NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
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TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 14, 2013
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 WIX FILTERS CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT ON LAP 225
ON THE ACCIDENT:
“We just got whacked by a bunch of guys the No. 18 hit me first, the No. 2 hit me next and then I guess it was Kurt (Busch) that went underneath three-wide and by passed the No. 20 come and clipped us and knocked us into the fence and took himself out. That was the best I could tell. I don’t know. I guess the No. 20 had a little influence on it. We kind of were in a bad spot having a little bit older tires. We didn’t have the greatest car, but have to thank Wix’s for jumping on board and sponsoring us. That is not the press we wanted to give them, but just a lot of disrespect from a bunch of guys on restarts. What comes around goes around.”
HAD IT BEEN LIKE THAT MUCH OF THE DAY?
“No, I mean and that was crunch time. You are in the last window there and everybody was pretty much done on fuel and tires at that point. I didn’t expect to get hit, but I remember who hit me.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/SEALY CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT ON LAP 225
ON THE ACCIDENT:
“I just got hit from behind. There was three-wide action, everybody’s going hard and I think they are about ready to get the gear in it so we are going to jump back in the car. (Matt) Kenseth was in the middle and he was in the middle on the back straightaway. The car gets light when there is no air on the rear spoiler back there. I’m going to get back in the car.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 27 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT ON LAP 237
ON THE ACCIDENT:
“It’s good to see it to get the visual on it. What it felt like was either I misjudged the braking or everyone jammed up a little bit. I got sideways trying to slow down so that I didn’t drive up into the back of anyone. I just got sideways and there is nothing you can do. The worst part is that you know obviously I didn’t want to take anybody with me. I feel bad what can I say. We were having a reasonable race and just didn’t mean to do it.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH:
“We struggled terribly today. We were able to make something out of it, but we’ve got a lot of work to do before we come back.”
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED THIRD
ON HIS RACE:
“It was a lot of work. We had a really good car. We thought the CAT Chevrolet was as good as anybody. The No. 78 was better than everybody, but once he had his problems then I think that opened the door for us. Just the cautions didn’t fall quite the way we needed them to, none-the-less we had a good day. I’m proud of everybody. A lot of people have given up on this team and myself, but Caterpillar and Cheerios and Chevrolet and all the people that help us so much they haven’t. We haven’t given up on ourselves either. We are going to keep working. We don’t feel like we are out of this thing. We feel like we know we have an uphill battle, but we feel like we still have a shot at it.”
WHAT DOES A TOP-FIVE LIKE THIS MEAN FOR YOU PERSONALLY?
“Honestly the last two months we have been running solidly in the top 10 really consistently. We just hadn’t gotten the finishes. At Kentucky we ran in the top five a lot and had a problem late. Sonoma we were running eighth and had a problem late and those things just really hurt us. Early in the year if there was a wreck on the race track I got to it as quick as I could. I mean it seemed like every wreck that was out there I was in it. Hopefully that is behind us and now we can focus forward and keep getting better.”
DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD THE FASTEST CAR ON THE TRACK THERE FOR AWHILE?
“We did the No. 78 had the best car. Once he had his problems I thought we were in pretty good shape. The way the cautions feel kind of hurt us a little bit with our strategy. We had a good car. I just used it up trying to get up to them. Then we didn’t have the best car because I had abused it so badly. I had to go, couldn’t wait. On the last restart I thought we were in pretty good shape and if I could have cleared the inside line I think I would have been in really good shape, but Brain (Vickers) just couldn’t get going he had trouble on the restarts spinning his tires. So anyway it was a good day for us.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SIXTH
ON HIS RACE:
“We had a great race car. Once you get to the top 10 that’s a different game trying to pass cars and work your way to the front there. Really the lane that you were in on a restart had a huge impact on how many cars you could pass. A few times I was on the outside and made my way to third and then a few times on the inside and I slipped back. All in all a great day for the Lowe’s team and just very proud of the effort these guys put in week in and week out. We are all going to enjoy this off week and then come back and get ready to go to Indy.”
