NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
GEICO 500
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 30, 2016
CHASE ELLIOTT CAPTURES POLE POSITION AT TALLADEGA
Team Chevy Takes Top Three Spots in Qualifying
TALLADEGA, Ala. – (April 30, 2016) – Chase Elliott earned his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole with a fast lap of 49.704 seconds, 192.661 mph in his No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet SS for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. He also won the pole position for the season-opening Daytona 500 in February. This marks Elliott’s first pole at the 2.66-mile track.
It was Chevrolet’s 33rd pole at the longest track on the circuit, more than any other manufacturer.
Austin Dillon qualified second with a lap speed of 192.424 mph in the No. 3 Dow/Intellifresh Chevrolet SS. It is his fifth top-10 start of 2016 and his second in six races at Talladega Superspeedway.
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and defending race winner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was third fastest in the No. 88 Nationwide Chevy SS, giving Team Chevy the top three qualifying positions.
Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson qualified fifth in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, to give Hendrick Motorsports three cars in the Top 5 and Chevrolet four of the Top 5 starting spots.
In the knock-out style format, six Chevrolet SS race cars qualified in the final Top 12.
Paul Menard was 10th in the No. 27 Moen/Menards Chevy SS, and Kasey Kahne was 11th in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet.
Rounding out the Top 5 starters, Matt Kenseth (Toyota) qualified fourth.
The GEICO 500 from Talladega Superspeedway is scheduled to begin at 1 pm EST on Sunday May 1. Live coverage will be available on FOX, MRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
TALK ABOUT STARTING FIRST IN THE GEICO 500:
“Well we hope it goes better than starting first in February is the biggest thing. You have to realize, this is definitely a team effort. This isn’t anything about what I did. It’s about the kind of car we brought back and how good of a job my No. 24 guys and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports did fixing the car that I tore up in February. They did a great job with that and Alan Gustafson (crew chief) and those guys certainly have a knack for this stuff. They sat on a lot of poles as of late with Jeff (Gordon) over the past couple of years too. This is definitely special. I appreciate Napa Auto Parts being on the car and cool to get them another pole. For us we have to realize it’s just a starting spot and there is 500 miles of racing to do tomorrow that a lot can change in a hurry. You have to realize that. Really take advantage of our spot on pit road I think is the biggest thing. Having that first pit box at the end of the day is going to be more important than the starting spot. We will see how it turns out.”
RUNNING THE XFINITY RACE TODAY IS THERE ANYTHING YOU ARE HOPING TO LEARN FOR TOMORROW?
“I don’t know, maybe just getting on and off pit road, obviously getting back in the routine of doing that. Green flag stops can always throw a twist at you a time or two depending what is going on. I think other than that the drafting is very different. The style of drafting in the Cup cars versus Xfinity cars is very different. I think in that aspect it will be a little different.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW – ENERGY& WATER/INTELLIFRESH CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
TALK ABOUT YOUR LAPS AND YOUR CAR HEADING INTO TOMORROW:
“I’m just proud of the guys at RCR/ECR. We struggled a little bit here the last couple of qualifying efforts for the speedways. To come out and have a shot at the pole is really big for our Dow/Intellifresh Chevy. I’m proud of all my guys. ECR did a good job bringing something a little different hopefully than the Daytona race. We felt like we needed to get better and I think they did.”
CONSIDERING WHAT THE GIBBS TEAMS DID IN DAYTONA CAN THEY DO THE SAME THING HERE AS FAR AS SEEMING TO JUST WORK TOGETHER OR IS IT MORE DIFFICULT HERE?
“No, they should be if they have the same speed, I don’t think they have the same speed as they did at Daytona. They lost something from the time they came from Daytona to Talladega. We will see how it goes. Just proud of our guys for building a fast race car. If you can get your teammates up there it definitely is a good place to have them up front so you can kind of block both lanes, but this place does seem to spread out. It’s just so much wider and handling doesn’t affect as much. I don’t think you will see the pack as spread out like Daytona because handling hasn’t been an issue all weekend yet.”
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO GET A WIN HERE?
“It would be huge. It’s a great place to do it at, exactly like you were saying. There is a lot of history here from Dale (Earnhardt) and RCR. It’s kind of the place… a lot of good stuff happens for RCR here. Hopefully, we can continue that streak of good runs for RCR here. We’ve got a car capable of doing that, obviously, with the qualifying effort. Man, I would love for it to be my first Cup win.”
DO YOU GET INTO ANYTHING ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM ABOUT THE NO. 24 AND THE NO. 3 CARS BEING ON THE FRONT ROW HERE?
“Yeah that is cool. I think that is very special. The No. 24 car, I think they have won probably three or four out of the last speedway poles; I’m not sure how many. That car, what they are doing, they are doing a good job. To be within the same speed range there that was good for us. I think we are going to have a solid place to go. That is stay up front at the beginning of this race.”
HOW BIG A FACTOR WAS THE WIND OUT THERE TODAY?
“I don’t think… it might have picked up there at the end. I did feel it right before our last run that the wind had picked up from the first run, but it also had cooled down. It’s kind of hard judging the difference between the two. Surely, it’s better to have no wind or the wind in the right direction for you, but it might have affected us a little bit. I think more than anything, probably, we were in the middle of the pack so our car could have cooled down a little bit more and not been as heat soaked as the No. 24.”
YOU ARE GOING TO RUN RIGHT INTO THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES RACE TODAY. HOW IS YOUR CAR? WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE TODAY THAT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO TRANSFER TO TOMORROW?
“Our Xfinity car was really solid. I feel like we have a great shot of winning this race and want to win this race. I will do what I can to stay up front, make smart moves and no mistakes and see if we can’t come home with another Victory in the Rheem Chevy.”
