Category Archives: Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Daytona–Press Conference

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 6 2014

CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS COLLECT THREE OF TOP FIVE FINISHING POSITIONS AT DAYTONA
Kurt Busch Leads the Charge for Team Chevy Finishing Third

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – July 6, 2014 – Team Chevy’s Kurt Busch was looking for his second win of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and first restrictor plate win at the rain delayed Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday when the skies opened up again and dashed his hopes. The wet and wild race was postponed due to inclement weather on Saturday and continued to be plagued throughout the day Sunday with showers and two major multi-car crashes. Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, had to settle for a third place finish when the race was finally called at lap 112 of 160 originally scheduled laps.

“We led a lot of laps today with our Haas Automation Chevy, it’s a tough pill to swallow because we want to go back out there and race,” said Busch following the race. “There is still plenty of daylight left and there are lights here at this track. I’m disappointed because we want to go for the win. At the same time this team has turned a good corner it’s been about five weeks in a row now that we have been in the top 15. We cashed in on a top-five finish today.”

Casey Mears came home with his first top-five finish of the 2014 season by bringing his No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS home in fourth place. It was also his first top 10 finish since the season-opening Daytona 500. Like Mears, Austin Dillon notched his first top-five finish in the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Museum Chevrolet SS in fifth place, giving him the honor of being the highest finishing rookie of the year contender.

Danica Patrick, No. 10 Florida Lottery/GoDaddy Chevorlet SS, earned her second best finish of the season by coming home eighth. It was also her second top 10 finish of 2014. Patrick moved up one spot to 27th in the standings.

Series point leader Jeff Gordon rebounded from an early incident to finish 12th in his No. 24 Pepsi Real Sugar Chevrolet SS. Gordon maintained the lead with a 27 point advantage over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who gained one spot in the standings by bringing his No. 88 National Guard Chevy SS home in 14th place. Jimmie Johnson, who was sidelined by an early multi-car crash in his No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet SS, dropped to third in the point standings with his 42nd place finish.

Aric Almirola (Ford) was the race winner and Brian Vickers (Toyota) was second to round out the top five finishers.

Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series will head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The Camping World RV Sales 301 will begin Sunday, July 13th at 1 pm, ET.

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH (TOP FINISHING ROOKIE OF THE YEAR CONTENDER)

KERRY THARP: We’re now joined by our second place finisher in today’s race, and that’s Brian Vickers, and he drove the No. 55 Aaron’s FSU National Champions Toyota, and our top finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, coming in fifth place, is Austin Dillon. He drove the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.

KERRY THARP: Austin Dillon, talk about your run out there today, a strong top‑5 showing for sure.

AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, it was a good run for our Bass Pro Shops Chevy. We just made it through the wrecks. Seeing it like Brian and everybody up front at the beginning was swapping ends and didn’t look good, and we made it through the first one, and then the second one hanging out there down the backstretch, and my teammate was in front of me, and he checked up, and I checked up, I kind of just shot the middle and they went left and got lucky. I saw Jamie flying through there. That was crazy. Made it through that, and sitting pretty good there. I think me, Brian and a bunch of the guys right there would have loved to seen it go back, but it’s racing. It’s part of it. We’ve been here for a while and would love to go back, but that rain has been tough to deal with all weekend. I’m ready to go to my dirt race, which is in Indiana. I’m trying to get out of here.
Q. Guys, this is obviously one less kind of wild card race off the books, and that means with Almirola winning there’s one less spot in the Chase for points. It’s been so much talk about wins this year, but now that there’s even less spots for points, does this sort of accelerate what you’ll be looking at every week as far as the standings and trying to have good points days as well as a win?
AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, same. We jumped from 18th to 13th in points. There’s less positions now, but just got to stay consistent. We had a test at New Hampshire this past week. I felt like it was a good test for us, and we go on and try and keep these runs going for us as a rookie, and I think it’ll close up the rookie points now, too. We’ve gained a lot the last couple weeks, and this will definitely help.
Q. Austin, how bad did you need this performance today after the strong season that Kyle Larson has had?
AUSTIN DILLON: It’s huge for us getting a top 10, a top 5; it definitely can change the rookie race. We’ve got some momentum now. We’ve got the last four races, I think, in the rookie race, and just stay consistent and hopefully we can come out with this thing. Our cars have been really fast all year, and we’re getting better each week. I feel like we’re gaining a little bit, and I’m excited about that.
Q. Austin, after all the attention you got down here in February, you’ve still been hanging around, so just where would you assess your team halfway through the season and what do you think is the biggest thing you have to work on going forward?
AUSTIN DILLON: Well, Kyle has had a great season and I’m kind of putting our season against his because we’re racing for the rookie of the year. That was our main goal going into this year. Any other year the last couple years it would be a great season, but the way they’ve run we’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves.

You know, we’re hanging in there. Just want to find some more speed at these mile‑and‑a‑halfs, get more consistent. Kentucky was a good race for us, just didn’t make a good adjustment at the end. Experience will come with that, I hope, and like I said, I feel like our cars are getting better and we’ve been really harping on that as a group at RCR to make our cars better, and I think we’re starting to show. Ryan had a good run at Kentucky, and hopefully we can carry that on at New Hampshire. We still saved a test or two, I think, as a group, so maybe those tests will help us out.
Q. Austin, as far as the rookie part of it, are there some learning curves that you had to overcome in the Cup level you’d like to share with other rookies and fans out there?
AUSTIN DILLON: Oh, for sure. Each week you learn a little bit here and there and what it takes to compete at this level. I mean, it takes a full weekend from the start of the weekend when you unload off the trailer, and learning that is just ‑‑ it’s the hardest level of racing in the world in my opinion, because I’ve never done anything past this. But for us, just progressing each and every week and being smart throughout runs and trying to make our cars better throughout a race instead of maintaining, that’s one tough spot. You’ve got to be able to gain through a race and you can’t just maintain, where in a Nationwide race or a truck race it’s shorter and you can get your car decent in track position and you can kind of maintain that way.
Q. How odd is it to be racing not knowing is this going to be the last lap? Is this the last ‑‑ because you know that the bad weather is coming and you’re just uncertain like do I have two more laps to make it move or do I have to get it done now?
AUSTIN DILLON: For me, it’s tough because I thought we were racing to 80 there for a while, and when we got ‑‑ I hang around in the back for quite a while just trying to miss some of the stuff that looked like was going to happen up there. It was pretty wild. It is tough not knowing if you’re going to get to 160 because you’ve got guys saying, oh, it’s going to rain out, it’s going to do this, and there’s so many opinions and you just have to trust yours, I guess, when it comes down to it and get there when it counts at the end.

KERRY THARP: Austin and Brian, thank you for being here today, and good luck next weekend.
Joining us now is our third place finisher in today’s Coke Zero 400, and that’s Kurt Busch. He drove the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet for Stewart‑Haas Racing, and Kurt, certainly you had a strong car up there, and we heard you on a couple of the TV interviews during the rain delays that this might have been one of the strongest cars you’ve had down here at Daytona. Just talk about how the race unfolded for you and how things went today for the 41 team.

KURT BUSCH: I thought we had a good finish today. You know, I’d love to be out there racing and competing for the win, and the car ran strong. We dominated, led most laps, and the Haas Automation Chevy was a good car right from the time it was completed and shoved into the wind tunnel, and those guys really did a good job back at the shop to prepare the No. 41 for all the speed that you need here at Daytona.

We executed well on pit road. Again, we led a lot of laps today and thought we were in good position, and when you’re racing knowing that there’s weather in the area, it’s best to be in that lead position because that gives you the best shot at when the rain does come and if they do call the race, that you’re the leader.

Most importantly, though, we’ve made a good turn on the 41 car the last month with good solid finishes. Today it’s disappointing to finish third after leading the most laps, but all in all, looking at the long‑term projection, it’s been solid on the 41 car, and it was great to run good Daytona weekend, July 4th with a patriotic paint scheme with America’s Machine Tool with Haas Automation as well as the symbolization for our Armed Forces, so it’s great to have the race dedication that we had on the race this weekend from the Armed Forces Foundation.
Q. Is it difficult to set up a strategy when you don’t know when the end is coming?
KURT BUSCH: I thought we did well. Daniel, my crew chief, was on top of when we needed fuel and when we were playing the halfway game as well as when we were playing the pit the last time to make it all the way to lap 160, and it seemed like it was putting us in a good position to lead laps, which we did. We were leading at the time, and that’s what you want if the rain is going to come out.

So the race was a bit uneasy. I think the competitors were looking to jockey harder for positions towards the front, and we saw a couple big wrecks today because we didn’t know if we were going to get much past lap 80.
Q. Just your thoughts, were you surprised the race was called at this point because there’s still so much time left in the day? And you talked about the building of your team. You guys are doing it at a variety of tracks, it’s not like you’re having one type of success, so what’s helped turn things around for you guys at this point?
KURT BUSCH: It seems early to call a race. It is Sunday already, and the majority of our fans that showed up were going to use this day to travel back home. On average how far are the fans here locally traveling to get back home? Is it four hours? Maybe we could have run later on today and still finished and everybody could have back home and to work on Monday.

You know, the network TV side of it versus the safety of the fans, as well, with thunder and lightning in the area, it’s a tough call to make. I didn’t do my job to be the leader. We didn’t quite have a couple solid restarts at the end to be the leader for when the race was going to get called.

As far as our team developing and moving forward, you know, it’s nice that we’ve shown speed on all different types of tracks, and I can’t really pinpoint one thing other than just working through some of the aerodynamic balance changes we’ve made to our car since around the Charlotte race as well as we built up enough notes on what we were doing wrong to steer a different direction, and we did that at the first Pocono. So the 1st of June we’ve been running a lot better with two different balance changes.
Q. Are you and Daniel (inaudible) new relationship?
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, the relationship with Daniel, you know, there’s some times when a driver and a crew chief hit it off and they’re off to the races right away. Daniel and I have been slower to mature together in our relationship, and so we’re 18 races into our first date. Now we’re going into the second half of the season, and all of our first dates are done. We’ll go to New Hampshire next week, and that’ll be the last new track that we see together, and then from there on out, all the tracks that we’ve been to we have notes and we have test sessions planned, and that’s where we have to make the 41 team stronger.
Q. As far as your team members and you, when you get rain delays, especially when it’s delayed to the next day, is it harder on a driver? Is it harder on those team members that have to go to work?
KURT BUSCH: It’s tough on everybody. Are you going to go back to green? Are you not? You’ve got to pack the stuff up while it’s in a torrential downpour. I told the spotter as I got out of the car, be sharp, be focused, stay upbeat, keep this good attitude about this right now because we have a shot to win this if it goes back green. Instead the race is called. We were almost ready to start kicking the tires because we were third. But it’s a general good feel when you’re running up front, and we led most laps today. That’s what we’ll take away from today.
Q. You’ve been really successful at this sort of weird form of racing without popping through for a win. Does it frustrate you or do you like it? Do you anticipate coming here because the stats are good but no trophy yet?
KURT BUSCH: No, you’re right. I haven’t won a points paying restrictor plate race. It’s been tough over the years. 15 years into it, I’ve won IROC races and won a Shootout, won a qualifying race; even Nationwide, I’ve won a Nationwide race here but haven’t broke through for a points paying Cup win yet. I’ve got to go to the videotape. I’ve got to go back and study more. When I’m the leader, I have to advance my game. I have to be better at blocking and strategically managing the race as a leader. I’ve been really good at seconds and thirds, top 5s, just got to break through for that win, and I believe I need to do more work to get better at it.
Q. (Inaudible).
KURT BUSCH: Well, there’s the film study, then there’s the – you have to be in position to make mistakes or you have to be running up front more often to learn from it. You can’t learn by dragging around in the back waiting for wrecks to happen. You learn by leading and getting shuffled out of the lead, and then trying a different approach to stay in the lead and to be able to make your car as wide as you can at certain spots and to make others have to rethink their strategy. The chess game definitely comes into play more so when you’re the leader than anything else.

KERRY THARP: Thank you for putting on a good show this weekend. We’ll see you at New Hampshire.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–IndyCar–Pocono Qualifying Notes

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POCONO INDYCAR 500 FUELED BY SUNOCO
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 6, 2014

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: WHAT A RACE: “First off all, I want to thank Verizon, IndyCar, PPG and everyone who supports this car and Team Penske. I want thank Roger for believing in me after how many years out of open-wheel, coming back and believing I could do it. Here we are. It’s awesome that we could do it.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR MOMENT WITH YOU AND WILL POWER WHEN YOU GOT YOUR WING CLIPPED. DID IT MAKE THE CAR MORE DIFFICULT TO DRIVE? “There was a little more understeer. I had to do it. It was one of those moves where you do it or you don’t. That was the winning move and I had to do it.”

WAS PATIENCE THE KEY? “Yeah, that’s what we’ve been saying. You have to be patient and you have to be smart. On days like this, if you do everything right the opportunity will come.”

BACK IN INDYCAR AND IN VICTORY LANE AT POCONO… HOW EXCITING IS THIS FOR YOU? “It’s huge. I want to thank the fans for coming out… Verizon, IndyCar, PPG, Hawk Performance and everyone who believes in Team Penske and myself. It’s huge. I was overly excited coming to the line, I can tell you that.”

HOW WILD WAS IT AT TIMES? “It was only wild going for the lead with Will (Power). Everything else was more strategy and saving fuel. You have to run a smart race all day and we did that.”

ROGER PENSKE, OWNER, TEAM PENSKE: ON THE RACE: “It’s great for Juan. What a great job he did. All three cars ran well. Sorry about Will there and Helio getting together. For Team Penske and Chevrolet, our sponsors PPG, Verizon and Hitachi… what a great day here. We just need to continue this. It’s a great points day for us. With Hunter-Reay having a problem, that gave us a real boost in our points. It’s up to the team and they did it with great drivers. Congratulations to Juan Montoya. Certainly a great day.”

ON THE PENALTY TO WILL POWER: “That’s up to the officials. Obviously it’s a shame for him (Power). These guys are racers. What tell them to keep each other on the track but it looked a little tight there for us.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: ON THE RACE: “We made some changes and copied my teammate’s setup. Congratulations to Montoya! Are you kidding? This guy is unbelievable. Coming back after 15 years and winning a race. He did a great job. As soon as he signed, I knew he would be an asset and a headache for us. I’m glad. It’s good with a 1-2 finish and I can’t believe we are now tied in the championship. It’s really unbelievable.
“What else can I say? It’s great news (to be tied for the championship). It was a tough race. You have to be really patient, and that’s what we did.”

RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “Things are really looking up for NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing and I’m just glad we finally were able to get a finish that mirrored our efforts. We just keep looking better and better as the season progresses and I think we have a lot to look forward to in the second half of this season. This track is awesome and it’s been really fun to race on all weekend.”

SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: ““It wasn’t a great day for us maybe overall speed-wise, but we had made our way to the top five there at the end of the race and to get a top-five finish after where we started isn’t that bad. The Target team worked hard today and you know anything can happen in these long 500-mile races. We kept the car in one piece and I was happy to bring it home for the guys. Hopefully this builds us some momentum for the next few races.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: ON THE PENALTY “I actually let him go and went wide on the brakes and touched the brakes. I move, I move, I move… I was heading that way, heading over, over and over. I mean, he is my teammate. So it was another penalty and other drive-through and another really good opportunity lost. I’m sure all the commentators up there gave me a pretty good rub. The drive-through at the end of the race… painful. It was a double-move. But time after time it happens to me and no penalty. Anyway, it wasn’t a good day. The drive-through penalty… I’ve got to stop it. I’ve gotta stop getting drive-throughs.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH ““There’s two ways to look at today really. First, we had a very strong Target car and I think that shows a lot about what this team and I are capable of when we get the setup right. Secondly, it’s obviously frustrating to dominate a race like that and not win. We just missed going to full 500-mile distance by a few laps and it heartbreaking when those things happen but that is racing as they say and we will focus on Iowa now and put it behind us.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: “It was a long race and I kind of knew it would be that way when we didn’t qualify well. We really had some issues with the car all weekend. We ran with Scott (Dixon) most of the day and the car was better later in the race. Unfortunately, it was a tire sensor that came apart immediately when they put the car down off the jacks on the next to last stop (lap 155). The car was vibrating some badly that the steering wheel almost flew out of my hands. So I had to pit again on the next lap and we got down a lap. I’m not pleased how our team’s weekend went here. We have been so good this year and today just wasn’t our day. Now we’ll move onto Iowa and I like that track a lot. Plus I loved night racing. It should be a great show.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 AUTOMATIC FIRE SPRINKLERS, INC. – KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH: “It was a really long day out there and a pretty scary start when we thought we had the same mechanical issue as last weekend. I brought the Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. – KV AFS Racing car back into the pits, recycled everything and managed to get back out before the green flag and without losing a lap, which was a great job by the whole crew. From then on we just battled….everyone is extremely strong, it’s not like there are big differences between the cars anymore, but by starting the race so far back hampered us big time. We had a strong car, and managed to get some good points for the championship but still have a long way to go.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 No. 11 Team HYDROXYCUT – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “It was a pretty good day. We made progress from Saturday in qualifying. The car was competitive in racing traffic. We were marching forward and fighting with the top-10 guys. Once we got into the top-10 it was looking pretty good. Then unfortunately in a typical example of racing…winning together and losing together…we had a bad pit stop. I have thrown a couple of races away this year, today it was the crew. We just have to keep digging and see what happens. For sure it is disappointing for everyone because it looked like we were going to have a good result, but, that is racing. We are headed in the right direction, so we just have to keep at it, keep building and see what happens next weekend in Iowa.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. . 83 LEVEMIR® FLEXTOUCH® CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “It was a pretty disappointing day for the No. 83 Levemir® FlexTouch® Chevrolet and I feel really bad for the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew. The car was really good all weekend and then we developed a mechanical problem early in the race and then we just fought that all day. We’re looking forward to heading to Iowa and doing some short-track racing on Saturday night.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Daytona–Race Notes

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 6, 2014

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/DUCKS UNLIMITED CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car crash on lap 20:
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“The No. 17 car (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) got sideways on the lap that we’re all getting a competition caution. I don’t know. I guess Ricky thought it paid something to get to lap 20. I don’t know. It didn’t make much sense to me, but I’m not that smart either; so I don’t know. I don’t know that I’m the right person to ask.

“I guess is was just Stenhouse being an idiot. It didn’t make much sense when we’re coming to the caution, we’re like a quarter of a lap from getting to the caution and he does something stupid. It tore up a lot of people’s cars and a lot of people’s days. To get here on Wednesday night and sit here all day and run 19 and three-quarter laps and get wrecked by somebody who’s doing something stupid.”

WAS IT THE WEATHER COMING THAT HAD EVERYBODY UP?
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask him and what he’s doing. Every week it’s something kind of with him. I love him like a little brother, but it makes me nervous to be around him on the race track.

“We’re a quarter lap away from getting a competition caution and Stenhouse is going to be a hero. I don’t know what happened to him there, but he took out a bunch of good cars. I don’t know what it is. No matter what I say right now, somebody is going to be mad and somebody is going to disagree with it. But, I think it’s a pretty dumb excuse to have the caution come out 500 yards too early.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car crash on lap 20
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t know. There were just cars spinning. I just feel so bad for my crew. They worked so hard to get a car ready to come down here and have a fast car. And then we make 15 laps four days later, or something like that? I’m certainly disappointed in that. But we’ll go get it fixed and go out and try to collect some points.

“I was kind of busy with my environment of three-wide and I just saw cars moving around and smoke in front of us. So I don’t know what triggered it or what happened. But I’m just thoroughly disappointed for everybody on the Lowe’s team. Those guys have been down here for four days in this heat, working on the car; not to mention all the time and effort put into this, to go 15 or 20 laps is just a really big bummer.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER FOLDS OF HONOR CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car crash on lap 20
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR VIEWPOINT?
“It’ looked like the No. 17 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) got squirrelly up there and then they all started wrecking. I had the wreck cleared but unfortunately with the splitters and everything out in front, the grass is what tears all the cars up. It was unfortunate for our Budweiser Chevy; but maybe one day they’ll make grass that’s not eight inches tall.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car crash on lap 98
AT TIMES TODAY, YOU HAD THE BEST CAR. WHAT CAUSED ALL THAT?
“I don’t know. I knew I was going to walk out here and you guys were going to ask me what happened, but from my seat I didn’t see anything. Kasey (Kahne) came over and said that maybe Greg (Biffle) bumped him a couple times and got him squirrelly and he said he couldn’t catch it. When you have a car spin out at the front of the field, there is just nowhere to go. I ran into the guy who was directly in front of me and the guy behind me clobbered me.

“I will tell you I have never had a car that’s off the ground and it’s a crazy feeling, and it’s a helpless feeling to have the car do that. I was really lucky that it set back down. You see these big wrecks and those are probably the easiest hits you take all year long because everyone is going the same speed and for the most part, those don’t hurt near as bad as if you have a tire issue or something.”

YOU SAID YOU WERE SURPRISED AT THE SWING OF THE HANDLING OF THE CAR FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE RUN TO THE END
“It wasn’t necessarily run to run, but at the beginning of the race I could tell our car drove better and I could tell a lot of guys were having to lift. And I wasn’t. Our car was really stable and right at the end of the green flag pit stop run I got a little bit tight and I just assumed that when we put tires on that it would feel fine. But from the very first lap it was tight. I don’t know if it was a tight set of tires or if the track was just changing that much.”

“It’s kind of scary I think my car got airborne. I have never had that happen before it’s a helpless feeling when you are getting hit as you are in the air. It was kind of scary, but glad it looks like everyone is okay.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE/GI CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 98
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE:  “Just got hit from behind and started spinning. I don’t know how it all… I’m not exactly sure what went on there or how it all happened other than I was hit and started spinning. Then everybody else was wrecking with me.”

WHAT STARTED IT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“Yeah, I felt like I was about sixth or so and I was getting hit from behind and I just started spinning. It’s kind of a tough spot to be in there because everybody is trying to get going and I just got hit, started going left to right and spun around. I knew it was going to be big as far up as I was.”

WAS IT A MATTER OF THESE GUYS BEING TOO AGGRESSIVE OR THESE CARS BEING HARD TO HANDLE LATE IN A RUN?
“No, the cars are hard to handle when they get pushed and are close together like that. If you are getting hit in the corners of your bumper. And that is what I felt like was that the corners got hit a couple times and it went left and right and started spinning. I am not sure exactly how it all happened. We avoided the first wreck, and we didn’t avoid the second one so, it’s too bad.

JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 ACCUDOC SOLUTIONS CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 98
WHAT HAPPENED?  “Unfortunately I’m probably the same as most of the guys that were back there with me. I didn’t really see a whole lot as to what started it. I saw a white car I think get turned up in the front and it’s just so hard here. You are running so fast and you are trying to stop right now. I thought we had it missed. I was following along with Denny Hamlin there. I thought we had it missed and whoever was behind me started to spin and got into the back of us.

“I don’t know; then it was a pile on from there. Hit the grass, tore the splitter up, not going to be the finish we wanted for our Accudoc Solutions Chevy for sure. We had a strong car and I think we can get it fixed. We have to put a radiator in it and do a couple of other things, but hopefully go out there and gain some of those valuable points.”

REED SORENSON, NO. 36 GOLDEN CORRAL CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 98
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“I saw absolutely nothing. I just saw a car maybe two or three rows in front of me start spinning and then I think I got hit from behind. It was on from there. I couldn’t see anything. It just tore the car up. It looks like there are a lot (of cars) in here in the garage so it looks like it tore a bunch of. I will just have to look at the replay, but that is part of racing here. It is bound to happen.”

LANDON CASSILL, NO. 40 NEWTON BUILDING SUPPLIES CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN A MULTI-CAR CRASH ON LAP 98
WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“I’m really proud of my team they built a really nice car, ECR engines, we go all out for these races and we have had the results to prove it. I’m really proud that we led some laps today, but there was nothing I could do at that point.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
“We led a lot of laps in the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet. It’s a tough pill to swallow. We want to go back out there and race. There is still plenty of daylight left. There are lights at this track. I’m disappointed because we want to go for the win. But at the same time, this team has turned a good corner. It’s been about five weeks in a row now we’ve been in the top 15 and we cashed in on a top 5 finish today. So that’s the good news. The bad news is that the No. 43 (Aric Almirola) won. That makes him Chase eligible. That might bump us back a spot. That’s the big picture; but also the big picture is us. We’re running better with the No. 41 car. So, I’m happy to drive a patriotic paint scheme to a top 5 finish and give a shout out to the men and women who serve.”

CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4TH
“The GEICO Chevrolet is fast. It’s nice to be inside the top-five right now. I sure hope the rain goes away because I would like to have an opportunity to get in the Chase. The car is fast. Anything can happen, but with an opportunity to win and then possible get in the Chase we are sitting in a good spot. Hopefully it will blow through I don’t know what is going to happen, but either way if it does come we will have a good day.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 5TH
YOU RAN NINTH AT THE DAYTONA 500 SO YOU ARE REALLY BACKING UP A GOOD FINISH THERE:  “We just got lucky and got through a bunch of it and the guys have been smart and we don’t have too much damage or anything. A little hole in the grille, but that was from the really big wreck. Somehow we skidded right through the middle. I’m proud of this Bass Pro Shops Chevy team. I’ve got to thank all of our partners with Dow. We’ve had a solid run today. I would like to get it back going though. I think we have a shot here. Obviously there is a lot of attrition that has taken place, but it would be fun to see if we could work with our ECR teammate Casey Mears and see if we could have a shot at it.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 FLORIDA LOTTERY/GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8th
ON HER DAY:  “The car is fast. It has just been a matter of attrition and getting a little lucky and making it through things. We have been in two crashes and the car has been okay to keep going which is hard to do here at Daytona because the splitter height is so critical because if it’s a little too low you can’t go the speed you need to because it will just hit the track. We have been really fortunate from that perspective getting a yellow in the middle when I made the mistake on pit road of missing my pit box. Here we are with less than 50 laps to go and there are only now 13 or 14 cars on the lead lap. There is a lot less to lose than normal. On a normal speedway weekend you would say eighth is pretty good lets just go home with a car that is not too badly banged up, but there is a lot less to lose than normal so it would be fun to go back at it.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
YOU’VE HAD AN EVENTFUL DAY:  “We are just trying to get out there and see if we can get a good finish. Anybody can still win this race. My car is pretty tore up. The left-front splitter looks a little high and I think the balance of the car is real tight. When I get into the pack and get behind guys real close I’ve got to use up a lot of race track on the exit of the corner. We’ve got to figure out what we can do to get better there. Hopefully the rain goes away and we get going.”

EVEN WITH THE DAMAGE YOU THINK YOU HAVE A CAR GOOD ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO WIN?  “It’s going to be… anybody can still win it. Anything can happen there can still be another big wreck, but I just don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to stack up. Our car is at a pretty rough spot as far as speed and handling. If it thins out even more it’s going to handle better.”

YOU DID A GOOD JOB OF AVOIDING THAT LAST WRECK:  “It’s easy to just come to a stop as long as nobody runs into you. We were going to be fine on that first wreck, but we got run over. I can’t believe all of the cars we have wrecked today. It’s kind of uncharacteristic, but it’s just how it works sometimes.”

WHY HAS IT BEEN THAT WAY?  “Daytime race, it’s a little bit slicker. The cars are moving around a little bit more and guys are being a bit more aggressive here. You don’t see us all lined up on the top running around there trying not to go to the back. Guys are running side-by-side the way the cars are drafting. The package is really keeping the pack pretty tight and guys are running side-by-side from the lead on back. If you are going to run tight like that you are going to have mistakes or cars just get moved around by the air. Heck a guy could just be holding the wheel and the car will move three foot depending on what is happening around him without him moving the steering wheel. Sometimes you just get yourself in a bad spot.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 24TH
YOU HAVE HAD A ROUGH DAY TELL US ABOUT IT:  “Really spent a lot of time just kind of managing and avoiding and staying in the back. Keeping a good idea where the leaders were going to be staying out an extra lap to pit by ourselves so we could have clean fenders, clean race car with our WIX Filters Chevrolet. Just got caught up there in that I guess it was two or three crashes ago now. Just unfortunate that fans have been sitting around here for an extra day now and we are fighting Mother Nature. I hate seeing these race cars get torn up like this. Especially flying through the air everybody knows how I feel about that.”

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS THE REASON FOR ALL THIS?  “It’s the product of being here an extra day, kind of racing the rain. A lot of guys are racing for a win pulling out crazy stuff. Just the product of the way the cars race together. It is what it is. It’s really not much fun.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR. NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 15th:
“It was a roller coaster day. We never could get going. I didn’t like what I was seeing early in the race and I hung back. That turned out to be a good move as we missed being collected in the first wreck. Then we had a vibration in the car, and later we needed to make a battery change. As I was exiting pit road after the battery change, the second big wreck happened. We most likely would have been in that wreck had we not been on pit road changing the battery. We eventually got back on the lead lap and we were ready to move forward. But we never got that opportunity because of the race being declared official following more rain. It’s been one of those weekends you want to forget about and move on.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Daytona–Race Notes

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 6, 2014

FROM YOUR SEAT WHAT HAPPENED?  “I didn’t see anything. I really didn’t even get to see a replay in the infield care center. They had a wreck in front of us and you are kind of along for the ride after that. I was more concerned when I got out about Kyle (Busch). I wasn’t sure why he wasn’t getting out with his car being upside down on the track. It’s kind of scary I think my car got airborne. I have never had that happen before it’s a helpless feeling when you are getting hit as you are in the air. It was kind of scary, but glad it looks like everyone is okay.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – Involved in multi-car crash on lap 98
WHAT STARTED IT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“Yeah, I felt like I was about sixth or so and I was getting hit from behind and I just started spinning. It’s kind of a tough spot to be in there because everybody is trying to get going and I just got hit, started going left to right and spun around. I knew it was going to be big as far up as I was.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–IndyCar–Pocono Qualifying

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POCONO INDYCAR 500 FUELED BY SUNOCO
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING RELEASE AND TRANSCRIPT
JULY 5, 2014

Juan Pablo Montoya Grabs the Pole; Sets New Track Record with Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Power; Will Power Gives Chevrolet a Pair of Front Row Starters for Pocono IndyCar 500

LONG POND, Penn (July 5, 2014) – Juan Pablo Montoya was the last car to make a qualifying attempt for Sunday’s Pocono IndyCar 500, and the driver of the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet made it count. With a new track record of 223.871 m.p.h. two-lap average, Montoya won his first Verizon P1 Pole Award since returning to Verizon IndyCar Series competition this season.

Montoya’s Team Penske teammate and current Series’ points leader Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, was second fastest, also breaking the old track record with a two-lap average of 223.725 m.p.h. to give Chevrolet IndyCar V6 power two of the three front row starters for Sunday’s 200-lap/500-mile race on the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway, also known as the “Tricky Triangle”.

“Chevrolet extends a proud congratulations to Juan Pablo Montoya and Team Penske for putting up a pair of stunningly fast laps at Pocono Raceway today, besting last year’s pole by 2.598 mph, and winning his first pole position since returning to IndyCar racing,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager for Verizon IndyCar Series. “Next to Juan Pablo on the front row will be his teammate Will Power who also beat last year’s pole by 2.452 mph. The innovation and skills that exist in the Verizon IndyCar Series today are made visible by results like these. We are looking forward to the Pocono INDYCAR 500 mile race tomorrow where Team Chevy and our technical partners will have the opportunity to demonstrate innovation and preparation under race conditions.”

The third Team Penske driver, Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Chevrolet, turned in a two-lap average that also broke the existing track record set in 2013 and will start seventh tomorrow in race No. 11 of the 18-race season.

Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Tony Kanaan, No. 10 Target Chevrolet, and Ryan Briscoe, No. 8 NTT Data Chevrolet, will start eighth and 10th respectively to give the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 five of the top-10 starters in the race.

