Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Winner Quotes McDowell on his pole-winning lap: “For qualifying at Talladega (Superspeedway), there’s not a whole lot the driver does but try not to make any mistakes. But more than anything, I talked about it before I went out there, Daytona got rained out for qualifying and we were looking forward to seeing where our car was at and if we’ve made any gains from the first-two superspeedway races. We didn’t really know where we’re at today, just because we didn’t have that baseline at Daytona. But yeah, really proud of the effort from everybody at Spyro Motorsports. We’ve worked really hard to find some speed, and everybody at the Hendrick Engine Shop, as well, just trying to catch-up on these superspeedway’s. Having a fast car is important. Being able to lead lanes and control lanes, you have to have speed to do that, so the pole is awesome. But more importantly, just knowing you got a fast car going into the race tomorrow.”
What was the difference between your two laps? You had a pretty dramatic improvement from the first to the second…“Yeah, without giving away too much, our first lap was good. We felt like we probably had a little bit more room to get a bit more speed out of it with some adjustments, and we were able to do that. A lot of times, you sort of nail it that first time and you’re afraid to do too much more because you can make it worse. We felt like we had a little bit more room to go, which is a chance because without practice, you just don’t know what’s too much. But we knew that we were close. Like anytime you’re in that top-five or six, you’re close. So for us, we are about a tenth off of the best car and we felt like if we left it the same, we’re weren’t going to have a shot, so we might as well go a little bit and see if we can gain some more.” Do you have a car that can do everything you need to do to keep the lead? I“I hope so. I’ll tell you tomorrow. We’ve talked about that a little bit before. For me, I’ve sat on a lot of these poles now, and I don’t feel like it’s taken away from my car’s ability to race. I haven’t felt like I’ve been at that compromise cross-point yet, so I hope so. You don’t know until you know. Even though I haven’t had the results here the last couple years, I’ve been really close to getting to the checkered flag. I’ve led coming to the white flag a few times. And so yeah, I think that it hasn’t hurt my ability to move and make moves and take a push and be pushed. But you know, that’s the first time I’ve been in the No. 71, in a Chevy and in this spot, so I’ll learn a lot more tomorrow. But I felt like our speed at Daytona was good and our cars took pushes, pushed well and raced well, so I’m not nervous going into it at all now.” There are not many Chevrolet’s up toward the front. You have Kyle Busch behind you. I’m guessing he’ll start right behind you, so how much have you worked with Kyle in this type of racing? How do you maybe make that work to keep you guys controlling the lane, at least?“Yeah, for sure. Both of us have been doing it a long time, so I’ve worked with Kyle a lot. On superspeedway’s, more than anything, you just build trust of knowing how aggressive to be; when to be aggressive, when to take those big pushes and when not to. You sort of build that rhythm on-track with the handling that you have that day. There is some chemistry between drivers, for sure. But I’ve worked with Kyle before and he’s got a really fast car, as well. I sort of thought that he was going to be the one that could beat us there as he went out, just because he’s a bit quicker. I felt like we hit it well where the wind was changing quite a bit in the qualifying session and the sun was coming a little bit in and out. It’s not a huge deal here, but the wind is a big deal. I felt like he was probably the closest condition-to-condition. We were just able to pick up a little bit more that last run. Obviously, we’ll have two fast Chevy’s up there, but it won’t be long. Everything cycles around. As you guys know, there’s an element of fuel mileage and getting into your window and getting into the right lap window that you want to be in. So eventually, we’re going to be all bunched together three and four wide, and you’ll be close to your neighbors and your friends. So yeah, I think that more than anything, it’s just trying to keep the control early on and get through that first cycle and have the control going into the end of the first stage.” |
Chevrolet’s statistics heading into the 34th NASCAR Cup Series race of the season: