MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACE
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 16, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
4th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1
6th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS SPIRITS CAMARO ZL1
10th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1
17th DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
3rd Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
4th Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
5th Aric Almirola (Ford)
NBCSN will telecast the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway live at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, August 17. The NBC Sports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
ON HIS RUN
“I was just a little too tight. But, I feel like being a little bit too tight was better than being a little bit too free, I think. I saw so many people get loose through (Turns) 3 and 4. But, I was just a little bit too tight to kind of roll through the center like I needed to and get to the gas just a little bit sooner. But, overall, I’m happy with how we qualified and the grip I had in my car. In practice, I was really loose. So hopefully we’ll have a good race tomorrow and try and get my first Bristol Cup win.”
YOUR FAVORITE LINE AROUND THIS PLACE GOT CLEANED OFF AND USED IN PRACTICES. WHERE ARE WE?
“Oh, everybody just thinks I’m so committed to the top, but I’m not, actually. I run around the bottom here more often than I do the top throughout the race. I feel like what’s made us good here is that I can get to the top and maintain speed. But then when the top starts to slow down, I can get back down to the bottom and be good. We had a loose wheel earlier this year and spent most of the race a few laps down. But I was passing a lot of lead-lap cars running the bottom. Hopefully we have that in our car tomorrow. But, we’ve got to wait and see. I love this place. I wish we could race here all the time. It’s definitely the best track we go to. I’m always excited about this race.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4th
EARLIER IN THE DAY YOU APPEARED TO BE ANGRY WITH YOUR RACE CAR, BUT THEN YOU QUALIFIED 4TH. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
“I feel like we did good to make changes and improve our Monster Chevy. You have to still stick with your book here at Bristol because it’s daytime and the race is at night and things usually are more important about what happened in the race the last time you were here versus a practice in the afternoon, or something.”
YOU HAVE WON HERE SIX TIMES. SO THAT PART ABOUT BRISTOL HAS STAYED THE SAME
“Yeah, it’s still about the consistency of what you do each time at Short Tracks. And there are little things that you have to stay on top of and change. Like the stagger seems to be less this time around, and that’s really what I was referencing on the radio. Guys we’ve got to make sure we’re not painted into a corner by what Goodyear brought for stagger.”
WHY HAS THE TRACK BENEFITTED YOU AND YOUR STYLE?
“I don’t know. With me and Kyle (Busch) and the wins that we have here, a lot of it is protecting the race car and putting yourself in position to win. You’ve got to get up on the wheel here. You’ve got to know when to get up on the wheel. And, if you get up on the wheel and you’re at 101 percent, you’ve stepped over the line and the track will chew you up and spit you out. So, you’ve got to know where the line is, I guess.
“You’ve got to protect the car when there are traffic situations around you and usually you’re at 90 percent or 95 percent. And then you go, when you can, and you put it at the 99 percent level. I think that’s key on knowing when to do it and when not to do it.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO.9 HOOTERS SPIRITS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th
“When the sun goes down, the grip gets better as it cools off sometimes. We were really struggling at the end of practice and I didn’t really give the top a fair chance. We were so bad there at the end that I was trying to figure other things out.”
“Bristol can either be really good or really bad. It seems like it can be that way no matter how many times you’ve been here. You just hope you hit on it right and can survive. It’s a long race and sometimes it’s hard to just make it to the end. I haven’t had a whole lot of success here anyways, so hopefully tomorrow is better.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 10th
“We were really loose right there. I think we had a really good lap going until 3 & 4 on the first lap and the second lap, it stepped down on both ends. That’s a bummer. I would have liked to be a little better than that. I mean we’ll probably be around tenth or so.”
“I stayed out of the high line in practice. We had some issues with our car today. In first practice, we got pretty behind and the guys were pretty stressed out just trying to get through practices. With my luck, I would go up there, hit the right side and cause them a bunch of work. We’ll be up there once it comes in.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 17th
“It’s been a little bit of a discussion about how the top isn’t the same for whatever reason. I think it may take a little longer to rubber in, but I’ll be curious to see what the track does overnight. If they re-apply the traction compound, it will take 100-150 laps for the top to come in. Once it comes in, it will be a fairly good race. In reality, I think it will open a bunch of lanes up once it does come in. It may be a little frustrating early in the race. The cars that are really good and maybe aren’t as affected by the air will be a little faster earlier in the race. Once those lanes open up, the best cars will prevail.”
“I’ll be watching the Xfinity race really closely. Obviously, it will be a little different because they’ve had Cup cars on the track, they’ve been on the track. Once we get past the halfway point, even in tonight’s race, we’ll have a good idea what will happen tomorrow.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 UNITED STATES AIR FORCE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 22nd
“It was good. After watching Xfinity qualifying, we knew going out early was a disadvantage. I text Derek (Stamets) right before qualifying and asked him to tighten us up a little more. He nailed it almost perfectly. I was a little too tight on the exit of Turn 4. Other than that, our United States Air Force Chevrolet isn’t bad. We made the right adjustments and made a decent lap, so we’ll see how long we can hang on. When you see the 18 team go out first and lay down that lap, no matter where they go out, you kind of judge your lap time on that. We ended up beating him, so not bad. Good job by my guys.”
TY DILLON, NO.13 GEICO MILITARY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 24th
“I think we’re going to have a good race. There’s a lot going on about scraping the track and whatnot, but I think the biggest thing is that they didn’t put down as much PJ-1 so we are going to get up there no matter what. Whether they scraped it or not, it’s going to come back in pretty quick. We are going to have good racing, we’ve had good racing the last couple of years here. I wish we could get on the same page as to what we are trying to achieve with the race track with NASCAR, tracks and the drivers. We are all on the same track, all have the same surface and all have to do it. Our GEICO Camaro was pretty strong. I have a good feeling about this place. Having won a stage here, I have a lot of confidence. I’m looking forward to what tomorrow brings.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 29th
“The first thing would to be not suck in qualifying, and we did not get that one right. I did a terrible job there, I’m disappointed in that for sure. Where that leaves us for starting the race, that’s a tough one. The qualifying format definitely rewards the good qualifiers every week. We consistently don’t qualify that great, but our race cars are terrific and we are able to run top-20 every week. That doesn’t help us in qualifying, but that’s part of it. I just didn’t do a good job there. It puts us in a little bit of a hole here to start the race. The good news is that it’s my favorite tracks, one of my best tracks. It’s good short track racing with the opportunity to pass.”