CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 4 OF 10
BANK OF AMERICA 500
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 6, 2016
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RESULTS (TOP 12):
1st – Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Hunting Chevrolet SS
2nd – Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS
3rd – Chase Elliott, No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS
5th – Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Rev The Vote Chevrolet SS
6th – AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Kroger/Stouffer’s/Stouffer’s Kitchen Chevrolet SS
11th – Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS
12th – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS
POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUSCH HUNTING CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
“I just got to the green a little bit better. The car was too loose the time before. And I got to the green better. It was good in (Turns) 1 and 2; but I felt like I gave up a little something in (Turns) 3 and 4 coming to the checkered. But, I’ve just got to thank all my sponsors and everybody on this team, Chevrolet and Hendrick engines and chassis for everything that they do and for everything that Stewart-Haas does. This has just been a fun car to drive today. Hopefully we can get it dialed in race trim.”
ON THE RACE ITSELF:
“Well, we struggled when we first rolled off the truck in race trim and got our car a little bit better and better and better. Hopefully what we learned in Qualifying, we can apply some of that stuff to the race trim stuff and go from there.”
ALEX BOWMAN, INTERIM DRIVER, NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
WHAT WAS THAT RUN LIKE FOR YOU?
“Honestly, we didn’t put the greatest lap together. In (Turns) 1 and 2, we were a little free in and didn’t really keep it on the bottom like I needed to. Turns 3 and 4 were really good. It means so much for Hendrick Motorsports to take a chance on me for these races. I’m really thankful to be here. I hate that we didn’t get the pole. We were so close. It’s definitely my best starting spot by a bunch, but you’d always like that pole.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD
THOUGHT THAT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE POLE. WHERE WOULD YOU SAY YOU LOST IT?
“Well, I thought I lost it in Turns 1 and 2, but they said I lost it in (Turns) 3 and 4. We’ll have to go back and look at watch. Obviously I wasn’t right. Everybody has been working really hard to get better. This has not been a very good place for me, historically in Qualifying; or in the race, for that matter. So, I’m really happy with that and I’m very proud of the team. We’re excited for Saturday night.”
MAKING MULTIPLE PASSES THROUGH TECH INSPECTION, WHAT’S IT LIKE TO JUMP IN WITH NEARLY NO TIME TO GET READY?
“It’s kind of part of the game. I think we see it pretty frequently these days. It’s kind of the game you’ve got to fight to push these things to where they need to be. It’s a good starting spot, but it’s just a starting spot. We have to also recognize that and go get ‘em on Saturday night.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/STOUFFER’S/STOUFFER’S KITCHEN CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6TH
“It makes a huge difference all the work that they put in. I can’t thank Stouffer’s and Harris Teeter for being on the racecar and all the great sponsors that we have that are a part of it, Kroger, everything that they do for us and on down the line all the sponsors. It’s a good start.”
WHEN WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THIS RACE RUN?
“I would like to have my Sunday off, so I want to race when we are supposed to and have a fun Saturday night race. That is what makes this race so much fun being Saturday night. Home race for everybody, for our crew guys it would be nice, especially mine. Our road crew especially they are on the road and then they come back at 7:30 a.m. in the morning Monday morning and start tearing the car a part. I want to run it Saturday night for a lot of reasons, but most importantly for all of them to get some rest because they deserve it.”
FIVE CHEVY’S IN THE TOP 10 SO WHERE ARE ALL THOSE TOYOTAS AT?
“Well, I can’t speak on the Hendrick cars, obviously they’ve got a lot of resources when it’s time to step up they usually do. For us, it’s the nature of the beast. We are trying to grow. We are trying to continually get bigger and better. Sometimes you take a step back, you know during the summer it’s hard, we lost a couple of race cars. They don’t just magically appear again at the race track or at the race shop. Like I said, it’s a brand new cars and it’s really the first batch of new cars that we are going to have. We are going to have a new car the rest of the year, but it’s the first batch since we started the year once all the cars were new. It makes a big difference. That is what makes the Sprint Cup Series so hard is the fact that these big teams no matter what rules package, tires, no matter what you throw at them they make downforce, they make grip and they get better. That is what we are fighting against and that is what we are trying to do here.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATING MATERIALS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 19th
WHAT WAS MISSING IN ROUND 2?
“We were just too tight. I was going to worry about it in the first round. We were too tight and we made a big swing at it there and freed it up. It helped in (Turns) 3 and 4, but it was still too tight in (Turns) 1 and 2. So, we’ll work on it. We had a good car in practice. We just missed our balance a little bit in this nighttime stuff. We’ll be fine. I’m really happy with our Chevrolet.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 25th
WERE YOU CONSERVATIVE DURING THIS FIRST ROUND OR WAS THAT WHAT YOU HAD? ARE YOU HOPING FOR SOME PRACTICE TOMORROW?
“I just got loose in (Turns) 1 and 2 on my lap and lost a little bit of time there, probably gave up a tenth or more. Who knows? But, then we just ended-up waiting a little bit too long to make another run. We were sitting on the bubble and didn’t really expect that the No. 83 would go faster. And, it bit us.”