Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Qualifying

*TOP TEAM CHEVY QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
4TH JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVY SS
8TH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVY SS
12TH CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVY SS
13TH DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CHEVY SS

TOP FIVE QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
3rd Matt Kenseth (Toyota)
4th Jamie McMurray (Chevrolet)
5TH Denny Hamlin (Toyota)

The Quaker State 400 is scheduled to begin on Saturday, July 8 at 7:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC Sports Network, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

*The qualifying session for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was called off due to impending weather after the second round of knock-out qualifying was completed and the field was set based off the results after the second round concluded.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 4TH
DO YOU THINK YOU HAD A SHOT AT THE POLE? WOULD YOU HAVE RATHER RAN THAT FINAL ROUND OF QUALIFYING OR ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR POSITION?
“I don’t think you know unless you get to run. With it being a repave and the tire that we are on, tires, like having extra laps on them didn’t seem to hurt. The No. 20 car did that in the first round. We actually ran our best lap on our oldest tires there. Yes, we legitimately probably could have had a shot at the pole, but for us it was all about hitting Turn 3, that is just a really tricky corner and I only hit it one time and it was when it counted the most.”

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 8TH
“Very happy with the performance of the Lowe’s Chevrolet today. Jimmie did a great job. This track with the new configuration not a lot of people have turned laps here, so to be able to come here and run the way we have we were pretty good in race trim and solid in qualifying trim. Yeah, to be able to make the final round we were very optimistic. We thought we were going to be able to maybe get in the top two or three there, unfortunately, we missed our opportunity again to make the final round, but it’s all good. I’m really proud of the guys and everything.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
YOU DIDN’T GET TO RUN THE FINAL ROUND OF QUALIFYING ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED IN THAT?
“Yeah, very, for sure that was disappointing to be as quick as we were that first one and then slow down to last in the round. That is a bummer, you never want to be 12th out of 12.”

NOW THAT WE ARE DONE FOR THE DAY HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CAR FOR THE RACE TOMORROW NIGHT?
“I feel fine about it. I think it’s alright. I thought we got our balance decent today, just going to have to be smart with strategy and have good restarts. Have a good day on pit road and not wreck and hopefully have a shot.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH
“We were struggling off the truck. We even skipped making a mock run in practice. With the tires the way it is, and the stages and all that, you’re going to have all kinds of strategy to cycle your way into a position if you really want to get aggressive. So, I wasn’t too worried about how we qualified. So, we stayed in race trim and I’m glad we did. We got the car a lot better right at the end of the last practice. The No. 42 (Kyle Larson) had a race run that we were really close to in time. Compared to where we were when we unloaded, it was a great improvement. I didn’t expect too much. I don’t qualify that well, especially without a mock run I didn’t anticipate doing well. But, they worked on the car and they made a lot of adjustments and we kept going out there and making runs and ended up in the top 15. So, I’m pretty happy with that; we almost made it into the top 12 without even making a mock run in practice. The guys are working real hard.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 23rd
WHAT DID YOU GUYS MISS IN THE SECOND ROUND AFTER BEING SO QUICK IN THE FIRST ROUND OF QUALIFYING?
“We just got too loose. I got loose into both corners, so I just totally gave up all the time that we had prior to that. It’s disappointing. We had a good car the first round it was pretty solid.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CAR FOR THE RACE?
“I think we will really look at the things that we did to get better in qualifying that first round and try to use those for the race. My car wasn’t bad at all in race trim, but I think some of that stuff can help us a little bit. We showed that the car definitely has speed, so just got to do it right and I think it can be really fast in the race.”

TY DILLON, NO. GEICO CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 27TH:
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT
“Our GEICO team has been really hard-nosed all year. And it’s kind of been days like today. We unloaded and we haven’t been really good, but we get the car where I can drive it hard in the race and no matter what race track it is, by the end of the race we’re there and we’re battling and trying to get inside the top 15. I feel like if you get inside the top 10 in this series, you can have a shot at winning a race. We’ve been there at a couple of them. We’re just like grinders. We grind it out every weekend and try to put ourselves in good position by the end of the weekend. Hopefully we’ll get one soon. We’ve been really close and we’re going to keep working hard.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Did not qualify due to issues in inspection
HOW FRUSTRATING IS THIS FOR YOU?
“I don’t know, obviously, I would like to go out there and qualify because I feel like I have a really good shot at the pole. We will be fine from the back. Our Target Chevy was really good today, I thought, in race trim, better than I’ve ever felt at Kentucky. Obviously, it will be hard to pass, but we also thought the same thing at Texas and we didn’t get to qualify there and I cruised right to the front no problem. So, we will see.”

DID THEY SAY WHAT THE ISSUE WAS?
“No, I hadn’t seen or heard yet. We will find out.”