NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BANK OF AMERICA 500
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 11, 2014
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – WINNER
ON THE WIN:
“Everybody on our team has just continued to build better race cars and we know that we’ve had the cars to run up front and lead laps and do the things that we need to do. Things just haven’t gone right and we’ve made some mistakes; things haven’t gone right ore than not. But I just want to thank Budweiser and Jimmy John’s and Sprint and all the fans for everything that they do. Outback and Chevrolet and everybody on this car. This was the night that we needed to win. I don’t want to go to Talladega next week.”
WITH A WIN, YOU’RE GOING ON TO THE NEXT ROUND; HOW MUCH RELIEF IS THAT FOR YOU?
“Oh, we came here and tested thinking that this was going to be the hardest round to get through because of Talladega. There’s so much that you can’t control there. We wanted to try to control the things that we could control. We felt like Kansas and here (Charlotte) were playing to our strengths; and just see where it fell after that once we get to the next round. So I’m really proud of everybody at SHR. I’m really proud of all my guys on this team. I just can’t thank everybody enough.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2ND
ON HIS SECOND PLACE FINISH:
“I’m really proud of that finish and really proud of that effort. Kevin (Harvick) got out there on us after that green flag stop. It looked like we were going to be second. I didn’t want to see another restart, because every time we start on the inside, we seem to lose positions; there at the end, and the whole race. We were just trying to tune to make it better. We got off a little bit and lost some track position. I had some terrible restarts. But there at the end, four tires and good adjustments and good restarts and we were able to get right up in the thick of it. Kevin was tough. I knew when he got out in front it was going to be hard to beat him. But, how about this drama? I’m telling you, this new format has created some serious drama! I’m glad I’m not in it this time. I’m really happy about this second (place finish). It doesn’t make us, by any means, comfortable going into next week, but a lot better than it could be.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S MONOPOLY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHAT HAS BEEN KEY TO YOUR RESURGENCE OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS?
“Well, we’ve actually been good all year. I don’t know that we’ve put the finishes together, but our McDonalds Monopoly Chevy was really good tonight. I looked up at one point and I was in second; and Kyle (Larson) was catching me in third. I give a lot of credit to all the guys in the shop and the engine department and everything that goes into getting our cars here. We struggled in practice but they did a great job of putting the right set-up in it and then adjusting all night long. It was a good night for the whole group.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 6TH
ON HIS NIGHT:
“Finishing sixth is a good finish, but I’m disappointed because I thought I had a good shot at winning. I just got excited trying to catch the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) when he was in the lead and I scraped the wall and messed up the aero and I was really tight after that. That green-white-checkered really helped us out. Still disappointed because I thought we had a good enough Target Chevy to win this race.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
“It was a good rebound for the problems that we had missing the wreck and broken jack. These guys don’t give up, I don’t give up. Just proud to fight back, had some fun, just didn’t have the best car on the short run there at the end when we needed it. To go from where we were with 120 (laps) to go 18th to seventh wasn’t too bad.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 PEPSI CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 10TH
ON HIS 10TH PLACE FINISHED:
“It was better than we ran most of the night. We just struggled. The only way I could get it to turn in the center was to be so loose. Then it would still get tight after 15 laps so we would go slower at that point. So we just tried a lot of things and never really got it going. Tried to stay out there at the end we were seventh and ended up 10th. We kind of finished where we were running the last 60 laps, but it wasn’t a great night for us at all.”
THOUGHTS ON WHERE YOU FINISHED AS FAR AS THE CHASE:
“I mean we are in a spot where we can definitely make it, advance to the next round if we don’t wreck, same as a lot of guys. Talladega will be interesting. I think there will probably be a lot of strategies that go on throughout the first three quarters of the race and then there are going to be a lot of guys who just have to race at the end. If you wreck you won’t make the next round, if you don’t wreck you will advance.”
WHAT IS THE CONFIDENCE LEVEL FOR TALLADEGA?
“Well we have good, fast cars for those types of tracks. Results are kind of all over the board, but I would say that is for a lot of people. Sometimes you are in other people’s wrecks there and things like that. I think Talladega is a track I have always liked and look forward to. Sometimes you can’t control everything and that is something that will be the same for all of us at Talladega. It will be interesting how it all works out. It will be a lot of pressure on everyone. It will change throughout the entire race all the way to the checkers.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 STATE WATER HEATERS CHEVROLET SS – 11TH
ON HIS RACE:
“I would call it a really good effort. The lap times were there. We were running second at half-way. As the night progressed, different weaknesses show up. This was a new setup underneath the car. It is tough to know exactly how to dial it in when you are working with a new setup. It was a free-for-all at the end. We were running eighth, we came in for tire and ended up finishing 11th, and so that maybe wasn’t the right call. But all-in-all, it was nice to run up front with the guys, and to show a turn in the right direction from where we had been running.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 SCOTT PRODUCTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
“We started off a little bit off. But I thought we made some good gains on it. Just missing just a little bit. There were a couple of runs that I thought we were really good. Track position was really critical too. I would get stuck behind a car and I just used my tires up behind them. Thought we were going to get a top-10. Made a two-tire call there. Had a good restart and just fought hard. We are making gains. I’m happy with it and stayed on the lead-lap all day. We have to qualifying better. We can’t qualify back there, it makes the race too hard. But we fought hard, and we are making gains. We have to keep working. I think there are little, small things that we are missing instead of big things. Getting better.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 14TH
“We beat ourselves tonight. I had to drive back to pit road twice and that was costly. We had a fast hot rod that could run up front, but those two extra stops for a loose lug nut and a vibration prevented us from having another top-10 or top-five finish. Considering all that happened tonight we did come away with a decent result but we expected more.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 20TH
“The vibration broke the shifter in half and it just wasn’t a good night. The car just wasn’t handling well and the vibration was really giving us a lot of problems. We had it in practice, but we still couldn’t fix it. So, I don’t know.”
ON HIS NIGHT:
“We had a real bad vibration and broke a transmission shifter off. We only had third and fourth gear there and lost a lap trying to get off pit road on a green flag stop. We had a pretty good car; a top-10 car. The vibration issue was causing a lot of balance issues, and grip issues. But, we had a good enough car to run in the top-10. This isn’t what we need to do. I don’t know. We’ve had some phantom vibrations throughout the year and not really had those until the last year and a half, or two years. So it is hard to say.”
ANOTHER TOUGH NIGHT, SO NOW ON TO TALLADEGA. WHAT’S TALLADEGA MEAN NOW?
“Go out there and win it. We can do it; we have won there a lot of time. I know what we need to do. We will just have to build a fast car and hope that we don’t have any gremlins and try to go out there and win it. We had a lot of gremlins tonight. We had a good car in practice and we never could get a change to show it. The vibration just tore the car all apart. Broke the shifter and made the car handle real bad.
“We did have a pretty good car all weekend; we were running okay there in the race. I think we could have easily finished in the top-10. The shifter slam broke it half. I mean it is steel, it shouldn’t be breaking, but the vibration was that bad.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 SCHROCK/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – EXPERIENCED AN ENGINE FAILURE ON LAP 136
WHAT PUT YOU IN THE GARAGE HERE EARLY TONIGHT?
“Something with the motor. I had a really good car. It’s too bad, awesome car, we had a pit stop problem and went to the back, but drove our way back up into the top 15 or so. We definitely had a top five car, just unfortunate. Something let go in the motor.”
DID YOU HAVE ANY WARNING AT ALL?
“A little bit. It vibrated for a while and then the vibration got better and that is never good when the vibration goes away. It got better for like 10-15 laps and then it just locked up off of (turn) two.”