Carlos Munoz (Honda) will complete the front row of three.
Live television coverage of the Pocono 500 is set to start on Sunday, July 6 at NOON ET on NBC Sports Network. The command to start engines is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET.
Live radio coverage will be on IMS Radio broadcast on XM Radio Channel 209 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 213. In addition, IndyCar live timing and scoring with the radio broadcast can be found at www.indy.car.com.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

AN INTERVIEW WITH:
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND

THE MODERATOR: We’ll get started with today’s Verizon IndyCar Series post‑qualifying press conference. We have joined by Will Power. Will will be starting second in tomorrow afternoon’s race. He started fourth and finished fourth last year. Will, tell us about qualifying and the conditions out there today.
WILL POWER: Yeah, it was a pretty good run. I had probably too big of a lift on my first lap, too much understeer, but apart from that, Juan ran a bit more downforce, so I thought if he can be flat or have less of a lift, he’s going to be very tough to beat. But still very good for Penske to have a one‑two.
Q. Will, how important is qualifying for a 500‑mile race? I know it’s a long race. Does it really have much implication?
WILL POWER: No, I mean, it’s always good to start at the front. You’ve got less of a chance of getting caught up in something at the start of the race and probably on restarts, as well.
But you know, apart from that, you look at Dixon who won it last year, all the Ganassi cars last year came from quite a ways back. Strategy is going to be a big deal, fuel, windows and so on. Yeah, it’s not a ‑‑ if you qualify last, you can win from last. You know, it’s not something to worry about, but it is good to be in the front.

Q. There is no difference like red and black tires here and there’s no Push‑to‑Pass, so how difficult is it going to be to pass here, and which part of the track can you pass on?
WILL POWER: It’s tough to pass, yeah. I mean, really when it all sorts out, man, it’s going to be difficult to get by.

Q. It sounds like a lot of teams went conservative on setups. Was that based off of the wind from the earlier practice sessions? Did that factor into maybe toning things back a little bit?
WILL POWER: Yeah, and also lack of practice. You don’t get much mileage going into a 500‑mile race, so I think it’s a place you’ve got to really creep up on, so if you go over the top, you know, it can be pretty bad to get caught out. Yeah, you didn’t have time to really do good qualifying sims.

Q. Will, this question is for you being atop the points standings, second half of the season here and it’s a short season, so is it great to be in that point position or is it a little bit scary because there’s only one place to go? What is the strategy? I don’t mean to be negative, but that’s really ‑‑
WILL POWER: You look at it black and white, you have more points than anyone accumulated right now, so it’s obviously a good thing. You would rather have that than not. So you’ve just got to look forward and just focus on your job. I mean, that’s all you can do. You can’t sit there trying to points race. You’ve just got to go and race.

Q. Helio said during the session after his run that he felt the track was improving as the session went on. How much of an advantage was it to run late?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It always helps a little bit, but it’s the luck of the draw. Some weeks are good for you, some weeks are bad. I think the big thing for us was balance and we had a hell of a balance. I know Helio struggled a little bit with the balance during qualifying, and in a way of running late when you’ve got good teammates is you can see how much they struggle and you can adjust the car so you always get a little more information. It’s like I know like what Will did, they came in ready straight away and he did this and he did this and he helped, so I already knew before I started where to go, so you’re already in a better place. But they were a little more trimmed than me. I’m like, I was faster and I was right.
WILL POWER: You were, you (expletive deleted). It was only a couple hundredths, too. Man, why did I lift? Damn.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: You were good through 3 or not?
WILL POWER: I was flat through three, but 1 I was like ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I had a small lifts in 1, tiny little lifts.
THE MODERATOR: Carlos, good luck in tomorrow’s race. Juan, I have some history for you. Last pole in an IndyCar, Gateway 2000 ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No, Surfer’s Paradise.
THE MODERATOR: 15th career pole, obviously 2012 won pole here in NASCAR. Now that you’re back here in an IndyCar, tell us about your qualifying run.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I had no idea what to expect because this morning I felt like we had a really good car in race trim and really struggled. Started trimming the car down, and every time we trimmed it, it was just balance‑wise it was awful, had a lot of understeer in the car. Made quite a bit of changes for qualifying and it was really, really good. You had a little bit understeer and stuff on the front bar, took a little crossweight out here or is it crossweight we did here? Yeah, we don’t say wedge, it’s crossweight. Took a little bit of crossweight out, and as soon as we did that, the car started hooking really nice, and it was good. I mean, it was a bit of a handful through 3, but it was good through 1. The big thing here is if you can hold it wide open in 1. As trim as you are, if you can hold it wide open, it pays off because it’s just all momentum.

Q. I think you never raced here in open wheel racing, only in NASCAR. How do you approach this in event? Did you ask for advice or information from your teammates?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No, you watch ‑‑ I watched last year’s race, a little bit how the race developed and how everything went, and that’s all you can do, be as prepared as you can be and take it as it comes. That’s all you can do.
It seems like I run really well on ovals this year, so it’s fun. It’s nice to have a good track position. For the next race we have pit good stop, as well, so that pays off big time.

Q. Last Friday at Houston you said we’re getting there, and then you had a pretty good run at Houston on Saturday. Now you’ve won a pole.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: We’re getting there.

Q. I think getting there, you’re almost here.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No, I feel I’m still lacking a little bit. I’m getting a lot better. I feel a lot more comfortable in the car. Like I feel at home in the car now. But I need to be a little more proactive with the car, understand it a little better, help the engineers a little more. Like I can tell them what the car is doing, but the more I learn the more I can tell them which direction we need to go with the car to make ourselves better because the series is so close and we’ve got two really good teammates between Will and Helio, and we help each other and everything, but I feel to be able to get an edge on them I’ve got to do a better job of understanding the cars so I can get ahead of them. It’s the only way.

Q. I know you guys have the new right sides this time around. Now that you’ve had more laps on the track, more laps on them, do you like the balance with them?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Tires‑wise? Tires are fine. They’re not dropping that much. I mean, if anything it’s going to be a hard race because it seems if you do a really good job through Turn 3 and you suck up in there and you get close enough into Turn 1 then you’ve got a big understeer in 1, and if you miss Turn 3 then it takes you all the way around to get back into Turn 3 and it’s like a vicious circle. It’s really hard to pass here, so I think track position is important. Also I think fuel mileage is key, as well. We’ll see. I mean, we just ‑‑ we’ve got to plan the race and see what it brings. That’s all you can do. Whatever it gives you, you’ve got to be smart, you’ve got to run all day. It’s double points, and you’ve got to take that into consideration and you’ve got to be there at the end.
THE MODERATOR: Will, do you have any comments on tire usage here at Pocono?
WILL POWER: Yeah, they’re very consistent really. It’s one of the few tracks we go to where they don’t really degrade at all. I think the speed over the whole stint we stayed the same. If anything get a bit quicker as the car gets lighter from fuel. It’s not going to be a tire game tomorrow, it’ll be strategy versus fuel, depending on where a yellow may fall and trying to make it one less stop than everyone else. If it happened to be green, yeah, it’s that type of race I feel.

Q. Getting back to the ‑‑ am I getting here, is he here now?
WILL POWER: He is. He’s definitely ‑‑ I mean, he’s brought a lot of good stuff to the team from the very beginning actually even when he was coming up to speed. Definitely good ideas, and I think just the experience of the three of us I think is really helping like push the car in a good direction, the development. Because at the end of the day ‑‑
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Make sure you mention that to Roger.
WILL POWER: At the end of the day the drivers push the development in a certain direction, and the beauty of driving for Penske is you’ve got the resources to develop what you want, so it’s good having experienced drivers in the team to push you in the right direction.

Q. Juan, is it my imagination, it seems like when you’ve taken steps, you haven’t reacted like the veteran that you are. You’ve kind of looked like a new guy doing something new every race, but you do a little better. Do you feel like you’re kind of getting into new they are try all the time?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It feels like new territory because I haven’t done it for such a long time. I know how to do it, but knowing how to do it and actually getting to do it is two different things. It takes time. It’s all about believing in what you can do and believing how far like in street courses how far you can actually go before you actually really hit the wall, before you actually bounce off the wall, and that’s one of the things ‑‑ like in street courses I’m still missing. I’m getting better but I’m still missing in qualifying especially I’m terrible ‑‑
WILL POWER: So am I.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Yeah, you learned from me there.
WILL POWER: That’s one bad thing you taught me, qualify badly.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Exactly. Yeah, it was funny because we were in Long Beach and I think I qualified like 14th and he’s like this is our worst qualifying ever, it’s embarrassing, and he’s like, boom, boom, it’s getting worse.
WILL POWER: Now it’s like 19th, 18th every week. But it’s fun in the races, man. You start back there, it’s great fun. It’s boring from the front.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Really? It’s amazing it doesn’t matter where you qualify, if you’ve got a good car and you make a couple of good calls you’re there. You’re always going to get a couple opportunities in the race to do something different, and if you do it right it’s going to pay off and you’re going to get a good finish. So qualifying is important but it’s not crucial. It’s good for the pit stop, for the race, for the next race and for the pit stall, and it’s great for the team. This week we’ve got the PPG Chevy car and it seems to be really good, and Verizon has supported us a lot, so we have the two Verizon cars, the drivers in the front row. It’s pretty cool.

Q. We keep hearing it’s really hard to pass here, it’s really hard to pass here. What is it about this track that makes it hard to pass and how do you overcome that?
WILL POWER: Straight through the corners, they come back on themselves. It’s not like Indy has got four corners so they’re at a 90‑degree. These get passed. It’s very difficult to make it stick when you rely on aerodynamics to stay close to someone. I think it’s the same for NASCAR.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Yeah, NASCAR it’s pretty hard to pass, same thing, because the last time I had the same thing. The corner is so long and there’s really only one groove that is the bottom groove. I think Turn 1 is a little wider, especially because people coming out of the pits should run a little high to go around them, but I’ll be honest with you, if I’m running wide open and somebody comes out of the pits, I ain’t going to run wide open around the outside of them just for the sake of it. Hell no. I’m going to make sure I pass them, but I’ll be cautious about it. But it’s like Turn 3, for example, you’ve got to be on the bottom the way the corner is, especially being so flat, it makes it pretty hard. If you could run two grooves, then it would make life a lot easier because the cars are very aero sensitive. That’s where they are.

Q. Because of the difficulty with passing, how crazy do you expect the start to be just because everyone is going to be right on top of each other?
WILL POWER: 500 miles.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: Yeah, it’s a long race. I mean, it’s all about making sure you work on your car all day long and get a good balance for when it really matters. It’s all about strategizing and putting yourself in a good position to have a shot at the end. That’s all you can do.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–IndyCar–Pocono 500–Qualifying Notes

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POCONO INDYCAR 500 FUELED BY SUNOCO
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 5, 2014
PAGE 8

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: WALK US THROUGH THAT RUN.“Our PPG car was really good with the Chevy engine. It’s fun to be in the Verizon IndyCar Series. We have great cars and great partners. I’m just so proud to be at Team Penske. Being able to get this is huge.”
THE TEAM WAS CELEBRATING. ARE YOU JUST AS HAPPY? “I’m excited. It’s the first time we’ve gotten here together. It’s great to be on the pole. Now we need to start getting some wins.”
WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO WIN THE RACE? “I think we have a good car. Let’s see what it brings.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “Yeah, it was good. I probably lifted a little too much into Turn 1. I knew Montoya was going to be tough to beat. They ran a little more downforce. Since I wasn’t flat, I think he probably went wide-open on that run.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: A LOT OF DRIVERS ARE USING A SLOW WARMUP LAP. ARE YOU EXERCISING TIRE MANAGEMENT SO YOU CAN SAVE YOUR TIRES FOR THE TWO HOT LAPS? “No, I was just trying to make sure the wind wasn’t bothering me. Even though there is just a slight wind out there, I wanted to make sure that the controls and tools in the car were set up because we stalled a little bit going out. So yeah, I thought everything is under control but wanted to make sure the car was ready to go. And it was.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: ““I’m pretty confident in the Target car and it’s obviously a very long race with 500 miles so you have to let it play out. I think we went a bit conservative on the setup and the No. 10 car had more in it for sure. We have a good race car under us and today is a decent start to the job we’ll have to do tomorrow. I’m confident in my race car. The No. 10 Target car is hooked up for the race. It’s a 500-mile race and it doesn’t matter where you start.”

RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: We had a good run today in qualifying. The No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet was the best it’s been all day. I think the conditions are just really good right now and we maybe could have been a bit greedier with the downforce but it was a good solid run. The car was the best it’s been this week. The conditions are really good right now. We could have been a bit more greedy with the downforce, but it was a good solid run. The gears were right. The car felt solid so hopefully it gets us in good position for tomorrow.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 13TH: WHERE DO YOU THINK THAT WILL PUT YOU? HOW IS THE BALANCE OF THE CAR? “Probably 10th or 12th. We left a lot on the table and missed on the balance. We’ve been off today and it’s been frustrating. We will have to get things together for tomorrow and come back strong. I’m not sure what happened on those two laps. This place is important for track position so I didn’t want to qualify too far back. I feel like our race car is pretty good, and it is a 500-mile race so you can make certain changes on pit stops and from the cockpit.”

SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 15TH: ““Today we spent both practice sessions working on the balance of Target car. I think we’ll be okay for the race but you just have very limited time here at Pocono. Each of the three turns here is distinctively different so you really have to be able to compromise the setup to get things right. Last year we showed you never know what can happen here after starting back in the pack and finishing 1-2-3.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. . 83 LEVEMIR® FLEXTOUCH® CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 17TH: “I’m not too worried about our qualifying position right now. We qualified mid-pack last year and then we ended up finishing strong in the race. Tonight we’ll take some time to look at what our teammates did and compare notes and see what kind of data they have. I think the No. 83 Levemir® FlexTouch® Chevrolet looks really good and I’m excited for the 500 miles tomorrow. We qualified mid-pack last year and ended up running strong in the race. We spent all day today running on one set of tires and working on the race car. Really focused on tomorrow’s 500 miles. I think the car is pretty good. We will look at what our teammates did, see what the 10 does and learn from it for next year.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 No. 11 Team HYDROXYCUT – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET QUALIFIED 18TH: “I’m obviously not happy with qualifying. It’s not where we want to be. The car seems to be a little better in race trim, but we still have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, we can figure something out and have a decent result in the Shatter car tomorrow

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 AUTOMATIC FIRE SPRINKLERS, INC. – KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET QUALIFIED 19TH: “Of course we wanted to be a little more up front, but not being able to test at ovals as much as we want, is showing and starting to hurt us. Our main focus this morning was to just mileage out the car, which we managed. My Automatic Fire Sprinkler guys were then super impressive to change my Chevrolet engine in an hour and a half! In qualifying, I bottomed very hard in turn one on my first green lap and that killed everything because I had to lift and that lost me speed. My second lap was much quicker but by then I had lost the momentum. On a positive note though I think we have a good race car so we will just have to see how the race plays out tomorrow.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–IndyCar Pocono 500–Post Race Interviews

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POCONO INDYCAR 500 FUELED BY SUNOCO
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 5, 2014
PAGE 8

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Pocono IndyCar 500 Post Race Interviews

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POCONO INDYCAR 500 FUELED BY SUNOCO
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 5, 2014

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 No. 83 LEVEMIR® FLEXTOUCH® CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET met with members of the media at Pocono Raceway and discussed racing at Pocono, his season to date, outlook for rest of season and other topics. Full transcript:

ON BEING BACK AFTER PODIUM FINISH HERE AT POCONO IN 2013: “It is always race; at least it was last year for us. The track itself is pretty challenging, at least from my perspective. All three corners are very different. You have to balance the setup of the three corners very differently. But overall, it’s great to be back. It’s nice to need a sweatshirt in the morning after last weekend in Houston. I’ll admit, not complaining, after last weekend, I’m not going to complain about the coolness. It is nice to be up here in the Poconos. It is such a beautiful setting. I really enjoyed the drive over from the airport yesterday. It’s nice to be able to enjoy the July 4th weekend in such a beautiful setting.”

