Category Archives: Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Corvette Racing at Austin

September 23, 2013 ARP Trish

CORVETTE RACING AT AUSTIN: Thrilling Victory for Garcia, Magnussen
Third win of season and GT championship lead for No. 3 Compuware Corvette

AUSTIN, Texas (Sept. 21, 2013) – Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia scored their second straight victory in the American Le Mans Series’ GT class on Saturday, winning the eighth round of the championship at Circuit of The Americas. Garcia led the final 58 minutes in his No. 3 Compuware Chevrolet Corvette C6.R under intense pressure to win by less than a second.

Their third victory of the season moved Garcia and Magnussen into the lead of the ALMS GT drivers’ championship with two rounds remaining. The result bolstered Chevrolet’s lead in the manufacturer standings and Corvette Racing’s advantage in the team championship.

“The ALMS GT class is ultra-competitive,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Corvette Racing’s teamwork was the key element to put us in the best positions to race for a win today. Preparation, strategy, flawless pit stops and incredible driving by Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia delivered a fifth win for Corvette Racing this season. The championship points standings remain very tight. Our focus remains on prep for the final two races of the season.”

Saturday’s race will air on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

On the opposite end of the spectrum were Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner. Their No. 4 Corvette lost its transmission just shy of the one-hour mark. The duo entered the weekend with the drivers’ championship lead.

Milner started from third but moved to lead class lead at the start the race as both Corvettes got around the pole-sitting BMW before Turn 1. Magnussen dropped back to third but moved up two positions and into the lead 10 minutes later when the then-race leading Viper went wide off track and forced Milner to back off slightly.

Two stellar pit stops and an incredible strategic call on the team’s first stop put Garcia in the lead for good with a little less than an hour remaining. The Spaniard fended off multiple charges from Dirk Muller by timing the race traffic just right. He was able to put slower cars between himself and his competitors on numerous occasions to build gaps from as little as 0.2 seconds to 1.5 and 2 seconds at a time.

In the No. 4 Corvette, Milner reported having issues shifting up to third gear 11 minutes in, and the problem grew worse when the car lost drive in fourth gear at the 57-minute mark. It stopped halfway around the circuit and could not continue.

“It was great to see the Corvette Racing team salute our Corvette customers in the Corvette Corral directly across from our pit location with a win,” Campbell said. “We race to improve the production car, and we race for our Corvette owners.”

The next race for Corvette Racing is the Oak Tree Grand Prix on Saturday, Oct. 5 from Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Va. The race will air on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 6 with live coverage at 2 p.m. ET, Oct. 5 on ESPN3.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Post Qualifying

September 21, 2013 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SYLVANIA 300
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Newman Puts Chevrolet SS on the Pole at New Hampshire
Team Chevy Drivers Capture Four of Top-Five and Six of Top-10 Starting Positions

LOUDON, N.H. (Sept. 20, 2013) – Ryan Newman is known for his talent of winning poles, and today in qualifying for the Sylvania 300, he did just that with a record-setting lap of 27.904 seconds/136.497 m.p.h. It is his second pole of the 2013 season, and the seventh time the driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS will lead the field to the green flag at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS). In 2002 and again in 2011, Newman started on the pole at NHMS and won the race.

Also breaking the old track record were the second and third place qualifiers, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS and Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS.

Kurt Busch qualified the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet SS fourth fastest to give Chevrolet the four fastest starters in the 43-car field.

Richard Childress Racing drivers Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/Sylvania Chevrolet SS and Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS qualified seventh and eighth respectively to give Team Chevy six of the top-10 starters in Sunday’s 300-lap/317.4-mile race that is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. ET with live coverage on ESPN TV, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and PRN Radio.

Other Chevrolet Chase contenders qualified as follows: Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS – 11th and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet SS – 17th.

Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota) completed the top-five qualifiers.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THIS IS RYAN’S 51ST POLE IN HIS NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES CAREER. THIS IS HIS SECOND POLE IN 2013. HE HAS SAT ON THE POLE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE SEVEN TIMES. THIS WAS A TRACK QUALIFYING RECORD 136.497 MPH. TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT:
“I’ve sat in here several times and probably on at least six other occasions and said this was the birth place of track position and I strongly feel that it is in qualifying well and having that number one pit stall at the start of the race up front in clean air and all the things that go along with it. More important is the confidence to know that you have the fastest race car or at least can make it the fastest race car. Our Quicken Loans Chevrolet was good today. The guys did a really good job. We unloaded in qualifying trim and kept making it faster and faster and faster and we really thought Kasey (Kahne’s) lap was going to be tough to be and I really didn’t feel like I had a lot of speed in my lap. I felt ike it was balanced. But the speed just kind of comes with the track cooling down compared to practice and a really good run for us. I’m happy to be on the pole and to get my 51st pole and to do it at a place where it’s really tough to pass.”

WHEN YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO GIVE 100 ON BOTH LAPS EVERYBODY SORT OF CHUCKLED. BUT IT TURNED OUT THAT WAS INDEED THE CASE BECAUSE EITHER ONE OF THEM WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD FOR THE POLE. DID YOU FEEL LIKE AFTER YOU RAN THE 27.93 THAT THERE WAS STILL SOMETHING LEFT OUT THERE?
“I had no idea I’d run a .93. I hit the chip on th back straightaway and didn’t in practice, but I ran a .33 in practice. That could have been a .32 for all I knew. The question that they had asked me was are you geared up for being quick on the first lap or second lap. I was more focused on being as good as I could be on both laps and then I would tell you afterwards which lap those pressures came in and obviously it was 300ths to the better on the second lap. So, the guys did a good job with our Quicken Loans Chevrolet and I’m just happy that we’re in this position in a place where it probably means the most.”

CAN YOU JUST GIVE US AN UPDATE ON MODIFIED PRACTICE THIS MORNING
“I’ll let you know if you’ll let me go qualify (laughs). No, it was pretty good. It’s the same old program to come up here and have fun. We made the car definitely better than we were in the first race. I think we were 10th or something in practice. But I don’t look to be able to set it on fire and win the pole. I think we’re going to have a better long-run car. We kind of showed that in the first race.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
POST QUALIFYING PRESS RELEASE TRANSCRIPT:

YOU WILL BE IN GOOD SHAPE AS YOU START THE SECOND RACE IN THE CHASE HERE ON SUNDAY.
“We had a really good lap. We went out pretty early and I feel like I missed just a little bit off Turn 2; didn’t quite get enough there. We got through Turns 3 and 4 really well. I felt strong there in practice and in qualifying. I’m looking forward to practice tomorrow and working on it and trying to decide on a better package on what he had that first race here. We were off the first race. A lot of cars were. We were one of them. We came back and tested as a company and hopefully we learned some things and picked up some speed since.”

ON GOING OUT EARLY AND SETTING SUCH A FAST TIME THAT HELD FOR MOST OF THE QUALIFYING SESSION
“I thought that was a really strong lap for going out at that time. I think the track definitely cooled down; the temperatures cooled down some, so the track obviously did too. There was a little bit of shade out there. I think the time we put down with an early draw was solid. Like I said, I think I could have gone a little quicker if I would have hit Turn 2 a touch better that second lap. Whether it would have been the pole or not would be tough to say, but I think I could have picked up a little bit myself. So that just shows that our Great Clips Chevy was strong. We have a strong car for the weekend.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED THIRD
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

YOUR RACE TEAM IS KIND OF PICKING UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF LAST WEEK AT CHICAGOLAND THAT HAS TO FEEL PRETTY GOOD:
“Well it just feels good that we are picking things up. It’s been an up and down season for us there is no question about that. If you ever want to peak you want to do it when the Chase comes around. Just sneaking our way into it and now having the type of performance we had last week and today has been a great day from practice to backing that up with qualifying. This is a great way for us to not only get this weekend started, but to get the Chase started. We are pretty excited right now.”

THERE WAS A SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR FIRST AND SECOND LAPS WAS THAT BY DESIGN?
“No, I really was planning on when I went into the run and took off from pit road I was really going to try to get it done on the first lap. I came off of turn four just wiggling, sliding and I thought ‘okay well maybe I can make up for it in (turns) one and two’. Then I got off of (turn) two really bad and at that point it was just all about regrouping and trying to put a second lap together. The last time we were here we did it on lap one. All day today I’ve not been able to get it done on lap one. It’s a strange thing.

“Maybe it’s just a slight change in our set-up. I’m not really sure what it is. The car is good it just takes that first lap for the temps to get up and the grip to be there. We struggled with that today. I was really nervous. I was shaking when I got out of the car just because that first lap was so hairy and on the edge. The second lap I just had to really try to get the car to run really straight and not make any mistakes, but knew we had a lot of ground to make up.

