MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 17, 2018
KYLE LARSON WINS THE POLE AT BRISTOL
Chase Elliott Qualifies Second for All Chevrolet Front Row
BRISTOL, TN (August 17, 2018) – Kyle Larson stole the show in qualifying for the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway with a fast lap of 15.015 seconds, 127.792 mph in his No. 42 DC Solar Camaro ZL1, and will start from the pole position in Saturday evening’s 500-lap race. The feat marked Larson’s seventh pole in 171 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races and his first pole at the half-mile short track. It was also Chevrolet’s 699th pole win in NASCAR’s premier racing series.
“Our DC Solar Chevy has been really good all day,” said Larson. “I felt a little off in first practice, but we got it going good in the second practice and then was fast every round in Qualifying. It’s my favorite track. I have yet to get a win here. We’ve been close so many times. I feel like Kyle (Busch) and I are the two best here, but he always seems to edge me out. Hopefully this weekend is a little different.”
Chase Elliott was close behind in his No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1 with a run of 15.030 seconds, 127.665 mph to make it an all-Chevrolet front row tomorrow evening. Elliott’s second place qualifying position gave him his 13th top-10 start of the 2018 season, and his fourth in six races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, was fifth quick in his No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 and was the fastest qualifying rookie.
The Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race is scheduled to begin on Saturday, August 18th at 6:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTS:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – POLE SITTER
HOW NICE IS IT TO BE ON THE POLE FOR THE RACE?
“Yeah, it’s good. The pole is important here at a short track with this pit road selection having the first pit stall is huge. You know, it is still a long race, 500 laps here, the pole is important, but it doesn’t mean everything. We had a fast car in practice and race trim I felt like in second practice, so hopefully that means we will be good tomorrow. The track will still change a lot, tighten up quite a bit, so we’ve just got to be prepared for that to make the right adjustments. I hope we put ourselves in position to get a win finally here at Bristol.”
YOU SAID YESTERDAY YOU FELT LIKE YOU COULD WIN BOTH STAGES AND THE RACE. DO YOU FEEL MORE LIKE THAT AFTER TODAY?
“I mean I always feel like that, every time I come to Bristol. Our car has always been fast here, so I have a lot of confidence and I think I have proven that I have a lot of speed here, just still yet to get that win. I think if we can just have a nice clean day, we can definitely have a solid run.”
IT SEEMS LIKE THE BOTTOM LANE ISN’T AS MUCH OF A FACTOR…
“Yeah, I feel like the VHT is about three feet narrower than normal. I’m not sure who decided to make it that way, whether it was the driver’s council or what, but I feel like if the VHT were a little wider the bottom would hang around a lot longer and you would have a better race towards the end of the race. We will see how this Xfinity race goes and maybe they will make some adjustments. That would be my vote to make it wider, but they don’t always listen to me.”
THAT FAVORS YOU THOUGH DOESN’T IT?
“I think what favors me is having options. I feel like if there are more options out there I think I would be better. I’m able to move around a lot more it seems like than some people. I feel like earlier in the year the race was really good. The bottom hung around and you could carve through traffic really easily, so I thought that made for an exciting race. We will see how this Xfinity Series race goes though and maybe they will adjust a little bit.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
HOW NICE IS IT TO HAVE A FRONT ROW STARTING SPOT FOR TOMORROW?
“Not near as nice as it would have been to be starting first and have that first pit stall. Now-a-days with the close timing lines this is one of the very few places, I feel like, having that first pit box is a massive advantage like it is here for 500 laps. I wish we could have gotten it, but we didn’t, so go get it from second.”
WHAT DO YOU GUYS HAVE TO DO TO BEAT KYLE BUSCH HERE?
“Well first we’ve got to catch up. We haven’t really even been in the ballpark, at least not in the spring race. I feel like we had a really good car here in the spring and got in a crash there a couple of laps in. So, yeah, I don’t know, to beat him here you’ve got to be perfect because he is perfect here and you’ve got to be perfect. You’ve got to have somethings go your way and at the end of the day you’ve got to make it happen because that is what he does to win. He does a great job working lap traffic and changing lanes and moving around. So, be perfect or you are not going to beat him.”
WHAT DID YOU DO TO BEAT HIM (KYLE BUSCH) IN QUALIFYING?
“Well, you know I really don’t know. We made a mock (qualifying) run there in practice and it wasn’t very good and talked about it after and luckily made the right changes to get close. But, him and the No. 42 (Kyle Larson) I feel like have been really good here the past three or four races and it hasn’t worked out for the other Kyle (Larson), but I think that we have been getting closer, I think, to being amongst them, so if we can have the pace that those two guys do tomorrow night, I think we can certainly have a shot.”
DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE TWO LANES FROM LAP ONE?
“No, I think you are looking at the lane there in qualifying. I mean it is so fast up there, there is no way around it. Obviously, the sun going down will have a little bit of an effect on that and then how much they spray that stuff down tomorrow morning and then how much it rains tomorrow too I think can all have an effect on it. We will see, but certainly we see the night race here the bottom even before they started throwing that stuff down it tended to be a little better than the spring race. So, I expect the bottom will be decent, but for the long haul you are not going to beat the top.”