NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 1, 2016
KASEY KAHNE PAVES THE WAY IN QUALIFYING FOR CHEVROLET AT MARTINSVILLE
Five Chevy SS Race Cars Qualify in Top Six
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 1, 2016) – Kasey Kahne led the way for Team Chevy in knock-out style qualifying for the STP 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway with a lap of 19.515 seconds, 97.033 mph in his No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet SS. With his solid run, Kahne will start on the outside front row in the 40-car field for Sunday’s 500-lap event at the 0.526-mile paper-clipped shaped venue. This marks his second top-10 start of 2016 and ninth in 25 races at Martinsville Speedway.
“This Great Clips Chevrolet was really fast,” said Kahne. “The guys did a nice job in practice and in qualifying. I just kept getting better with my laps. We didn’t make any adjustments. The car is fine. I feel good about the car and we just need to work through it tomorrow in practice and get it driving the best we can for long runs.”
Brian Vickers qualified third in the No. 14 Janssen Arnie’s Army Charitable Foundation Chevrolet SS and posted his fourth top-10 start at Martinsville Speedway. This was also his first top-10 start in four races this season as the interim driver for Tony Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing.
Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teammates Paul Menard and Ryan Newman qualified 4th and 5th in the No. 27 Libman/Menards Chevy SS and the No. 31 Grainger Chevrolet SS, respectively.
AJ Allmendinger was sixth fastest in his No. 47 Kroger/Butterfinger/Coffee-mate Chevrolet SS, giving Team Chevy five of the top-six starting positions.
Chase Elliott was the top-qualifying Rookie-of-the-Year contender with a strong 10th place run in his No. 24 3M Chevy SS.
Joey Logano (Ford) was the pole winner.
The STP 500 gets underway at 1 pm EST on Sunday April 3. Live coverage will be available on FoxSports1, MRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 GREAT CLIPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
ON STARTING ON THE OUTSIDE POLE:
“That was really good to get quicker each round. Each round we gained speed, I gained speed driving and that was the key. I think coming up here today my main goal was to qualify and to figure out how to get that best pit stall that we can. That means a lot on Sunday. Pit road in and out is a huge part of starting position each run, especially under the cautions. It is a big part of our weekend getting up there and now we just have tomorrow to work on the car some more. They gave me a great Great Clips Chevrolet. I’m glad that we were able to get really close to first. Ended up second, but we were really close.”
WHAT KIND OF MOMENTUM BOOST DOES THIS GIVE YOU GOING INTO THE REST OF THE WEEKEND?
“I think it gives me a lot of momentum. It gives us some confidence that we can go fast running as a single car. Usually it seems like the longer the races go here I have cars to judge off of. I run much better laps and my speed gets better throughout a race rather than practice and qualifying. I feel good about that. I know the team will be ready. My pit crew is as good as anything here. I’m looking forward to giving them a good stall and having great stops on Sunday which is a big part of this race.”
HOW AGONIZING IS IT TO HAVE BEEN SO CLOSE TO THE POLE? DOES THAT MAKE YOU SECOND GUESS SOMETHING YOU DID OUT THERE?
“Not really. I knew my second lap was decent, but not good enough. I got a little more on entry to both corners the third lap and used my exit up. So as soon as I crossed the line I knew that was my best lap and I was coming in regardless. On my dash it said 19.510, so I was like ‘man that might be the pole’, but it really was .515 or whatever so it was a little off Joey (Logano, pole sitter), but it was really close. That was my best lap. I couldn’t run another one.”
DOES THE DOWNFORCE PACKAGE COME INTO PLAY HERE AT ALL? HOW DO YOU LIKE THE PACKAGE?
