CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
100th RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE RECAP
MAY 22, 2016

Josef Newgarden puts Chevrolet in Middle of Front Row for Indianapolis 500

· Four Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers capture Fast Nine starting positions in first three rows of 100th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing
· A total of 16 Team Chevy drivers will take green flag on Sunday, May 29 at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Qualifying Wrap Up →

CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
NHRA KANSAS NATIONALS
HEARTLAND PARK TOPEKA, TOPEKA, KANSAS
MAY 22, 2016

Chevrolet Wins Eighth Pro Stock Race in a Row

• Pro Stock points leader Jason Line earns fifth victory of season
• Defeats teammate Greg Anderson for second time in final round
• Courtney Force advances to Funny Car semifinals for third event in row
• Brittany Force sets national record for elapsed time in Top Fuel Continue reading Chevy Racing–NHRA–Topeka →

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
100TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING QUOTES
MAY 22, 2016

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Qualified 2nd
“It was a good first lap. I was kind of shocked by it. I didn’t think we had enough for the Andretti guys and then I probably shouldn’t have doubted us. I know we have great cars and a great crew behind us. I’m happy to see that first number and I think we fell off a little too much, but the car was amazing. I’m hoping to get the Preferred Freezer Chevrolet P1, but if it’s not we are going to be right up there in that front group. Hopefully, we can make something happen on race day then.” Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Post Qualifying →

CHEVROLET RACING – NHRA AT TOPEKA
28TH NHRA KANSAS NATIONALS
HEARTLAND PARK TOPEKA
TOPEKA, KANSAS
MAY 22, 2016

Chevrolet Driver Post-Race Quotes

An interview with Pro Stock winner Jason Line, KB Racing, Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS:

Q: What a weekend you’ve had.

JASON LINE: I haven’t had too many good days in Topeka, Kansas, before today. It was a great weekend and I thank all the fans for coming out. Nobody really knows what a big deal this is to me. I’ve waited 13 years, but finally got it right. It was an exciting day for our whole team.

Q: Between the semifinals and final round, there was a quick turnaround time. Take us through it.

JASON LINE: I had a Mello Yello while waiting. The guys worked on the car but didn’t touch the tune-up; we kind of let it be. It was hectic for them and not for me. To turn it around that fast kind of adds some excitement when you have to do it that fast.

Q: Every possible round of competition you’ve been in this year.

JASON LINE: Yeah, that’s kind of insane. My guys, they don’t like time off. They work very hard and the whole season has been exciting.

PRO STOCK:
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPOMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “If you ain’t first you’re last like Ricky Bobby says. It was a great day for KB Racing but I am disappointed because I want to beat the guy. He is bad to the bone right now, just absolutely bad to the bone. Our Summit Chevys are fantastic and his has been just about unbeatable. He is a tough out, that is all I can say. It was a great drag race, great Summit side-by-side race at Heartland Park Topeka. I can’t be that disappointed but you are darn right I wanted that trophy. I am just going to have to find a way to earn it from him. He is a tough cat, and he doesn’t like to lose and I don’t like to lose. Obviously I hired one tough assassin when I hired him a few years ago. I knew it when I did and knew he had killer instincts and I expect no less from him. It’s painful when you lose to him but I sure wouldn’t want it any other way. I am proud of him.”

BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; lost in Round 2): “We didn’t actually show it there on that last run but we improved on some staging and reaction times this week. That time there I just got antsy and my foot came off the pedal and I rolled forward. Bad deal for me and just no concentration, but I think we were going to run pretty good there. I am going to go run some Stock and Comp next week, have a good time, and get this out of my head. Then head to Epping and try to do better.”

DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN RACING, RAY SKILLMAN CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (lost in Round 1): “We are kind of stumped. We tried some really weird stuff and the car just does the same thing. We don’t understand and it’s like the car has a governor on it. We are trying to figure it out. It’s kind of mystery to us right now for a lack of a better description.”

CHRIS MCGAHA, HARLOW SAMMONS RACING, HARLOEW SAMMONS OF ODESSA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; lost in Round 1): “I guess we had some uncertainty. We did a last-second lane swap, which is no big deal. After that, I had decided when I let the clutch out we were done for because it wasn’t going anywhere. We wish we had more time (off) because we have some ideas (to improve). We are getting a little better, but we still need more.”

TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER: “Setting that national record is pretty outstanding. We’re the first one to put a number on the board like that, and I don’t think a female has done that in about 23 years. So it’s pretty cool to hold a record like that and something that my team will always hang onto. We obviously would have liked to perform better. I struggled in the first round; had a terrible reaction time and should have just let it go. To go into the second round when you’re already beating yourself up and know you have to overcome and cut a killer light is definitely difficult. I wish I wouldn’t have done that (red light) and I think it would have played out a little differently. I was really pumped up and going after him (Antron Brown). Now we have a weekend off and I’ll just have to put it behind me and we’ll get back on it in Epping.”