ON THE REST OF THE SEASON: “I think the first half (of the season) has been kind of a tale of two stories. When we’ve finished, we’ve been inside the top-10; you mentioned those three top-fives. We had a really good battle to claim a top-five in the second race at Houston last weekend. And, the second race in Detroit to get that podium. But we’ve also fought a few DNFs. A couple of mechanical challenges, and then getting caught-up in incidents both during the 500, as well as race one at Houston. For the second half of the season, I think we are trying to solidify that consistency, and continue to get to the end of races, and keep our streak going of getting to the end, and finishing well when we do.”

ANY ILL EFFECTS FROM THE HEAT LAST WEEK? “We all knew in the off-season it was going to be tough physically. As a result, we trained for it. I did a lot of work; pulled a lot of resources from different exercises physiologists, and some of the science side to learn as much as I could during the cold winter months in Indianapolis. Overall, I felt really good. I got out of the car, and yes, I was tired on Monday, but no more than I was after the doubleheader at Detroit. No more than I will be Sunday night here after 500 miles tomorrow. No ill effects. Re-hydrating was as important as pre-hydrating. As I said, it’s nice to the ambient temperature down a little bit. It is nice because I think because the drivers have a better opportunity to interact with the fans on race weekend. All last weekend we spent going from air conditioning to pit lane; pit lane back to air conditioning trying to stay cool and save as much energy for when it counted. So at least here, it’s nice to be able to be able to enjoy the time outside, and interact and thank the fans for coming out. Because I think that is an important part.”

CAN YOUR POSITIVE RESULT HERE LAST YEAR ADD TO YOUR CONFIDENCE FOR SUCCESS HERE THIS YEAR? “I think that the confidence for us as a team having had that podium sweep here last year, and myself with that second place finish, you come in with a good understanding of where the car was, and what direction….Firestone made a small adjustment to the right front tire for this year. We were pretty happy in first practice. We had a small mechanical issue so we didn’t get to finish the fast five, or 10 minutes, and keep up with the track as it sped up at the end there. The conditions are quite a bit different than last year. It is 15 to 20 degrees cooler, and the wind is a little bit stronger…but other than that, we have a lot of confidence heading into the weekend. It changes the strategy a little bit with it being 500 miles versus 400 miles. Last year I think I would have taken a 500 mile race. Hopefully when we get done with 500 miles tomorrow, I would be happy to have 550 or 600 miles. We’ll see how it goes. It does change the strategy and as a team you’re looking towards those extra 100 miles from lap one. Even today in race trim, we’re working towards that direction. It makes some adjustments, but having that great result it meant that the two weeks off testing wise we could go focus on some areas we needed to improve rather than feeling we had to come here, and run at Pocono. Overall I think this morning has gone well. I feel like we have picked up pretty close to where we left off. As a team, we have a lot of confidence heading into the rest of today, and tomorrow.”

ON EASE OF CHANGE FROM HONDA ENGINE TO CHEVROLET: “The biggest thing from my side is the sticker on the engine cover climbing in the cockpit. In as far as the car or the engines drive, they are very similar. You see a little bigger differences I think, or at least from the engine I ran last year being a single turbo to the twin turbo DI (direct injection) Chevy this year more on the road and street circuits where you are at a higher boost level and it’s more dynamic as far as the throttle applications and lifting, and braking and downshifting and cornering especially here at Pocono. You are pretty close to flat, or flat all the way around. It’s a big challenge to feel much difference within the cockpit. Overall it’s been a lot of fun this year working with Team Chevy guys. It was really nice to get that podium in Detroit in their backyard for them. That always helps when the management is there to go out and sweep a podium. Hopefully we can get a good result for them here. I know they have struggled a little bit on the big ovals. Didn’t get the win that they really wanted at Indy, so hopefully we can do it in the two last 500 mile races for the Triple Crown.”

ON THE WEATHER FORCING CHANGES TO THE CAR: “I think it is very similar to how we started last year, how we started today. The car’s not as sensitive as you might imagine. It changes a little bit what we do in the cockpit based on looking at the flag and seeing how hard it is gusting, and how hard it is blowing especially in turn three when you don’t have the banking kind of shading the line from the wind. Overall you start very similar, and you do have to make some adjustments both in the cockpit with my tools, as well as the line driving throughout the corner. We’ve made a couple adjustments set-up wise to compensate for the wind and the temperature, but overall, it is very, very similar.”

AT WHAT POINT IN LAST YEAR’S RACE DID YOU REALIZE THE GANASSI STRATEGY WAS GOING TO WORK? “How many laps did we do last year? 160? About 159! You never know how it is going to play out. Even last week in the street circuit race at Houston and the Indy road course, because of a late yellow the strategy flipped on its head. Some guys were able to go the distance on fuel, and some guys had full fuel and were just trying to get as much of a gap at some point to try to get that stop it late. I think it was probably about half way through that last stint when everyone started to peel in for a splash of fuel at the end and we’d done our last stop, and thought okay, we were good to go. I guess maybe earlier when people were starting to save fuel and play back strategy from the end of the race. We knew it could come to us. Front lap 20, we knew we had a good car. We just had to keep it under us and be smart with it. Make it better the whole race rather than dialing it out, and we were able to do that. And, we had four really good, clean pit stops. I know the No. 9 (Scott Dixon) and the No. 10 (Dario Franchitti) were right there as well. I didn’t realize that Dario had gotten past Will (Power) for third until maybe a lap to go. Dario got a run on me, but wasn’t able to make anything happen, but my spotter was saying ‘The No. 10 car coming’, and I was thinking it was the No. 12 car, how did that happen? I didn’t know it was going to be that good until a few laps from the end.”

I SAW A SPECIAL PIECE ON A NASCAR DRIVER WITH DIABETES AND DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THE MECHANISM – A SPOT ON HIS UNIFORM THAT LOOKED LIKE A BULLSEYE – THEY USE TO MONITOR HIM, CAN YOU EXPLAIN DIFFERENCES? “I talked to Ryann (Reed) this week. We were both down at a Children with Diabetes conference in Orlando. It is an annual event. They bring young children with diabetes; their friends; their families. They do specific sessions of parents, grandparents, friends; all sorts of activities. There are patient ambassadors; Ironman Jake Hewitt; football player Kendal Simmons; cross country skier Chris Freeman. In the past they have had the Jonas brother that has diabetes come down and speak. I was there doing a couple of different events on Wednesday, and I was talking with Ryan a little bit about it. He wears a similar system to me in that he wears a continuous monitor so he can keep track of his blood glucose level, a lot like I do. His is a little different because it is mounted on the cockpit dash because they (NASCAR) don’t allow any telemetry or computing during races. Where with mine, it is integrated with the telemetry. So not only can I see it on my electronic dash, but the engineers are able to keep track of it. I think him what they were talking about with his suit is. If the sugars got out of control, and he needed an insulin injection that would be the area in which he would be able to metabolize it, and make an impact so it wouldn’t hold him back. Fortunately, knock on wood, everything I have had in the last five years of racing with diabetes, I have never needed insulin during the race. I’m set up in case my sugars go the other way, and my blood glucose goes the other way and goes lower, I’m set-up with a drink bottle with orange juice in it so I can get some carbohydrates back into my system and bring my sugars up so I don’t have to stop. But again, I’ve never needed the orange juice during a race to treat a low blood sugar. The idea is that if you keep it within that range, then you don’t need either carbohydrates or insulin.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–IndyCar–Pocono Indycar 500 Post Race

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
POCONO INDYCAR 500 FUELED BY SUNOCO
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 5, 2014

TEAM PENSKE’S HELIO CASTRONEVES, JUAN PABLO MONTOYA AND VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES LEADER WILL POWER met with the media at Pocono Raceway following today’s opening practice to talk about track conditions, being back at Pocono, contact on street races and other topics. FULL TRANSCRIPT:

HELIO CASTRONEVES
HOW DID IT GO OUT THERE THIS MORNING?
“Pretty good. The wind conditions hit us and threw a little curveball. At the end of the day, it’s the same for everyone. The Chevy engine is working good. We were able to try a race setup, which is what we wanted. Hopefully now in the second session we will be able to work a little bit on qualifying.”

WHAT DOES THE WIND DO TO THE CAR?
“It makes it a little tough to set up, especially when you are going from one corner to another, even though it is an oval. When it’s a constant wind, it’s not a problem. When it’s a gust of wind, that’s when it’s a problem. On one lap, the car is one way and the next one is, ‘Whoa, what happened?’ The inconsistency is what makes it difficult for us.”

LOOKING BACK AT LAST WEEKEND, THE STREET RACES ARE BECOMING MORE OF A CONTACT SPORT. IT SEEMS THE ONLY WAY MOST PEOPLE FEEL THAT CAN GET AROUND IS TO PUSH SOMEONE OUT OF THE WAY. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
“Certainly I don’t like it, and I don’t think anyone likes it especially if you are the one getting the contact. For one thing, the car is too strong. It gives opportunities for guys not to be careful. If there is a small opening, they are just ‘eh, whatever happened happened’ and not thinking of the consequences. But it became a good show with the contact like that. Unfortunately it hurts when you do have contact like that. It’s not going to change any time soon.”

JUAN PABLO SAID THERE ARE STILL GUYS YOU CAN RACE AGAINST. HOW DIFFERENT IS IT FROM BACK IN THE OLD CART DAYS? IS THERE STILL THE SAME ETTIQUITE OR IS IT A LITTLE MORE AGGRESSIVE NOW?
“In the past, there was more power so it was more difficult to get out of the corner. The close racing was a little different, and the approaching speed was a little different. Now because everyone is so close to each other… the braking marks are so close to each other. In the past, if you touched it used to break you more. It was a little different game. But the competition has adapted and I have to say this field is very close, probably because of the way the equipment is. We don’t have as much torque as we did in the past. Saying that, you see the younger generation driving a little different. Some of the new rookies have very huge respect – some not so much. But it’s never going to change. But it’s always fun to race like in the Indy 500 with Hunter-Reay when we are pushing each other to the limit. It was a great show with lots of respect.”

WITH A DOUBLE-POINTS RACE, DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS WEEKEND IS A CHANCE TO GAIN GROUND IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?
“Absolutely. Those are the races where we need to focus. But we can’t just focus on the championship. We have to focus on having good performances. Whatever comes out will sort things out.”

DOES IT MATTER TO YOU THAT YOUR TEAMMATES ARE THE ONES YOU ARE FIGHTING OFF?
“No. It’s a good problem for a team to have and that’s what we are looking for. It’s great to be battling with Will. I think the biggest one is how to manage that so we can bring both guys in and at the end of the day we will accomplish our goal – give the championship to Roger (Penske). We still have that mentality of wanting to make that happen.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THINGS ARE STARTING TO COME TO JUAN?
“I never doubted him. You have to give credit to the guy who jumped back in after seven years in NASCAR. He’s doing extremely well. I was never thinking anything different. I’m glad he’s adapting fast, and I think that’s his biggest strength.”

WHICH TURN HERE REQUIRES THE MOST CONFIDENCE FOR YOU?
“I think Turn 3 is the toughest one because of the circumstances of the angle of the corner and how you approach behind from someone. In front, it’s not so much (difficult). Where the laptime is is at Turn 1. Put those together, that’s the toughest part for the engineers and drivers.”

DO YOU ENJOY RACING AT A TRACK THAT YOU KNOW IS ONE OF THOSE GREAT TRACKS FROM 30 YEARS AGO WHERE SOME OF THE GREATEST NAMES IN INDYCAR RACING HAVE WON?
“Oh yeah. The tradition is always great to keep adding to the series – Milwaukee, here. Unfortunately we don’t have Nazareth. Phoenix is another place we used to race. Laguna Seca is another place. But we gotta go where we are welcome. And I think the series is doing a great job of going places where we are welcome.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
HAVE YOU STARTED LOOKING AT THE STANDINGS A LITTLE BIT MORE LATELY?
“It’s good now. I was looking at them at the beginning when I was 12th or 14th in points, and I was like, ‘I don’t really wanna look at this. It’s embarrassing!’ But I think where experience pays off is you don’t put yourself in bad positions and you finish more races. I feel I’ve been doing a good job for Team Penske, Verizon, PPG, Chevrolet and everyone who supports us. As long as the man (Penske) is happy, then I’ll be happy.”

DO YOU ENJOY THAT IT’S YOUR TEAMMATES THAT YOU’RE CHASING DOWN?
“In a way, yes. But in another way, it’s nice that they are running 1-2 at the moment. Neither of them have a championship yet, and I think both of them deserve one. So we will see how their interaction continues.”

HOW DID IT GO THIS MORNING?
“Good. It’s amazing how fast this place is. Even though you test here and you know what you have to do, it’s hard. To commit yourself into Turn 1 or Turn 3 to hold it down, it takes a lot of self-confidence.”

YOUR RESULTS HAVE PICKED UP A LOT IN THE LAST FEW RACES, AND YOU HAD A HUGE WEEKEND LAST WEEKEND. ARE YOU FEELING MORE COMFORTABLE?
“I’m starting to figure it out. If you’re not comfortable, you’re not confident. Now I know I can outbrake anybody. I get there and I can throw the car in and I’m still going to stop. So the confidence level is starting to go back up. It wasn’t going to happen overnight. You have to go racing to really understand. You test and you push until you think you’re comfortable. Then you go into a race and when you push you’re a second off, you have to get out of that comfort zone and figure it out. That’s what we’ve been doing.”

THE STREET RACES ARE BECOMING MORE OF A CONTACT SPORT. DO YOU REMEMBER IT BEING THAT WAY IN THE CART DAYS?
“It’s a contact sport with some people. It depends on who you are racing. If you’re running with guys that are experienced, you don’t have any problems. You’re running with Kanaan, Power or people like that, if you get out inside of them they will give you the room. They are smart enough. But then there are kids who would rather end up in the tires that give up a position.”

WAS IT THAT WAY IN CART?
“Michael (Andretti) was a guy you could race against always. He was a fair guy. Then you had other people who were desperate. When you’re desperate for results, you’ll do anything.”

WILL YOU WATCH THE SPRINT CUP RACE TONIGHT JUST TO WATCH IT?
“I will be in my hotel room. Last night I was watching the Nationwide race last night and fell asleep. But not in a mean way; I really wanted to watch it with 30 laps to go. It woke me up, the screaming at the line. That’s the thing with restrictor plate racing. We should do 10 five-lap races. That would make it so much more fun.”

YOU HAVE SO MUCH MORE EXPERIENCE HERE THAN ANY OTHER DRIVER. DO YOU FIND THAT IT HELPS?
“No. In a stock car here, you brake and downshift. You downshift in these cars here but it is very different. There is no technique and you press a button. It’s completely different. The IndyCars are very sensitive to the aero. Any gust of wind changes how the car behaves. But they are fun to drive.”

IS THE TRACK DIFFICULT TO DRIVE IN THE SAME PLACES DRIVING A STOCK CAR THAN AN INDYCAR?
“No. In a stock car, if the car was bad it doesn’t matter how good you are. When the car is good, it doesn’t matter how bad you are.”

HOW IS THE WIND HERE?
“It changes the balance and makes it hard because every corner drives different. You go into Turn One and you have tons to understeer. You go through Two – it shouldn’t be a corner in these cars it’s so easy. You turn in and you’re saying ‘please don’t snap, please don’t snap!’ You get into Three, and you have a ton of instability in the entry and feel like the front gives up. You think you’re going crash and you turn the wheel, the car doesn’t turn.”

THE RESULTS HAVE BEEN GREAT LATELY. HAS THE TEAM FOUND SOMETHING OR IS IT MORE OF A PROGRESSION IN YOUR RETURN?
“It’s a progression. I always said it would take time. If you thought it wasn’t, you were dreaming. I hadn’t been in an open-wheel car in six years and not in an IndyCar in 10 or 12. I feel like I’m getting there. I can feel it start to click, and the more it starts to click the more confident you get in the car and the more you can push it.”

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PENSKE AND GANASSI?
“They are very different organizations. They are both great organizations, and I’ve been lucky enough to run for both of them. But the way Chip and Roger wants their things are completely different.”

