NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
FEBRUARY 29, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
3rd Alex Bowman, No. 88 Cincinnati Camaro ZL1 1LE
4th Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE
9th Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1 1LE
10th Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Clint Bowyer (Ford)
2nd Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
3rd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
4th Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
FOX will telecast the 200-lap Auto Club 400 live at 3:30 p.m. EST Sunday, March 1. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 2nd
ON STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW AND SEEING HIS GIRLS WAVE THE GREEN FLAG:
“It will be super special. I wish we were one spot further ahead and clearly off turn four there I ran a little more distance to the start finish. It is such a fine balance to try to understand how much you can open up and let the engine run. Clearly I did too much, but that’s just the competitor in me. Very special weekend for me and I can’t wait to see my girls up in the flag stand waving the green flag.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CINCINNATI CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 3rd
“My car drove really well. We backed-up the lap time we ran yesterday. Not everybody mocked-up yesterday. It looks like the SHR cars are pretty quick, but I’m just really confident about how our car is going to race. Obviously on the long runs our car was really good yesterday. So, I’m looking forward to getting the race in, hopefully, tomorrow and I think we will end up somewhere there towards the front and we can definitely race from there.”
YOU LED BOTH PRACTICES AND WANTED THE POLE, BUT THE TROPHY IS FOR THE RACE WIN. SO, NOW YOU TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO THAT, RIGHT?
“Yeah, sure. I think there were probably some things we could have done to qualify a little better. That would have hurt our car for the race. So, we are really just focused on racing really well and I think that’s something we can definitely do.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 4th
“I was really proud of the effort. I was hopeful that we’d be able to hold it wide open and have speed in reserve. That’s the key with impound. Sometimes pole-sitting cars don’t have that downforce in the race and sometimes being on the pole at a super-fast track like this isn’t a good thing and being right up front, where we qualified is absolutely perfect. So, thanks to Matt Mccall (crew chief) and all the guys for finding all the right little additions and all the little itty-bitty things. When you add-up a few thousands, you get that tenth that you need.
“The car felt good yesterday in practice. We know we can run well up in the high grooves on the long runs, we’ve just got to make sure that we’ve got speed on the short runs when we’re carving through the bumps and when you have that dirty air, that’s where our car has struggled and we just have to make sure we’re making moves and making changes to the car to help us in traffic.
“The new Camaro ZL1 1LE has a little bit more front downforce and a little bit more rear, and a little bit more side force to it. Everything that it shows in the wind tunnel it gives us when we’re out on the track. We just still, at Ganassi, have to be doing a better job when we’re in race conditions around other cars.
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 9th
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALIFYING AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
“It’s somewhat important. You always want to start the race off as far forward as you can to try and maintain good track position all day.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 13th
“We were 13th. The sun is shining and we’re all here. So, we’re good.”
ON THE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
“Well last week, I thought was a little better. I thought we were a little more competitive last week than we’ve been at some 1.5-miles. So, I was encouraged by that. I hope that we can keep that up and that it wasn’t just a one-time thing. That’s why we’re back here again.”
AFTER YOU HEARD WHAT KEVIN HARVICK WAS GOING TO DO WITH THE TRUCK BOUNTY, DID YOU SAY YOU WANTED TO TRY TO DO ATLANTA?
“Yeah, it was as simple as I reached out to (GMS president) Mike Beam a text saying hey, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this but it’s going to be kind of fun. He said cool, that he would work on it and see what they could come up with. I thought it would be fun. Heck, why not? I’m either going to watch it on the couch or go try to do it, so I opted for (plan) B.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHANCES ARE?
“I hope they’re good. I don’t know when the last time I ran a Truck race was, but yeah, just go have fun and it will be a good challenge to try to out-run him. If we do, great. And it’s a fun story, regardless and a cool deal and I’m glad Kevin was having fun with it. At the time, nobody was really jumping on board and I was like why not? Let’s give it a shot. It’ll be fun.”
BUBBA WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 14th
“We’ve still got some speed to get out of our car, but it’s all about race trim for us and our Chevrolet. All-in-all, decent speed and decent balance on our Victory Junction Chevrolet, so we’re excited. We’re definitely a lot better than we’ve been here in the past coming to California, one of my favorite places to race at. So, we’ll have some fun tomorrow.
WHAT’S THE TOUGH PART OF THIS TRACK?
“I think just trying to manage your tires. When you’re loose, you’re kind of just sitting in place spinning your rear tires and just losing grip over the long run, so we’re really focused on the long-run handling. But we’ve got to be able to fire off too. So, we’ll see what we’ve got.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA 24 TRIBUTE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 21st
“Our car is decent. We’ve kind of been all over the place so far. So we just have to kind of do a few things and get ready for Sunday.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 24th
“Our GEICO Camaro never really hit a balance and speed combination that we’re really comfortable with and it was a little loose there in our Qualifying run, but I was able to hold it full throttle. We’ve still got some tuning to get it honed in to be able to race the way we want it to. All-in-all, we’ve had some good momentum this year with our ZL1 1LE, so hopefully we’ll keep it going.”