TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
GO BOWLING 400
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS
MAY 13, 2017
BOWTIE BULLETS
CHEVROLET PERFORMANCE:
Chevrolet leads all other manufacturers with 11 victories at Kansas Speedway. Five different drivers have piloted their Chevrolet race cars to Winner’s Circle at the 1.5-mile track.
FAST START:
Despite off-season changes, the Chevrolet SS is off to a fast start in 2017 with four wins in the first 10 races of the year. Since its debut 2013, the Chevy SS has only had more wins through the first 10 races of the season in 2015 when the brand recorded six victories prior to entering Round 11.
CHEVY HISTORY MINUTE:
Did you know Chevrolet’s Jeff Gordon won the inaugural race at Kansas Speedway on September 30, 2001? Chevrolet is also the most recent winner at Kansas earning the victory in last fall’s race.
CHEVY PILOTS SOAR TO VICTORY AT KANSAS
Career-long Chevrolet drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson lead all drivers in wins at Kansas Speedway with three each to their credit.
POLE MEN:
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kasey Kahne are two of three drivers to have earned three pole awards at Kansas, which is the most, currently, of any other drivers. The Chevrolet SS also holds the track qualifying record of 197.733 mph set on October 3, 2014.
TUNE-IN:
The Go Bowling 400 is scheduled to begin on Saturday, May 13 at 7:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on FoxSports1, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
BY THE NUMBERS:
Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships
Team Chevy drivers have scored 769 wins and 690 poles in MENCS competition
Chevrolet drivers have won 11 of 22 races at Kansas Speedway. Victories by current Team Chevy drivers are:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, has three victories at Kansas Speedway (’08, ’11 & ‘15)
Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS, has visited Victory Lane at Kansas Speedway once (’03)
A Chevrolet driver has won two of the last four races at Kansas Speedway
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Kansas Speedway 10 times
Team Chevy drivers have scored 50 top-five and 102 top-10 finishes at Kansas Speedway
A Chevrolet has led laps 2,162 (41.0% of possible 5,290 laps) at Kansas Speedway
FOR THE FANS:
Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Midway at Kansas Speedway
Fans can check out great a great assortment of Chevrolet vehicles including: lmpala, Cruze, Malibu, Camaro, Corvette, Equinox, Traverse, Colorado, Silverado 1500 All-Star, Silverado 1500 Special Ops, Silverado 2500 High Country and Tahoe
At the Chevrolet Display, fans can view the No, 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, No. 3 DOW Chevrolet SS and No. 7 Brandt Chevrolet Camaro Xfinity Series show cars
Also on display is a Chevrolet R07 racing engine complete with electronic fuel injection. Fans can also see a sample of engines, parts and accessories available for purchase from Chevrolet Performance at their local Chevrolet dealer
Other activities at the Team Chevy Racing Display include a variety of interactive games for adults and kids
TEAM CHEVY QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS AT THE DISPLAY:
Friday, May 12th
Noon – Kaz Grala
1:00 p.m. – Stewart Friesen
Saturday, May 6th
3:10 p.m. – Jamie McMurray
3:45 p.m. – Ryan Newman
Chevrolet Display Hours of operation: Fri. May 12th – 10:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. and Sat. May 13th – 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – POINTS LEADER
“Glad we survived Talladega and came away with a decent finish and were able to gain some in the points. After a few short tracks and a superspeedway, the last few weeks, I’m looking forward to getting back on an intermediate track this weekend at Kansas. Our Chevy’s have handled really good at the mile-and-a-half tracks, and we’ve shown some good speed at those places too. We just need to focus on having a good qualifying effort and staying up front on Saturday. Our consistency this year and scoring stage points in every race has been key to a good start, so just need to keep those up this weekend.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – 4TH IN STANDINGS
ON HIS SEASON THUS FAR:
“I feel like we fired off really well with the way we ran at Daytona and Atlanta. I thought our West Coast swing was pretty strong. I feel like over the past few weeks we really haven’t performed up to our potential. As a group, I think anybody in our group would feel the same way. We’ve had some fast cars at times. But, we definitely need to execute races; even on the days that your car is not driving like you want it to. That execution and doing everything correctly on pit road, restarts, giving the right information, can turn a bad day into a pretty good day. So, that’s what we need to do. And we’ll try to make that happen.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S $1 ANY SIZE SOFT DRINK CHEVROLET SS – 5TH IN STANDINGS
“I am looking forward to heading to Kansas this weekend. We had a great finish and survived Talladega in addition to gaining some ground in the point standings. We have had fast cars at all of the mile-and-half tracks so far this season, so I expect the same for our McDonald’s Chevy this weekend. It will be fun to race under the lights on Saturday night and then enjoy a Mother’s Day at home with the family on Sunday. Although I don’t have family in the area any longer, this is close to where I grew up and I usually see some old friends, it’s nice to catch up and see some familiar faces.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – 8TH IN STANDINGS
