down the frontstretch and got me past the No. 18 which was key.”
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU DROPPED BACK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE? HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO REGAIN IT?
“Yeah, I think restarted third or fifth that time and got loose off of (Turn) 2 and I got freight trained down the backstretch. Just really hard to restart on the bottom unless you are on the front row you can get clear of them. Just had to keep fighting all day. The restarts really paid off there at the end. We were lining up in the right lines and getting the right pushes at the right time.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
GOT THE CAR IN POSITION WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE ON THOSE FINAL RESTARTS?
“Man, I don’t know. It was all just about how your push went. I am really proud of our effort today. I thought we way improved from where we were last year as far as those late-race restarts go and was able to hang with them and really just kind of rely on the guy behind you. Kyle (Busch) gave me a great push. I didn’t give him a very good push that time before. He went a little sooner than I thought he was going to. He gave me a good push and I think somebody pulled out on him. He had to go block them and it just ends up kind of disrupting the whole situation when that happens. But, a great day from our NAPA Chevy group. I think we overachieved today with where we started this weekend, which is always nice when you are here at the racetrack. Happy to do that and ready to get on down the road and get through these summer months and try to tune everything in.”
FOR THE THIRD STRAIGHT RACE HERE YOU’VE FINISHED IN THE TOP 5 BRINGING IT HOME IN SECOND PLACE. IT WASN’T EASY. THIS TEAM HAD TO MAKE SOME BIG CHANGES TO THE CAR YESTERDAY. HOW WAS IT TODAY TO FIGHT BACK AND GET A GREAT FINISH?
“It was. I’m really proud of our NAPA Chevy team. From where we started the day to where we ended up, I was really proud of our effort. I really think we over-achieved today from what we had on Friday and Saturday and even last night, I was getting a little nervous about how the day was going to go. So, I’m happy that we could have a solid day and put ourselves in position and kind of rely on some late-race restarts. We had a couple of opportunities to get the lead. And unfortunately, it just didn’t work out. But we’ll move on. Congratulations to Kyle (Larson, race winner). He had a fast car today and we’ll try to go get ‘em next week.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
DESCRIBE YOUR AFTERNOON FOR US:
“Yeah, great day for our McDonald’s Chevy. We started off really loose. It almost seemed like the track was going through a weird transition at the beginning. Where you get two or three good laps and it almost was like you catch a gust of wind and have to hang on to the car. You would slide up the race track, but they did a really good job adjusting on it. We had great pit stops all day and good pit calls and a little lucky with the No. 21 (Ryan Blaney) having a flat, there were a few things at the end that happened for us, but good recovery from what happened with us last weekend.”
WHAT A GREAT RECOVERY FROM LOSING YOUR BRAKES LAST WEEK AT THE POCONO RACE. LISTENING TO YOU ON THE RADIO TODAY, YOU HAD YOUR HANDS FULL THE FIRST HALF OF THIS RACE, BUT YOU JUST STAYED IN THE FIGHT
“Yeah, it was a great day for our McDonald’s Chevy. At the beginning of the race it was weird. It seemed like you could run a couple of good laps and then I don’t know if you’d catch a gust of wind or what happened, but it would send the car up the race track. And it wasn’t just me. I saw the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and the No. 2 car (Brad Keselowski) going through the same thing. But our guys did a really good job of adjusting on it. We had great pit stops. And it’s a really good recovery from what happened to us last weekend. I know Chip (Ganassi) is in France right now and probably thrilled. I hope he’s still awake. But overall, it was a great day for our organization.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
ON HIS RUN:
“We had a great car. Just had a hard time getting any track position and keeping it. Greg (Ives, crew chief) did a good job trying to get us that track position on one stop. We just got real loose on that run, about wrecked the car a couple of times and lost a lot of spots. Got lucky there at the end to restart on the outside in 18th and got a bunch of spots there the last few laps to finish in the top 10.”
HOW PROUD OF YOU OF THIS EFFORT GIVEN HOW HARD YOU HAD TO FIGHT?
“Well, we had a real fast car. We had a little bit better car than ninth, I thought. After last week it’s good to get one finished and would like to finish a little better though. The car is a little bit better than that.”
ARE YOU GOING TO THE SIMULATOR FOR SONOMA?
“They book me and tell me when they want me to be in there. We are not going this week and we definitely won’t do it for Daytona, but we will keep working in that simulator any opportunity we get. It’s just a free chance to practice, you might learn something, you might not.”
ARE YOU TRYING TO FOLLOW POINTS?
“No, I don’t’ think we can get in there points wise, we’ve got to win.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON HIS FINISH:
“Just getting inside the top 10 the cars are so equal on pace. It’s really a one groove track still that it’s just hard to make anything happen. Unfortunately, we went to the back, I think if we would have started further forward it would have been a little better day for us. But, just racing at Michigan that is what it is.”