“When they said I was
third, boy, I was really excited because I knew we certainly weren’t anywhere close to that on the first lap. I wish now I would have designed it that way though because I wouldn’t be shaking as much right now. I wish that I would have just thrown away the first lap you know that is something I like to do and we do that a lot of places. But it’s not something I’ve typically done here.”

IS THAT A CONCERN IN RACE TRIM TOO IN TERMS OF RESTARTS AND THINGS LIKE THAT OF GETTING UP TO SPEED ON LAP ONE?
“Always, it’s always a concern here at New Hampshire. This place is very tricky on restarts because of the lack of grip. You just don’t have the banking to get the grip and get the car into the race track the way you need it to when those tires are cold. Yeah, it’s something that we worked on a little bit when we were here testing. It’s something we will be working on tomorrow as well. As fast as the times were qualifying I thought that the grip must be there so I thought it would be there right away, but it wasn’t. I’m just glad it was there on the second one.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR IMPROVEMENT ON QUALIFYING? OVER THE LAST FOUR RACES YOU HAVE QUALIFIED IN THE TOP 10. ARE CERTAIN THINGS CLICKING?
“I would say it’s a combination of I think that earlier in the year with the new car we made some adjustments or tried to guess which direction to go in for qualifying. It seemed to bite us a little bit. We were getting extremely loose going to qualify from practice. I think we have just found that we need to tighten the car up a little bit more than what we anticipate. I think some of it is this car and just the balance change when you tape the grill up and go put it into qualifying trim and the cooler track and tires. Then I think the other thing is we have been to some tracks that are not only good tracks for us racing, but qualifying. Atlanta, here, Richmond, so like I said if you are ever going to get the momentum and get things rolling this is the time to do it. Pretty excited things are going the way they are going for us right now.”

HOW BENEFICIAL WAS TESTING HERE?
“I will let you know on Sunday when the race is over. I mean testing is always beneficial, but it can give you some false sense of security or some information that can lead you down the wrong path. What typically happens when we come here and test, I did the tire test this year here and did our Hendrick test and it’s amazing just how much grip there is when we are here testing. Then you go out to practice and there is no grip. A lot of it is the other different series that are here putting different rubber on the track just makes for different conditions. I think we learned some good things that are going to benefit us in the race. But we didn’t do any qualifying runs when we were here. I didn’t expect it to impact our qualifying.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Ryan Newman

September 21, 2013 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SYLVANIA 300
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
ON HIS NEW TRACK RECORD:
“I’ve told you before that this track is the birthplace of track position and qualifying great with our Quicken Loans Chevrolet is extremely important obviously for where we are in the points and this time of year. It is really difficult to pass. Having a good pit selection; having all those things we’ve had so many times before… But great run for Matt (Borland, crew chief) and all these guys to do what they did. Last time we were on the pole here, we led a lot of laps and we won (SMILES). I am hoping we can duplicate that again.”

SEVEN TIMES THE POLE SITTER HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY CONGRATULATIONS:
“Yeah it’s great timing I guess none the less, but a great run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet. Matt (Borland, crew chief) and the guys did a great job and this is the birthplace of track position so with that being said we will see if we can capitalize on it.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS TRACK POSITION? IS IT HAVING THAT NUMBER ONE PIT STALL WHAT MATTERS THE MOST?
“Well everything about qualifying weighs in to having a better chance in the race with the pit selection and with track position to start and obviously knowing you have a fast race car. We will see what we can do with our Quicken Loans Chevrolet tomorrow in race trim. We have been in qualifying trim the entire day so I’m pretty sure and pretty confident we can make it all pay off.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SECOND
A NEW TRACK RECORD. PRETTY GOOD LAP TELL US ABOUT IT:
“Yeah it felt really good. The first lap I was sliding a little bit too much so we didn’t get there, but the second lap I was able to pick up some speed and run a good lap. I don’t know I know Kurt (Busch) is going to be strong and probably a bunch of the other guys as well, but that is a good lap for right now. I felt good about it.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/DENVER MATTRESS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED FOURTH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I’ve just got to thank the guys for going out there and having shots at poles. It’s not every Friday that you have a shot at it. Today we didn’t get it but it’s crazy how close it is. And our Denver Mattress Chevy was right there. You can’t tiptoe a pole lap. You have to know it. And so I think we tiptoed into a top 5 spot. I just couldn’t’ do anything aggressively with steering input or throttle input because the car wanted to come out from underneath me.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 SYLVANIA/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SEVENTH
AFTER BRUSHING WALL IN PRACTICE TALK ABOUT QUALIFYING:
“The car was really good in practice. We were doing race runs. I lost track of where the wall was and I just brushed the wall a little bit. We switched to qualifying trim right after that and the car was good in qualifying trim. I didn’t get all of it, so we basically left it alone. We tightened it up just a little bit for qualifying here. We could have gone a little bit more, just a little bit too loose.”

YOU THIS THE WALL IN PRACTICE AND YOU JUST SAID YOUR CAR WAS LOOSE
“The car was really good in practice. We were doing race runs. I just lost track and brushed the wall. I switched over to qualifying trim right after that and felt like the car was good in qualifying trim. I didn’t get all of it. So we basically left it alone. We tightened it up just a little bit for qualifying here. But we were just a little too loose.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 11TH
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR LAP? TOMORROW WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE TO PRACTICE SOME MORE WHAT ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO WORK ON?
“Our qualifying lap was fine nothing spectacular put up a decent time so that is good. As we get into race trim tomorrow we worked on that this morning and just didn’t have exactly what we were looking for. Tomorrow’s practice will be important for us and just trying to get that race feel that we need where you can pass cars. It’s one thing to get one to go by itself around here with clean air and everything. But what I saw in the race here in the spring to get through traffic you need something totally different. I was chasing that feeling today in the first practice session and I didn’t quite get it. Trying to drive it a little differently and a little smarter going into the race.”

ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“The car drove comfortably, so that is a good sign. Saw a lot of guys on television lacking an overall grip comfort. I had that. Decent lap. We had a tough time in race trim this morning. When we got to qualifying trim and went faster. We are definitely working hard to get this Lowe’s Chevrolet right. Tomorrow’s practice will be important for us. This has been such a great track for us over the years, I feel pretty good about things.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 TIME WARNER CABLE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 17TH
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Just wasn’t real happy with it. We just haven’t had the car we had here in qualifying last time. The car just hadn’t been turning very well and the front end is a bit of a handful. We will just have to see how it goes.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 21ST
A GOOD SECOND LAP TALK ABOUT THE RUN:
“The first lap felt like a little bit of a throw away. I got pretty loose in (turns) one and two and I wasn’t very good coming to the green either. I kind of knew it wasn’t going to be the lap. It was like that in practice for me. It’s so important to turn here that I guess what I feel like I’ve learned is that you can be a little loose to start, but in qualifying it comes in quicker. In the race it’s a little bit like our first race run we were really loose but just kept going faster and faster and that was our best run of that first practice other than qualifying. It’s just important to rotate at almost any cost for some reason.”

WHAT WAS THE BIG DIFFERENCE FROM PRACTICE TO QUALIFYING?
“That magic I was talking about on the PA system before I went out that I was hoping for. We’ve just been doing a nice job. (Tony) Gibson (crew chief) has been doing a great job of making the car better for qualifying, and I’m just thinking more about it, and watching the cars more before I go out for my qualifying run. Just paying attention to the little things. Every little bit helps. The times are always so close, especially at a small little track like this. It is really critical I think at this track to turn in the center. It just is. There is so much time in it. I rotated really nice on throttle. Too well on the first lap which is why I was slow. But no matter what happens, it was a nice pickup for us, and hopefully will give us a better place to work from on Sunday than last time.”

Chevrolet Racing

A couple weeks ago we were at Atlanta, which is a bumpy, rough racetrack. We found a couple items and we had those in our car by Chicago two weeks later. Those are the types of things that and that freedom, that helps a single car team.

Q. In terms of making this Chase, I know for you it’s especially gratifying, but there was some emotion there that you showed once you did make that. I mean, where did that come from?

KURT BUSCH: The big emotion Saturday night in Richmond when we locked into the Chase was little Houston. It’s Patricia’s eight year old, and I’m an adopted step dad with him. He had a summer long list of things he wanted to do, ride his go kart, go camping, fishing, just things that an eight year old would want to do, play video games. He said he wanted to bungee jump, but we had to drop that off the list. But one thing that I didn’t get done for him that he had on his list, he wanted to go to victory lane, and I didn’t win yet this year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and ran very limited Nationwide races, three as a matter of fact, and didn’t get to victory lane. So I felt like getting him to the Chase stage was that moment for us to share together, so I lived up as a step dad to his expectations.

Q. Will you bring him to New Hampshire?

KURT BUSCH: The custody calendar has us juggling him the rest of the year, and we try to keep him at just the East Coast races, and so his father him on the weekends we don’t and we do have him though for New Hampshire and that’s a great race for us because we ran well there earlier this year and led a lot of laps. Looking forward to New Hampshire this weekend and coming up to the New England area and just trying to continue on the success level of this Chase so far.

