MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DRYDENE 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 5, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Kyle Larson, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1
5th Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hooters Give A Hoot Camaro ZL1
6th William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1
9th Kurt Busch, No. 1 GEARWRENCH Camaro ZL1
11th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
3rd Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
4th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
5th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)

NBCSN will telecast the Drydene 400 at Dover International Speedway live at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday, October 6. The NBC Sports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
YOU MISSED THE POLE BY THREE ONE-THOUSANDS OF A SECOND. THAT’S TIGHT, EVEN FOR A PLACE LIKE DOVER. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU LOST THAT TIME, AND HOW WAS THE CAR HANDLING?
“I felt like I ran a good lap. Based on the data, it looked like I gave up a little bit off of Turn 4. I feel like I got there pretty good, but three thousands of a second when you’re going that fast isn’t much. I wish I was on the pole. I told Denny (Hamlin, pole winner) a few days ago that I was going to get the pole. So, having him be just a little bit quicker then me is frustrating. But we’ll start on the front row here and we have a good race team. Qualifying here, is so much fun (laughs), especially when it’s cooler like this. We’re not all the way out of the gas, ever. So, that was a lot of fun, a lot of fun.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS GIVE A HOOT CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 5th
“I felt like it was decent. I needed a good couple of tenths I guess to be near the 11 and the 42. We definitely need to be a little better. It felt like a pretty good lap inside the car. I knew that pace those guys put down was quick, so we just weren’t fast enough.”
“I think our car is solid. I felt like it was a solid lap. It felt like a pretty decent lap. I just knew the pace those guys ran, it was going to have to feel like a really good lap to be another two-tenths on top of that. I’m proud of the effort. It was a lot better than what we mocked up yesterday, so that was definitely an improvement. The pit road pick is a big deal here, so that will hopefully be a good spot and we’ll go to work tomorrow.”

HOW IS IT NAVIGATING HERE?
“When you’re good, I think you can make up ground anywhere. It’s just a matter of being that much better than everyone else. I’m sure Martin Truex Jr. will be right up in the front by the end of stage one.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th
“I think we could have stood to be a little freer on the corner entry, but you just don’t know how the track is going to evolve. We’re happy with the way our car is and how it responds. It should be fine in the race.”
“It feels fine. I think it feels good. We’ll see what happens, we should be good.”

WHAT DOES A LAP AROUND DOVER FEEL LIKE?
“It’s incredible. A qualifying lap around here as fast as we’re going, there’s more grip than you can even imagine. Sometimes that kind of bites you because you know there’s a lot of grip. You just want to try to push it as hard as you can. I feel like I did, but I could have maybe just squeezed a little more, maybe a couple of hundredths. That was kind of my benchmark there.”
“I love it. It’s an awesome track. I’ve never won here, but I’ve been close. It’s an amazing track. I really loved running the Xfinity car here. I think the Cup car tomorrow will be a lot of fun.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 9th
HOW DOES YOUR MENTALITY CHANGE GOING INTO THE RACE KNOWING YOU AREN’T IN THE PLAYOFFS ANYMORE?
“It’s still the same. You have to gain points, have good races and have a shot to win. It’s still about the same thing.”

HOW DO YOU GET AROUND THIS PLACE?
“We have to make sure that we’re good on the low groove, on restarts especially, and then be able to hold that bottom all throughout the run. The cars that end up moving up is because they’re trying to find the grip in the non-optimum lane. Hopefully we can stay glued to the bottom and keep that speed around there.”

“We’ll see, it just depends. There has to be a good reason to either stay out or pit early. Right now, guys are pitting early a lot to try to get the fresh tires on and try to produce those quick laps at times. You are able to hold guys off with an aero advantage, so it’s tough. If you pit too early, sometimes a yellow comes out and that’s what boxed us in at Richmond.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
“It’s been such an exhilarating lap, I guess, from just the shear fun standpoint. My first time driving a car here was in I think 1998 or 1999, and I just couldn’t believe there was a track shaped like this. The elevation changes, which is kind of hard to see unless you’re out there hanging it off the turns. The amount of banking, the amount of grip, how wide it was; it blew my mind then and I still come back every time and have that same realization.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY OPTIMISM WITH THE CAR THIS WEEKEND? OBVIOUSLY, YOU HAD A FAST LAP IN THE FIRST PRACTICE YESTERDAY. WHAT’S YOUR EXPECTATION FOR TOMORROW?
“We’re really happy with the way practice went yesterday. It’s always helpful coming to a track that you know and have success at. That can help steer the team with our adjustments in a way that I think will be helpful. Yesterday went well and I’m really excited for the rest of the weekend.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CINCINNATI CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 12th
“I think we’ll be OK. We weren’t great on our mock run in practice and it was kind of the same today. It seemed a little disconnected there in qualifying. I think we’ll race just fine. We obviously came all the way from the back last time here, so I think we’ll be alright.”

