MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 18, 2017
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 HUGGIES LITTLE MOVERS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 2nd:
“I wish I could have gone just a few thousandths faster, but ended up second. So, not bad. I really wanted that pole there just because I was doing something different than everybody, but we’ll start on the front row tomorrow and hopefully be there at the end.”
THE ROUND BEFORE WAS WHEN YOU FOUND THE TOP. DID YOU PLAY YOUR HAND TOO EARLY THERE?
“No, I felt like everybody would still be too nervous to go up there. I don’t know. I think I can find my rhythm faster up top than most. So, it’s just sketchy. You’re going so fast here and one the edge already on the bottom. So, if you haven’t tried it up top in qualifying trim, it’s hard to commit. But, I ran one lap up there in practice in qualifying trim. It felt pretty good. I kind of kept that in the back of my mind. I wish I would have gotten the pole, like I said, but Erik (Jones, pole winner) is really good here at Bristol. So, it will be fun racing with him tomorrow.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 RATED RED CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 3rd
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CAR IN RACE TRIM?
“Hopefully it is the same. It actually had a lot of the same kind of tendencies right there on where it drove. It’s all center off is where I didn’t get the pole or came close to it in all the runs there. I think our car is pretty close and we just need to keep working on it. But, yeah, it drove really similar in practice as it did in qualifying.”
IT SEEMED LIKE YOUR WIN AT THE BRICKYARD SORT OF CAME OUT OF NOWHERE, BUT SINCE THEN THIS TEAM HAS REALLY PUT THE CAR UP FRONT AND RUN MUCH BETTER WHAT DO YOU THINK IS BEHIND THAT?
“Well, I think we had good speed at Brickyard in practices there. So, I think it started there and then the win was kind of out of nowhere and pretty awesome and ever since I feel like we have been a little bit better. We still have some work to do, but you know it’s not really time yet. Hopefully, we can get it before those final 10.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 4th
ON HIS TOP FIVE STARTING EFFORT:
“Yeah, plenty good enough for us if we have it good enough for tomorrow night. We will go to work on them then and hopefully we have everything where we need to be in order to be good. When the count is 500 laps that is a very long time.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE THREE ROUNDS OF QUALIFYING? DID THE CAR AND THE TRACK CHANGE MUCH OVER THE THREE ROUNDS?
“Yeah, it was like the tires gave up a little bit as we went. You are running so fast around the bottom the tires are working hard and they are working more than what they are built to work with the VHT. We are being pretty rough on them down there so we will see.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 13th
WHAT PART OF THE TRACK OR YOUR RACE CAR DO YOU THINK NEEDED A LITTLE MORE MAKE THAT FINAL ROUND?
“I mean we had what we had there. I got a little loose when I tried a little bit harder and cost me. But somebody’s got to be 13th, so the Caterpillar Chevrolet will start 13th tomorrow night and hopefully have a better run than what we did in qualifying.”
HOW MUCH HAS THE TRACK CHANGED FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING?
“I wouldn’t say it changed a whole lot. It just really takes about 15 cars on it for it to get activated so that you can actually go faster. You don’t want to be the first guy on it and you really don’t want to be the last guy on it because your tires don’t get cooled off for the next round.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT FOR A DRIVER TO TRY AND PLAN THAT?
“I know it’s a bunch of hoodoo stuff. I don’t think we need to have it here. It’s kind of a waste of energy. Something to talk about, we are here to talk about the racing not what is on the race track.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BUSH’S GRILLIN’ BEANS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 15th
15TH IS NOT A BAD STARTING SPOT:
“No, that’s really good. Just wish I could have gotten a little closer to where we had it in practice, but with the conditions and the down time I think we did pretty good. It’s a good qualifying effort for our Bush’s Grillin’ Beans Chevrolet and puts us on the bottom for the start of the race, where I think is where you are going to want to be. I would imagine that top is going to come in a little bit later, but glad to be on the bottom for the start.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 KNAUFF/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 27th
“The balance was actually decent. I thought it would run like a .10, maybe a flat. Just the second run on tires really quick turnaround. The pressures came in a little bit higher so probably didn’t bleed enough, but we had a really good car in practice. We tried a little experiment at the end of Happy Hour, so we never really got a good mock run and we just missed the balance that first run. Feel good about it for tomorrow though.”