CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 3 OF 10
CITIZEN SOLIDER 400
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 2, 2016
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT A THIRD PLACE RUN A VERY SOLID DAY TODAY, ASSESS YOUR DAY AND MOVING ON TO ROUND 2 OF THE CHASE WHERE YOU GUYS ARE AT:
“Yeah, definitely proud of the effort this whole Mountain Dew group, it’s really cool to have Mountain Dew on the car this weekend and some different colors for us. Really cool brand to be a part of and proud to support their colors first and foremost, but it’s been a decent weekend overall. We’ve been working on our car throughout the weekend and I feel like we got it the best we had had it there two runs before the end, which I guess was a good time to try to get it with that long green flag run things kind of worked out for us to get a couple of extra spots that would have been hard to get otherwise. I’m proud of the effort. Really really cool to move on this weekend, I’m proud of that like I said, this group has been doing a really good job. I’m proud of all these guys and we are excited to get on to Charlotte.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 7TH
IT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD THE CAR TO WIN BEFORE SOME PIT ROAD PENALTIES FALL ON YOUR TEAM. ANY CONCERNS GOING INTO THE NEXT ROUND?
“Well I think today was a different set of circumstances on pit road. It was certainly, I think Chad (Knaus) still questions exactly what happened, but when I was coming into my pit box the No. 18 and the No. 43 were just leaving theirs and they were directly behind my box. I had to slam on the brakes and get turned and get underneath those guys to come in and I was pretty close to my box so I assume that just threw the rhythm off the pit stop and somebody came off the wall early. Certainly a mistake, but it’s not one that I’ve ever had happen on the No. 48 team. Thankfully, we had a strong car that we were only a lap down and still ended up seventh. I do feel like one got away, but very proud of this Lowe’s race team. I’m happy to be advancing we are certainly thrilled about that, but feel like one got away today.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 8TH
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU SAVED YOUR BEST FOR THIS RACE?
“First of all I am going to say that I give all the glory to God. We have been working hard as a team and I have been working hard as a driver to make myself better. This series is very tough and I think the biggest thing was not giving up. We could have given up in that second practice yesterday when it was raining and drizzling. I got frustrated and just tried to calm myself and believe in what we were doing as a team. Man, we got it done. My stats didn’t really show how we have run here. I feel like in previous races…..last race we were running eighth and blew a brake rotor and the next caution the 42 took the lead because of track position. He was actually behind us that time. So I feel like we were pretty decent here, we just needed something like this today.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE COMING BACK FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE AFTER WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK?
“We wrecked a car in practice and we had to use a backup car, an older car that wasn’t our primary that we wanted to have. We just stayed focused. And once again God has blessed us. I am still awestruck because things like this just don’t happen. I am proud to be going on to the final 12 and having race cars that are capable of moving on. I have three really solid tracks coming up and I am going to drive the wheels off of it and have fun.”
A GOOD DAY FOR YOU
“I just give all the glory to God, first off. He just put this race in our hands to give away. I’m proud of my team for building a fast race car. RCR, I think all you guys back at the shop for working countless hours on these race cars. We were able to make it to the next round. Thanks to all my guys and all our sponsors and everybody that helps us out with this program. We’re on to the next round and that means so much for our team.”
WHEN YOU SAW +11 IN THE POINTS, WHAT DID YOU THINK?
“Man, I was just glad. I don’t care how many it was; whether it was 12 or 11 or 2 or 1, as long as we’re in the next round. It feels good. It’s time to knock some more of these guys out because we’ve got this opportunity and I want to say that we’re going to be the underdog in this next round, so let’s go do it.”
HOW DO YOU PRESS ANY HARDER? YOU’VE GOT SOME THINGS ORGANIZED AND CHANGED PIT CREWS. WHAT CAN YOU DO IN THE NEXT ROUND?
“Well, I think this was a start. This is probably one of the fastest race cars we’ve had all year. And, I wanted to get more, but I knew what was at stake. I feel like we had a little bit of a right front issue that we were worried about, so I didn’t want to push it too hard. We probably could have been a top-5 car pretty simply there. I just didn’t want to hurt our chances of making the Chase.”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 NATURE’S BAKERY BROWNIE/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 13TH
ON THE RACE TODAY AND NOT MOVING ON IN THE CHASE:
“I’m pretty excited about our day. We were much better than we were yesterday. Really proud of our team. We kept making it better all day. That is good as we had.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 MONSTER ENERGY/HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 15TH
MOVING ON TO THE NEXT ROUND ON A REALLY SOLID FINISH. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT TODAY’S RACE AND YOUR EXPECTATION FOR THE NEXT ROUND:
“Really proud of this team. We deserve to move on to the next round, but a day like today really tested us to let us know that we’ve got work to do. I’m ready for the challenge. Today was a challenging day, but thanks to our Monster Energy fans, Haas Automation fans, employees, everybody. We are not here just to advance through round we are here to do well and be a force towards the front. I like Charlotte and I like Kansas we will see how they play out. We need to gain points there because you can’t go to Talladega expecting a good finish.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 25TH
“There wasn’t much we could do. I cut the right front tire down and got in the wall and still had good speed in the race car after that but it just didn’t work out. Our team has come a long way this season from where we started the year. We were pretty awful at the start of the season but then got a win at Michigan to lock ourselves in the Chase. That was good. I know we have the speed to have made it past a couple of rounds but it’s my typical luck I guess, where it just doesn’t work out.”
