MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 30, 2017

ALL-CHEVY FRONT ROW AS DALE EARNHARDT JR TAKES POLE
AND CHASE ELLIOTT QUALIFIES SECOND AT DAYTONA
Five Team Chevy Drivers to Start in Top-12

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 30, 2017) – Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his 14th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) pole by posting the fastest lap at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) in his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS during qualifying for the Coke Zero 400 on Friday afternoon. The lap of 47.127 seconds and 190.973 mph gave Earnhardt his second career pole at DIS and first since 2013.

Earnhardt Jr.s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, made it an all-Chevy front row by posting the second fastest speed in his No. 24 NAPA Patriotic Chevrolet SS during the final round of the qualifying session. This marks his 10th top-10 start of 2017 and his third in four races at Daytona.

Hendrick Motorsports grabbed three of the top four spots when Kasey Kahne posted the fourth fastest speed in his No. 5 UniFirst Chevrolet SS.

Jamie McMurray, in the No. 1 McDonald’s $1 Any Size Soft Drink Chevrolet SS, was eighth fastest and seven-time MENCS champion, Jimmie Johnson, was 12th in his No 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet giving Team Chevy five starting positions in the Top 12.

Brad Keselowski (Ford) was third and Kevin Harvick (Ford) was fifth to round out the top-five.

The Coke Zero 400 is scheduled to begin on Saturday July 1st at 7:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER:

THIS IS YOUR SECOND POLE AT DAYTONA AND THE POLE NOW QUALIFIES YOU FOR THE ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CLASH AT DAYTONA NEXT YEAR SO I AM GOING TO THROW IT OUT THERE, ARE YOU COMING BACK FOR THAT ONE?
“I will talk to my boss and see what he has got in the shed.”

CHASE WAS IN HERE AND SAID YOU WERE VERY LOCKED IN THIS WEEKEND AND YOU WANTED EVERYTHING PERFECT IN THE MEETINGS. DO YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A DIFFERENT ZONE THIS WEEKEND?
“I don’t think so. I just know that I need the car a certain way and I need it to do certain things. We have had one debrief and I did notice in a couple of situations in practice some things about the balance of the car that I didn’t like. So we addressed that and started working on that and I brought that up to my teammates. I don’t think a lot of guys got themselves in situations where they could see what their cars could do in traffic. So I just brought that up as kind of an alert to say handling might be a little more critical than we thought. Every time we have been here we have been surprised with how poorly the cars drive as the surface continues to age. For the longest time after the repave, you didn’t worry about it. It just stuck like glue. But I was a little alarmed in practice by a couple of things. We worked on it and I think we fixed some. So I was telling them that I thought, to be aggressive, you are going to need to be aggressive with the wheel, side draft hard, defend your position, make moves, make moves late and surprise people. The car has to handle well and you can’t have your hands tied with the car being real tight. You just can’t create things and make things happen. That is all I was saying in those meetings with Chase and them. The car needs to be perfect handling-wise to win the race. If I get a really good handling car that doesn’t give me any issues then I can just think solely on being on the offense and putting together moves or taking advantage of opportunities I see in front of me. I feel great about the car and we have learned some things. We had the cars spinning out, out of nowhere for a couple of years. Chase spun out a couple of times, Jimmie spun out a couple of times, Alex spun out at Talladega and we just couldn’t figure out what was going on. We have worked on our cars real hard to try and get them to handle better and I am hoping that we have made some big gains there.”

WAS THERE SOME EXTRA ATTENTION FROM THE ENGINE DEPARTMENT OR WIND TUNNEL IN PREP FOR THIS WEEKEND?
“Well, to be honest with you I think we have been in the top-three or four in qualifying at Daytona and Talladega for a while. We have shared the front row a couple of times with the 24 car. The 24 car a lot of times was the car that we were chasing. Whether Jeff was driving or Chase. We were finally able to beat those guys today but when I go to the superspeedways the 24 bunch are the guys that I sort of look at as the ones to beat for the pole. That sustained success from that team alone drives the company and what Alan and those guys are able to accomplish when they come to Daytona or Talladega for qualifying has driven our team to be better and that is proved today. So I am not surprised by the Hendrick speed and I hope they are always finding more and I don’t know really anything in particular that we have done. They are always tuning on the bodies and the motors and you have to. What worked last year isn’t even competitive in this day and age of cars and engineers learning so much.”

DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE TO WIN THIS WEEKEND TO GET IN THE PLAYOFFS, A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THIS MAY BE YOUR ONLY CHANCE
“Well, it’s a great opportunity. I think I will look at it as just a great opportunity to go out there and get a win. I know what I need to do on the race track and I will try and go out there and do that this weekend and drive the race that I need to drive and hopefully that has me in position at the end of the race hopefully. There are so many talented cars and talented drivers but hopefully we can get the job done. There are a lot of things that you have to do before you see the checkered flag. There are a lot of things to do. But I don’t know if I am feeling any more pressure than we typically feel when we come do Daytona. We always seem to be in the conversation when we show up and one of the guys that is the favorite or a contender and that has always been the case when we come here. So we have always had a little bit of that to deal with so I don’t think it makes me feel any different about it this weekend.”

HOW DO YOU SEE RACING CHASE TOMORROW NIGHT GIVEN WHAT YOU KNOW AS A VETERAN AND HE AS A GUY COMING UP THE RANKS
“We had the chance to work with him at Junior Motorsports and he won us a championship. So I will be grateful to him for that for a long time for what that did for our company and all of our employees. On top of that an just being successful, his daddy and momma did a good job raising him. He is well spoken, he is polite, he has got a great work ethic, he is very focused about his driving and racing and he puts in the work. I think that he is everything you could ask for as a driver and a teammate. And as young as he is he is going to continue over the years to not only get better and more talented but to sort of pick up a lot of other things too that make you great inside and outside the car. He is really in a great situation with a great owner, great teammates, awesome crew chief….he is in a great situation to grow and improve. But he already had a great foundation before he got to the Cup level as far as his personality and he definitely knew what he was getting himself into having grown up around this and being around this for so long.

“Nothing really shocks him or surprises him and there is never a situation that pops up where he is unaware. So that just comes from growing up around it and it’s a great advantage to have. He has been a pleasure and we have gotten along great and he is much younger than I am but we get along great. He still likes to live in Georgia, which I kind of find odd. But that is where he wants to be and he flies his little helicopter up to Hendrick. Did he tell you all about that? So he has this helicopter that looks like the C.H.I.P.S. helicopter, a little bubble, a little glass ball flying through the air. That blows me away that he has the confidence and composure to just get in the thing and go. And that to me says a lot about him and his character. He just jumps in that thing and says, ‘I will be at the meeting, see you tomorrow’. He just comes in his helicopter, and we will have the meeting and he will go run four miles around the shop and come back and he is just plugged in. There is a side to Bill (Elliott), his dad, that I was unaware of until later in his career where he goes out skiing and he is a bit of a thrill-seeker. He has this competitive nature that still burns. I see that in Chase too. He isn’t scared to go learn how to fly a helicopter. I mean, who does that at that age? I was not thinking of things like that at that age. It is just so impressive. So that says a lot about him to me.”