WILL POWER
HOW DID IT GO FOR YOUR THIS MORNING?
“Good. In the first session, we were trying to work on stuff to try and get the car better. It seems quite difficult to follow. We have to work on that.”

THE STREET RACES ARE BECOMING MORE OF A CONTACT SPORT. ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH THAT OR WOULD YOU PREFER MORE PLACES TO PASS SO IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A CONTACT SPORT?
“I mean, you can’t hit someone hard but the good thing about these cars is that you can rub. So it has become a little more push-and-shove. Obviously if you go too far you’re going to get a penalty. That’s street racing and how it is right now. You play to the rules at the time. That’s how we are playing right now.”

HOW DAUNTING IS IT TO GO FROM A DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND TO A 500-MILE RACE?
“I don’t know about daunting. One thing that is daunting is this place. But it’s fine. The temperature will make the race more comfortable. That and the lack of humidity. But it’s great – racing every weekend and having fun.”

YOU’VE SAID YOU’RE NOT LOOKING AT POINTS…
“You have to focus on the actual weekend. It can be a big swing one way or the other. You have to focus on your job and do everything you can to have a good day.”

TALK MORE ABOUT THE HUMIDITY AND HOW THE WIND IS AFFECTING THINGS?
“We’re running out of gear on the frontstraight a lot. So the wind is pushing us along pretty good. It’s actually pretty fast now, the track. The wind always affects these cars. It’s not too bad right now – the direction of the wind. Sometimes when you get a bad direction, it can really upset the car. This isn’t too bad.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Coke Zero 400

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2014

CHEVROLET DRIVERS CAPTURE FOUR OF TOP FIVE STARTING POSITIONS
IN RAIN-SHORTENED QUALIFYING SESSION AT DAYTONA

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – July 4, 2014 – After a bizarre and rain-shortened qualifying session for the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Daytona International Speedway, there were a few uncommon names at the top of the final time sheet, but another solid contingent of Chevrolets at the front. Reed Sorensen led the way for Team Chevy with his first top-10 start of the 2014 season by qualifying on the outside of the front row in his No. 36 Golden Corral Chevrolet SS with a lap of 45.176 seconds, 199.322 mph.

During the first 20-minute session a number of strategies were unfolding between the 44 teams vying for transfer spots. At times there were packs of cars on track but running considerably slower speeds on purpose and cars jockeying for partners on pit lane and on track. Just as the session came to an end, steady rain began to fall and eliminated any further qualifying rounds. NASCAR set the field based on speeds from the first and lone session.

Landon Cassill, No. 40 Newtown Building Supplies Chevrolet SS, earned the best start of his NSCS career by qualifying third with a time of 45.182 seconds,199.194 mph. Bobby Labonte, making just his second NSCS start of 2014, scored a top-five start by qualifying his No. 33 Thunder Coal Chevrolet SS in fourth position. Jimmie Johnson notched his seventh top-five start of the season by posting the fifth fastest time in his No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet SS.

In Saturday night’s 43-car field, Team Chevy will occupy nine of the top 15 starting positions for race No. 18 of the season. Daytona 500 winner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will start his quest for a Daytona sweep from the seventh starting position in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS while Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and NSCS point leader, Jeff Gordon, qualified ninth in his No. 24 Pepsi Real Sugar Chevrolet SS. Stewart Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet SS and Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet SS will start 12th and 13th respectively. Kasey Kahne, in the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, qualified in the 14th position.

David Gilliland (Ford) won the pole for the race to round out the top-five.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Daytona–Qualifying Notes

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 4, 2014

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7th
ON DESCRIBING THE FLOW OF THE FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION TO HIS TEAM
“I gave up trying to describe it to them. But I sure they want to know what’s going on. It’s a mess. You have to be in the very back and try to get a big tow. I ain’t ever seen anything like it. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 36TH:
CAN YOU DESCRIBE QUALIFYING TODAY? “Well, it’s just about being lucky as to who can make it through and who gets the right run. It’s just so crazy that everyone pulls out and doesn’t go and then stops. It is what it is. Everyone has the same conditions. It just doesn’t feel like racing I think is the way to put it because half the time people are running 40 mph. I don’t even really know what to say because it’s so messed up that I can’t explain it.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER FOLDS OF HONOR CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH:
Qualifying was a better spot for us than it would have been if we had gone on practice speeds. The new qualifying format is great. It is probably not 100% refined for Superspeedway racing yet. It was a definitely a chess game. It worked out okay because our car is still rolling.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 19TH:
DESCRIBE WHAT THAT WAS LIKE? THAT SEEMED MORE DIFFERENT AND WILDER THAN TALLADEGA?
“It was definitely interesting. Everyone knew what everyone else was trying to do. There was no way to get a small line of cars behind a big line of cars. Everybody was trying to do the same thing so it was kind of interesting. I don’t know… I think they need to look at doing something a little bit different here for next time. I wish we could get another round in because we made the top-24 and we were hoping to get a good starting spot out front and good pit spot.”

WHEN THE RCR ALLIANCE GOT TOGETHER TOWARD THE END, YOU WERE TRYING TO PACE YOURSELF TO GET THAT ONE LAST LAP. WAS THAT THE CASE? IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS HARD TO DO THAT WITH SO MANY OTHER PACKS OUT THERE.
“Yeah, it was hard to get in the right position. Again, everyone was trying to do the same thing. Everyone was trying to get behind a big pack of cars so they could get that big run, but no one wanted to go and be that big pack of cars.”

HOW GOOD IS THIS CAR?
“It’s the one we ended up racing in the 500, and it was awesome in the race. It didn’t last very long. But I don’t know. It’s hard to say. We didn’t do much drafting yesterday. We kind of did what we were doing today… we got in line, put in a lap and parked it. It’s driving good. I know it will have good speed so looking forward to tomorrow night, getting in the right spot and hopefully be there in the end to win this thing.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 20TH:
YOU WERE QUICK HERE IN FEBRUARY AND AT TALLADEGA IN MAY. I KNOW THE ENGINES ARE GOOD BUT WHAT IS THAT HAS MADE THESE CARS SO GOOD AT THESE (RESTRICTOR) PLATE TRACKS?
“It’s a combination of everything. It takes a little bit of everything on top of keeping your foot off that middle pedal, which is an important part of this as well. Qualifying went kind of the way we wanted it to but we just didn’t have control of the weather. We made the top-24 cut but in the end, our Wix Filters Chevrolet isn’t going to be on the pole so we will get ready for tomorrow night.”

IN THE RACE, WE TALK ABOUT HOW THE TRACK IS DIFFERENT HERE NOW THAN HOW IT IS IN FEBRUARY.
“It used to be 10 times different just because of the slickness of the track before it was repaved, which has been the big differential. The new asphalt kind of narrowed that gap between the February race and the July race. Overall, it’s somewhat the same; it’s just so much hotter inside the race car. You still have to deal with the track position side of it and you still can’t afford to make mistakes on pit road. A speeding penalty can end your night really easily. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of cautions here no matter what the race is, but in the end just keeping your head above water will keep you there to the end.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Daytona–Michael Annett

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 3, 2014

MICHAEL ANNETT, NO. 7 PILOT/FLYING J CHEVROLET SS AND REED SORENSON, NO. 36 GOLDEN CORRAL CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the season to date, changes of making the Chase, racing at Daytona, and more. Full Transcript:

DO YOU THINK THIS IS YOUR BEST OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THE CHASE WITH A WIN HERE AT DAYTONA?
ANNETT: “I think so. It’s hard to say. We’re both very competitive race car drivers but we also know what we’re up against. Just going off of the past, you see small teams that circle the superspeedways as probably the most even playing field that we’re on. The way we ran at Talladega, I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t come out of here with a win. I’m 30th in points right now and it’s something I keep looking at thinking man, if we go to Daytona and won that race, we’d be in the Chase. If our team is going to pull that off I think it would be something pretty special.”
SORENSON: “I agree. It’s pretty special. This is probably the best chance for us to win a race. Any of the restrictor plate races kind of evens the field. Everybody knows that. So, yeah, if one of us could get a win that would be great. And that’s what the new system has kind of enabled a smaller team like ours to have that opportunity if you were able to win a race. So, this would be a place to do it, for sure.”

BEFORE THE KENTUCKY RACE YOU SAID YOU HAD A PRETTY GOOD CAR. WHAT DID YOU LEARN THERE THAT WILL HELP YOU MOVING FORWARD?
ANNETT: “Kentucky was just a whole weekend where you always go out for that first run when you unload off the truck and it kind of sets the tone for the whole weekend. I knew right away that it was a really good car just throughout practice, I knew it. I’ve had a lot of success at Kentucky in Trucks and Nationwide and everything. So I had a really good feeling about that weekend. I can’t pinpoint exactly one particular thing that we learned, it was just fun to be running up there in the top 20 all night. It’s a totally different ballgame. Moving up to the Cup Series was a big step, but when you actually have a good car like that and the whole night you’re racing with those guys, you definitely learn a lot. So, if (Kevin) Bono (Manion, crew chief) learned something, I don’t know. He’s forgotten more than I’ll ever know. But I just learned a lot the whole night racing with those guys.”

DOES IT GIVE YOU MORE CONFIDENCE COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND AT DAYTONA?
ANNETT: “Yeah, I’ve had a lot of success here and Daytona is a place where sometimes you love it and sometimes you hate it. I had to miss three months of the year a few years back when I broke my sternum here, but I won an ARCA race here and it’s a place you love to hate. But I’m looking forward to the weekend. It’s always a crapshoot, but I think we have as good a shot as anybody else to win the race.”

YOU HAVE TOP 20 FINISHES AT THREE OF THE LAST EIGHT RACES, HIGH HORSEPOWER TRACKS WHERE TYPICALLY A SMALLER TEAM DOESN’T DO AS WELL. SO WHAT HAS HELPED YOU IN THAT SENSE?
ANNETT: “I can’t point one thing out that we’ve been doing different. My relationship with Bono just keeps growing and our guys are working as hard as ever. We have a really good alliance with RCR and we’re starting to see those cars (like) Paul Menard in the top 10 every weekend. We have a good alliance there. When they learn, we’re learning the same stuff. Across the board, I think all the teams are starting to run better.”

LOOKING AT PRACTICE TODAY, IT WAS WINDY. IF WE HAVE THE SAME CONDITIONS FOR QUALIFYING TOMORROW, HOW DO YOU THINK THAT WILL PLAY OUT? DESCRIBE HOW THE CAR FELT IN THE WIND
SORENSON: “I asked how windy it was because I was in the car the whole time before that storm rolled in. My car was moving around, too. He (Annett) said his drove good, so maybe it wasn’t the wind, maybe our cars weren’t driving correctly. It shouldn’t affect qualifying.”
ANNETT: “The wind is going to be the least of our worries (laughter).”
SORENSON: “During qualifying at Talladega, our biggest issue was see-sawing back and forth trying to get runs on each other. It’s kind of a cluster out there. Even today in practice, we went out there and then pulled back in and then went back out. Everybody wants to be in the back to get that run. So, that’s going to be fun.”

WILL YOU RUN ALL THE ECR CARS TOGETHER IN QUALIFYING?
ANNETT: “We always have an idea.”
SORENSON: “I don’t know and I’m going to find out after this what the plan is.”
ANNETT: “Obviously we want all the ECR engines to qualify up front. So, that’s pretty much what we tried to practice today. There are a lot more small teams like us where guys want that run too, so they jump in line with you and that’s why we rode around. I was in second gear I think and then came down pit road.
SORENSON: “At Talladega, I was supposed to go with him in Qualifying, behind him; but I don’t think I ever saw him in Qualifying at all. It’s hard to plan it but I think that’s the plan.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE OUT THERE GOING IN SECOND GEAR?
ANNETT: “It’s something I’ve never been a part of until we started doing this. It’s pretty crazy. It’s different. I kind of laugh at how much thought goes into it because it doesn’t matter as soon as the green flag drops, where you qualify. If you’re lucky enough to get the pole, obviously that’s a huge boost for your team, but second through 43rd doesn’t matter where you qualify.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Daytona–Dale Earnhardt Jr.

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JULY 3, 2014

DALE EARNHARDT JR. NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS met with members of the media and discussed the first half of his season, the recent plate race at Talladega, his quest to sweep the two races at Daytona this year, Twitter, and more. Full Transcript:

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUEST TO WIN BOTH RACES AT DAYTONA THIS YEAR AND OUTLOOK THIS WEEKEND
“Yeah, I guess Jimmie did it last year and before that it was Bobby Allison who did it around ’82 or ’83 or something. So it’s tough to do, especially the way the package is now. It’s real hard to get by the leader and we know that pretty well now from the way we ran in Daytona earlier this year. I really haven’t gotten a chance to see how this car is going to respond to the track. I am certain it’s going to be competitive, but knowing it’s not the same car though; we are going to have to see if it has any different characteristics in the balance. It’s a lot different surface temperature than we had in February so we have to figure out how that is going to affect the way a car drives and if the balance of the car is going to be different. I would welcome the car to be more challenging as far as the balance at this place and to where we use a little bit more of the race track. Getting handling to come into play would be a bit more fun. Hopefully the surface is starting to age a little bit and we will see when we get out there, but I don’t anticipate it being a whole lot different in the change over time.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR INTERVIEW THIS WEEK WITH ELI GOLD AND HOW YOU WERE ALMOST APOLOGIZING FOR YOUR RACE AT TALLADEGA EARLIER THIS YEAR
“Yeah, it was embarrassing man. I hate to talk about it. The way we ran and what I chose to do at the end of that race is just really uncharacteristic of anybody that is in the field and trying to compete. I just got really frustrated with the way things were working out for us. I lost sight of the overall big picture, what you are out there trying to do, who all is out there depending on you to do it, and what you need to do. I learned some lessons and you are never too old to learn them. You are never too old to be taught a lesson either. I definitely experienced that in Talladega this year.

“So I think when I was out there running this year, I got real selfish at Talladega, and how the result affected anyone – I never took into account. I was just out there really thinking about me, and what I thought, and what I wanted to do, and how frustrated I was. I forgot that there was a team behind me, and depending on me. Lot of fans there to see us race, showed up to spend hard-earned money, so it was a difficult thing to go through.

“I would love to sweep the races at Daytona because that is a cool thing, but I just love winning here. So to go to victory lane here regardless of what we did in February, would mean a lot to me. I expect that we will try to do the best thing that we can to help us strategy-wise so that we are toward the front. We did it perfectly for the 500 and we were in a position at Talladega to gamble and make it work like several guys did. We learned a little bit there too as far as how we could be a bit more aggressive with our pit strategy considering where we are in points and the wins we have.

“Hopefully we can do that. If we run out of gas, I can take that if we are trying to win a race. So we need to be willing to make that happen because I think that is what it’s going to come down to. The way they do these races these days, you have to get that track position and you have got to be first. When everybody is done pitting, you don’t want to have to drive through the pack. It’s hard to pass and you get boxed in. So what happens is that you need to be doing is putting fuel in your car as often as you can so that the last time you have to come down pit road to get in that window, you only need to put a few gallons in the car to reach that window. It’s where most of the field is putting 12 to 22 gallons in on that stop and you are only putting in what you need, and you beat them off pit road. And there you are – in position to win. As long as you, as a driver, can maintain that track position over the restarts and all the things that are going to go on over that run. So we know we need to do it that way, it’s just hopefully everything else falls in place that way such as the cautions and everything else. Steve (Letarte) is the master of those things and I have seen him improve so much over the last four years. So I feel like I have the right guy on the pit box.”

YOU HAVE WON BOTH OF THESE RACES. IS ONE A TALLER ORDER THAN THE OTHER?
“They are both similar physically to win. It’s the mental picture that the Daytona 500 gives you and the pressure that comes with that spectacle. There are so many people here, and just the driver’s meeting alone will set the tone and take you out of the race and intimidate you if you let it. There is so much happening, so many people on pit road, and you are being thrust in front of all these people to shake hands. You just want to think about the race and get in your car and you don’t want any distractions so you are just kind of struggling through that in the pre-race. It won’t be like that for the 400. It will be a typical weekend. The Daytona 500 is just so crazy before the race and that just gives you a different feeling and makes you understand how big that race is and how many people must be paying attention to what is going on at the moment.