Q. You talked about not having a teammate, but do you view your brother as kind of a de facto teammate in a sense?

KURT BUSCH: He’s definitely a genuine teammate in life in the way that we talk to each other and share information about what we see on the racetrack. Yes, I can lean on him and he leans on me for that. And then there’s a small exchange with Kevin Harvick, twofold: One is he races with RCR, and we’re a team that’s paired up through them with an engineering alliance as well as what we’re doing next year in 2014 as teammates at Stewart Haas Racing. The two of us have definitely bonded this summer in that fashion.

Q. Obviously we know about your future for next year, and I wanted to ask you a little bit about Furniture Row racing. The first question is what kind of a driver do you see fitting in and filling your shoes there? Do you think it needs to be somebody that can bring some experience, or do you think that’s a real prime place for a young guy to come in and see what he can do?

KURT BUSCH: I think the level of driver that they’re looking for would be somebody with experience as well as somebody that has the potential to grow into whom would best fit that role. But we’re starting to run out of those experienced drivers, such as Juan Pablo Montoya. He’s made that announcement this week that he’s going to Penske with an IndyCar program, and you’re now looking at guys like a David Ragan as a veteran or a Scott Speed. One of the dark horses that nobody is really looking at that I think would be a good candidate is a Josh Wise. But the list can go on and on. You have Blaney’s son, you have Truex Jr., there’s probably everybody that wants a Chase ride, I mean, this is a Chase car, I’m sure their phone is ringing off the hook, and I’m not mentioning the right names. But I see a young guy fitting in over there that can grow with the team just based off of what I’ve seen with their negotiations.

Q. What do you think is next for this team? What do you think is maybe something that they need to look at that you think this slight improvement will maybe mean the difference between winning races on a more weekly basis? I know obviously you’ve gotten them into the Chase and they’re vying for the championship, but what do you think is kind of the next step? What’s the missing link for them?

KURT BUSCH: I wish I knew because I’d implement it right now and we’d go to New Hampshire with it. I feel like we’re a 95 percent team. We have a lot of tools that are strong. We go to the racetrack each week with raw speed. Our pit crew has improved, but we’re missing that last five percent, and I don’t know where it’s coming from, and if we had it, I think we could drive into victory lane with it next week with it.

They’re a fantastic team. They have a lot of well roundedness to them, and there’s just a couple small areas that I think that they could improve. But I don’t know exactly what to do to pinpoint it.

Q. You entered the Chase with no wins, so you were a lower seed. You look at a situation like Earnhardt and Logano who had situations at Chicagoland, and you don’t have that 15 point buffer that Kenseth does or your brother. Can you win the championship by using up one of those mulligans, or do you have to be perfect all 10 weeks to have a realistic shot?

KURT BUSCH: You know, the best way to explain this, because there’s a lot of us in the South that love SEC football, and every one of us has a team that we would root for. If you find yourself early in the season with one loss, your hope is that the other groups of guys beat up on each other and everybody has got one loss. When that happens, then you have a legitimate s
hot at getting back in this for a championship run. So until everybody has one loss or one big moment, no, there’s no way they can overcome that.

Q. Real quick, let’s just go back to New Hampshire. You’ve got three wins there and a lot of top 5 finishes. How do you attack that course? How do you like to run it?

KURT BUSCH: I like to run the long runs there at New Hampshire, making your car work for 100 laps at a time I think is key with some of the strategy that’s been played there the last few years on pitting and then running long distances. With that said, you cannot sacrifice short run speed, and that’s where I think our Furniture Row car got in trouble in the first race is that our car was a bit too vulnerable, we couldn’t be aggressive on restarts and we got spun around by Kenseth, our championship leader, earlier this year. We have to protect our car better on short run speed and still have that long run speed in case it comes back to play.

Q. Just back to your independent status, are you a little bemused by some of the sanctions handed down about collusions among teammates there?

KURT BUSCH: Yeah, nobody can pin it on me. We’re scot free and worked our way in independently to be a part of this Chase. There’s different things that you want to do as a team and to help a teammate and then there’s a line that’s drawn. At the end of the day you have to worry about your car number, your team, your people and how your people are reacting.

Q. All NASCAR drivers seem to be optimistic before the season starts, and when I spoke to you in Charlotte for the Sprint media tour you were optimistic, but did you really see a Chase spot coming, and was 2013 just a race to race routine for you that you would normally do?

KURT BUSCH: Last year in 2012 I finished with Furniture Row Racing with three top 10s out of six races, and that type of performance level is Chase material. Now, that’s only six weeks, though. You have to do it over 26 weeks. And so half the races, if you finish them in the top 10, that’s Chase material, and we did that. We had exactly that number. We had 13 top 10 finishes. So I felt like, yes, we could make the Chase. I was very optimistic. Yes, it is week to week, but our team wasn’t Chase ready the first five, six weeks of the season, and so I lumped it into five, six chunk races, and once we cleared that, then I looked at the next six and what had to happen for small optimum goals then, and then bridge it into the next six. So by race 18, you better be Chase ready because you only have eight weeks from that point to tie it together perfectly to make the Chase.

Q. And how would you compare it to all the ups and downs that you’ve gone through in your championship in the past, all the changes that you’ve made to be able to do this?

KURT BUSCH: You know, with this small team, it’s a big accomplishment, and for me it’s very satisfying to have bounced back and put this group in Chase contention. It’s like a top five moment, with my career, with a championship, and big wins, consistency over the years, making seven out of 10 Chases, this year was a significant top five type moment.

Q. Over the last few weeks it seems like I’ve noticed you are one of the most aggressive drivers on restarts, and I just would like to hear how you would describe the importance of kind of stepping up, particularly at that time, and has this restart rule that’s been handed down over the weekend impacted the way you approach restarts at all?

KURT BUSCH: Well, I think it was the fact that our backs were up against the wall about four weeks ago with our points situation and making the Chase, and I was aggressive on restarts to gain those spots back after some poor pit stops, and it turned out to bear fruit and gave us the points we needed to make the Chase.

I mean, we made the Chase by 12 points. That’s a decent margin. But I passed nine guys on one restart in Atlanta being on the aggressive side.

So restarts are important. I think now it’s in the forefront for everybody with the rule change and how we’re seeing races won, on how important it is on that final restart, which we never do know the final restart until it is maybe that last green white checkered, but every restart has important positions to be gained or you can easily lose them. It’s a new dimension in our sport that I think is gaining a lot of attention, and teams are looking at how they can benefit around it.

Q. I saw a stat that showed that you and Casey Mears are tied with the most times caught speeding on pit road with seven, and I was kind of wondering if you’ve analyzed that to hopefully limit that down the stretch here so it won’t hurt you as you’re trying to win the championship?

KURT BUSCH: That’s pretty sweet. I’ll take that as not a top 5 moment, but I’ll take that. You’ve got to get a stat in something.

All kidding aside, Chicago was a bogus thing in my mind because my tach was green all the way down pit road. There’s times when it might flicker red and then you hold your breath to see if you’re going to get by the police, in a sense. Chicago was all green, never expected to be called in, and we were.

What that means is we’re setting our pit road tachometer too aggressively and too close to the margin, so we just have to be more conservative. The thing that has to be clear internally with Furniture Row Racing is that the guy setting the tach isn’t going conservative on his own and then I’m going doubly conservative to make sure we’re not too conservative once we’re out performing, because we have to perform in this Chase. We can’t lose spots on pit road with slow pit stops and we can’t lose spots on pit road driving too slow in a speed zone.

Q. How tough is that for you since obviously every pit road is different?

KURT BUSCH: It’s not tough for me. We just need to do a better job at filtering through our tachometer settings. But the way that our sport has evolved, if I can stand on a soapbox real quick, we have a gear selection that’s given to us by NASCAR, a tire size that’s given to us, we have an ECU unit, the electronic control unit, can tell us what rpm we need to run down pit road. Why not put a button on the steering wheel that keeps us more focused on crew members on pit road and not chancing how fast we’re going and taking attention from where safety needs to be?

Q. Just a follow up on some of the topics we were discussing regarding the teamwork. A broader issue here, we saw some of the rulings that came down last week that kind of were brought about to mitigate some of the manipulation of the outcome of races like Richmond by teammates where you’re having unseemly things taking place on the track. As a driver do you feel it puts you in an untenable situation to have to field the team order, and then hypothetically speaking, would a driver have to wrestle with countermanding the team order because he feels it’s not good for him or his outcome, and are you glad that NASCAR kind of drew the line and said this is what’s not allowed and this is what is allowed?

