NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA TEXAS 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
NOVEMBER 8, 2015
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
HOW DID YOU DO IT? WAS THERE ANYTHING GOING ON IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND THINKING THIS IS A CHASE GUY AND I’M NOT?
“Maybe when the restart happened I thought about those guys. You get so caught up in the moment and racing with guys. I just like to race guys clean anyway. I kept working on him and working on him. I could see he was tight and his car wasn’t ideal and then he moved up and had the high lane covered. He got real loose off (Turn) 2 and I had a big run off the top and I went for a a big slide job down in (Turns) 3 and 4, kind of like the Eldora stuff that I learned and got the win. Just so excited and happy for Lowe’s, KOBALT, Chevrolet, Valvoline, Gatorade, the fans, want to thank Sprint for sponsoring the sport. Everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports for digging so deep and fighting hard. Nice to get this No. 48 back in Victory Lane.”
TELL US ABOUT THE PASS ON BRAD KESELOWSKI WITH THREE TO GO:
“I just kept pressure on him. I could see that he was really tight and that was the first I had seen him that vulnerable all day. I just kept the pressure on him, kept searching for line. He saw me coming on the top and protected it. I just kept trying to put pressure on him hoping for a mistake. He got real loose off of
Turn 2 and I had a big run down the backstretch and drove it in really far into Turn 3 hoping to hear clear. Once I did I knew I was home free.”
WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR THIS TEAM AFTER BEING KNOCKED OUT OF THE CHASE EARLY?
“Those emotions were weeks ago now, so we have just been focused on winning races and help our teammates advance through the rounds. We got the No. 24 through last week and now it’s time to go out here and not have to worry about teammates and just go for a win and we got it. Just very rewarding for the team, this No. 48 team worked all year to be in championship contention. We clearly don’t have a shot at it (Jeff Gordon comes to Victory Lane to congratulate Jimmie). Just so happy for this team. It’s tough to work so hard all year long and not have a shot at the championship. This is kind of a silver lining in that.”
75 CAREER WINS ONE BEHIND DALE EARNHARDT. WHAT WILL THAT MEAN TO YOU WHEN YOU HAVE TIME TO LET THAT SINK IN? “Wow. That is all there is to it. I forgot about that. So happy to be where we are at. So honored, been so fortunate with great cars, great teammates and look forward to that day to tie such a stud.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd:
“As you look at the things we’ve had. We’ve had really good race cars and that allows us to overcome things like today with two flat tires. Even with the shifter problem we were able to maintain what we had. But all in all, we just kept gouging away and everything worked out in the end.”
WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT GETTING THE BUNGEE ON AND ABOUT THE RESTART?
“I was more worried about it popping out of gear. It hadn’t missed a gear or jammed a gear or anything like that. It shifted smooth all weekend. I was just going along like normal. One lap, all of a sudden, it just pops out of gear in the middle of the straightaway. So, I don’t really know. That’s happened to us several times, so we definitely need to figure that out.”
WAS THERE DEBRIS ON THE TRACK?
“There was debris everywhere. The first caution, they just blew all of the debris down to the inside wall. It seemed like a lot of people were hitting the wall and there was a lot of stuff out there today. It was definitely interesting with all the tire problems.”
WERE YOU AFRAID THERE WAS MORE DAMAGE TO THE CAR AFTER YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NO. 22 CAR?
“I never felt the tire blow apart. It was a real slow deflation as I felt the first one in the middle of the corner; I felt the second one in the middle of the corner too and we were able to get the car down. The only part I was disappointed in is I misplaced which tire it was both times, so what do I know?”
WERE YOU ABLE TO GET THE BUNGEE ON?
“No, I never found anything to hook it to. I don’t trust those bungees anyway. I would rather just sit there and hold it and take my chances.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON’S WIN HELPS YOU OUT WITH THE CHASE, DOESN’T IT?
“It definitely changed a lot in the last few laps. I don’t know what happened between the No. 2 and the No. 78, but the No. 48 wound up beating him there in the end and getting a win and I’m sure the damage didn’t do his car any good. So, all in all, everything changed a ton over the last 20 laps.”
WHAT’S THIS CHASE BEEN LIKE?
“Hectic. Even Charlotte wasn’t 100 percent smooth. The cars have been performing well. We’ve just had to overcome things week after week after week. I guess those are character-building moments as you go through those weekend, but we’ve managed to survive and advance and that’s what we’ve got to do next week.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS. FINISHED 8TH: WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU AND KESELOWSKI? “We just rubbed a little bit there in the tri-oval. No big deal at all. We were both racing hard. Good hard racing-rubbing a little. Rubbing is racing. It was fun. I wish I could have hung with him a little longer, but my right front wheel starting shaking. We had a loose wheel at the end. We were lucky to hang on and get what we did because with five laps to go, the power steering quit working; it broke a fitting or something. One of those weird days where I thought we had a shot at the win. Our car was real fast at the end of the race. Just a loose wheel and the power steering killed us.”
WITH JIMMIE WINNING, NO ONE ELSE IS LOCKED IN SO WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH GOING INTO PHOENIX? “We are in good shape. Certainly we would have like to have finished where we should have today. We should have run top-three and should have had a shot at winning. All-in-all, we didn’t beat ourselves. We are still in it. We will have to go to Phoenix and run hard and put together a really good run.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 AXALTA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 9th:
ON HIS DAY:
“Felt pretty good, top 10, I would have liked to of had a little bit more. We just didn’t have much on the short runs. It was something that we really struggled with today. This place is tricky with the bumps and the speeds that we are running. Something good to build on and work on.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE SOME OF THE KINKS WORKED OUT FOR WHEN YOU GET TO HOMESTEAD? “I thought we learned a lot this weekend. I think we certainly know that our cars are fast because our teammate won. Congrats to him I think that’s awesome he beat the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski). That is spectacular I’m going to give him a big hug for that. At the same time I think that we were here to execute and push hard, try to win, but also to just learn what we could. I thought we learned some stuff.”
ON PHOENIX NEXT WEEK: “We just have to keep performing. I think we showed again what we are made of. We fight hard. We get everything out of it that’s for sure. We got to bring a little bit more to the next couple of races and if we do I will be excited about Homestead. If we can do that next week, but if we can bring it at Homestead I will be excited.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – Finished 7th
ON HIS DAY:
“It was good, hard fought battle with limited practice we had to go with our best effort to get the set-up. We battled through it. It just wasn’t the winning car we needed to try to advance. The way that we had been running we knew we could get close to fifth. We got seventh today so we will take it.”
HOW DID YOU PULL ON YOUR FINISH TODAY: “I think it’s just the strength of this team. We needed to win today, but to finish seventh after all those hurdles we had to jump over it feels good with the Haas Automation Chevy. Everybody worked together to find the right set-up. We pulled packer, added packer, changed every jackbolt, every air pressure and we gave it a good hard fought battle to finish seventh.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES TO ADVANCE TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND AFTER NEXT WEEKEND’S RACE AT PHOENIX? “We’ve got to go there to win. If we would have gotten a good consistent finish last week we would be right in the mix.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CHEVROLET SS – Finished 6th
ON HIS DAY:
“We just think about what would have happened had we not had the drama. I was having too much fun out there and got loose, three-wide after a restart and tagged the wall real good and bent the car up pretty bad and knocked the rear deck lid off of it. We got the chance to fix it and we just had a real fast car. I think we had the best car here. Just can’t hit the wall, but man we were just having fun, running hard. Got to do that every once in a while. I made a mistake today.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 17th
ON HIS DAY:
“I had a good car I just kept trying to destroy it. They did a good job (Brian) Burns (crew chief) and Palmer and my guys and especially Todd (Parrott) coming in and really trying to help make us better these last few races. I’ve always liked this place and we have always been pretty good here. Hopefully, it’s a good start to a really good weekend.”