FUNNY CAR:
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, TRAXXAS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; lost in semifinals): “We had a great weekend out here at Heartland Park Topeka. My Traxxas team really had to hustle to get this car ready for the semifinal round. It was chaos in the pits. All of our teams came together to help us get there. We pulled up and Tim Wilkerson had crashed right ahead of us; kind of oiled the left lane a little bit, which was the lane Matt Hagan had picked. They got both the lanes cleaned up and ready to go and we had a last-minute lane swap so we had to move back over to the left lane. Unfortunately, our car went straight up into tire smoke, but I’m proud of my team. They worked their butts off this weekend and I had a good light in the semis so I’m excited to get to Epping in two weeks.”

ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (lost in Round 2): “That was a close race and it just shows you how tough this class is. We fell off a little bit but I am encouraged by how this Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro is running. We got down the track every run except one and we are getting good data. We will head back to the shop and get ready for four in a row in a couple weeks.”

JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO ZONE PEAK CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (lost in Round 1): ““It has been a tough last couple of weeks. We got the new Chevrolet and then had the incident on Friday. We brought out a new chassis yesterday and had to start all over. I am really proud of my team and how well all these PEAK guys have pulled together. They led the charge and put this car back together after a tough Saturday of qualifying. The new Camaro body is already headed back to Indy. I am going to be in the shop tomorrow and our guys will have already started working on it today. We should have it back in paint in time to get it to Epping unless there is a major problem.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 21, 2016

DALE EARNHARDT JR. LEADS TEAM CHEVY ALL-STAR EFFORT
Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS third; Larson strong in $1 million race

CONCORD, NC. (May 22, 2016) – The NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race had a little bit of everything Saturday night, and it ended with one of Team Chevy’s brightest stars in the top-three. Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS, finished in the 32nd annual non-points race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt Jr. led three Chevrolet SS drivers who finished in the top-six in the $1 million race. Kurt Busch in the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS placed fifth, and rookie Chase Elliott was sixth in the No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS.

Kyle Larson, driving the No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS, won the night’s second 50-lap segment and rocketed to the lead at the start of the final 13-lap run before falling back. He had advanced earlier in the day from the Sprint Showdown and looked like the car to beat in the final segment.

Joey Logano (Ford) was the race winner, Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished second, and Carl Edwards (Toyota) was fourth.

The next race for Team Chevy in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the Coca-Cola 600 at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 25 from Charlotte Motor Speedway.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our third‑place finisher, Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. This was Dale’s best All‑Star finish since 2002, so congratulations on a great finish. Talk us through your race tonight.
DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, we started out right around 10th and ran there for most of the night. Just real hard to pass. The middle and the top didn’t get as competitive as the bottom was. As cool as it is outside and the track temp staying low like that, that bottom is going to remain pretty quick, so it was hard to ‑‑ you saw some guys using the top or the middle in the afternoon today, but I couldn’t really get it to work unless somebody was really struggling in front of me.
But it was pretty good strategy by Greg. I don’t even remember what he did, but somehow or another we ended up in the top 5. I don’t know how we passed all them people, but once I got toward the front, the car started obviously driving better in the cleaner air, and right before the last segment, right at the end of the second segment, I thought we had a great car. Not as good as the 42 and the 75, but I thought we had a really good car, much better car than we did the last segment. The last segment we made a couple of adjustments to try to help our car take off a little better and just go on that short run, but it didn’t really handle well, so we got tight immediately on the first lap of the last segment the car was pushing. I knew we were going to struggle to be able to capitalize on our position to win the race, but we ended up finishing okay.
For our team it’s a good step in the right direction to get more competitive. A lot was made about the comments I made in the podcast on Monday. I just want the team to succeed and really like the crew and Greg, and I think we can do it. We did it last year. We started this year off really awesome and hit a little rough patch, but this week was a great opportunity for us to learn, and I think we did. We had about 80 percent of the setup on the car was new stuff, some stuff we hadn’t really ran in a lot of different directions that are outside the box for us and what we were competitive with earlier in the year. So I hope Greg learned a lot tonight. We didn’t get a lot of practice, so we had to learn as much as we could in the race, and I think we learned some stuff.
Next weekend it will be great to actually get some practice and actually tune on the car a little bit more.