ARE YOU GOING TO RACE BUBBA WALLACE ANY DIFFERENTLY THIS WEEK AFTER WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND?
“No, I mean I’m just focused on doing the best job that I can here at Dover. That’s about it.”

DO YOU APPROACH THESE THREE RACES DIFFERENTLY COMPARED TO THE LAST ROUND, CONSIDERING YOU’VE HAD SECOND PLACE FINISHES AT EVERY TRACK?
“Yes and no. I feel like it’s some really strong race tracks for us, but we go every week to run the best that we can. There’s no place that we’re going that we feel like we don’t have a great program going into it. These are just good places for us to go”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE TO WIN OR CAN YOU POINT YOUR WAY IN?
“I think we can point our way in, but obviously a win would make it a lot easier.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KROGER SIMMER LIKE A WINNER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 22nd
“I felt fast. This place is really fast and we have good weather. I felt a lot faster inside the car than we actually were, so that’s a little bit of a bummer. We worked really hard to get our Camaro in better shape for this race and I feel like we have something. We should race pretty good. It has been a little bit of a tough track for us in the past, so we do think we’ve made some gains. Our qualifying lap was respectable. We haven’t had that pure speed in the car, but we’ve gotten it to where we’re driving a lot better.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CHEVROLET CARS BEING ABLE TO WORK TOGETHER?
“I think just the fact that we got to be involved in the conversation with the Chevy teams during the first go-around as far as working together was big for our team. I’ve always felt really comfortable at superspeedways and just having the opportunity to participate with the group and having that little feeling of security with that number of teams. I think the communication has grown since we’ve done it. But there are also some things that have to be managed in between to keep it as strong as it was the first time. I look forward to going back to Talladega. That’s a place that we’ve always been really strong at, probably more so than even Daytona as far as speed wise. We always see the superspeedways as a place to capitalize and that we can actually get a win at. It’s definitely circled on our map and to have that alliance with the way that the Chevy teams have been working together is very helpful.”

WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS IN YOUR MIND AS TO WHAT YOU’RE EXPECTED TO DO WHEN YOU AREN’T IN THE PLAYOFFS, BUT YOU’RE GOING FOR YOUR FIRST WIN?
“I think early on in the race, it’s still the same racing we’ve done all year. I think when you get to the end of the race, you have to be aware that it’s hard to help someone that’s fighting for a championship. Sometimes at places like Talladega and Daytona, if you try to help somebody, you might have caused a crash or something like that. I think that’s surely known throughout the series as drivers. Everywhere else, I race with the mentality that during the first half of the race, we’re all racing together. If you get down to the end of the race and one of those guys is on your tail and you’re holding them up, I would expect to give those guys a little extra room. They are racing for something bigger right now and it’s with the hopes that the respect will be returned one day in your favor. I expect to be racing for championships at some point in my career. I would just like that kind of respect back. For me, I’m racing for 22nd or 23rd in points. It doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, but those guys have a lot more on the line.”

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 26th
HOW ARE YOU FEELING SO FAR THIS WEEKEND AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT GOING INTO TOMORROW’S RACE?
“I didn’t feel good in qualifying. It felt like karma was coming back to get me, I guess.”

“I’m a little under the weather. I think the weather changes with it being so hot at home and dealing with the cold weather here is unfortunate. It’s all part of it. I’ve driven with the flu, I’ve driven with it all. But I’m all good.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 27th
“I didn’t feel very good. I was too loose. I don’t know, I’m not very confident right now in how we look going into tomorrow’s race. We will take it how it goes, I guess.”

CAN YOU TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE SPRING RACE AND APPLY IT TO THIS WEEKEND?
“We learned that we needed to get better before we come back here and we’re not.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 LUCAS OIL CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 31st
ARE OPTIONS OPENING FOR YOU AND HOW DOES THAT PLAY INTO THE RACE WEEKENDS NOW?
“Yeah, options are opening and I think there are some good paths. It’s just a matter of what path you want to go down. Obviously, it’s going to change your life, your lifestyle and what not with the direction that you pick to go. You just try to know that whatever you choose, it has to be the best thing for you long term.”

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 32nd
HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING AROUND THIS PLACE?
“A handful, I would say. I don’t really know what to expect for tomorrow yet. We kind of changed everything from last night to today, so it’s like going into it blind.”

HAVING ONLY ONE CUP START HERE, WHAT DO YOU TAKE FROM THE SPRING RACE TO APPLY NOW?
“We knew going into this weekend that we weren’t taking anything from what we had in the spring. So, you really didn’t know unloading. Both of our teams kind of went down different paths and took what each other learned or didn’t learned, put together our notes and went into the same direction for today and tomorrow.”