HOW HARD WAS IT TO PASS TODAY? HOW DID YOU GET AROUND 37 CARS?
“It was tough it wasn’t easy by any means. You had to make quick work of people on the restarts and then we all kind of fell in line.
“You would have to wait for the guy in front of you to bobble and make a mistake. These guys are all pretty good out there. There were not many opportunities to get. We just fought through the day and got our Lowe’s Chevrolet to sixth.”
YOU REALLY PASSED A LOT OF CARS TODAY
“The cautions didn’t work out and we pitted on the second or third caution and cautions didn’t fall right after that for us to take advantage of it, which was fine. We just had to do it the old fashioned way and drive up through there and pass a lot of cars and we were able to get pretty far up there.”
ON THE RESTARTS
“You didn’t have any other opportunity. Once we got single file, you couldn’t complete a pass or really get position on someone. So, restarts were your one and only opportunity to make something happen and everybody was doing what they could.”
YOU HAD A REALLY FAST CAR. DID YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE THAT YOU WOULD HAVE A GOOD RESULT TODAY?
“Again, we had a mistake that we made and that hurt us in qualifying. We knew we had a fast race car. We proved that again on Saturday. And we were very confident coming into today.”
HOW IMPORTANT WAS CLEAN AIR TODAY?
“Well, I never had any. So, I’m not sure (laughs)”
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SIXTH:
“We made the best of a bad situation and that’s all you can do. We wanted to make today a non-issue and I think that’s exactly what we did. We didn’t need to win today, but the most important thing is we didn’t need to lose. And I think we came out of here with a solid run.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON THE DAY
“I am pretty impressed with the team and thank them for hanging in there with me. It was a frustrating day. We just weren’t really good with the car all weekend. We had to fight through. We had track position and we were maintaining that. And the strategies just started getting all over the place and we lost that track position. It was just a real struggle. I just appreciate the team working hard and hanging in there with me and to come back and get a Top 10 is pretty impressive.”
HOW IMPORTANT WAS THE CLEAN AIR?
“At the end, you either had to have much fresher tires or you had to have cl
ean air. And I can thank Paul Menard for the fresh tires. That actually kind of really changed things for us and we were able to pass a bunch of cars that didn’t come in and get tires on that that last run.”
WERE YOU MAD AT MENARD?
“I wasn’t happy. But, none of that is worth it for 20th or 18th or whatever we were racing for. I don’t even know what it was. But it is what it is.”
THERE ARE 7 RACES TO GO BEFORE THE CHASE
“We fought hard for tenth today and that was important to do. I don’t know what it did for us in the points, but I think the reason why, as a team, we were frustrated today is because we tested here and we came here with pretty high hopes as an opportunity to win. And it just never felt like we were in position or had a car that could win today. So, that’s something we’ve got to do a better job of when we get to Indy.”
WILL YOU USE THE OFF-TIME TO CONCENTRATE ON WHAT YOU NEED TO DO?
“We’ll use the off-time to relax. But, you know, this team never stops working and I’ll do whatever it takes with them to prepare for what we need to go and do in these next seven races.”
CAN YOU RELAX?
“I am able to set aside what happens at the race track when I leave the race track. We all go through tough times and frustration and this team has been through it before. It’s not fun. We don’t like it. But, we know what we are as a group and a team and we’ve got to stick together and we are. And we just will continue to do the best that we can. Everybody, no matter whether you’re leading the points or running where we are in the points or 30th in the points, everybody has to take moments to step away and relax a little bit and regroup. And so, this off-weekend will be good for everybody.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 26TH
HOW NERVOUS WERE YOU AT THE END ON FUEL?
“Pretty nervous, I mean it’s hard to calculate how much we are saving on the cautions so thought we were about three quarters of a lap to the good there before that last caution. Obviously didn’t get saved as much as I thought we would.”
WAS BRIAN VICKERS SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THERE AT THE END?
“Yeah, I know if he got by Kyle (Busch) that we were going to be in trouble. He had been able to stalk Kyle for a really long time. It was hard to stay that close to somebody for very long. I knew when he got by that we were in trouble.”