Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Bristol Qualifying Notes

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 13, 2018

TOP TEAM CHEVY QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
6th KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1
8TH ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1
11TH WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1
15TH KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 WRL GENERAL CONTRACTORS CAMARO ZL1
16TH CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 MOUNTAIN DEW BAJA BLAST CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Kurt Busch (Ford)
3rd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
4th Ricky Stenhouse (Ford)
5TH Ryan Blaney (Ford)

The Foody City 500 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, April 15th at 2 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT RUN?
“Yeah, I mean it’s okay I guess. You would always like to be a little bit better. I don’t know what the fast guys ran there at the end, but I was just a little too tight in the center of the corner and that would make me a little too late back to the throttle. I think that is where most of our speed was.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 8th
GOOD QUALIFYING EFFORT MAKING IT TO THE FINAL ROUND HERE TODAY. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT EFFORT?
“Yeah, you know I thought we were going to be a little better than that. That last run just got really loose in and couldn’t really make consistent laps. We will be good. Eighth is better than we have qualified for the last couple of weeks it seems like. I guess we didn’t really qualify at Texas or Martinsville… man it’s been a while since we have qualified apparently. But, I think we will be okay. This is a place I haven’t been in a couple of years. I have never been here with the traction compound on the bottom, but I’m having fun and I think the car is going to be really good.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
“I think it will be… hopefully on the restart we can be on the bottom, which is a positive. This is way better than I have qualified here. I feel like I learned a little something last year going out in qualifying so early. That stuff on the bottom just doesn’t grip up. I think my average start here last year was like 17th, just because we went out early. This time we waited and we qualified a lot better. I think starting on the bottom will be key.”

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT FOR YOU FIRST RACE HERE AT BRISTOL?
“Yeah, I think it’s good for us. We definitely found what balance we needed, which was really positive and I think we know exactly where we need to be, especially when we come back in the fall. As well, just knowing for the race what we kind of need. I feel good about it and I feel like we are definitely trending in the right direction the last couple of weeks.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 WRL GENERAL CONTRACTORS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
NICE QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“Yeah, that is our best one since Atlanta so that was really nice. We were really close to being a Top 10 there, so I’m frustrated that we didn’t free the car up more, we should have. I’m frustrated about that, but still it’s a gain. I think last week was a gain and then this week so far it’s been a gain, so we will just keep going.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 17th
IT WAS FRUSTRATING. WHAT WAS THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN YOU AND BUBBA WALLACE?
“It’s just circumstantial. We let the track sit green for six minutes and then tried to cram 24 cars out there in four minutes. I thought I managed a good gap off of pit road and I was just trying to find out from him what happened. He had a good gap in front of him and then he checked-up for whatever reason and I was on him. I was just trying to understand the circumstances. It’s frustrating on a couple of different notes, but we’re much better than where we qualified at 17thand we’ll just go to work tomorrow and Sunday.”

HOW DO YOU WEIGH THE BALANCE RISK VERSUS REWARD OF SITTING AND WAITING UNTIL THE LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE TO GO OUT?
“I don’t. It’s just really passed along to me and all the crew chiefs are thinking the same thing. The track sat open for 10 minutes and with 4 minutes of 3 and a half to go, all of a sudden, we all decided it was time to go. It was just congested. It’s a tiny race track and it’s hard to get a clean lap.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 31st
THERE IS SUCH A THIN LINE TO DECIDE THE RIGHT TIME TO TAKE YOUR LAP. WHAT HAPPENED?
“It is. We kind of knew to get in line early because of the way the track is, you have to time that out. And you want to go early enough that you can cool your tires down but you don’t want to go so early that the track’s not there. And whatever the stuff is they put on the track, it takes a while for the track to come in. And it just didn’t have the grip that we needed that first time we went out.”