“I don’t know if the viewers are any different, I am sure they are for the 500. And you imagine that as a driver. But all those things really take a backseat once you get in the car. I mean I remember when we were running there at the end and just how nerve-racking all those restarts were. That is much more of a bigger deal in the Daytona 500. But winning here regardless, it’s a great feeling. So you are going to try your guts out but I think you get much more nervous and certainly aware of how big the situation is when it’s the 500. So mentally, it’s tougher.”

WHEN YOU COME INTO A WEEKEND, IS IT THE WINS THAT GET YOU GOING OR THE RACES LIKE AT SONOMA OR KENTUCKY WHERE YOU DIDN’T EXPECT A GOOD RUN BUT GOT ONE?
“Well, we have surprised ourselves a couple of times like at Sonoma and Kentucky after how practice and everything was going. I just couldn’t believe how well they got that car put together as competitive as it was for that race. Those are the things that build momentum and build confidence. So when we struggled, I used to get really frustrated on Friday’s or Saturday’s when practice wouldn’t go well. You definitely don’t allow it to affect you as much anymore knowing the potential of how it can turn around for this team so well.

“So on weekends like last weekend four or five years ago, we wouldn’t have rebounded or run as well. The ship was sinking on Friday and it would have been under water on Sunday. But we seem to be able to calm down, talk it out, patch it up, and make something work. It just comes from a lot of experience, great engineers, and it’s really amazing work that they are doing. The speed in the cars directly relates to Kevin Meendering and my engineers. It doesn’t directly relate to Steve Letarte. He is the orchestrator of the individuals, the people, and running the team.

“But the pure speed the car has comes from the engineers and how they choose to set the car up to work on it through the weekend. They are doing an amazing job and when we can go to Sonoma and run like we did and then go to Kentucky and struggle and rebound so quickly in the matter of a day, it makes you feel good. But that is how this sport has always been. You can win the Daytona 500 one day and then the next day can be the worst day you have ever experienced in this whole deal. And that is just the way it goes and I have had those days back-to-back. You wonder why in the hell it’s like that but that is the way it goes.”

DID YOU WATCH ANY FILM OF THE DAYTONA 500 OR TALLADEGA TO PREPARE YOU FOR THIS WEEKEND?
“Not really, I didn’t watch any film. I have a pretty good understanding of what I was going through and what I was thinking through the last 100 miles of the 500. I understand what was working for me and what mentality I need to have. You just really have to crack the whip and push yourself mentally as hard as you can for every position. Once we got the lead in Daytona we started battling with (Greg) Biffle, the 99 car, and whoever else was up there. You just had to really reinforce to yourself how important it was to not settle into second or third and allow that to be alright. It was so important to be the leader on the restarts, to have that control, and to have that control of the person behind you and who was starting on the outside of you or if you wanted to be in front of your teammate and start on the outside line, or in front of your teammate on the inside line. That was so important and we saw that on those last several restarts and to have Jeff (Gordon) behind me on that last restart.

“So you had to keep reinforcing to yourself as you were running, that if someone would get up beside you for the lead, how important it was not to let that person have the position. You had to run extremely aggressive side drafting and try to box them in on the fence. You wanted to make it really hard on them to take a position away. I realized that if I get put in that position again that you are going to have to play to some pretty hardcore, cut-throat racing.”

WHAT IS IT YOU ENJOY ABOUT TWITTER THE MOST?
“Sometimes I feel like I am tweeting too much. Sometimes I feel that Twitter has got filters on my account to keep me from seeing all the negative stuff. But it’s been fun, and been so positive. I really underestimated how enjoyable it would be. I really enjoy sharing what I am doing, what I think is cool, and what is important to me. I enjoy seeing that feedback and also that interaction, the conversational interaction about topics. I enjoy a good comment, or a smart aleck. My momma was a good smart aleck, so I can appreciate a good smart ass. I enjoy the going back and forth and stuff like that. And also just reading and seeing what everybody else is talking about or whatever interests everyone else has. Basically and mainly in our own industry and just seeing what people are talking about, what they think is important today. It gives you so much access. I know the fans feel like they get a lot of great access, but for me it just taps you into the heartbeat of everything. What is going on in here (media center), what is going on in the garage, what some of the executives are thinking, and just gives you an idea of what direction everyone is going. It’s pretty neat so I am having fun with it and not trying to make any missteps. It’s been very positive.”

ABOUT HOW CONSISTENT YOU HAVE BEEN RECENTLY
“I am just thrilled with the way the team is competing obviously. I don’t look at those stats directly but I know we have been doing some great work since the beginning of the Chase last year. And maybe even a little bit before that. I thought in the Chase we had done everything just right except for Chicago. I thought that whatever happens in the offseason is going to tell us if we can be good enough to win a championship this year. If you look at the graph going back to 2011 when Steve and I got together, if you look at our performance, it’s been a linear trajectory in improvement. It just seemed to make sense that this year would be that much better.

“Then we won, and then we came out of the box and ran second a couple of times and I was thinking man, this is awesome, this is the best I have ever had it. It’s as good as I have ever run at Hendrick and maybe even DEI – consistently. We were running up front every week, and having a good car that could stay in the top-five every week. I remember when we put together a couple of top-15s a couple weeks in a row, and then it became a couple of top-10s. And then man, if we ran in the top-five a couple of times, we were really doing it. So it’s steadily gotten better and that progression makes sense to me, but at the same time when you do look at the numbers it really surprises me that the team has been able to sustain it. That has been the tough part for me over my career, is to sustain momentum and get ourselves running well for a long period of time. We would start off great, then have a terrible summer, then end well. It just never was complete. So it seems that this team is as good as it’s ever been and hopefully we can maintain it.

“We will worry about next year and the change at crew chief and all that good stuff. But man, it’s important for us to sustain this for this season. More important than anything else and we are going to concentrate on that.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Teams Ready for Challenging Triangle-Shaped Pocono Raceway

July 7, 2014 ARP Trish

Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Teams Ready for Challenging Triangle-Shaped Pocono Raceway
· Chevrolet Leads Series Manufacturer Standings with 10 of 18 races in the books

· Chevrolet IndyCar V6 has won 5 of 10 races held to-date in 2014

· Will Power Continues to Lead Driver Point Standings 39 Points Over Team Penske Teammate Helio Castroneves

DETROIT (July 3, 2014) – The unique triangle-shaped Pocono Raceway is next on the schedule for the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers. On the strength of five victories, Chevrolet heads to the 200-lap/500-mile Pocono 500 on the 2.5-mile tri-oval leading the Verizon IndyCar Series Manufacturer standings.

“We are eager to get back to Pocono,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager Verizon IndyCar Series. “We feel Team Chevy can really get it done there this year. Our speedway performance is solid and with double points and 500 miles to race, there is a lot on the line. Our Chevrolet IndyCar V6 engines will be in the sweet spot as most have mileaged out recently which has bolstered our lead in the manufacturer championship.”

Team Chevy driver Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, brings a 39 point lead over his teammate Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Chevrolet, in the 2014 IndyCar driver standings. Power scored the first victory in 2014, bringing the Chevrolet 2.2 liter direct injected twin turbocharged powered race car to Victory Lane at the Streets of St. Petersburg. His second victory of the year that propelled him to the lead in the point standings was race one of the Chevrolet Dual at Detroit. A total of six top-five finishes and eight top-10 runs thus far this season has kept him on top of the standings.

The first oval was the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Three time Indy 500 winner, Castroneves, came within just six one-hundredths of a second from claiming his fourth victory in the iconic track. Castroneves took the momentum to Detroit and scored a top-five finish in race one in the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, and a dominating victory in Sunday’s race two of Chevrolet sponsored weekend.

Team Penske’s third driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 2 PPG Chevrolet, sits fifth in the driver standings in his first season returning to IndyCar competition.

Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet, is the defending race champion at Pocono. The 2013 Verizon IndyCar Series champion sits ninth in the standings, and is looking to repeat at Pocono, and score his first win of the 2014 season.

Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11Hydroxycut KVSH Racing Chevrolet, heads to Pocono eighth in the standings, and fueled by the momentum of two top-five finishes in the doubleheader Grand Prix of Houston.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–SECOND CONSECUTIVE DAYTONA SWEEP THE GOAL FOR THE CHEVROLET SS

July 2, 2014 ARP Trish

SECOND CONSECUTIVE DAYTONA SWEEP THE GOAL FOR THE CHEVROLET SS
Chevy’s Dale Earnhardt, Jr. looks to be second Chevy driver to sweep Daytona

DETROIT – (July 1, 2014) – In 2013 Jimmie Johnson debuted the new Chevy SS at Daytona International Speedway in spectacular fashion winning the prestigious Daytona 500 in the SS’ first points paying race. Johnson followed up that success by completing the ‘Daytona Sweep’ winning the Coke Zero 400 in July at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. This season Chevrolet has the opportunity to do it again. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. piloting the No. 88 National Guard Chevy SS won the season opening Daytona 500 and is poised to complete the sweep by pulling into Victory Lane this weekend at Daytona. Earnhardt, Jr. a three-time Daytona winner is no stranger to success at restrictor-plate racing. Of his 21 career victories eight (8) (38.1%) of those have come at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway the two tracks on the circuit that feature large pack racing and depend on aerodynamic superiority as well as a set-up for handling conditions have been one of Earnhardt, Jr.’s career strong suits.

Over the years Chevrolet has been the most successful manufacturer at Daytona winning 18 races in July and 44 total at the birthplace of NASCAR, Daytona Beach, Florida. Chevrolet has won the last four races at Daytona. Since the beginning of racing at the superspeedway the Bowtie brand has swept Daytona 11 times beginning with the first sweep in 1986 when Geoff Bodine won the Daytona 500 and his teammate Tim Richmond followed up with a victory in the Firecracker 400. This weekend Chevrolet teams and drivers will once again compete under the lights over July 4th weekend celebrating the independence of the United States America and the freedom to compete in a sport built on heritage and history.

Not only will the drivers and teams be busy so will the staff at the Team Chevy display. Fans visiting Daytona International Speedway for the July 4th holiday weekend will have the opportunity to stop by the Team Chevy display located in the midway area. The display will feature a number of Chevrolet production cars including: Malibu, Impala, Traverse, Silverado Double Cab, Silverado HC, Camaro, Cruze, Silverado HD, Suburban and Equinox.

Several Team Chevy drivers will also make appearances at the Chevy display including: Reed Sorenson, Michael Annett, Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne. As a special treat this weekend the Chevrolet Florida Fishing Report team of Captain Rick Murphy and crew will be on site doing demonstrations and signing autographs at the Chevy display.

In support of NASCAR’s American Salute initiative Chevrolet has partnered with Tommy Baldwin racing writing letters to soldiers. Chevrolet has donated phone cars to mail with those letters so soldiers fighting overseas can call their families back home. This weekend is the last weekend fans can write letters to soldiers. There are letter bins located in the Team Chevy display where fans can drop of their letters this Fourth of July weekend.

A fun filled holiday weekend is in store for fans, drivers and teams alike. Chevrolet looks to sweep the races at Daytona for the 12th time in the manufacturers’ history. On both Friday and Saturday night the fields for both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be led down to the green flag by Chevrolet productions vehicles. The Chevrolet Camaro will lead the Nationwide field to the green flag and on Sunday the all-new Chevrolet SS will set the pace as the 18th race of the 2014 season gets underway. All of the Bowite branded drivers and teams will hope to beat the heat, miss the ‘big one’ and make their way to Victory Lane to celebrate under the lights at the historic Daytona International Speedway.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Tuesday Teleconference–Kyle Larson

July 1, 2014 ARP Trish

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, WAS THE GUEST ON THIS WEEK’S NASCAR WEEKLY TELECONFERENCE.

BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPT:

JENNIE LONG: Good afternoon, everyone. Today we’re joined by Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Kyle, you’re halfway through a strong rookie season and you’re on pace to become the first rookie to make the Chase since 2006. To solidify that goal you need a first win. What do you think your chances are this weekend at Daytona and in the remaining nine races before the Chase?

KYLE LARSON: Yes, well, I think going into Daytona everybody has a good chance of winning. We’re really confident, but at the same time it’s a track where things can go really badly. Just kind of setting goals as every other week, try to finish the race and get a top 10 and see if we can put ourselves in position to get a win at the end, that would be great.

The biggest goal is to try and stay out of the big one because it’s going to happen. I’m sure there will be one or two of them throughout the race. Try to stay out of trouble. But yeah, it’s been nice being ‑‑ running as well as we have, and if we could get a win sometime before the Chase, that would be great.
Q. Kind of a two‑part question. First of all, what does it mean or how does it feel to be part of such a big rookie class with so much talent, and then to follow up on that, how does it feel to actually be leading that class at least based on the first half of the season?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I’m really happy and stuff that there is such a great rookie class. In past years maybe there’s been one or two rookies, and the award doesn’t really mean a whole lot, and I think this year with having a bunch of kids having great résumés, to win that would be awesome. Austin Dillon has won a championship and Rookie of the Year in the trucks and the Nationwide Series, so if I could beat him to win the Rookie of the Year award at the end of the year, that would be great, just because I’ve only got a couple years of stock car experience right now.

It’s definitely one of our main goals, and so far we’ve been doing well, staying ahead of him. Had a couple bad races the last couple weekends, but we’ll rebound from that and hopefully get back going.
Q. To win Rookie of the Year and join the list of guys who have won that award, what would that mean just to have your name on that list?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it would mean a lot. Like I said, I think this year is really special just because there’s so many rookies and really good rookies. And to win Rookie of the Year in the Sprint Cup Series is every rookie’s goal. To keep some other good guys from winning, it would be great. That’s why we’re trying to stay consistent and be ahead of those guys each week.
Q. I have two questions, as well. The first one is you really haven’t had too many times this year where you had back‑to‑back not as great as you’d like to finish, and just kind of talk about getting through that. And then secondly, what do you like coming up where you think you might get that win prior to the Chase? You’ve got kind of a mixture of races, and the summer is a little bit less predictable, a little more varied in the tracks.
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, you know, we’ve had two bad races here the last couple weeks. I think my crew chief said it best. He’d be worried in the last couple years, but now our car has been fast, so he’s not worried at all. That’s good, and gave me some more confidence because I think any other two weekends or having two bad races would be less nerve‑racking, but then you go to Daytona where the chances of another bad weekend are high, so it’s easy to get nervous about that.

Yeah, you know, we haven’t had many struggles all year, and now we’ve had a couple bad ones. Just got to get back on track.

What was the other question?
Q. The other question was simply where do you like your chances best here if you want to try and get a win before the Chase, which of these upcoming tracks?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. Eldora in the truck. I thought we were good at Pocono. I think we were really good at Michigan even with the rear bumper off, or with it being on I think we would have been good. Maybe Michigan, I think, because our engines are really strong there and the cars are good. It would be a really nice win at the Brickyard. Any of those three races.
Q. You kind of jokingly said Eldora in the truck. Are you going to run the truck at Eldora coming up?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I believe that’s the plan. I don’t know if I was supposed to say anything or not about the truck race. But yeah, we’re running that race. I’m really excited about that. We’re going to go test here pretty soon and get ready for that one because that’s definitely a race I want to win. We were close last year, so it’s nice to get to go back and give it another shot.
Q. I just want to ask you about Daytona and plate racing. You’ve run the Nationwide and the Cup. Is there much difference in just what it’s like in those two different races? Is there a different feeling in the Nationwide race and how people race from the Cup? Are there many differences or is it pretty much the same thing?
KYLE LARSON: No, I think they’re way different. The Cup car there is the aerodynamics and stuff make them hard to handle in the pack, and seems like you can change lanes a lot more and actually move forward, wherein the Nationwide race is super frustrating and not very hard at all to hold your car in a straight line. But more than anything, it’s just really frustrating because the bottom lane is so much faster, and when you’re in the lead ‑‑ you can work the top and middle lanes and kind of move forward but you can’t get to the lead, where in the Cup Series I feel like you can work any lane and get to the lead, where the Nationwide Series, if you don’t start up there you’re not going to finish up there unless you really luck out to get up there.
Q. Who are you running the truck for, and was it much of a challenge just to allow Chip to allow you to run that race?
KYLE LARSON: I’ll be running for Turner Scott Motorsports again, and no, no, it wasn’t a struggle at all, I think just because it’s in a stock car.
Q. I’ve got a couple quick ones here for you. I ran into you back in 2011 when you ran here at Lucas Oil Raceway in the USAC midget in 2012 and 2013 where you had some success. Just quickly here, just talk about you mentioned the Brickyard and what it would be like a little bit, would be nice to win here. You kind of know the history at IMS as well as Lucas Oil Raceway. Does this place hold any special spot for you as far as racing?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I think especially just because I spent a couple ‑‑ well, a year there in Indiana and have a lot of friends there, and sprint car racing is huge in Indiana. That to me is like the most special. And then if you were to win a race at the speedway, that would be a dream come true, it doesn’t really matter what type of car it’s in.