KURT BUSCH: Well, I can just tell you with all the experiences I’ve been through in the past that I am relieved that I’m on a single car team, that we raced our way into the Chase and did this all on our own without any type of controversy. I have never been on this side of it to see how sick it gets and how awkward it can feel and just the genuine interest level that is away from the racing side of it can be extreme.

These teams that were on the bubble put themselves in a position over those 26 weeks to not be locked in, and that’s the whole point of what I’m trying to say is you h
ave 26 weeks, why don’t you try to run better, get yourself locked in, so with two weeks to go you’re on easy street. But team orders are a Catch 22. You’re trying to do your own thing independently for your own car number, and at the same time there’s a master name that’s on the building, and so you have to adhere to what the general manager or the team president is going to tell you to do, and sometimes you’ve got to do what’s right for your own self, sometimes you’ve got to do what the team tells you to do.

Q. In terms of just the broader issue of teamwork, how does that manifest itself on the track? I asked Matt Kenseth this earlier. Certainly you exemplified what a great teammate does for another at Daytona when you helped him win the 500, but in terms of that even at a carburetor restrictor plate, is it tough to really enact teamwork out there?

KURT BUSCH: You know, when I was a teammate with Matt Kenseth at Roush Racing, I adopted the philosophy early in my career on let’s race one day a week, but we’re going to work together six days out of the week. So when you have team communication and information going back and forth, you’re there to make both programs stronger, or however many cars are in your stable stronger, and then on the seventh day everybody goes and races for themselves.

Q. We’ve all followed your ups and downs the last few years from Penske to James Finch to Furniture Row, and you’ve been beaten down seemingly by everybody in the sport, but one thing that I’ve noticed this year is everyone has sort of rallied around you, and the perception has changed maybe with the underdog status and seeing how you’ve humbled yourself and you’ve gone back to really enjoy racing. What, if anything, have you noticed in terms of the reaction and the treatment you’ve been getting from fans and even your fellow drivers?

KURT BUSCH: Well, it’s been a long journey, and it didn’t happen overnight, but I chose to settle into this program with working with Phoenix Racing and finding that genuine fun of what it meant to go back to the racetrack because of all the distractions, requirements and monotonous things and situations that kept developing with a big team like at Penske Racing. So it was great to get a breath of fresh air, roll up my sleeves blue collar style and work with the guys, and then to do the same thing with the Furniture Row group who’s a step up from where that Phoenix Racing team was and then to try to get the results side of it back, and we’ve done that. So it’s been neat to have those small goals set forth, and then to achieve those goals, and then to set new ones.

And ultimately we want to be in victory lane, and making the Chase was a great feather in the cap, and it’s been a nice road back, and all along, though, it’s been about having fun and working with the crew guys and letting a story be told without people’s visceral opinions changing the way that things are really actually unfolding.

Q. Have you noticed maybe any reaction changing from the fans, whether it’s through driver introductions or things that they’ve had a chance to say to you when they’ve greeted or you seen you at the track?

KURT BUSCH: The number one thing that, as I said, I’m not looking for as far as attention and recognition. It’s just the work with the military, and seeing men and women who are in uniform and coming up and shaking my hand or giving my girlfriend Patricia a hug who’s the president of the Armed Forces Foundation, it means a lot, and she says that she’s never seen this type of reaction, where people are genuinely going out of their way to say thank you. It means that we’re making a difference and we’re helping our military families who have sacrificed so much and served for our country that they want to come to the racetrack and be part of the NASCAR Troops to the Track program as well as if they’re just a fan and they’re a military member they come up because they’re seeing that Patricia’s foundation is making a difference.

Q. Would it be safe to say that Kurt Busch is back? Are you back to being comfortable in your own skin and back to being the driver and maybe the man that you want to be? Everything is going pretty well for you right now.

KURT BUSCH: It’s going great, just success on the racetrack is one thing and getting your priorities in life in order is another thing, and sometimes you have to take a step back to make two steps forward.

Q. During the race there seems to be lots of drivers having all sorts of issues. How does a driver manage their stuff in that situation knowing that you could be the next driver to have an issue or a problem?

KURT BUSCH: Well, around every corner is an opportunity for success or failure. In this day and age things move so quick that something does pop up, you’ve got to roll with it, and you have to react and make educated decisions on what’s going to happen next and how to recover as quickly as you can from those mishaps. So your team can help you or your driver’s experience can help you. Lady luck can get involved; you never know. But the more you’ve been through it, the better you should be able to deal with it.

Q. How does a driver turn not having a ride from a negative way to a positive way, and once a driver finds a ride, what sort of things will you do or a driver do to kind of get an idea of how the other organization is ran at the racetrack?

KURT BUSCH: Well, it’s just a matter of keeping your spirits up and knowing that around the next corner is a potential new opportunity, and when you get that new opportunity you have to take it slow and learn the people, learn the system, and at the same time try to implement the experiences that you have on what it takes to find success on the racetrack and produce those results.

September 9, 2013 ARP Trish

Federated Auto Parts 400
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Richmond International Raceway
September 7, 2013

Race Highlights:
Richard Childress Racing teammates finished fifth (Paul Menard), 11th (Kevin Harvick), and 18th (Jeff Burton) in the Federated Auto Parts 400.
Following the event at Richmond International Raceway, Harvick is tied for the fourth seed in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, six markers out of the lead, while Menard is 17th in the driver championship point standings and Burton sits 22nd.
The No. 29 Chevrolet SS team ranks fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner championship point standings, with the No. 27 team 18th in the standings and the No. 31 team 24th.
According to NASCAR’s Post-Race Loop Data Statistics, Menard was the ninth-Fastest Driver Late in a Run.
Menard posted the eighth-fastest Speed in Traffic.
Completing 38 passes while running in the top 15, Harvick was fourth in the loop data category of Quality Passes.
Harvick gained two positions during the final 10 percent (40 laps) of the 400-lap event, ranking him sixth in the Closers category and was the sixth-Fastest Driver Late in a Run.
With a 9.185 Average Running Position, Burton held the eighth-best average position of the 43-car field.
Burton spent 84.5 percent of the 400-lap race running in the top 15 (338 laps).
Carl Edwards earned his second victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and Menard.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is the GEICO 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 15. The 27th race of the 2013 season is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern Time and broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio, channel 90.

Menard Earns a Fifth-Place Finish Under the Lights at Richmond International Raceway

Paul Menard and the No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards team brought home a fifth-place finish after starting from the 22nd position Saturday evening at Richmond International Raceway. Throughout the opening segment of the 400-lap event, the Eau Claire, Wis., native reported that his Chevrolet was free in and needed better drive off the corners. While running in the 21st position, Crew chief “Slugger” Labbe called the No. 27 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver to pit road on lap 92 for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment under green-flag conditions. The evening’s first caution flag was displayed on lap 135, allowing Menard to pit for a second time taking four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. During the next lengthy green-flag run, Menard moved inside the top-15. Throughout the evening, the crew continued to adjust the handling on the Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet SS allowing Menard to turn the fastest lap times of the field. By lap 341 he was shown in the fifth position and charging forward. For the final 50 laps the Richard Childress Racing driver battled inside the top five. Labbe brought Menard to pit road for right-side tires only when the caution flag waved with eight laps remaining, giving him the lead for the green-white-checkered finish. Menard ultimately brought home a fifth-place result and his second top-five finish of the 2013 season. Menard remains 17th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into the next race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Start – 22 Finish – 5 Laps Led – 3 Points – 17th

PAUL MENARD QUOTE:
“We had a great Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet tonight. We started out a little loose but, “Slugger” (Labbe, crew chief) called for the right adjustments all night and we got dialed in to run up front. We tried strategy in hopes of bringing home a win, but two tires couldn’t hold off the guys with four. I’m proud of our efforts this weekend in the garage and on pit road. I’m looking forward to Chicagoland (Speedway) next week.”

Harvick Finishes 11th at Richmond International Raceway

Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser team collected an 11th-place finish under the lights of Richmond International Raceway on Saturday night after battling handling issues and experiencing an untimely caution. The California native started the 400-lap event from the 17th position and fell back into the top 20 during the early laps as he battled handling issues on the red and white Chevrolet. The Gil Martin-led pit crew made multiple chassis adjustments during routine four-tire pit stops on laps 91 and 137 to improve the handling of the car. As the race progressed, Harvick worked his way into the second position on lap 307, but a powerful run was halted by bad luck when the caution flag was displayed while the No. 29 Chevrolet was on pit road for a scheduled pit stop on lap 342. Harvick returned to the track in the 15th position, one lap down to the leader. Before going back to green-flag racing, the Richard Childress Racing driver took the “wave around” and returned to the lead lap in the 14th position for the ensuing restart. Harvick slowly worked his way forward during the final laps, ultimately crossing the finish line 11th. Harvick is tied with Carl Edwards for the fourth seed heading into the first event of the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Chicagoland Speedway.