ARE YOU AWARE OF HAPPY THIS HAS MADE YOUR FANS? IT’S RARE THAT YOU CAN HEAR APPLAUSE LIKE YOU DID TODAY ON PIT ROAD AFTER YOU CROSSED THE FINISH LINE
“That’s great. We haven’t had a lot to be happy about on the race track this year. We haven’t had a whole lot to celebrate. As a driver and I think as a team, you feel responsible to deliver. The fans have expectations. You have expectations of yourself and what you should be able to accomplish on the race track and you feel that responsibility to deliver. They come to the race track to see you lead. And when you don’t you can feel the frustration coming through Twitter and social media after the races where you’re not a factor. They want it. They want you to be up there. Why aren’t you up there? I came to the race to see you run up there. Get up there. And so, that’s evident to me. It follows you around every week. And it’s a responsibility. I’m supposed to get up there and do it. They think I can do it. I think I can do it. Not to get too far off base. It feels good to give ‘em something to cheer about. Hopefully that gets them excited for tomorrow and hopefully folks are turning in and we get a great race. Hopefully we’re a part of the celebration at the end and part of the excitement at the finish.”

TONY STEWART USED TO BE YOUR FAVORITE DRAFTING PARTNER. WHO IS IT NOW? WHO DO YOU TRUST TO TAKE YOU TO THE FINISH LINE?
“I don’t know. Whoever wants to push us to the win tomorrow will be my best friend (laughter). I’ll invite them over to the pool Sunday.”

YOU PRACTICE DURING THE DAY BUT RACE AT NIGHT. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
“In the daytime the track is hot. In the race the track is going to cool off. Any kind of real issues you have in the sun are going to calm down a little bit at night. So, I’m hoping that what I felt and didn’t like about the car we either fixed, or as the track cools off and we run later tomorrow night, they are less evident and not much of a factor. There are kind of two sides to that. You want handling to be very critical. You want guys to not have good handling cars. But you want your car to handle great. You don’t want everybody to have all the grip in the world. That’s not going to be a lot of fun. But, you want the track to be slick but you want the car to drive the way you need it. And that’s asking a lot. But the track is heading in that direction.”

REGARDING THE 1999 IROC RACE AT MICHIGAN, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE AS HAPPY TO FINISH SECOND AS YOUR DAD WAS TO WIN. WAS THAT A BIG DAY FOR YOU AND HIM? DO YOU REMEMBER THE DETAILS OF THAT?
“Oh, yeah. My emotions after that day, I was mad at Rusty. I had a run on Dad. I got to the outside of him and side-drafted him and I was ahead of him when we come off of Turn 4. And I was kind of moving by. He doored-me, which stopped my momentum and physically put both of our cars at a standstill. Rusty, you all know the history between Dad and Rusty. They were friends but kind of rubbed each other the wrong way and were always kind of digging at each other and very competitive on and off the track. If one bought a plane, the other bought a plane. If one did this, the other did this. Well, this was Rusty’s chance. All he had to do was get in behind me. I was already leading my dad by a half a fender. If Rusty tucks in behind me, he quarter-panel side-drafts Dad and I win the race. But, Rusty went down behind Dad and got Dad moving again. So Dad’s kind of going back by me and Dad ends up winning the race. And I’m thinking man, if I’m Rusty, that was his opportunity to really rub it in. And so I don’t know why Rusty did that. I don’t want to know. But I was frustrated because I thought I had him. And how awesome would that have been to beat your dad in equal cars? I’m thinking man, here’s my shot. So, I went to Victory Lane and if I looked happy, it was because I was probably expecting Dad to admit some level of defeat or at least acknowledge how close I came to beating him. But, he never did. He was like, how about that? I won. And I’m like, damn, you almost lost. You ain’t going to even mention how close I came to beating you? He would not give me any satisfaction. I’m guilty of watching my own wins and memories and stuff. It’s fun. I’ve watched that one quite a bit. There’s a video on youtube. It’s like the last five laps. I watch it quite a bit because I know I’m not going to win, but it’s just how close I came to beating him that day. I was just in the Xfinity Series. I was still kind of raw as a driver. But, man. And the whole race, he’s sitting there like giving me hand signals like to stay behind him and stay in line. And he told me before the race, if you stay in line we can win this. And I’m like we? How do ‘we’ win? (laughter). I’m like, I don’t buy that. Me stay in line? We’re not going to get passed? How is that going to help me or you? But he was right. I stayed behind him the whole race and he was worried every lap, waving down the straightaway because he knew I was antsy to try to pass him. And I’m thinking man, I did it just right. I waited until the very end. I’ve got more tire than he’s got. His are wore out. I had him set-up just perfectly. All I needed was just a little help from Rusty. I don’t know whether he knew he was going to help Dad or what but he helped Daddy get back by me. I was thinking man, I’m going to go to Victory Lane and he’s going to be like damn, man; you about beat me. But, that just wasn’t in his nature (laughs).”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET SS, QUALIFIED SECOND:

WALK US THROUGH THE FINAL ROUND OF QUALIFYING:
“I think our NAPA Chevy is good. I was pretty pleased with it yesterday in our drafting runs. We qualified really better than we were anticipating this weekend which is nice. I think it showed our car has some nice pace to it out there by ourselves which certainly can lend a hand when it comes to racing tomorrow night. So we will see.”

HOW DOES IT HELP YOU TOMORROW NIGHT THAT THREE HENDRICK CARS ARE STARTING IN THE TOP-FOUR?
“I just think it shows that our cars have good pace as a whole; as a company. I think that is a big reflection of the engine shop and the power there. I don’t know that starting three of us in the top-five is all that much of an advantage, but I think the fact that the cars have pace is. And, there is power in numbers as the race goes on, and especially now as we see the manufacturers, everybody kind of teams up and does all these strategy maneuvers and plays and tries to be really smart, I think there could be advantages in that – just being around your teammates. If we are all fast, hopefully we can all be up toward the front together. If that is the case, I think that will be helpful when it comes to making pit stops and come out on the race track after you get done on pit road and making time and not wasting time or losing time to that main pack. All that stuff is very important and if we can all be bunched together during that process, I think that is nice.”

HOW DO YOU BALANCE BEING AGGRESSIVE ENOUGH TO PASS A TEAMMATE FOR THE WIN WITH NEEDING TO SURVIVE WITH A GOOD FINISH HERE?
“I don’t really look at the race any differently than I have looked at other ones. I think if you are talking about us needing to points race, sure there have been a lot of different winners, and I think it is going to be close. I don’t think there will be 16 winners. I think there is a possibility of there being pretty close to it though, so I think there could only be a few spots left. If you don’t have a win, I think it is important to have points to be able to try to take one of those last couple of spots that could be left, if there are any. If I’m right on that, but I don’t know. Time will tell. I am not going to approach the race differently, or try to points race. I think down here you kind of take your chances and try to be out front. That is the best place to be if you can get there. Position yourself there at the right time and try to maintain that track position as much of the day as possible. I think that is how these races are won more times than not. I think the guys that do it consistently tend to do it more often than not. That is what we are going to try to do!”

DOES DALE SEEM ANY DIFFERENT THIS DAYTONA VERSUS OTHER DAYTONA RACE EVENTS?
“I just heard him on the radio say he might come back for the Clash. Did you all hear him? I’m just going to start that rumor right now! (Laughs). MRN just asked and Chip Wiles (Daytona track president) is giving me a high-five in the air. And he said he might talk to the boss and see what he could come up with for the Clash. So, you heard it hear first.
“I have seen him – I won’t say he has a chip on his shoulder – but I do think he has been very, very determined this weekend on making sure his car is driving exactly like he wants it. It doesn’t want it good. He doesn’t want it great. He wants it perfect, and I think he has made that very apparent in our post practice meetings. So yes, I think he is very determined to run well here.”

