NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS 400
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 9, 2015
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
AFTER QUALIFYING YESTERDAY YOU WERE SO FRUSTRATED, YET YOU KEPT YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME. YOU HAD THE BEST SAVE OF THE NIGHT HOW DO YOU STAY SO FOCUSED?
“I think experience helps. You just shrug it off. We are trying so hard to get our qualifying under control. We put a huge effort into it again. To be 19th was just … really stunk it wasn’t any fun. These guys just work so hard. I’m so proud of everybody at Lowe’s, KOBALT, Chevrolet, Valvoline, Gatorade, the fans, Sprint for this great series. Just a long hard night of racing and fighting for track position, once we got up front we were able to hang on the final eight or nine laps.”
YOU MENTIONED ON THE RADIO HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO YOUR WIFE. HOW MUCH ARE YOUR GIRLS GOING TO LOVE THAT SPONGEBOB TROPHY?
“Yeah, that trophy is going to be popular at home. I just want to wish Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s out there. My mother and especially my wife Chani, hopefully she is still awake. I wish she was here. I wish my girls were here too, but be home tonight and we will have some fun tomorrow.”
TALK ABOUT THE CALL TO STAY OUT:
“I could tell he (Chad Knaus) was having a hard time making the decision. I’m kind of running through the events in my mind. We have two wins, we are locked in the Chase, and we are here to win a race, let’s gamble. Let’s go for it. Sure enough it paid off. A few more laps I think the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) would have had me. He was awfully strong. Obviously being on right side tires would have been an advantage for him. We had just enough time to get this Lowe’s Chevrolet to Victory Lane. Just very proud of the team and the effort that has gone into it. We have great racecars. I wish we would qualify a little better on Friday’s that would make life a lot easier for us. We have a very fast racecar. I’m very proud of this race team.”
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU NEARLY SPUN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE?
“I guess the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) got close behind me and just him being that close took the air off my spoiler and the car just turned sideways. I felt like I was fine catching it, but a lot of times you will over correct and turn it back into the outside wall. Somehow I didn’t do that, so I was very happy to have my dirt background and keep that thing straight and going in the right direction.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S/BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
GREAT SHOT TO TRY TO MAKE A RUN AT THE WIN JUST NOT ENOUGH TIME?
“Yeah, just really proud of our Jimmy John’s guys they did a great job tonight. We made some huge adjustments on this thing under that last green flag pit stop. And we were able to make the car a lot better. Just in a bad spot leading the race there. I mean the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) and No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) those guys didn’t have anything for us on speed. They were just doing what they had to do on track position wise. And then move all over the racetrack to try to get the air off your car. The good news is we have a lot of speed in our car. We took an ill handling racecar and made it into a good car. I’m just really proud of all my guys.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHAT A RECOVERY FOR YOUR TEAM:
“Yeah, we had some good adjustments. We were in big trouble when the race started. We had some real good adjustments that got the car flying. I know I’m going to get asked about the Denny Hamlin deal. We were four-wide there and I thought I was where I was supposed to be. But there was not enough room for two cars on the outside of me. My fault, everyone else’s fault I think. I hate it for Denny because it ruined his car and ruined his night. The No. 41 (Kurt Busch) kind of got me tight off the bottom and then went four-wide. I was sitting there with the No. 41 there and them guys were coming off the wall and ran into us. It was just a mess.”
A GREAT RESTART TOO:
“We had a few, yeah, I mean I watched that No. 42 (Kyle Larson) I was like ‘I know he’s going to do something I’m going to just do what he does’. Larson will hang it out there. We went up there and me, him, the No. 22 (Joey Logano) and a couple of guys passed like 10 cars in a couple of laps. We had a couple of great restarts. It was a lot of fun. If you had to restart on the outside… I’m proud of Jimmie (Johnson) and he did a great job. I was real jealous of that lane he had. I think I could have done a better job than he did with it on that first lap. I couldn’t believe we still hung with him coming back with five to go or whatever. I thought he would have took off with that outside groove. I sure was jealous where he was restarting. Congratulations to him, the 48/88 shop, all the guys they did a great job. We thought we had a good car and we about screwed it up. We finally figured it out and all the guys back home gave us the tools to get it done.”
WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED AT THE END?
“I needed the outside. He (Jimmie Johnson) had the best line. We hung with him for a lap, but I knew it was going to be real hard to pass him on the bottom. The top was just so fast on restarts especially, good job by the No. 48 guys. They really have been working hard all year. We are working real well together and winning some races. Looking forward to the next one.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AMERICAN RED CROSS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 4th
ON THE RACE:
“It was a really solid top-five finish there. I’m really proud of that. That was not easy. Track position meant so much and we had it and then we lost it and it was nice to get it back there at the end and get a decent restart and finish fourth.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8th
“The Haas Automation Chevy had its fast moments and then it had its loose moments. We hung onto it most of the night with making her pretty wide on the front straightaway and in the corners. Eighth place is good. It’s something to build on. When we come back here in the Chase, it’s great to have these notes and to go from this point forward. We could contend early and then when the pace picked up, we got too loose. So we’ve got to work on that.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 9TH
IF YOU HAD GOTTEN TIRES COULD YOU HAVE MADE IT BACK TO THE FRONT?
“Well, if we got two tires we would have come out sixth. That would have been a pretty good spot to be in. But you never know how these things are going to play out. I hate fuel mileage racing because of that. I have never ever once in my career come out on the right side of one of these deals with fuel mileage. Just proud of my team and proud of my guys for bringing a fast racecar. Yeah, it is disappointing to run that good all night and finish wherever we did, but at the same time it is nice to run like that. They did a great job all weekend. They did a great job all night. Cole (Pearn, crew chief) got kind of put in a bad spot there at the end. That is the first call he has gotten wrong all year long. I told him to just keep his confidence up because he has done a good job with that all year long. We are going to get one. We just have to keep digging.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1, MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED – 13TH
“We had a really long night. I felt like we had about a 20th place car, so to finish 13th I am somewhat happy with that. We really struggled all weekend. This was a great track for me last year. We ran well in both the spring and fall races, but we struggled all weekend. We just never really had the car where we needed it to be.”
HOW MUCH OF A CHANGE WAS IT AFTER THE RAIN?
“I didn’t think the rain did a whole lot. For us, I thought the biggest challenge was just the new right-side tire they brought. I felt really comfortable with what we had last year and this is the same tire we ran at Vegas and I didn’t like it there either. So, we’ll just have to go work on that and see if we can figure out what we have to do to get the car more comfortable with that tire.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 DILLON’S/SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
YOU HAD A NICE TOP 15 FINISH:
“It’s just a little confusing right now. I’m not sure. We get on each side of it. And then I think at times like maybe we’ve got something and it goes away. We mostly fought loose, which is completely the opposite of what we’ve been fighting the last week. So maybe there are some ideas we tried there that maybe we can learn from and build off of because it definitely at least changed the car for the race today.