Q. NASCAR kind of wanted to change the format to try to increase excitement. Did you feel you increased excitement? There seemed to be a lot of confusion out there about exactly how things would work, and then with only two cars on old tires on that last ‑‑
DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, wasn’t ‑‑ you know, I think that the intent was really positive, and the ideas were great. But I think the simpler we make it, the easier it is to follow. You just have to worry about rooting for your guy.
I was pretty confused right up until it was 13 laps to go, and then I knew, well, we’re racing from here to the end, and this is all the normal rules. But everything before that was really out of my ‑‑ I was out of my element.
But NASCAR did a good job making sure ‑‑ even though all the pitting was confusing and how the lap cars were pitting with the leaders, people weren’t really where they were supposed to be, NASCAR did make sure all the lineups were correct before we went back to green. So you can’t really complain about that too much. It was just an unorthodox way of doing it. I don’t know. I think they ran into some scenarios tonight that they didn’t really anticipate and got caught off guard. I think the 20 obviously not pitting, however that worked out, that threw them for a loop and everybody was confused from that minute on.

Q. What made you think if the All‑Star Race became a race of innovation and you guys just raced whatever you brought to the track?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, I don’t know. We probably wouldn’t pass too much because we’d all be wide open. We would all be full throttle. I just think they ought to go back to the original formats that they started with that are simple and make the cars race better, you know? Gimmicks and all that stuff, trying to trick up the race is going down the wrong path. The way to make the racing exciting is to make the cars exciting.

Q. Along those lines, the changes that were implemented, could you tell from the driver’s seat, did they have much effect in this race on the racing in general?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.: There was a lot of ‑‑ yeah, I mean, we gained some track position somehow. You know, all the mandatory stops during the segments, then the mandatory stops in between the segments. Somehow or another Greg did some magic and got us into the top 5. Guys were struggling, and I don’t know. You know, it came down to the 22, the 42. That was pretty exciting, and I don’t think that had anything to do with any format, so that was just two guys going at it, and that’s what you really want.

Q. What about the downforce, side force stuff?
DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, you know, I think that taking the skew out of the housing and limiting the toe and doing things like that will certainly slow down the mid‑corner speed a little bit and there will be a little bit more off‑throttle time, and I think that any time we can get more off‑throttle time, there will be more opportunities to out‑drive a guy into a corner, beat a guy into the corner or drive up to a guy’s bumper to get him loose or move him out of the way or however you need to do it. You know, you saw the 22, he could get right up to that 42. Man, if we were running the ’14 or ’15 package, the 42 could have went wherever the 22 was going and kept him about 10 car lengths behind him the whole time. He didn’t ever have to worry about it.
So the fact that the 22 can drive up there right to him and the 42 can’t do anything about it, we’re going down the right direction with all that stuff.
F

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MAY 21, 2016

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd:
WE HEARD YOU ON THE RADIO EARLIER REMINDING YOU OF THE FIRST TIME YOU FLEW A REMOTE CONTROL HELICOPTER. WAS THAT THE KIND OF CRAZY DAY THIS WAS? “Yeah, I didn’t know what way up and what way was right and left. Lap-down cars were pitting with lead-lap cars and wave-by cars were up front and in the middle. NASCAR did a good job of sorting the lineups out. Everybody was where they were supposed to be when we went back to green so you can’t complain. They were doing it unlike any other way they were doing it before. I’m sure they ran into some scenarios they weren’t really anticipating. That really was probably part of it; guys getting caught a lap down, the 20 not pitting within the first 50 laps. They weren’t anticipating all that. As far as our Mountain Dew and Nationwide Chevy, we got it better. A lot of the setup is new and some stuff we’re trying to find some speed with. We still have some gains to make. We didn’t win the race but we outran a lot of guys who had been outrunning us the last few weeks. We didn’t get to practice so we worked really hard during the race changing a lot of stuff, and I hope Greg (Ives) learned a lot. Next weekend we’ll actually get to practice some and make some changes to see if we can’t get our car better for the 600. I’d love to win that race before I retire.”