And I think it would mean a ton to Chip Ganassi just to see the Target stock car in victory lane there, too. Yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to that one.
Q. David Ragan has already committed to run the ARCA that weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway. Have you given any thought to jumping in a midget car like some of the other guys do there that weekend?
KYLE LARSON: I gave a lot of thought into it, and I’ll probably just be there to watch.
Q. How are you dealing with all this attention? Is it something that you thought was going to be like this, or is the attention that you’re receiving from the media and from all the fans a little bit more than what you figured, and you look for some solace by jumping in the race car?
KYLE LARSON: I mean, I don’t know. I think it’s really cool. I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. I mean, I guess if you have a lot of attention on you, that means you’re doing something good. I guess even more attention would be even better.
Q. So you don’t mind all the press inquiries and people asking you all kinds of questions and all the attention? That’s okay?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.
Q. What have you learned from Chip Ganassi or what do you take from him or why do you like running for him? What is it about Chip Ganassi that you’ve learned?
KYLE LARSON: I guess one thing, everybody that drives for him has learned is that to do the obvious things right. That’s his quote before every race. It’s probably true, makes us think about that when we’re in the car. But yeah, racing for Chip is awesome just because he’s a racer himself. He loves it, and he does a lot for auto racing in general with all the different series that he’s a part of. He’s a character for sure, and that makes it fun for all of us drivers to drive for Chip. You never know what you’re going to get from him. I get to see him almost every weekend at the racetrack and sit down and talk to him. I’m getting more and more comfortable around him to where I can crack jokes at him and stuff and not be worried about what his reaction is going to be. I’ve definitely enjoyed racing for Chip.
Q. He was struggling so hard like say a year ago where he would not give up on it, but the performance, now he’s seeing some success, and you probably see that in his eyes, and he’s given so much to the sport that you look at what you’re able to contribute and he’s so focused on that program having turned around and being a winner. Is it good to deliver that to him?
KYLE LARSON: Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, the whole team, from Chip to everybody in the shop and just everybody in the whole organization has done a great job to get into both mine and Jamie’s teams, being able to compete for wins every week, which is awesome. It’s definitely lit a fire in Chip and everybody at the shop again. We’re all super pumped up to get to the track.

It would be nice to start delivering him some wins frequently, but we’re close. We’ll get there. I know Chip is always excited and looking forward to the races.
Q. I know last year as we headed into this season, a lot of the talk from your team was that you had to cut back quite a bit on running hundreds of sprint car races throughout the course of the year, but now as we head into the heat of the summertime, is there anything that just feels weird to you about not spending so many days in sprint cars and such? How is that going for you so far?
KYLE LARSON: It’s not been bad at all, really. I was surprised, being such a die‑hard sprint car racer and fan and everything. I thought not racing a lot of dirt track stuff this year would be bad, that I’d be bored. But I’m not. I’m so busy with everything that I’ve got going on in the NASCAR stuff that even if I was to go race sprint cars, I really wouldn’t have time to do it. And I really enjoy racing in the cup series and doing double duty with the Nationwide Series, too.

I’ve been to a handful of sprint car races and maybe only one of the times or two of the times I’ve been, I actually was like, oh, I wish I was out there. I enjoy watching and cheering for my friends and offering advice and watching the racetrack to let them know how it’s changing and stuff. Yeah, like I said, I enjoy doing the out‑of‑the‑car stuff there.
Q. With nine races to go, just want to ask you how confident are you that you and your team will qualify for the post‑season in September?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, we’re pretty confident. We’ve just got to stay consistent and put ourselves in position like we have all year if we don’t win a race to get into the Chase. If we do win a race, that would be awesome. Just got to make sure we finish every race and can’t have weekends like we’ve had the last couple races. I think if we do get in the Chase, too, we’re well capable enough to make it on each round to the final round at Homestead. If we do get there, I’d be super confident that we’d pull it off, so I am hoping we can get into the Chase for sure. I think we have got a good shot.
Q. If you can pull it off this weekend, what would winning your first Cup race at Daytona International Speedway mean to you?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it would mean a lot. I could win anywhere in the Cup Series and it would mean a lot. I think I have a good chance of winning as well as everybody else because the field seems to be really close when we go to superspeedways. Everybody’s confidence will be up, the racing will be intense, and just got to stay out of trouble.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about how much fun you had last year at Eldora and why it’s important for you to do that? Is that just kind of like a relief and a fun situation for you to be up against these guys on dirt? Just talk about that.
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it was a blast last year at Eldora. You know, a race that I looked forward to when it was announced last year, and then to get to race it and see how well the show was run and how great the racing was made me even more excited for this year. Getting beat last year made me really pumped up for this year’s race. Anyway, I don’t get to do a whole lot of dirt racing anymore, so to get back to kind of my roots makes it fun, too.

I’m really looking forward to when we go test here. I think it’s next week. So it would be nice to get back in the dirt and get dirty and sweat a little bit and get mud all over my face and stuff.
Q. Kyle, as a rookie moving up into Cup, usually the expectations aren’t too high and the learning curves are way high, and you seem to have hurdled a lot of learning curves. Do you feel like you’ve hurdled a lot of learning curves in the Cup Series?
KYLE LARSON: Well, I think growing up racing like a lot of different types of cars and being young at that helped me learn things quick. You know, when I was 15, 16 years old, I would be racing winged sprint cars one night, non‑winged the next, a pavement track the next night. I got good at adapting to things and learning really fast. I think that helped train me a lot for now being young and in the Cup Series with still not a lot of stock car experience. I think that all my dirt track and World Outlaw, USAC, all that kind of background of racing helped me learn fast and helped me for each weekend learn the tracks, learn the cars, learn the style of racing and all that. Definitely happy with where I came from in racing.
Q. Your team members, do you think that they feel like you’ve grasped things real quickly and you’ve been able to conquer these learning curves?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know, I guess that would be a question for the team guys, I guess. I don’t know, I feel like I’ve done a good job at it so far.
Q. I know obviously the last couple of weeks have not been what you guys have wanted, and I’m wondering how concerned you are about the small drop in points and how critical it is the next month, especially with tracks like Daytona where it’s going to be a crap shoot, New Hampshire where you’ve never raced before?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, you know, really I don’t worry about New Hampshire at all because I’ve raced there in a K & N car or ‑‑ I don’t know if we ran two Nationwide races there last year or one. But I’ve got two Nationwide races there. I think the one you worry about is Daytona. It would have been nice to have a solid weekend last week at Kentucky and kind of go to Daytona and be like, oh, we could have a good race here or a bad race and it wouldn’t affect us a whole lot. But now that we’ve had two bad races in a row where I’m close to being back to the 16th spot in points, it definitely makes you think about it and approach the race weekend a little bit differently. Just got to stay out of trouble and gain as many points as we can.
Q. Do you think you’ll be more conservative this weekend or just go out and just do what you need to do and just try to put points out of your mind?
KYLE LARSON: I feel like I’m pretty conservative most weekends and just try to be up front but not get into trouble. I’m sure I’ll do the same thing this weekend.

JENNIE LONG: Kyle, thank you so much for joining us today, and good luck this weekend at Daytona.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Corvette Racing at Watkins Glen–Spirit of Daytona!

June 30, 2014 ARP Trish

CORVETTE DPs AT WATKINS GLEN: Breakthrough Win for Spirit of Daytona Racing
Westbrook, Valiante score victory; Barbosa, Fittipaldi third for Action Express Racing

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 29, 2014) – Richard Westbrook led a strong showing by Corvette Daytona Prototypes with a thrilling victory alongside Michael Valiante in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday. Westbrook, in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Corvette DP, won a last-lap dash to the finish by 0.877 seconds.

Corvette DPs took two of the three podium spots in the sixth race for prototypes in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Action Express Racing’s Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi were third in their No. 5 Corvette DP.

“Congratulations to Troy Flis, Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante and everyone at Spirit of Daytona Racing on today’s outstanding victory,” said Mark Kent, Chevrolet Director of Racing. “This was a demanding six-hour race at Watkins Glen. This win – made possible by strategy, performance and execution – helped cap a fantastic weekend for Team Chevy.”

In all, three Corvette Daytona Prototypes led in the race as Chevrolet won overall for the fourth consecutive year at Watkins Glen International and third in a row with the Corvette DP. Four of the top five spots went to Corvette DPs. Burt Frisselle, Brian Frisselle and Jon Fogarty were fourth in Action Express’ No. 9 Corvette DP, and Prototype championship leaders Jordan and Ricky Taylor were fifth with Max Angelelli in Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Corvette DP.

Chevrolet increased its lead in the Prototype engine manufacturer championship standings.

“There are several reasons to celebrate today,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet’s Corvette Daytona Prototype Program Manager. “All five of our Corvette Daytona Prototypes ran competitively and trouble-free. Our Chevrolet V8 engines are showing excellent reliability, as evidenced by strong showings at Daytona, Sebring and now Watkins Glen. We maintained leads in the engine manufacturer, driver and team championship standings thanks to Spirit of Daytona’s victory and a third-place finish for Action Express Racing. The momentum in the TUDOR Championship appears to be in our favor heading into a critical stretch of events.”

The next round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk Performance from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The race – set for 2:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 13 – will mark the first visit to the historic track for the Corvette DPs.

RICHARD WESTBROOK, NO. 90 SPIRIT OF DAYTONA RACING CORVETTE DP
“That yellow made things complicated for us at the end because we were good on fuel and we just needed it to go green. But you know you can’t count on that in racing. The yellow came, it was unfortunate for Alex (Brundle) as he got caught up with the No. 9 car on the restart so I got a really good run and I made it stick. Well done to Michael (Valiante). His stints were incredible, fast and still saving fuel. I’m just so thrilled for everyone on this Visit Florida team. It’s just a massive achievement. We just needed a podium. It has taken awhile, but we just want to make this a habit now like we did in 2012, finishing on the podium. I’m really proud to be part of this team.”

MICHAEL VALIANTE, NO. 90 SPIRIT OF DAYTONA RACING CORVETTE DP
“I knew Richard would be great on the restart. I knew if he could get a run into Turn 1 we would be OK. This whole race was just like qualifying laps. Our approach was to just keep the car safe and be in position to podium. We’ve had quick cars and the team has been doing a great job. The racing is really close in this series and we would like to keep this roll going with some more podiums.”

JOAO BARBOSA, NO. 5 ACTION EXPRESS RACING CORVETTE DP
“Even if we were – I can’t say disappointed – but if we were not 100 percent happy, it’s because we know we could have done better. We had a strong car through the whole stint and the whole race. Unfortunately, the strategy in the race situation didn’t work in our favor with the last yellow flags. But it was a great points day for the Patron Endurance Cup and we probably extended our lead a little bit more. I know we were leading at the three-hour mark, which was one of our goals. We just closed the gap on the No. 10 car in the championship and overall, and that’s what we were looking for when we came here. We were looking also for the win and though we didn’t get that, overall still positive.”

(Could he have caught the No. 90 without the last caution?) “I think so. We had a very competitive car and I was pushing; I was doing really good lap times. I felt we had a chance at the end. On the yellow before the last one, I was caught behind (another car) a little bit and he slowed me down just enough so I couldn’t close the gap on the leaders. But on the last situation, I was able to go by him but there was just not enough time… one lap is not enough to get by.”

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI, NO. 5 ACTION EXPRESS RACING CORVETTE DP
“Yeah it was a good day. Obviously, not exactly what we were looking for but I also can’t complain. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way. The drive-through penalty (for listing the incorrect starting driver) definitely didn’t help us because we fell back and then the yellow came right after. Then the gap between the leader and Joao was pretty big – 35 or 40 seconds – just because he got caught up in traffic. So that really didn’t help. But we win as a team, we lose as a team. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way. We’re gonna turn the page and go on to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. On the other side, we closed the gap on the No. 10 car (in the driver’s championship), which is good, and we opened the gap to the No. 01 and were leading at the three-hour mark. So for the Patron Endurance Championship, it went really well.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Corvette Racing–Watkins Glen Post Race

June 30, 2014 ARP Trish

CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Third Straight Victory For Garcia, Magnussen
Win equals GT Le Mans championship leads; Gavin and Milner fourth after penalty

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 29, 2014) – In its 15 years of existence, Sunday marked Corvette Racing’s first event at Watkins Glen International. The team made its debut one to remember with a dominating GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen for Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.

The duo led most of the day to earn their third straight class victory in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. In the process, Garcia and Magnussen moved into the lead of the GTLM driver’s championship, as did Chevrolet in the manufacturer standings and the No. 3 Corvette C7.R in team points.

“The Corvette C7.R team’s first race at Watkins Glen was exciting given the challenging track and intense competition that kept the pressure on all race,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Antonio and Jan drove a great race and the crew executed quick pit stops. We are thankful to come out of The Glen with a GTLM class win and the class championship lead.”

Garcia and Magnussen also won the third round of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup – a four-race championship made of the TUDOR series’ four endurance events.

The Garcia/Magnussen combination led 154 of the 185 GTLM laps. Magnussen drove the opening stint and took the lead from the pole-sitting BMW on the first lap. Despite holding as much as a 30-second lead at various points, the final minutes were tense ones. A full-course caution with 25 minutes left brought the Corvette inside its fuel window for the rest of the race. A final yellow period just after the restart meant a final-lap dash that saw Garcia hold off the second-place Viper by 0.185 seconds.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner finished fourth in their No. 4 Corvette C7.R after running second to their teammates for most of the day. A stop-and-go penalty inside the last hour for what race officials judged to be avoidable contact halted their podium charge.

The day wasn’t a complete loss. Gavin and Milner moved into the lead of the Patrón Endurance Challenge with just the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans remaining at the end of the season.

The next round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship is the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk Performance from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The race, which Gavin and Milner won last year as part of the American Le Mans Series, is set for 2:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 13.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“The car was really good. I was running perfect. Jan (Magnussen) made perfect start and pulled a gap. Then we got a caution but we made the gap back up from zero to almost 20 seconds. Whenever I was able to go full-on we went up to almost a 30-second lead. Strategy-wise we were like two or three laps short (on fuel) I believe. We decided because the Viper … maybe they gambled a little bit more at the beginning so they were out of sequence to stretch their fuel to start with; they were good to go to the end. We decided to go too, and it was hard. To go through traffic, it was really difficult to save fuel. At the end we would have been OK to the end (without the last caution). That yellow obviously helped us a little bit more just in case. We weren’t really on it, but I believe Corvette Racing again did a perfect race. I think we led everything but qualifying.”

JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“I have to say I am so pleased for how things have gone for the team this year, with the No. 3 car especially, but how we have developed a new car and we keep finding better things to do with it. We are finding better race speed over one lap over the whole distance and making the Michelin tires last for the whole stint. We have a fantastic race car. It’s a very competitive category and you have to be on your game with everything you do. There is no room for any mistakes otherwise you lose it.”