Start – 17 Finish – 11 Laps Led – 0 Points – 4th

KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
“Well, if the caution didn’t come out I feel like we could have won the race tonight. The Budweiser Chevrolet was really good, but we had made a lot of adjustments. The car was just really loose to start the race, so when you can do things to adjust your car and take it from a 25th-place car to a winning car in the same night, that’s a sign that things are going to be okay. We are as good as we’ve ever been, and hopefully we can continue to get better over the next few weeks. I’m just really proud of everybody for their work tonight.”

Untimely Caution-Flag Period Thwarts Burton’s Top-Five Run
at Richmond International Raceway

Jeff Burton and the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team finished 18th at Richmond International Raceway after an untimely caution-flag period trapped the Richard Childress Racing driver one lap down to the leader late in the race. Starting the 400-lap affair from the 19th position, Burton entered the top 15 early and was scored in seventh place after a fast pit stop by the Caterpillar pit crew on lap 91. Finding speed on multiple long green-flag runs, the 21-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner cracked the top five by the halfway point of the 300-mile event. Burton maintained a top-five running position throughout the majority of the race, running as high as third while turning some of the fastest laps in the 43-car field. After making a routine four-tire pit stop on lap 339 under green-flag conditions, disaster struck when Jimmie Johnson made contact with the outside retaining wall, bringing out the yellow flag. The untimely caution-flag period trapped Burton one lap down to the leader and forced the 46-year-old driver to take the “wave around” and earn his lap back under caution. Restarting 15th, Burton reported handling issues as the black and yellow machine was trapped in heavy traffic and the RCR driver battled hard to an 18th-place finish when the checkered flag was displayed. Burton remains 22nd in the Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings.

Start – 19 Finish – 18 &nb
sp; Laps Led – 0 Points – 22nd

JEFF BURTON QUOTE:
“That’s the story of our season right there. We had a top-five effort taken away from us with bad luck in the form of an untimely caution. I am proud of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet team. We will keep working hard until the end of the season and try to get to Victory Lane.”

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–4 Drivers in the Chase

September 9, 2013 ARP Trish

FOUR CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS GRAB TOP FIVE FINISHES AT RICHMOND

A TOTAL OF FIVE TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS CLINCH POSITIONS IN UPCOMING
CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP

RICHMOND, Virginia – September 7, 2013 – The Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway (RIR) closed the first 26 races of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) season and set the field for the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in dramatic fashion. Team Chevy captured four of the top-5 finishing spots at RIR, and locked-in two additional Chevrolet SS drivers for the championship run.

After a round of pit stops and various strategies on tires, both the race and Chase field were decided on a final restart with three laps remaining. Kurt Busch, in his No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet SS, came away with a second place finish after leading five times for 73 laps in tonight’s race. The finish put the single-car team from Denver, Colorado in the Chase for the first time.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS, led late in the race but had to settle for third place at the finish line. Newman’s sixth top-five finish of the season was not enough to land a spot in the Chase. He leaves RIR 14th in the overall point standings.

Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet SS, had a strong car all night and led six laps before finishing in fourth place. McMurray, who had an outside shot at a Chase berth, came away with his second top-five finish of the season.   Paul Menard had the lead on the final restart, but had to settle for fifth in his No. 27 Menards/Pittsburgh Paints Chevrolet SS. It was his second top-five finish and seventh top-10 finish of 2013.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevy SS, was in the spotlight throughout the 400-lap race as he bounced on and off the Chase bubble many times throughout the night. His eighth-place finish left him just a single point out of the Chase and 13th in points overall. Mark Martin, still subbing for the injured Tony Stewart in the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, was ninth at the finish.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet SS, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS, and Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Chevrolet SS had secured Chase positions leading into tonight’s event. Dale Earnhardt Jr, No. 88 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet SS, who finished 13th, joined Kurt Busch as Chevrolet drivers who earned positions in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with their performance at RIR.

Carl Edwards (Ford) was the race winner.

The next event on the tour, and first in the 10-race run for the title, will be September 15th at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL.

AN INTERVIEW WITH
KURT BUSCH, No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet SS, finished 2nd to make Chase
BARNEY VISSER, Furniture Row Racing Team Owner
JOE GARONE, Furniture Row Racing General Manager

KERRY THARP: We have a special treat right now. Kurt Busch makes the Chase. He’ll be going for his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
            Kurt, before the seeding would have been in eighth position. After the seeding, he goes to 10th. Kurt, congratulations. He’s joined by Joe Garone and owner Barney Visser. Single‑car race team. Terrific accomplishment. I think it’s a cool deal.
            Kurt, your thoughts about making the Chase?
            KURT BUSCH: Well, how about them apples? Unbelievable. The way this team has grown, what we’ve been able to accomplish, it’s an amazing feeling. We achieved something very special tonight. Barney Visser and his dream of a NASCAR Sprint Cup team, to be a competitive team, he deserves all the credit.
            Joe Garone, the general manager, all the people that he’s aligned to help build this team. Then there’s guys like Todd Berrier that are veterans of the garage that make big differences in small places like this. Everybody at the Furniture Row shop back in Colorado, it was a dream, now it’s a reality.
            It’s an amazing feeling to sit here at Richmond after such a long journey for myself, but to be able to deliver, to do my part along with these guys. I can’t thank them enough. Very proud to have driven the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevy into the Chase this year.

            KERRY THARP: Barney, your thoughts?
            BARNEY VISSER: I want to thank Joe Garone, who we built the team around eight years ago. He’s collected all these people. Everybody has just been putting in a lot of hours this year. I think the road crew put in several hundred‑hour weeks testing. It’s all kind of paid off here, I think. Kurt expressed it really well, how we feel about everything.
            But thank you, Joe, and thanks to the team. I mean, a lot of time, a lot of effort. It’s been real good.

            KERRY THARP: Joe, your thoughts about making the Chase. Great accomplishment.
            JOE GARONE: It is a great accomplishment. I have to go back and say at the beginning of the year as the team has grown, you start setting goals, again coming to Barney, after Kurt coming onboard, being able to bring Todd Berrier, some of the guys we’ve had come onboard at the shop, Barney making the comments, I expect to make the Chase.
            When you’re out in Colorado, you’ve gone through what we’ve gone through, you realize just how difficult of an accomplishment that is, to have a leader that’s got that kind of vision, we all just fell in right behind him.
            I don’t know that we had that vision. Maybe Kurt did with his experience, but we all filed in right behind Barney and his lead there. Dream comes true today.

            KERRY THARP: Questions, please.

            Q. Barney, we’ve seen a lot of single‑car owners come and go over the years. To have Kurt, to be able to accomplish this, what kind of a dream come true is it for you?
            BARNEY VISSER: Well, I don’t know that it’s a dream come true as much as I’m kind of in awe of Kurt and Joe, the whole team, what these guys have been able to do.
            Like I said, it’s been a lot of hard work. They put in a lot of hours. It’s much appreciated here.

            Q. Kurt, you were sort of safely into the top 10 pretty much all night, not by a great margin, but by a little bit. Were people telling you, We’re 12 points in, we’re 8 in? Did you have any idea how safe you were within the top 10?
            KURT BUSCH: When the race started and the 24 was fast and dominant, that’s when I knew we had our work cut out for us. If he was going to win tonight, we had to finish second, not knowing what was going to happen with Biffle and Logano.< br>            As the race progressed, I didn’t see the 24 as often. I was able to relax a little bit. But still, the nerves and the feelings, the emotions were all there of making sure that I hit my marks, making sure I didn’t slip any tires, try to protect the car, stay out of trouble.
            Any time that I did ask, I was just doing it just for conversation’s sake. I needed to break up my rhythm, my intense white knuckles just to say something. They’d go, Yeah, you’re fine, keep digging. It was more of a verification and a check, then just get back into work and focus on making my lap times.

            Q. Obviously your alliance this season with RCR has helped a lot. How much of a role do you think it will help you in the last 10 races?
            KURT BUSCH: I think it will still be business as usual. We have a great group of crew chiefs on the other side there at RCR. Gil Martin, the way he’s helped us and Harvick, those guys stand out in my mind. We all know what Harvick’s future is and my future is.
            Then we look at the 27 car, the help they’ve given us this year. I would say that should continue.
            Then you have Luke Lambert in the 31 car. They’ve always been helpful. I would say it’s going to be business as usual. We’ll expect to be there to do our part, to help the 29. Right now it’s the 29 and the 78 coming out of that situation.
            But overall, very happy for our guys, everybody that works in Colorado. It’s an amazing group of guys. They’re at the race shop at 5 a.m. every day. The way that our logistical situation is, you have to stay ahead of the game, about 10 days ahead. Todd Berrier does an amazing job of balancing that.
            Garone is the one that’s helped allow us to operate like a big‑time team in the state of Colorado.
            JOE GARONE: Yeah, I think Kurt said a lot there about the same things that I would say. What I would add is the partnership that we have with RCR, when we first started, Richard was very supportive, really to the point of saying, I’m not going to do this unless we do it all in and really support you guys.
            Whenever we’ve needed it, on projects when we’re working back and forth, they’ve always been right there with us. We look forward to growing that as we move forward here.