“Kansas is a pretty intense track. Last fall we were all over that racetrack, driving with some crazy intensity. I don’t think it’s going to change any going back this weekend. I know we have a different downforce package this time but we will use that entire racetrack and hopefully the Lowe’s team will put on a good show for the fans.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – 14TH IN STANDINGS
“The key to being successful at Kansas is all about carrying good corner speed because it seems like even with the front straightaway being so round and the transition getting into Turn 1, you need to be able to keep the car in that arc. You also need good horsepower and the ability to move around when you can. The track has continually gotten better each time we’ve gone back there since it was repaved a few years ago.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – 18TH IN STANDINGS
“We’ve run well in the past at the tracks like Kansas coming up. It’s a matter of putting everything together throughout the whole weekend. I’m confident that we’ll run well at Kansas and the upcoming mile-and-a-half tracks.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 TWISTED TEA CHEVROLET SS – 22ND IN STANDINGS
“I think night racing is cool. I enjoy running under the lights. I am definitely looking forward to getting our No. 13 Twisted Tea Chevrolet on track at Kansas for Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400. I don’t know if Kansas Speedway has gained more grip with time, but I think the groove has widened out. You can run top to bottom and that makes it a lot of fun. I look forward to going back to Kansas with another year of weather on the track to see what we can do there.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – 23RD IN STANDINGS
“Man, I love Kansas. I had a really good run there two years ago and we blew a right-front tire. It’s fun you can ride up by the fence or right on the bottom. Everybody kind of moves around there quite a bit, it’s a fun, fast track.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 FVP/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – 24TH IN STANDINGS
“Since it’s a night race, it’s even faster than when we race during the day. I enjoy night racing. I think it adds another level of excitement for the fans. You can see flames from the exhaust and sparks from under the car which makes it cool to watch. The only downside is we have to wait all day for the race and there really isn’t much to do. You do start to get a little antsy for race time. I enjoy it, but I’ll be there ready to go whether it’s Sunday afternoon or Saturday night.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW-S-A CHEVROLET SS – 25TH IN STANDINGS
“Kansas is a great racetrack for me. That place has widened out pretty good and you can run against the fence there, which is a line that I like to run. It’s a very fast racetrack and very smooth – a lot of fun, so we should have a good time.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – 26TH IN STANDINGS
ON THE AGING OF THE KANSAS SPEEDWAY TRACK SURFACE:
“I probably can’t give you a really good answer there. I ran it two years ago on the Xfinity side and then last year on the Cup side and obviously, it was a lot different with as much as we were out of the throttle and everything there. I do remember the Xfinity cars being wide-open for about five laps at the beginning of a run. Talking with Ryan Reed last year it sounds like it wasn’t quite to that point. It did age some. For the Cup side, I think it felt like it had less grip, but obviously two different cars. We will see. The surface is really smooth at Kansas. There are very smooth transitions into the banking. The surface has not picked up a lot of bumps. It’s very fast. So, it’s a place where we can definitely go and try and seal the cars off and get some speed out of them. We’ll see how we can compare it to last year. I think it is aging. It’s just hard for me to tell you really how much.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 DILLONS CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – 29TH IN STANDINGS
“The toughest thing at Kansas is really the degree of banking. In Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4, I think they say it’s the same, but both ends of the racetrack drive a lot different. Turns 1 and 2 to me always feels a lot faster. So, as you drive off in it, especially with the aero-package this year, you are going to feel real loose getting into the corner. There’s not as much banking that feels like it grabs the race car. The way you kind of enter Turn 1 is a little bit different than Turn 3. Turn 3 and 4 to me is more of your usual kind of banking feel like a Charlotte Motor Speedway or Texas Motor Speedway – – old Texas at least. Both ends of the racetrack drive a lot different. Qualifying both ends are fast, but their definitely different ends when it comes to figuring out how to get around that place.”
MICHAEL MCDOWELL, NO. 95 CHEVROLET SS – 32ND IN STANDINGS
“In Kansas, we are going to take the same package we thought worked really well in Texas. Both tracks are smooth and have new asphalt. Obviously, Kansas has a few years on it now since it was repaved, but it’s very similar to Texas as far as ride and all that goes. We were super good in Texas and had a lot of speed. We feel really good about our mile and a half package, which has really been our weak link and a struggle for us up until this year.”