WE TYPICALLY SEE BOBBING AND WEAVING AND BLOCKING TO MAINTAIN TRACK POSITION. HOW DO YOU GET AROUND THE LEADER FOR THE WIN?
“I think you are going to see a lot of that tomorrow night. That is definitely the package we are currently running. Until something drastically changes with the aero balance of these cars, I think that is going to be the name of the game. You can do that and you can have success with it. There are guys that are better at it than others. Those are the guys you see lead the majority of laps here throughout a race. But on the same token, there are going to be times where those rows behind you, the energy is formed up at the right time, and they get big runs. You are not going to be able to block really. There are going to be certain situations when you are out front and guys are going to have such a big run on you that I don’t care who you are, you pull up in front of them, your day is probably going to be done. So, it is a matter of kind of cutting your losses and figuring out what is most important. And if you are going to get passed when you are out front, which lane do you want to be in after that guy gets along side of you. I think it is more the game after you get a guy on the inside or outside of you more that if it is whether they get there or not. At some point in time they are going to get a big run, I think you have to be ready for that.”

ON RICHARD PETTY 80TH BIRTHDAY:
“I remember him being around the race track when Dad was racing full time and we were coming to the track every weekend I remember him still being very involved. The biggest thing with him over the years is the guy hasn’t changed a bit. You see him in the garage, he is over there poking at tires, looking at cars and walking over seeing what you’ve got in your car knowing you are not going to tell him no. He is going to come over there and check it out anyway. Awesome guy. Certainly a great ambassador for our sport. You don’t see many people who had the career he had have that and still come to the race track and show the passion he does every weekend. That’s pretty cool. Happy Birthday to him. 80 years is pretty cool.”

HAS ANYTHING CHANGES IN YOUR SUPERSPEEDWAY RACING?
“I don’t think anything has changed other than just having a little more experience with it. There is a lot of things you can’t control in these races and I think everybody kind of feels like a lot of it is luck. And a lot of it is luck, don’t get me wrong but I think there are a lot of things you can control in these races that are in your hands. It might take a few instances to find a result and maybe something that doesn’t work out for you that might have happened a few steps back that you might need to think back and say ‘if I hadn’t have done that…we might have been in a better position to place myself in a better spot to try to have a little more success’. There have been guys over the past three or four years win a lot of these races consistently tells me that there is a lot of say in your result. It is more than just luck. I’m searching very hard to find that because we do it four times a year and they are important races.”

A MOVIE CAME OUT BEFORE YOU WERE BORN CALLED DAYS OF THUNDER – IT’S THE 27TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MOVIE. DALE, JR WAS IN HERE TALKING ABOUT IT…WHAT IF TOMORROW PLAYED OUT LIKE DAYS OF THUNDER AND IT WAS YOU AND DALE JR RACING FOR THE WIN ON THE FINAL LAP. HOW WOULD THAT GO?
“I don’t know. Grab fifth gear, sixth gear then seventh gear and try to pass him. I don’t know. In those movies I feel like they just keep grabbing gears until they pass the guy, so I don’t know.

“If you go and beat a guy straight-up and you have a good run on him and you are able to pass the guy on the last lap to win the race, I mean, I don’t see how you could be the villain for doing your job at the end of the day.

“Sure everybody wants Dale to win his last race at Daytona, or at what might be his last race at Daytona, we’ll see. But I don’t see how me trying to go do my job is going to make me a villain. If people think that, so be it. But I’m going to go do my thing and if I have an opportunity to pass a guy and do it the right way, then I am going to try my best to do it.”

ARE WE GOING TO SEE PEOPLE GIVE SOMEONE EXTRA ROOM SO THEY AREN’T THAT GUY TOMORROW NIGHT-LIKE THEY DO AT SEASON FINALE?
“No, I don’t think so. I think it is very different than that. When you get to Homestead, there is a sense of respect for those guys that are the final four. I think guys still race them, and when you are at Homestead, I think the further you are toward the front, the right you have to race for a win. For instance in the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) last year, I think he had a right to race Jimmie for the win, and he did as hard as he could. But I think tomorrow night is going to be every man for himself for the most part. Aside from strategy you are going to see from pit road and all the stuff that goes on that I mentioned a minute ago. But I don’t think, I could be wrong-it’s not going to be that way for me-but I don’t think you are going to see that same tendency from all the guys like you do at Homestead.”