            Q. Kurt, you won a championship in 2004. That’s obviously considered the pinnacle of anyone’s career. With a decade of racing between then and now, is this something that you can really appreciate and savor for how difficult it was?
            KURT BUSCH: Yeah, you’re right. I took some of the performance levels of Roush Racing for granted, then expected the same thing at Penske. It was a tougher road there.
            But we made the Chase in a fashion to where it was supposed to be a given. When you didn’t make it, it was a devastating feeling.
            Now to be back after missing it last year, the work that it takes, the commitment, the things that you just can’t expect to happen, not necessarily with the odds stacked against you, but you have to dig in deep and you have to find something from within. Barney has been a great shepherd for me and this whole team.
            It’s something special we achieved tonight, to put a single car into the Chase. We have our friends, other drivers. But yet it’s every man for themselves out there. We have some muscle left in us. We have a great 10 weeks ahead of us. We have a test session we’ve saved. I think we can make a run through this Chase. We just have to do the same thing we did tonight: keep plugging away, let everybody else worry about what has to happen and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing out in Colorado because nobody can look over our shoulder.

            Q. Your first pit stop on pit road under yellow didn’t go the way that you wanted it to, but they got better as the night went on. Talk about the way the pit crew stepped up and rose to the occasion. Also, do you think the 99’s final restart was okay?
            KURT BUSCH: I feel like the pit crew did their job. We needed them to hold serve tonight. We lost a few sets or maybe a breakpoint. We went in leading once, came out seventh. That’s not acceptable. We came in third one time, came out first. I was happy for them, and they felt it. They knew what they did.
            Overall I think we did what we could on pit road tonight. Can we get better? Yes.
            The way the restart went, I couldn’t tell you if he went early, he went late. I was on the outside just trying to protect my car and not get hit from behind. Then if I could have been more aggressive instead of on the defensive, maybe I would have had a shot to win.
            I didn’t care if Carl went a hundred yards too early, I was just going to go when I saw bumpers moving.
            KERRY THARP: Congratulations to Kurt, Barney and Joe.


AN INTERVIEW WITH
RYAN NEWMAN, No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS, finished 3rd

KERRY THARP: Ryan, I know it’s a difficult time. Just talk about the run out there this evening, anything else you might want to say.
            RYAN NEWMAN: We did everything we needed to up until the last caution. I’m not sure exactly what unfolded there. We still had the opportunity to win it on pit road and we didn’t. Coming from 6th to 3rd in a couple laps is not bad. But we had to win, so it’s disappointing.
            Didn’t expect to make up for everything we didn’t get in the first 25 in the last race, but we were in position. We did everything we needed to with the exception of the pit stop. I’m not sure what happened with the 15 on that caution. Obviously we were in a position to take that second wild card with two wins.
            Nevertheless, I still feel like we lost it on pit road. It’s disappointing. We’ll go on. But just thank Quicken Loans and all our sponsors to give us the opportunity to go out and do what we do and we got more to go.

            KERRY THARP: Questions.

            Q. Ryan, I know you can’t be inside Clint
Bowyer’s head, but a teammate of Martin Truex did that?
            RYAN NEWMAN: They are teammates. I don’t know if he looked at the scoring pylon, knew I was leading. It doesn’t matter. If that was the case, I’ll find out one way or the other. At the same time we still had the opportunity to make our own destiny and win it on pitroad, and we didn’t.
            That being said, we’re out.

            Q. Ryan, you took four tires. Whose call was that? In hindsight does it matter?
            RYAN NEWMAN: We came down pit road first. Carl came off pit road second. We should have been at least second at that point. We didn’t do our job on pit road. Four tires won the race. We were the first car to be in position on four tires and we didn’t get the job done.
            KERRY THARP: Ryan, thanks for coming in.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Richmond Post Race

September 9, 2013 ARP Trish

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400
RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/BEAUTYREST CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TONIGHT TO GET INTO THE CHASE:
“This feels incredible. The way that we worked together as a team and built up over the year it’s amazing that we have come this far and we have put ourselves in position and here we are in the Chase. We didn’t win a race yet this year. We still have some work to do to get to that point, but we have a lot of good tools on this team that help us and it’s an amazing feeling to go up against these big teams and to put a little lone Chevrolet from Colorado into the Chase against the big boys it doesn’t start with one person it’s a team effort.

“I was happy to guide the ship, but I had a great skipper, the way that Todd Berrier (crew chief) led this group into the off season last year and Todd the way that he followed Barney Visser’s dream. We are in the Chase and we have a shot at the championship so we are not done yet, but it feels great to deliver and to achieve something very special tonight.”

AFTER ALL YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH THE LAST COUPLE YEARS IT’S MY PLEASURE TO BE AMONG THE FIRST TO WELCOME YOU BACK TO THE CHASE. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU? “Thanks. It’s been a journey. It’s been a great ride of trying to persevere and going up against the odds when certain things are against you that are out of your control and sometimes you induce things that put you in a position where you have to dig hard and keep working. This shows to people that when you can just pull through and believe in yourself and find good people like Patricia and little Houston, he said he wanted to go to victory lane this summer and I didn’t get him to victory lane yet, but we’re going to celebrate on the Chase stage. I’m getting all emotional about the eight year old hanging out with me.
“But to make the Chase with these guys is an unbelievable feeling. It’s been an 18‑month work in progress, and I’ve been through a lot, and I’ve learned a lot, and I feel like I’m better ready for the Chase and life in general as a 35 year old.
“I’ve got a little one that’s in a go‑kart looking up to me now. Just these guys, it’s an unbelievable feeling; Barney Visser started this in Colorado years ago, and here we are in the Chase. You get a guy like Todd Berrier that comes in and helps arrange things, starts cutting weight out of cars and knows his way around the garage, he’s a veteran leader, and I’ve always loved veterans and car guys. Todd Berrier reminds me a lot of Jimmy Fennig, who’s a guy that helped me win a championship years ago. We’ve got some muscle in us. We haven’t won a race yet this year, but we’re in the Chase, and we’ve got a good 10 weeks ahead of us where we can do some good things.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
PUT INTO WORDS YOUR THOUGHTS RIGHT NOW AS YOU HAVE CLIMBED OUT OF THE CAR:
“The car was good no doubt. Matt (Borland, crew chief) and the guys did a good job making it fast. The pit crew left me hanging on that last stop there is no doubt about that. In the end I’m proud of the guys we came from nowhere this year to be in this position. If it wasn’t for that last caution we would be in the Chase.

“Thank Quicken Loans, Wix Filters, Aspen Dental, Code 3 Associates, State Water Heaters, just everybody that helps out with this Outback we got another Bloomin’ Monday. Just unfortunate, I don’t have really anything good to say.”

YOU WERE IN AND THEN THE CAUTION FELL. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE WHAT’S GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND RIGHT NOW? “I mean, I told Matt when we came into this race that we couldn’t make up everything we’ve missed in the first 25. Now, winning would have changed everything and that last caution definitely hurt us, but we got killed on pit road, there’s no doubt about that. Carl and those guys beat us on four tires. The guys that took two were just doing some strategy, but we should have been able to come off pit road first and come off pit road first if we were a championship contending team. We needed a championship contending pit crew, and we didn’t have that tonight.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS/PITTSBURGH PAINTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FIFTH
GOOD FIGHT OUT THERE TONIGHT DESCRIBE THE WAY THE EVENING WENT FOR YOU:
“We just had a really good long run car. Restarts, especially that last restart old left side tires, we had to try something. We weren’t going to beat those guys heads up so we had to try a little strategy, but awesome Chevrolet on long runs. Just couldn’t take off very good.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED EIGHTH
DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD THERE THOSE FINAL FEW LAPS KIND OF BRING US THROUGH YOUR NIGHT:
“Yeah, it’s disappointing to miss it that close. Another great effort and come back with our Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet team. Again, we started up front and the car was good and then we got off and had to fight our way back. Got a lap down, had a loose wheel so I love the effort this team put in and didn’t need to see that last caution.