(First race in the Corvette C7.R at The Glen) “I have been here before in other categories, the GRAND-AM GT and also the GRAND-AM DPs earlier. Driving the Corvette C7.R around here is just a fantastic feeling. It’s such a fast race track. It’s almost like there is a part missing of the corner – normally you would have a big braking zone downshifts and everything getting the car ready to rotate and then shoot out the corner. Here that little bit is gone so basically for every corner you barely touch the brake, downshift, back to full throttle. It’s all about the momentum here to build the speed, and that is where dealing with all the traffic was very important; you didn’t get bogged down too much because it would kind of ruin your rhythm. I think both of us did that really well today.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“Certainly we made a step forward with the car after yesterday morning. We went back to basics with stuff, we changed a lot chassis-wise with the car. So was it the perfect setup? No because it was just really a bit of a stab at it, but it was good enough to race and be in the hunt. I genuinely think we should have had a second-place. Tommy (Milner) did a great job at the start and really got us in a fantastic position. It looked like we were going to be able to race cleanly for second.

(Race impressions) “On the double stint that I did, the first on the medium tire was good and I hung with Jan (Magnussen) pretty much. And then on the harder tire it was trickier. It made it a lot more difficult. But we were still there still in second-place looking like we were going to be able to fight for that and then Tommy (Milner) just got a crazy decision with the penalty. We went back and forth for a long time and it’s a great shame that it ruined our race. We went from second to fourth and I think we should have really had a second. That would have been a great result for the team and the guys. They worked so hard over the whole weekend.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“First and foremost, I’m very proud of our guys. After Oliver (Gavin) and I were not very happy with the car in practice they put a lot of work into trying to fix the car and it seems like that we have done that. The car was certainly quite a bit better in the race. We were just kind of behind the eight ball – just needed some more practice time to kind of fine tune it, but I think we are back in the ballpark again. That is obviously really encouraging for going forward.
(Race impressions) The race was pretty good. I had a really fun start there. It was just a shame that I got a penalty for something that I don’t believe should have been a penalty. Obviously the race control saw it differently. We can only just move on and kind of put that behind us and be proud of what we achieved. Obviously a great job by the No. 3 car guys; they executed very well. Our guys did as well. We had great pit stops, great strategy calls… they did everything right. We deserved a podium today, but we had it taken away.”

DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER
“Today was emblematic of one of my key racing axioms – 25 percent great car, 25 percent great team and 50 percent good fortune. We had all those in our corner today, backed up by flawless pit stops and a great strategy by our engineers. With plenty of power from GM Powertrain, you add all that up and it’s a victory in our first visit to Watkins Glen International in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys for standing on that top step. Everyone worked very hard to earn this one.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–IndyCar–Grand Prix of Houston Post Race

June 30, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
SHELL PENNZOIL GRAND PRIX OF HOUSTON
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 29, 2014

CHARLIE KIMBALL LEADS CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6 CONTINGENT IN RACE NO. 2 AT GRAND PRIX OF HOUSTON

HOUSTON, Texas – June 29, 2014 – Under blistering hot conditions at the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston, Charlie Kimball carried the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 banner by fighting his way to his third top-five finish of the Verizon IndyCar season in his No. Levemir Flex Touch Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

His fourth-place finish in enabled him to move up one position in the overall standings to 15th.

Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11 Team Mistic KVSH Racing Chevrolet, also notched his third 2014 top-five finish in Sunday’s race coming home fifth. His performance elevated Bourdais up two spots in the standings from 10th to eighth.

Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya was looking to put his No. 2 Verizon Chevrolet into victory lane after coming close in Saturday’s race #1. Montoya battled from 14th to the top-five but was shuffled out in heavy traffic late in the race. He finished 7th in the event, and remains fifth in points.

His Team Penske teammate and series point leader Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, suffered a suspension failure with just a few laps remaining and came away with a disappointing 11th place finish after making a valiant run to third place. Power still holds the overall point standings by 39 markers over Helio Castroneves.

Castroneves, who placed No. 3 Pennzoil Ultra Premium Team Penske Chevrolet on the pole, led twice for race-high 47 laps. His dominating run ended on lap 48 when on-track contract damaged his car beyond repair.

The next race on the Verizon IndyCar Series will be on Sunday, July 6th at Pocono Raceway. Live television coverage will start at Noon on NBC Sports and can be heard live on IMS Radio Network XM 209/Sirius 213 as well as IndyCar.com

DRIVER QUOTES:

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 LEVEMIR FLEX TOUCH CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “The No. 83 Levemir® FlexTouch® Chevrolet was quick – I kind of like it in the Levemir® FlexTouch® green. The Novo Nordisk guys did an awesome job in pit lane and the Chevy guys have been working really hard all weekend to give us an engine that’s drivable and gets good mileage. Overall I’m really happy with a top-five finish and we just drove the wheels off of it when we could.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM MISTIC KVSH CHEVROLETE, FINISHED 5TH: HOW HOT WAS IT OUT THERE; YOU LOOK PRETTY SPENT? “That is the way I react to heat; I dehydrate pretty easily. I hung in there, but I just take my time on the way down.”

HOW WAS THE RACE CAR? “The car was pretty good. We had a different strategy. We started on primes (tires), and we lost a position or two but, at the end of the day, it was working out pretty nicely for us because we went all the way to the end of the window, and we ended up P4, so I was very happy. Then on reds (tires) we were slowly catching the leaders a little bit, and there was that first safety car that bunched everybody up, and I knew the first lap on the restart I was going to have an advantage on options. And I did, and I passed a couple of cars. Then when I got to Helio (Castroneves) Simon (Pagenaud) both went to the inside, I got to them, I moved to the right, and when I got a wheel a little bit over, then he decided to take that line as well. That is a real shame because that destroyed a chance for us to win, and destroyed a chance for him to put up strong points. It is what it is, but we’ll keep at it, and see when we can score a win with that Mistic machine.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “That was a fun day. The No. 2 Verizon Chevy was really good. It was good on both the ‘red’ tires and ‘black’ tires. We were in position there at the end. The racing was really hard right there. That was a good learning experience for me and I’ll know how hard I can race the next time I’m in that situation. Very good points day for us. Now we go to Pocono where I have a lot of experience.”

RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: “It feels good to come out of this doubleheader in Houston with a top 10 finish. This series is just so competitive and it’s a fight to the finish at every race. This one wasn’t any different and we were able to come from 15th and get an eighth-place finish. It’s still not exactly where NTT DATA Racing wants to be but we’re getting closer.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “Not a bad day I guess, but we need to be more competitive and run toward the front with the Target cars. It was hot again today and you really had to be in shape for two straight days of racing in these conditions. There was some really exciting racing out there and hope the fans here in Houston enjoyed it today.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “I had a great car today; passed a lot of cars. We had a great first pit sequence with the Verizon Chevy. We were in position for a good day, considering where we qualified. We were going to maximize our points and we had a parts malfunction with two laps to go. It’s the same part that malfunctioned on two other cars at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. I feel bad for all the sponsors. We fought really hard all day with nothing to show for it. We have a nice lead in the points but we need to get back on track a little bit at Pocono.”

MIKE CONWAY, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH:
“Going into the chicane on the first lap, Marco (Andretti) made a move in front of me and I couldn’t stop quick enough. It clipped the front wing and I think it cut the tire too. So I had to pit immediately and that really killed the race for us. I thought I could get away with it but it cut the tire. My (left) thumb was okay during the race after spraining it Saturday. It felt a little numb at times because I think the tape might have be a little too tight. But it was okay. I just tried to fight back and stay on the lead lap as long as I could. It was hot in the car but I felt pretty good. I was able to get some air coming into my visor during the yellows. I had a close call with a piece of carbon that flew up from (Luca) Filippi’s car. It hit the right mirror and almost me. It was close to hitting me in the head. That would have hurt.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “To be honest it’s been a pretty rough weekend. It hurts more when you have an amazing car and just not able to use it. Yesterday was Ryan Briscoe and today was a mechanical issue on my out lap. We had to pit a few times to try and fix it and once we were back out there the Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc. – KV AFS Racing car was one of the quickest. Unfortunately we were six laps down and could only advance through the field by other driver’s mistakes, which is not where you want to be. I’m very proud of all my boys, they keep doing an awesome job. Days like this happen and we just have to regroup and look forward to Pocono next week.”

SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: “Well that was obviously not the day we wanted to have with the Target car. Race 1 in Houston for us was unkind and today Race 2 was the same way with spec master cylinder issues. It just wasn’t our weekend and we hope we’ll have the same turn around to our season in Pocono next weekend like we did last season.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL ULTRA PLATINUM INSURANCE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – SIDELINED IN ACCIDENT ON LAP 49 – FINISHED 21ST:
YOU HAD JUST LOST THE LEAD TO SIMON PAGENAUD ON LAP 49. YOU HAD CONTACT WITH SEBASTIAN BOURDAIS. WHAT HAPPENED?
“I don’t know. When I lost the lead with Pagenaud, I was actually trying to attack him. And actually, I was attacking him and trying to pass him. So, right now I’m just trying to pass and see if I’m going to run out of room so I come back to try to do the apex and I had no idea he was there. Obviously when I’m attacking, I can’t have my eyes in the back. So, it’s absolutely ridiculous when the guy has to put the car over there. But anyway; it’s the rules of traffic. The guy that hits the guy in the back it’s always wrong. You’ve got to take care of it.

“Anyway, the car was awesome. Sorry but I’m frustrated a little bit. I am upset, yes, because we had a great car. It’s still like 30 laps to go. I wasn’t even panicking or anything like that. But it is what it is and I’ll move on and see what happens. But the Shell Pennzoil car was awesome. Chevy has great power and it’s just a shame that unfortunately we have drivers like that that does not use common sense. And that’s what we need to have. It is what it is. It’s always going to have ups and downs.”

YOU HAVE HAD A SORE FINGER SINCE LONG BEACH. IS IT BOTHERING YOU? HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THAT?
“Well, it is. I can see that it’s going to be swollen tomorrow; it’s going to be swollen in the next week, but there is nothing we can do in terms of that because it was so sudden what happened. I don’t even have enough time to take my hand off the steering wheel. But anyway, he finished my race and look what happened.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS COLLECT EIGHT OF TOP 12 FINISHING POSITIONS AT KENTUCKY

June 30, 2014 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS COLLECT EIGHT OF TOP 12 FINISHING POSITIONS AT KENTUCKY
Ryan Newman Leads the Charge for Team Chevy Finishing Third

SPARTA, KY. – June 28, 2014 – Chevrolet’s Ryan Newman continued to build on a solid and consistent season at Kentucky Speedway by finally breaking through in the Quaker State 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race to earn his first top-five finish of the season to come home third. The driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS led a contingent of Chevrolet power in the top-10, six teams strong. Newman’s third-place run marks his best career finish at the 1.5-mile Sparta, Kentucky track, and his third top-10. The strong run kept Newman in eighth position on the chart, making him the second highest driver in the current standings without a win this season.

“It’s a big gain for us and our Caterpillar Chevrolet,” said Newman following the race. “All the guys at RCR and ECR got us that first top five of the season. I’ve got to thank everybody from Caterpillar and Quicken Loans for the opportunity they’ve given us this year. It was a good run. The No. 2 (Brad Keselowski, race winner) was obviously the fastest car all night. The No. 18 (Kyle Busch) got a little bit better there at the end. We were pretty solid. We never really changed the car. It felt like we were pretty neutral and didn’t want to screw it up. So, we ended up where we did.”

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. earned his ninth top-five finish at Kentucky Speedway by piloting the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS to a fifth-place finish. Jeff Gordon maintained his spot atop the standings with a sixth-place effort at Kentucky in the No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS.

Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS ended the night with a seventh place run, followed by Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet in eighth. Jimmie Johnson rounded out the Chevrolet power in the top-10 by earning a 10th-place finish in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS. The six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion overcame a 25th place qualifying effort to give Team Chevy six of the top 10 finishers.

Notably, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch finished 11th and 12th respectively. Stewart overcame having to start at the rear of the field after changing a transmission in his No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Chevrolet SS, and earned his fifth top 10 finish overall. Busch battled an ill-handling No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS to finish 12th.

Brad Keselowski (Ford) was the race winner, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was second and Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was fourth to round out the top five finishers.

Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series will once again compete under the lights; but this time on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. The Coke Zero 400 will commence Saturday July 5th.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD

KERRY THARP: We’re going to start with our post‑race media with Ryan Newman. Ryan had a third‑place finish tonight in the No. 31 car for us, and Ryan, just talk about driving that No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, had a nice run out there tonight, running up front the entire evening, and that has to make you feel confident now as we’re kind of at the midpoint of the Chase and certainly next week at a track you’ve won at before. Talk about your run.

RYAN NEWMAN: Really just a good, solid run. We had some really good pit stops, gained some track positions there. Caught a little bit of a break when the caution came out when we were on pit road. I think we went from fourth to second on that deal. Just a good, solid night for the Caterpillar Chevrolet. All the guys did a really good job strategy wise. Kept our track position all night. Really I think we had about a third‑place car. We could have run with 18 at times, we could run with the 22 at times, but nobody really ran with the 2 car. Good job for everybody at RCR and ECR, and we’ll keep digging.
Q. Ryan, RCR has been really doing a lot to get their program back on the right track. Is this the start of a turnaround?
RYAN NEWMAN: Well, it was a good run for us. I think Paul ran up front for a lot of the race. Last I saw, he finished 15th. But from when I saw he had run farther up for most of the race and he’s been our flagship for a top 5 so far this year. It’s nice for us on the 31 side to get a top 5, and it’s something to build on for sure. It doesn’t mean we’re going to go out and win the next race, but it gives us some confidence, and confidence is very powerful in our sport.
Q. Were you comfortable all the way from the very start because a lot of the drivers came in here and all they wanted to talk about was bump, bump, bump, bump, and you did seem to have a really solid run all night long where you stayed where you were at.
RYAN NEWMAN: All we talked about was bumps because that’s the only questions we got was about bumps. Everybody who talked to me asked me what’s the track like being so bumpy and everything else and that’s the questions we answer. We answer the questions you all give us. It’s the character of this racetrack that it’s bumpy. It doesn’t mean that we can’t race on it. I think it was a pretty good race tonight. Brad came up from whatever he was, sixth or eighth or whatever he was in that restart to win the race. But it was more just a product of the questions you guys were asking us than it was what we wanted to talk about.
Q. What’s been the biggest difference in your cars with the work that you guys have been doing? What have you focused on?
RYAN NEWMAN: Tonight it was everything. I’d say the biggest gain we had tonight was our pit stops. The guys gained spots, we did a good job. Everything was nice and clean. Strategy wise, Luke did a great job calling two tires when we needed to and not losing track position with four when other guys were taking two, and all that adds up. Having that clean air and that track position is probably more powerful than anything we do with the race car at times, so that’s probably the biggest difference. We’ve made some gains on the race part, don’t get me wrong, and the guys on the engine side are always working and there’s no doubt that the Hendrick guys have been the strongest this season. Far above, at some trace tracks, but we proved tonight that we’ve made some gains.
Q. You talked about Pocono and Indy. Those are horsepower tracks. Is that where you expect to see even more gains?

RYAN NEWMAN: Pocono, Indy, Michigan, even places like Charlotte now are so much wide open because the cars have still got too much downforce on them that it’s very important to have good horsepower, and good horsepower will win you races. We’re working on that part of it for Indy and for Pocono and for Michigan. I think we’re not where we need to be, but that’s why we’re working on it, and we’ll see if we can make those gains before those races come.
Q. If NASCAR was to say to you, what’s the one thing you would like us to do to these cars, you would tell them reduce the downforce?
RYAN NEWMAN: The same thing I’ve said for the last four years, yeah, just take downforce down and put softer tires on them. It’s got to be a combination of the downforce and the tires. You can’t just leave the hard tires on it and take downforce off. I took my crew chief to Kokomo Speedway Sunday night after Michigan, watched guys run midgets on dirt sideways turning to the right and saw one of the best races I’ve seen all year long, and they had no downforce and they had a huge power‑to‑weight ratio, 375 horsepower with 900‑pound race cars. To me that’s the direction we should always go. They put on a great race, not to say that we don’t, I just think that’s the direction we need to go to if we want to make it better.

KERRY THARP: Ryan, congratulations, and continued best wishes, and see you at Daytona.

RYAN NEWMAN: Thank you, guys.

ARP Racing News

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