“I think it will come into play a little. Anytime you push the throttle hard you give up a little bit of that rear spoiler. I think on a long run, it’s not going to be something that we feel a lot of, but if you add the other one on a long run with old tires I think you would definitely get off the corner a little bit better with what we had last year here. Just be able to have more grip from the rear tires, but it’s not going to change a whole lot at this particular track I don’t think. Some of the other race tracks we have raced at to me the first… every track up to California I could get much closer to the back of a car and still run similar lap times to where I was. I didn’t lose near as much. I didn’t have to try to get as far away from that guy as possible to keep my speed up like I felt last year. California was a little different. It seemed to get tighter the closer we got, which was different than the other tracks, but I guess that is probably just the way that track races or how our car was that day. That is how I felt. Luckily that track is so wide you have plenty of space to go looking for room. I think to this part of the season it has definitely been better, easier to get closer to the car in front of you. You don’t slow down near as much when you are right behind them. I think that is a huge gain from where we were. I definitely like it.”
DID YOU PRACTICE IN RACE TRIM AT ALL TODAY? IF SO WERE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CAR? DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE SPRINT CAR WIN LAST WEEKEND GAVE YOU SOME MUCH NEEDED MOMENTUM?
“I think the car was close in race trim, I could run consistent lap times. They weren’t as quick as, I think I saw (Kyle) Larson was faster like consecutive laps and there might have been another car there. I thought I was comparable to (Kevin) Harvick and a few guys. Friday, super clean, grippy race track really means nothing compared to Sunday in race trim. But, I felt comfortable and felt like we had consistent speed. We need to work on that a lot more tomorrow and then the track changes a good bit for Sunday so everything is different then. I thought our car handled nicely. Last weekend’s win was a blast for me. I was glad I went and raced. That is what I wanted to do on Easter weekend was race a sprint car and I did it and we ended up winning a race. It felt really good.”
HOW NICE IS IT TO FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE SOME SPEED IN THE CAR? THE FACT THAT YOU QUALIFY WELL AFTER A SPRINT CAR RACE DOES THAT MEAN YOU CAN CONVINCE RICK (HENDRICK) TO LET YOU DO MORE?
“No, I think the sprint car races are going to be on the off weekends, like what Mr. H said just don’t let it interfere with what we’ve got going on on the Cup side. I don’t want it to interfere with that, but I enjoy doing that stuff once in a while. It was good. I will do a little bit more throughout the season when there is time and that will be it. I felt good about last weekend. I feel good about today. There were times at California Speedway, we had a flat right-rear so we got a lap behind changing that tire under green and it was a super hard fight to get back to where we wanted to be. I felt we were a fifth to 10th place car on lap times throughout the majority of that race. It just wasn’t our day, but I don’t think we are that far off. We just need to keep working together as a team complimenting each other and pushing each other and having each other’s backs. If we do that we are going to get much better.”
YOU WERE ON THE FRONT ROW A FEW TIMES LAST YEAR. IT’S NOT BEEN THAT LONG AGO THAT YOU QUALIFIED WELL. HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE IS IT QUALIFYING ON THE FRONT ROW AS OPPOSED TO BEING SAY IN THE TOP 10?
“I think it’s a big difference. I think that one thing is this year I think our speed is a little better than last year in qualifying. I feel like we have been eighth to 12th probably on the majority of the races. I mean some crazy stuff happened at some of them and we didn’t get those results, but I think we have been kind of an eighth to 12th-place car which is better than last year, but when you are in the front two rows that is a big difference from qualifying around 12th in my opinion. A big difference with what you feel about your car, what you think about your car and also what the guys think about it. I think a front row starting spot shows that our car is plenty capable it is just up to what we do tomorrow and our communication and then what we do on Sunday.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES WITH THE BRAKES?
“My brakes were really good. That is something that changes a lot. There are a lot of little changes that you have with brakes each race. At Martinsville they have to be really solid to work with them here. You have front and rear brake and some adjustments there as a driver, but I was really comfortable with my brakes. I locked my left-front a little bit in practice on my second to last lap and so we adjusted accordingly for that. I was fine in qualifying.”