“We were in and that last caution you know it’s going to be wild and crazy out there and great show for the fans, but unfortunately with those two guys with old tires we just couldn’t get our line to move. Just didn’t make up the spots we needed to. It’s unfortunate we didn’t make it in. We are going to fight like that all the way to the end of the season.”
THE ADVERSITY THAT THIS 24 TEAM FOUGHT THROUGH TONIGHT, THE UPS AND DOWNS JUST LIKE LAST YEAR. WHAT IS THIS EMOTION LIKE MISSING IT FOR JUST THE SECOND TIME? “Yeah, it’s unfortunate. We haven’t had the kind of year that this team is capable of, and that’s where our focus is these next 10 races is just to know that we put in every bit of effort we possibly could. We fought through a lot of things. It wasn’t pretty but we were getting it done until that caution came out, and you know, we still could have made it in. The restart just didn’t go the way we needed it to, so that’s unfortunate.
“But yeah, it’s tough. I’m just bummed for this team. They worked so hard, and I don’t know why we’ve had the kind of rough year that we’ve had. We’re going to do everything we can to go these next 10 races and step it up and get ourselves in position to be more competitive. Hopefully we can win a race or two and get ourselves in position to go be in a better position when it comes to Richmond at this time next year.
I KNOW THE EMOTION FOR JUST US WATCHING AND LISTENING TO YOU ON THE TRACK. WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING AT RICHMOND AND RACING LITERALLY FOR EVERY SINGLE POSITION? “ I don’t know what it is about this track lately with me and this race team. We started off so great and we’ve done this before, and then all of a sudden we start fading, and I was getting pretty frustrated at that time because it was that kind of condition where you’re real tight landing and real loose off, and we’re like, how do we fix this. I don’t know how to drive it any different and I don’t know what to tell them. But they did an awesome job. We stayed calm, and we got a lot done, had a loose wheel, had all these things thrown at us, and yet we come back and finish eighth. I’m blown away that we finished eighth. I think that’s a testament to this race team and the fight that we have in us, and it was fun to fight back like that. I wish we could have got a couple more.”
MARK MARTIN, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED NINTH
ON HIS RACE:
“Really proud of all the guys on this Bass Pr
o Shops/Mobil 1 team. They improved the car throughout the race and made some great calls. We got our first top-10 together. We’ll take that and build on it.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 11TH
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCE TO RUN FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP?
“Well if the caution doesn’t come out I feel like we win the race tonight. The Budweiser Chevrolet was really good and we had made a lot of adjustments tonight. The car was just really loose to start the race and so when you can do things like that, adjust your car and take it from a 25th-place car to a winning car in the same night that is signs that things are going to be okay. We are as good as we’ve been over the years and hopefully we can take our team and get better over the next few weeks and the car was really good tonight. Just really proud of everybody.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 TIME WARNER CABLE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
TALK ABOUT THE RACE TONIGHT. A LOT OF LONG GREEN FLAG LAPS DID THAT CATCH YOU GUYS OFF GUARD?
“No, I like it when it goes long green runs because I feel like we can take care of our tires and get some that work on their car too hard at the start of the run. It’s a slick old race track so if you just take care of your car no matter how bad the car is handling you can actually be pretty good at the end of the run. I like that and I think that plays into a different style of racing and plays into other drivers hands and I think I’m one of them.”

TEN RACES TO GO TO TRY TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP. WHERE DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS TEAM IS RIGHT NOW?
“I don’t know you know. We are pretty excited to be in the Chase. Especially to do it with Time Warner Cable on the side of the car tonight was pretty cool. We’ve got some things to do to sort of get our cars in order and give ourselves a good shot. We are going to do the best job we can.”

JUNIOR, YOU WERE BEHIND THE NO. 15 (CLINT BOWYER). WHAT DID YOU SEE? “He just spun right out. That’s the craziest thing I ever saw. He just came right around. He got ‑‑ we were going into, through 3 and 4, and I don’t know if they can put up his brakes and his gas. We got all the technology. But he was hemming around on the brakes and jerking the car around, and then the thing just spun out. It was crazy. I don’t know what was going on. It was right there, I almost run into it, so I’m glad we were able to get out of there without any trouble.
SIXTH TIME YOU ARE IN THE CHASE. HOW CLOSE ARE YOU AND STEVE LETARTE TO GETTING INTO VICTORY LANE AND BEING A REAL FACTOR TO WIN THIS CHAMPIONSHIP? “You know, I don’t think a lot of people were counting us as one of the favorites, so last year we were definitely putting up the kind of numbers where I think we were in that conversation. Maybe not this year. We’ve had a lot of races that we haven’t been able to finish, but we’ve had fast cars, and I’m real confident in our ability to perform well enough in these 10 races. We’re going to work real hard. I think we’ve got as good a shot as anybody, so we’re going to go in there with a good attitude and work real hard and see what we get.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THE CHASE?
“We have got to start at the back. We weren’t able to race our way in. We just weren’t good enough tonight. It’s discouraging to not be as fast as we would like to be. I thought we were going to be a lot better than that tonight. We just weren’t. We’ve got five days to think about it and try to put a good plan together and prepare. Hopefully these final 10 we can make some noise. I feel good. I feel like there have been times this season where my team and myself and our whole group the way we have communicated and worked together we have been as strong as any car here. We will see if we can do that in the Chase.”
FRUSTRATED FROM THE PERFORMANCE YOU HAD TONIGHT. LET’S ADDRESS TONIGHT AND THE ISSUES THAT YOU HAD. WHAT WENT WRONG? “ I’m just happy we have a couple wins or we wouldn’t have made the Chase. We just wouldn’t turn in the center all night, tried to get looser in, looser off and could never turn the center, so it was a tough race. We stayed out there and tried to do the best we could for Farmer’s and Quaker State, Time Warner Cable, Great Clips, everybody that was part of it, but we weren’t very good. Looking forward to preparing this week and we’ve got 10 races to make up some ground.
YOU WON AT BRISTOL, YOU WON AT POCONO. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE THE CHASE? “I would hope so. There’s times this year that we definitely have, and then there’s other times like tonight where I’m like kind of wondering what’s going on. I would say the majority of the season we’ve had as much speed as anybody, and if we can put that together for nine or 10 of these next 10, we’ll definitely have a shot.

TRANSCRIPT FROM MEDIA CENTER: MODERATOR: At this time we’ll call up our two wild card participants. That’s Kasey Kahne
            Let’s hear from Kasey right now. Kasey, certainly you actually had wrapped up at least a wild card berth last week at Atlanta. Maybe just talk about your race here tonight.
            KASEY KAHNE: Yeah, just glad we had it wrapped up because we were struggling tonight throughout the race. Just off. Never really got it figured out. Tight first 20 laps, then spinning the last 60.
            It was a tough race for us. Wish somehow Jeff would have got in, but that didn’t happen. That’s it.
           MODERATOR: Questions for Kasey

            Q. Kasey, did you at any time during practice expect the race to be this way tonight?
            KASEY KAHNE: As far as my car?
PAGE 6

            Q. Yes.
            KASEY KAHNE: No. I thought my car was decent in practice. We made a 25‑lap run. It wasn’t as good as some, but it was better than most. So I thought we were all right.
            Once the race started, I knew we weren’t. I mean, we made some adjustments four times. We came out last and really worked on it and didn’t go anywhere after that.
            We struggled here the first race also. Tested here. Never felt good in the test. Clint, Martin. Martin wasn’t as good as Clint. Clint was the best guy at the test I thought. We knew we were off.
            I haven’t been able to figure it out. I don’t know if it’s the way I drive this track with this tire, track, car combination, the way I lift, how I hold the car out on entry, things like that, or if we’re missing it setup‑wise. I’m not sure.
            I’m definitely glad this isn’t one of the final 10.

            Q. So are you glad there’s nothing like this coming?
            KASEY KAHNE: Glad we had two wins coming in.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT
TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 40TH
YOU ARE IN THE CHASE, BUT IT WASN’T THE NIGHT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR:
“Yeah, that was a tough night. We just would run through the right-front tire for whatever reason. It would wear it out and finally blew it on one of them. The car was tight, but just really would wear out that right-front tire. Just a bummer we ended the regular season like we did. As we look forward to the Chase those are 10 awesome tracks for the No. 48 team and we will go to Chicago and get this Chase started off on the right foot.”