DID YOU FIND OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS WITH THE BATTERY EARLIER IN THE RACE?
“I don’t know if it was a mistake or what. I really don’t what to call it other than just bad luck.”
THIS ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED BUT AT LEAST YOU CAN LOOK AT IT AS YOU GAINED EXPERIENCE IN BEING IN THE CHASE FOR DOWN THE ROAD CAN’T YOU?
“I don’t think you gain any more experience being in the Chase than being out of it. You are still racing with them. I have gained experience the last two seasons but I guess with all the media that is the one thing you get used to. I don’t know, it’s just frustrating but we will be good again next year.”
I KNOW IT WAS A DISAPPOINTING DAY TODAY FOR YOU BUT WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE LAST FEW REMAINING RACES THAT ARE LEFT?
“We have good speed with our race team and the Target Chevrolet is fast week in and week out. So I can still run for a top-five in points. I think I can finish fifth at best. So we are going to try and do everything we can to do that or at least try and finish as high up as we can and get a couple of wins. I still have some really good tracks for me that are left in the Chase. So we are just going to dig deep and work hard and try and get ourselves some more wins.”
IT WASN’T THE DAY YOU WERE HOPING FOR. YOU HAD AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM AND A PENALTY ON PIT ROAD. THAT SEEMED TO SEAL YOUR FATE.
“I don’t know what happened with the battery or whatever. But, I lost power. We lost a lap. We had too many men over the wall. And, really, without too many men over the wall, we probably would have been all right because I was only a lap down. Whatever. But, our Target Chevy has been good every week. So, we’ll go out and try to win some races. Even though we’re not in the next round, we still have a shot at finishing fifth in points. So, we’re going to try our best to run up as far as we can in points.”
WHAT DO YOU TAKE FROM THIS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU AND THIS TEAM TO BE BETTER NEXT YEAR?
“Oh, I don’t know. Find some good juju. We had bad luck at Chicago. We probably lost 12 points in Chicago with the right front failure. That right there; and then today’s bad luck and all the bad luck I’ve had in my career. I don’t know what I’ve got to do. But we’ll stay positive. We’ll come back next year and go for a championship. Our team came a long way this year from where we started the season, so hats off to everybody in the shop and the road crew and Target and all the sponsors for all their hard work and effort. We just didn’t have good luck again this year.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CREDIT ONE CHEVROLET SS – Out of the race early due to an engine issue; Finished 40th
WHAT DID YOU SEE/HEAR/SMELL FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT?
“Not a lot. It vibrated earlier in the race and it went away. And it’s weird because engine issues usually don’t go away. It felt like it had power and then I don’t know about 40 laps before it finally blew up, it just started vibrating real bad. They (the team) said what broke, but I couldn’t hear them over all the cars on the track. I’m not sure. Very unfortunate. It is just the way it goes.”
HOW DO YOU SHOW UP YOUR SHOWING AS YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENTION COMES TO AN END?
“I didn’t really hear you, but the No. 42 had their problem early in the race and then and then at that point I’m like well it’s kind of Austin (Dillon) and I that are going to battle this out. Our cars are pretty close so this is going to be a pretty good battle down to the end. But I’m proud of our whole organization from where we started the year to the point that we are at right now. Where you run in the top 10 every week, Kyle (Larson) won at Michigan, we just have had great cars and it stinks that it ended this way, but it is what it is.”
TAKE US THROUGH THE EMOTIONS OF TODAY:
“Well, horrible day for our organization. I’m not sure what happened to the No. 42. They said that he lost power; I think it was an electrical something, because they got going again. Then, I don’t know we had a vibration early in the race and it went away and the car was fine. Then it started vibrating again. It lasted about 20 or 30 laps and finally the engine let go. Then we were just trying to run long enough that you could see if it was something as simple as a spark plug or what the issue is, we don’t know. Finally, obviously, the motor completely blew up. They said what happened, but I couldn’t hear them over all the cars on track. Very unfortunate and disappointed, but very proud of our organization, where our cars started the year at to where we are right now we have made huge progress and we will just go race as hard as we can the next seven races.”
HOW HARD IS THIS?
“It’s really hard when you run bad, but the fact that we have run so well the last two months and have been very consistent, both cars. You will have things like this happen. It’s frustrating that it happens at this point when you can’t really afford to have anything bad go wrong, but Hendrick motors have been pretty amazing for the last six years I think, five years that we have had them. I think I have only had two motor failures they just both have happened in the Chase.”
WHAT DO YOU SAY TO YOUR TEAM?
“I don’t think you have to pump them up. Everybody if you race every single weekend, you know that the most frustrating part of the sport is to run bad. The fact that we have run so well, you will just have things like that happen. Nobody is down. We are frustrated and mad that we are stuck here watching the race, but having good cars is what it’s really all about.”
