NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAMUEL DEEDS 400 AT THE BRICKYARD POWERED BY BIGMACHINERECORDS.COM
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 27, 2013
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 QUICKEN LOANS/THE SMURFS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER:
THAT WAS QUITE A LAP, AND YOU WENT OUT LAST!
“That is the benefit of going out last. You can see, and watch. You have the tracker up there, and you can see where guys are making the most time. I guess I did part of my home work, and the guys definitely did their homework. The Quicken Loans Chevrolet was really good. I don’t know that we caught a cloud or anything. Just a great effort today for Chevrolet, and all the other things we’ve got going on here. Good day for Stewart-Haas Racing.”
ON BEING A HOOSIER AND WINNING POLE AT INDY:
“I’ll admit I was emotional. For me it special because it is the Brickyard, and I hadn’t won a pole her before even though I have won so many poles. It’s been so long since I won a pole, people ask me if I ran out of fuel for the rockets. That type of thing. So this is special to me for a lot of reasons; being home here in Indiana; being at the Brickyard; being so long since I won a pole. Hopefully we can turn it into a good day tomorrow.”
YOU GET THAT FIRST PIT BOX:
“It is really big here. This pit road can lose you a race pretty quick. It is long, the boxes are long, but it is narrow. So that is to our advantage.”
WAS THIS SURPRISING TO YOU? “I knew we had a shot at it. I didn’t know what we were going to end up with. I felt like I had a shot at it after practice; we had a good run after practice. Had a little bit of practice. You just never know here if you are going to catch a cloud here or anything. But I don’t think we did. Great run for our Quicken Loans Chevrolet. We have two Chevrolet’s on the front row. See if we can’t turn it into a good day tomorrow.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2nd
ON HIS LAP:
“That was a good lap. You always look back on things and wish you could have another shot at it, but very strong lap. I backed up what I ran in practice and that seems to be the trend out there right now. I would certainly like to hold on for the pole, but there is a group of really fast cars coming later in the session.”
HOW MUCH WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO GET A FIFTH WIN AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY?
“It is just indescribable. In the company I am right now with Jeff Gordon and Rick Mears as a four-time winner is beyond my wildest dreams. I have grown up watching many races here like all motorsports fans do. Always dreamed about racing here and had a chance to come out here and be a part of it all. I would be on cloud nine. It’s hard to find words for it. I haven’t really thought about it too much. If I am in that moment I will probably have a better answer for you. This is a very special race track and I’m very proud of the four wins I have here.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING “This was a pretty good lap for us. We didn’t know how much the track was going lose grip with the sun in the middle of day. We made adjustments between the Happy Hour session and qualifying, and I am really happy with it. I feel like we have a car we can race with tomorrow. So far, so good. I am really, really happy with the changes that Steve Addington (crew chief) and our guys made between Happy Hour and qualifying. It gives us a good idea what we need to do for the race because that is exactly what we working on during practice. I think we have a pretty good shot at this thing tomorrow. There’s about 10 really good cars right now in the field. I feel like we are right there in the hunt. We just have to put the whole day together tomorrow.”
DO YOU SLEEP BETTER TONIGHT AFTER SUCH A SOLID EFFORT?
“This is one of those tracks where track position is important, but it’s not absolutely everything. You have got to have a car you can race with. If you can get it to qualify well normally it will race well too. Just having a car that is balanced is the biggest thing.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/BEAUTYREST CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 6th:
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“Real slimy in (turns) one and two I didn’t hit it right. Just disappointed I didn’t deliver for my guys. Really I hate dropping speed from my run in practice to the actual run, which we knew we would drop a little bit we dropped way too much. I feel bad I left a lot on the table and didn’t deliver for my guys.”
HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT BE TO TAKE THESE GUYS TO VICTORY LANE HERE TOMORROW?
“Well that is what we have to do right now is just close the qualifying book and move into the race and run a smart 400 miles. Our pit selection should be okay, we won’t have the greatest and we will just work on it from there. I just feel bad I didn’t deliver for these guys right now at this moment.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 1 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 8th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“It was okay. Our car didn’t drive as good as practice. We kind of missed it there a little bit. I think more the track changed. When we finished practice we were pretty happy with the car. We didn’t touch it for qualifying. Our Target Chevy for some reason just changed a lot. I think I have a good race pace, it’s just hoping a little better.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15th:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Well, we would have liked to run a little bit better than that. The guys did a good job They made a lot of changes during practice. It was a decent lap. It will probably be in the Top 20. We just struggled all day in qualifying trim and the guys made some good changes.”
IT SEEMS LIKE YOU RACE PRETTY WELL HERE:
“Yeah, we like the speed in race trim. We’ll have to go back to the hauler and talk a lot about the things we can do. It’s always good to be here in Indianapolis.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7th:
ON HIS LAP
“It was pretty good. Our Great Clips Chevrolet is fast. We should be in the hunt tomorrow. I would have liked to qualify a little better than that, but that’s all we had.”
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS ALWAYS RUNS WELL HERE. IS THAT ENCOURAGING AS YOU HEAD INTO THIS RACE TOMORROW?
“It’s definitely encouraging to be driving the No. 5 car and know you have a great engine and a great car. There is so much that goes into all that. The guys do an awesome job of that. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think we’ll hopefully stay in the hunt throughout the race and make the right decisions and be there in the end.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 33rd:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING FOR YOUR FIRST SPRINT CUP RACE
“Well, it was consistent the whole lap. In our practice and qualifying runs it was pretty decent and then we’d get really tight off of Turn 4, which is a tough problem to fix because you’re looking for some odd issue that’s making it really tight on the last corner. So the positive side is that it was consistent the whole way around the track. It was just consistently tight. So, I just couldn’t really carry the speed I needed through the center, especially getting flat off.”
TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THE TRACK HAS CHANGED SINCE THIS MORNING
“I’m not as experienced and good as the other guys around here to know what that very small difference is, but it definitely feels a little bit warmer. It just felt tighter. Unfortunately it’s not the 500. You don’t come here and have days and days and days of practice. You have a few hours. So, we’ll work on it and we’ll come back stronger next year.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24
PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 9th:
ON HIS RUN:
“We didn’t get the best of luck there on the clouds. We needed that to compete with Jimmie but it’s all about a good lap. We would have liked to back up what we ran in practice. We would be up there a little bit further, but the car felt great. So I’m real happy with the speed and balance of the car. I got a little greedy in Turn 4 and the car pushed and I lost some time. If any corner you don’t want to mess up, it’s one leading to these long straightaways. So, that was a little unfortunate, but still all-in-all, hopefully we end up in the Top 10.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RACE?
“Well, we worked on our race set-up a lot; all day yesterday and most of today. And I thought we’d made some really great gains there. I love racing here because it’s such a challenge. You have four corners to set people up to run different lines and to do different things to try to make passes. And track position is key. We know that.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 33 MYCOGEN SEEDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 20th
WAS IT KIND OF LIKE DRIVING A TRUCK ON DIRT?
“No, a long way from there. It’s all the grip in the world here and just fighting a little tight right there, but we just had to get in this race. We didn’t have points and I think that (lap) should be good enough. Little nervous that first lap because it’s always tough to come out and qualify for the first Brickyard. I am happy with that so we will go and see what we can do in the race.”
YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF THIS PLACE AND IT IS SPECIAL
“It is special so it’s going to be an honor to start the first one with Mycogen Seeds on the side of the car.”