A LOT OF PEOPLE WONDER WHERE IS THE TEAM RIGHT NOW AFTER ANOTHER BAD FINISH TONIGHT: “ Yeah, it was definitely a bad run tonight. When I look at the Chase and the tracks that are in the Chase, those are tracks that we’re really good at historically, and when I look at August, August is normally tough on the 48, and this year it was once again. I think the big tracks we have plenty of speed. Some of the shorter tracks we’re off. The big tracks leading into the Chase we had speed but had some issues, mechanical with the engine and then blew a tire at Pocono.
“So I’m not pleased with where we’re at, but I’m still very confident and feel that going into the Chase it’s a clean sheet of paper for everybody, and we’re going to be where we need to. People can speculate and wonder all week long, but I really look forward to getting to Chicago and showing people what this team has in it.”
MEDIA CENTER TRANSCRIPT: MODERATOR: What a night it was here tonight at Richmond. It was quite the event. Jimmie Johnson is our five‑time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. He’ll go into the Chase as the No. 2 seed as he contends for his sixth championship.
            Before I even get into NASCAR racing, congratulations, dad, on the birth of another beautiful young girl.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Thank you.
            MODERATOR: Just your thoughts maybe about that and just now your thoughts about the Chase.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Obviously extremely happy, proud. Tired from the last few nights. Chani is home. Lydia is home. They’re both doing really, really good. Got them about 11:00 today. Got some food in everybody. We all took some naps. Flew up here. Got in the car and went at it.
            Just the five‑time thing is awfully cool, but two‑time, I’m much more proud of being two‑time than anything (smiling). Just an awesome couple of nights.
            Ready to get home and see my girls. I’m obviously out‑numbered in the household with my daughters, wife, two female dogs. I need to find a male fish to put in the corner of the room so I have more testosterone around.
            Unfortunately tonight here at the track things did not go well. We would literally wear the right front tire off the car as the night would go on. Start off kind of fast, run through the right front tire, had some issues there.
            Unfortunate night here. But as I look at the string of bad races we’ve had here over the last three, four weeks, the majority of the tracks that resemble the Chase, we’ve been fast. We had a blown engine and tire failure at Pocono. Bristol, here, tracks we don’t see in the Chase, we’ve had our issues.
            I’m glad Richmond and Bristol aren’t in the Chase. I feel the 10 tracks that are in the Chase are very good for the No. 48 team. We’ll start over on a clean sheet of paper next weekend and go at it.
            MODERATOR: Questions for Jimmie.
            Q. Kyle Busch was in here yesterday and he was asked about the bad finishes you had. He shook his head and he said, The 48 team will flip the switch next week. Do you believe that or are you concerned at all with four bad races in a row?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: There’s always a little concern. Without a doubt you want to enter the Chase with momentum. I think every team falls back on past history. We have won championships without momentum going into the first race.
            So we’re going to fall on our experience and also the experience of knowing the Chase is so different than anything else. You’re only racing 12 guys, not 43. So things change a lot. We’re going to go to a track that is very good for us. We had a tire test there earlier in the year. It went really well.
            I’m going to reserve any major concern or overwhelming confidence until after Chicago. I’m going to go in there with confidence I can go out and win because I know that I can. We’re going to enter nice and smooth and see how Chicago goes.
            Q. Did you know you’ve never finished 28th or worst in your entire career.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: No.
            Q. Because he asked that, we’re going to ask a group question here.
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Group?
            Q. Are you glad that the baby is here and that all the personal stuff is finished and you can now just focus on the racing?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, without a doubt. I don’t believe that the personal side has distracted my focus by any means. I think moving forward with Lydia here, there’s going to be more demands on my personal side. It’s been pretty easy. Chani is extremely supportive of my career, lets me have all the time and space I need to do my job. As the Chase starts, I’m going to have more going on at home.
            We’ve had some bad tracks we’ve run bad at. Then the tracks we run good at we’ve had some issues. Definitely don’t want to enter the Chase with no momentum like we have right now. But Chicago is a whole new world. The personal side, you know, things will pick up at home a little bit more now than they have. No way around that.
“I think more than anything, I’ll get less sleep. Have to come to the motorhome and get a good night’s sleep on Thursday and Friday (laughter).
            Q. Jimmie, did being away yesterday in a more important part of your life affect how you raced tonight at all? Was that a negative not being able to practice?
            JIMMIE JOHNSON: Yeah, it definitely hurts the efforts of the team. We tested here a couple weeks ago, felt like what we learned during the test was going to translate and be fine. We had confidence in the decision not to be in the car yesterday.
            Without a doubt, it would have been best if I was in the car. I’m not sure we w
ould have gotten where we needed to. We were pretty far off tonight.
            Speed was okay on the short run, but it would run through the tire and blow the tire.
            MODERATOR: Jimmie, thank you very much.
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4H:
“That was a great night for our team. Our car was really good early in the race, but we struggled a little in the middle of the race. I am proud of the work from our guys all weekend on our Cessna team. We had really good pit stops tonight that put us in position for that top-five finish”.

Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Corvette Racing–Monterey

September 9, 2013 ARP Trish

GREAT START IN MONTEREY: Westbrook Leads Front-Row Sweep for Corvette DPs
Edwards’ GT pole means Team Chevy locks out front rows in both Rolex Series classes

MONTEREY, Calif. (Sept. 7, 2013) – Team Chevy couldn’t ask for a better start to the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series weekend at Laguna Seca. Richard Westbrook took pole position in Spirit of Daytona’s No. 90 Corvette Daytona Prototype for Sunday’s Continental Tire Sports Car Festival as Chevrolet power swept the front rows of both Rolex Series classes.

Westbrook, last year’s race-winner in Monterey with Antonio Garcia, posted a qualifying lap Saturday of 1:21.557 (98.787 mph) in the entry he shares with Ricky Taylor. It marked the first pole of the season for Westbrook and Spirit of Daytona. Max Angelelli in Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP qualified second and was just 0.021 seconds off Westbrook’s pace.

Angelelli and Jordan Taylor enter the weekend leading the Rolex Series’ DP drivers’ championship, and Chevrolet is first in the engine manufacturer standings. Corvette DPs took four of the first six spots on the Daytona Prototype grid.

Sunday’s two-hour, 45-minute race is the next-to-last round of the 2013 Rolex Series. The race airs live at 5 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.

John Edwards and Boris Said gave Team Chevy a 1-2 finish in GT qualifying. Edwards captured the class pole with a 1:27.529 (92.047 mph) lap in Stevenson Motorsports’ Camaro GT.R. The young American, driving with Robin Liddell, took his third pole of the season.

Boris Said was second and just 0.099 seconds off Edwards’ pole time. Said drives Marsh Racing’s No. 31 Corvette with Eric Curran.

Edwards and Liddell sit third in the GT drivers’ standings but are just three points out of first. Stevenson Motorsports holds the same position and interval in the team championship.

“This is an ideal start to a critical championship weekend at Laguna Seca,” said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Program Manager, Rolex Sports Car Series. “Congratulations to Richard Westbrook and everyone at Spirit of Daytona for their work in an incredibly close session that sees Corvette DPs lock out the front row. Likewise, congratulations are in order for John Edwards and Stevenson Motorsports with its Camaro GT.R. If qualifying is any indication, tomorrow’s race is certain to be a thrilling one.”

In qualifying for Sunday’s Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race, Edwards qualified fourth in Stevenson Motorsports’ No. 9 Camaro GS.R. Edwards’ lap of 1:36.645 (83.365 mph) put the Stevenson entry, also driven by Matt Bell, fourth overall and on the GS grid. Edwards was 0.283 seconds off Brandon Davis’ pole-winning time.

RICHARD WESTBROOK, NO. 90 SPIRIT OF DAYTONA CORVETTE DP
“It’s not quite enough to make up for what has been a truly woeful season for us – definitely by our standards. It shows we have a good car and shows we can bounce back off a run of really bad results. Obviously it’s a good track for us but we still have to work very hard at these places. The competition is so much harder this year. It was pretty close out there.”

JOHN EDWARDS, NO. 57 STEVENSON MOTORSPORTS CAMARO GT.R
“This place has been good to me, but it’s never easy. It always seems to be a pretty hard fight. I think we have a really good car — one of the best cars we’ve had all year on new tires. But I think this weekend in GT everyone seems to be struggling with a big difference in time at the end of the stint versus the beginning. We’ve never seen track temperatures this high here in the past couple of years, so it’s really hard on the tires. I think the key is going to be trying to keep the car underneath us and keep it from going loose in the race as the tires get older.
“This race also with our fuel windows and everything opens up more options for strategy than somewhere like Kansas. I think that’s one place where Stevenson excels and also on pit stops, so I’m optimistic about tomorrow. But it’s definitely going to be a tough fight between the Ferraris and the Porsches.”

ARP Racing News

Category Archives: Chevrolet Racing

Chevy Racing–Corvette Racing at Austin

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Post Qualifying

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Ryan Newman

Chevy Racing–ACO Honoring Corvette Legend Dick Thompson on ALMS/WEC Weekend

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Jimmie Johnson

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Juan Pablo Montoya

Chevy Racing–New Hampshire–Jeff Gordon

Chevy Racing–Kurt Busch Teleconference

Chevy Racing–Chicago–Post Race

Chevy Racing–Chicago–Rain Delay Notes

Chevy Racing–Chicago–Rick Hendrick

Chevy Racing–Geico 400–Jeff Gordon

Chevy Racing–Geico 400–Juan Pablo Montoya

Chevy Racing–Geico 400–Danica Patrick

Chevy Racing–Ryan Newman Announcement

Chevy Racing–Monterey Domination

Richard Childress Racing–Federated Auto Parts 400

Chevy Racing–4 Drivers in the Chase

Chevy Racing–Richmond Post Race

Chevy Racing–Corvette Racing–Monterey

Racer News and Results