THIS WAS A SOLID EFFORT EVEN THOUGH YOU DIDN’T WIN THE MILLION DOLLAR CHECK. “Yeah, we tried to come here and learn as much as we could to get better as a team. Ninety percent of the setup in this car we hadn’t run this year. This is the race to try those things. Heck, we kind of came close. We didn’t have the speed those guys did on that last run. Right before that at the end of the second segment, I really loved our car. We’ll see how it works next weekend when we actually get to practice, try some things and change some things. We’ve learned a lot We’re still not as good as the 22 and the 2 at the end of this race but it’s better a run than we’ve had in the last several weeks.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – Finished 6th:
IT WAS A PRETTY CRAZY AND CONFUSING NIGHT. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THAT RACE?
“I really don’t know. I was just very, very confused, I felt like, for the majority of the race. We had a really good car until we got our damage there. We were trying to play the pit road game. You want to spend the least amount of time you can on pit road and that’s what everybody was doing. I was planning on pitting on that first lap after we got back going and it was just chaotic and if it was my fault and I didn’t do a good enough job getting out of the way, I’ll take the blame. I was just trying to get on pit road.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE AERO PACKAGE? IT LOOKED LIKE THE RACING WAS A LITTLE BIT BETTER?
“Yeah, I thought we were able to be side-by-side a little bit more. Obviously you’re at the mercy to your outside. If he wants to race with you he can; if can stick it on your door and make you real free. It’s kind of up to him. If he gives you a little mercy then sure, you can race. But I do think it is a little bit easier to be around guys, I think, is an improvement. Like I said, and improvement doesn’t mean it’s perfect. We need to keep working on things and hopefully find a good stopping point.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FORMAT? SOME WERE CONFUSED ABOUT THE WAVE-AROUND AND IT WAS HARD TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON SOMETIMES
“Yeah, I was confused the whole time. I really was. There was a lot of time I didn’t know what was happening and just a lot of things, but hey, I was really proud of our effort. It was such a long day and my guys did such a good job fixing our car; not once, but twice, today. So, I’m proud of them for that. I thought we had a good car from the start of the race until we got our damage and I think that’s encouraging for next week.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUSCH LIGHT CHEVROLET SS – Finished 11th:
“We just had something that went wrong. It’s unfortunate, because we had a really fast Busch Light Chevrolet. It was really, really fast, but I just got to a point where I couldn’t steer anymore in traffic or in the corner. It just made it tough.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Finished 16th:
TELL US ABOUT THE LAST RUN. “I’m super disappointed. I hate that I keep letting my team down. They did everything right. They worked their tails off after I got all the damage in the Showdown. We had a really, really good Target Chevy and were able to get to the front pretty quick there to be in the best position possible there for the last restart. I got clear right away and thought I could cruise. I was getting looser throughout the race. We were making adjustments but weren’t making big enough ones. I just got loose and Joey (Logano) caught me. He did a really good job side-drafting me. I tried to hang on his quarter panel like I did with Chase (Elliott) earlier today. I got really loose as soon as I got in the corner. We were going so fast that I couldn’t correct it and ended up drilling the wall. I’m really disappointed but congrats to Logano and their team. Hats off to my guys. They’ve worked their tails off. We’ve had fast cars the last few weeks where we had struggled with that recently. I’m having fun but this will be hard to get over.”

YOU WERE THE DOMINANT CAR IN THAT LAST 10-LAP SHOOTOUT BUT JUST LOST OUT THERE AT THE END. WHAT HAPPENED? “First off, thanks to my team for repairing our car after the Showdown where we had quite a bit of damage. Our car was really good from the start. I was able to go from 18th to I think ninth pretty quickly. We kept working on it and getting farther forward and better. I started getting looser as the race went on and thought I’d be OK for that 13-lap run we had there. I was too loose to start and you had to start pedaling it too soon in the run. Joey was able to get close to me. I tried to move around at that point, and he did a good job of side-drafting me and getting me slowed down enough to get kind of ahead of me. I just got loose getting into that corner. I definitely didn’t over-correct. I was just going fast, got loose, lost control and hit the wall. I’m disappointed. I feel like I keep letting my guys down but thanks to them and everyone at the race shop for working hard and getting our race cars a lot better. It’s been fun recently to run up front and contend for wins. I just have to figure out how to do it.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER CHEVROLET SS – Involved I multi-car crash on Lap 72 – Finished 20th
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I got in a wreck. I mean, the No. 24 (Chase Elliott) wrecked everybody and put everybody behind him in jeopardy and we got caught on the outside of it. I shouldn’t have been back there in the first place. We couldn’t even get clarification after the pit stop as to where we were even supposed to be and then we restarted and find out we’re a lap down and it’s like, how did that happen? How did that happen? It’s the dumbest damn thing I’ve ever been a part of.

CHASE ELLIOTT WAS WAVING OFF CARS BEHIND HIM THAT HE WAS GOING TO PIT. BUT IT’S BEEN ONE OF THOSE INDESCRIBABLE NIGHTS.
“I’m as baffled as everybody. I don’t know how in the hell we were scored a lap down after they stopped the 20 car (Matt Kenseth) and the pit everybody together a lap down then lead lap and then lap down. It’s the most screwed up All-Star race I’ve ever been a part of. I’m glad it’s my last one. I’m all right. I’m just madder than hell because I don’t understand how the hell they’ve officiated this from start to finish.”