MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
BRICKYARD 400
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTS
JULY 22, 2017
*TOP TEAM CHEVY QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
3RD JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA/MCDONALD’S CHEVY SS
4TH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVY SS
8TH RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 VELVEETA SHELLS & CHEESE CHEVY SS
13TH DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVY SS
TOP FIVE QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3rd Jamie McMurray (Chevrolet)
4th Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
5th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
The Brickyard 400 is scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 23 at 2:30 pm, ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, PRN/IMS Radio Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING QUOTES:
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA/MCDONALDS CHEVROLET SS:
“Our cars have been so good this year with only having two hour-long practice sessions, you have to hope you unload really close, and they did a really good job. I thought we were one of the best cars in race trim. In qualifying trim, I think we were fourth or fifth in practice. I don’t think we had a shot at the pole. We had a really good lap going at the end, but I don’t know that I had anything for the No. 18 (Kyle Busch).”
ON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIMSELF AND TEAMMATE KYLE LARSON:
“I don’t know what happened to Kyle. I read his comments, but it just seemed like they were really good in race trim, but when they put their car in Q trim, they just didn’t have the speed for some reason, which is odd because they have been so consistent all year long. They don’t have anything a lot different than we do. They just didn’t have good speed in Q trim, but they will be fine in race trim.
“I think we are good in race trim, and shockingly the No. 18 seemed really good in race trim. It’s all the same guys. All the same people are fast. But I thought we had one of the better cars, so if we can have an uneventful race, and have the right track position at the end, we should be good. ”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 4th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT AND HIS THOUGHTS ON HIS STARTING SPOT:
“Yeah, for us, the last couple of weeks our qualifying has greatly improved. I think that is just a sign of all the hard work that Hendrick Motorsports has been putting into our cars. Especially the No. 48 team giving me what I’m looking for. So, excited the Chevy is running that good. That wasn’t a clean lap. We were really, really loose that entire session. So, to scare myself that much and slide the car that much and to still end up fourth, I’m really happy with the raw speed that is in the car.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO.31 VELVEETA SHELLS AND CHEESE CHEVROLET SS:
“It was a good qualifying effort for the Velveeta Chevrolet. Not where we wanted to be, but way better than we have been and kind of par for where we have been the last three, four years for the exception of the time we left the right-side window out. So, look forward to 400 miles tomorrow. I think we have a good race car.”
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 13th
YOU ALMOST MADE IT INTO THAT FINAL ROUND, BUT DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A RACE CAR YOU CAN REALLY WORK WITH TOMORROW?
“Yeah, the car is a little bit better than that. I got tight into (Turn) 1 and thought man, I’d better back (Turn) 2 up, but I didn’t need to back 2 up. So, I under drove the second corner and that probably cost us down the back straightaway or we would have made it into that next round if I had driven the car right. But, we’ve had good speed all day and hopefully that’s going to carry on into the race. So, we’ll see how it works out.”
YOU’VE ALREADY MADE ONE TRIP TO VICTORY LANE TODAY AS A TEAM OWNER. HAVE YOU LET YOURSELF THINK ABOUT WHAT IT WOULD MEAN TO KISS THE BRICKS IN YOUR FINAL OUTING?
“Yeah, all the time. Every time we come here we think about is this the time, is this the chance we finally get to celebrate because it’s such an incredible race track and so memorable and important to motorsports, globally. And to have your name on the list of guys who have won here would mean a ton to me.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 25th
WERE YOU ASKING TOO MUCH OF THE CAR, OR WAS THE CAR NOT RESPONDING THE WAY YOU EXPECTED IT TO?
“We’ve been off kind of all day, I feel like, with our Target Chevy. I made an attempt to run before that run and then I got really tight coming to the green so I aborted and came back down pit road and I think they adjusted and freed it up some and I was just extremely loose the whole lap. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s disappointing. But we’ve been off all day so I’m sure we’ll work hard on it overnight and hopefully have a good race tomorrow.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 40th
WHAT HAPPENED?
“It’s loose. We’ve been pretty far off today trying to just find something. We’re either really too loose or we’re really too tight. We can’t get anything kind of close to the middle. We had a lot of laps like that today where I have to bail out. Not what we want to do for Kroger right now. All my guys here and back at the shop, we haven’t been where we want to be this year so we’re trying a lot of stuff and sometimes you come to the race track and you don’t hit on anything. So, it’s been pretty disappointing. That was pretty scary right there. We probably could have kept the lap going but at that point I didn’t want to take a chance tearing the car up. We’re just trying as best we can right now.”
