NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GOOD SAM 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 11, 2016
CHEVROLET QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
· Kurt Busch leads Team Chevy in qualifying with a fourth-place effort
· Four Chevrolet SS drivers advanced to the final round of knock-out qualifying and will start Sunday’s race as follows:
o Kurt Busch, No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevrolet SS – 4th
o Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet SS – 5th
o Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS – 7th
o Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS – 11th
· Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne experienced issues during qualifying. Johnson will go to a back-up car. Kahne had engine issues and will replace the engine and start from the rear of the field.
· Chevrolet SS is the most successful manufactuer at Phoenix International Raceway with 21 victories
· Chevrolet has won the last five consecutive races at the 1.0-mile track
· Kyle Busch (Toyota), Carl Edwards (Toyota) and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) will start first, second and third respectively, rounding out the top five starters
· The Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET onSunday March 13. Live coverage will be available on FOX, MRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 4th
“I felt like we managed qualifying fairly well. It wasn’t like we could attack the track though. In practice I hit one lap perfect and I told the guys ‘it’s going to be hard to duplicate that lap tonight. Let’s make sure we tighten her up a little bit.’ And the fast lap that put us fourth overall we were a fuzz on the loose side. We are doing a good job reading and communicating with each other and understanding the lower downforce is going to be tougher in qualifying.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S PRO SERVICES CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 5th
Hit the wall hard in Turn 2 during final round of Qualifying. He will go to a back-up car for Sunday’s race, and start at the rear of the field.
CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH WHAT TOOK PLACE AND WHAT YOU THINK HAPPENED?
“I don’t know for sure. That’s why we have to go back to the truck and talk about things. But, certainly, a lot of straight in an area of the track that I didn’t need to have straight. So, we’ll have to get to the bottom of it and see what went on. But, just a really hard impact to the outside wall. I’m thankful that we have Safer Barriers and soft walls. I’m very disappointed because we had a very fast race car and the guys have been working so hard to get this thing tuned-up. Thankfully, we have tomorrow to work on the back-up car and try to get it up-to-speed and get it going, but this is certainly not what we wanted right now.”
IN LOOKING AT THE VIDEO, DOES IT SEEM LIKE SOMETHING MIGHT HAVE GIVEN WAY, AND BROKEN; OR, MAYBE THE CAR JUST GOT AWAY FROM YOU?
“I definitely was driving the car through the center of the corner a little bit, and then it was just a lot of straight. So, until we can look at data and kind of understand what went on; certainly something happened and the car went straight. I just don’t know what caused it at this point.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Not so sure yet. Definitely a hard hit. Unfortunate for the Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet. Very fast race car and I will have to go to a back-up, but I know my team will bring out another great race car for me.”
HOW DOES GOING TO THE BACK-UP CHANGE YOUR AGENDA FOR TOMORROW’S TWO PRACTICES?
“It doesn’t help any that is for sure. You get things scienced out pretty nice on this race car even though its in qualifying trim. Tomorrow we will have to start over and find our travels and heights and all those kinds of things. At least we still have tomorrow, if this was in Happy Hour tomorrow it would be a whole different story. At least we have tomorrow to work on it.”
SOME OF THE BIGGER NAME TEAMS ARE STRUGGLING. DID YOU HAVE A FEELING OF THIS RACE TRACK?
“There is a lot more slipping and sliding here for sure. I don’t know if it’s tire/downforce combination what it really is, but I like the challenge. It’s definitely something we need to make this entertaining.”
DID THAT LEAD INTO WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?
“No, something else went on with my situation it wasn’t because of that.”
WAS IT SOMETHING THAT WAS LEFT OVER FROM THE INDYCARS? THEY WASHED THE TRACK OFF YESTERDAY, DO YOU KNOW?
“No, I’ve heard that philosophy. Usually we wear off whatever rubber is down in 10 or 15 minutes. We got a lot of cars on track, so I don’t think that is it.”
STARTING IN THE BACK WITH A TEAMMATE DOES THAT HELP AT ALL?
“Yeah, not really. Every car around you is somebody you just want to get by and into clean air. It’s almost better when it’s people you don’t know or your teammate so you can be a little bit more selfish. I hate that he is back there. What a weird situation he had as well.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 7th
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“Yeah, it was a weird qualifying session for sure. I had to make a couple of runs there the last qualifying session. I hate that Jimmie Johnson got into the wall, but it helped us because I was able to go faster the next time out. I think seventh a little bit better than what I thought we would be. Happy about that. The track has been a little weird today, really slick, and it doesn’t seem to be tightening up at all. We will have some work to do tomorrow in practice. Confident our Target team will figure it out and we will be decent on race day.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 15th
“We were just real nervous this morning. I think there was some IndyCar rubber still on the track. We were loose the whole time. I don’t know if after all the Xfinity laps and practices I think it tightened the track up. I was a little worried about that. We were just way too tight. I wish we would have maybe approached it a little different, but I was pretty worried about it after practice and we were still pretty fast. Looking back maybe just not as big of a delta going into qualifying. All the temperature drop and rubber getting picked up, a lot of excuses for us, but we didn’t do our job. Fifteenth is good enough, we can win from there.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 18th
“We have just been off in qualifying every week so far. Just not hitting the balance from practice to qualifying.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 24th
Had completed his run in the first round of Qualifying when the car began to smoke. Kahne was 2nd fast at the time. He will advance, but will not be able to participate in the second Qualifying round.
DID YOU FEEL OR SEE ANYTHING THAT LED TO THAT?
“I got out of the car about when it started smoking, but I shut the car off in Turn 1 after I took the lap, and then in Turn 3 it started smoking a little. And then, I could hear it running. So, I shut everything off, batteries, everything in there. And then I got out and it was still running. It just kept running until I drove away in the ambulance. So, I don’t know. I’m just really confused on what was going on. I have no idea.”
Follow-up Note: The engine likely went into EFI ‘protection mode’ and essentially blew-up. They will get the 24th pick for pit selection, but will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s race because they will go to a back-up engine.
TY DILLON, NO. 14 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CHEVROLET – 28TH
“I was a little loose in, but I was trying to make some time into (Turn) 3 and drove in a little aggressive and it jumped out on me getting in. I tried to save it as good as I can and I think we will definitely be able to fix it, but just hate to step in this thing and tear it up in qualifying like that and not make it to the next round. We will get better tomorrow. Tony (Stewart) has been helping me a lot, Mike (, crew chief) is going to give me a great race car. We will keep working. Just a little off here today in qualifying and glad I didn’t tear it up too much, I had a pretty good opportunity to wipe it out.”