Chevrolet Well-Positioned Heading into Eliminations of Gatornationals
· Jason Line leads Chevrolet top-three sweep in Pro Stock qualifications
· Courtney Force qualifies second in Funny Car for second consecutive event
· Robert Hight sets Funny Car track record with 327.43 mph pass
· Brittany Force qualifies fifth in Top Fuel

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2016) – Chevrolet swept the top three positions in Pro Stock qualifications for the third consecutive event of the young National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) season, and Courtney Force recorded a career-best pass to qualify second in Funny Car for the second consecutive event heading into eliminations of the 47th Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals.

Jason Line (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) will lead a Pro Stock field into Sunday’s eliminations for the 42nd time in his career. Line, who will have a first-round bye, recorded passes of 6.584 seconds in the third round of qualifications and 210.44 mph in the fourth round — the best elapsed time and fastest speed to date with the new Pro Stock technical package. He is a four-time Gatornationals winner. Continue reading Chevy Racing–NHRA–Chevrolet Well-Positioned Heading into Eliminations of Gatornationals →

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Red Flag Halts Race Near Three-Hour Mark
Corvette C7.Rs, Corvette DPs in the hunt for repeat victories

SEBRING, Fla. (March 19, 2016) – Corvette Racing and four Corvette Daytona Prototypes are in contention for their respective class victories today as a red flag for unsafe weather brought a halt to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida. The event was stopped near the three-hour mark with the cars brought to pit lane until the threat of lightning and standing water passed as the race clock continued to run.

Tommy Milner drove the first two hours, 50 minutes in Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R and was third at the time of the stoppage. Milner had led the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class midway through the opening quarter thanks to a strong first pit stop by the Corvette Racing crew and being able to take on wet tires 90 minutes into the race just before the pit entry closed due to a crash on track. Continue reading Chevy Racing–CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Red Flag Halts Race Near Three-Hour Mark →

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 18, 2016

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
YOU WERE DAYTONA 500 POLE WINNER TWO YEARS AGO, YOU HADN’T HAD A POLE SINCE WHAT DOES THIS ONE MEAN TO YOU?
“It means everything. That is what I said down the backstretch. A Daytona 500 pole sitter, now I got a pole somewhere else. To do it at a drivers race track like this at Fontana it means a lot to me. Just proud of this American Ethanol team we’ve had fast cars all year long. I knew going into that third session if I didn’t make mistakes I would have a shot. I just stayed with it off of (Turn) 4. I kept my locker locked as much as I could with the gas just keeping as much fuel to the car as I could. It worked out for us.”

YOU WEREN’T THE FASTEST CAR IN THE FIRST OR SECOND ROUND HOW MUCH STRATEGY WENT INTO TAKING CARE OF THOSE TIRES SO YOU HAD IT WHEN IT COUNTED IN THE THIRD ROUND?
“Well me and my engineers just talked about it. We wanted to be from 13th to 24th in that first one. We were 13th on the front side of that. On the second run I was a little tight. We just kept freeing the car up a little bit there to help ourselves in that third run and it all worked out.”

ON WINNING THE POLE:
“Very cool just huge for RCR. We’ve wanted to get our cars back to this moment in time to put ourselves in a shot to win a race. We’ve got fast cars this year and I’m proud of our guys, they just keep working hard. Hopefully, we can turn this into something on Sunday.”

WHAT WAS THE FINAL QUALIFYING LAP LIKE?
“Well just kept talking to my engineers about driving style and what I needed to do on that last run. I entered really hard the run before in (Turns) 1 and 2 and I think it hurt me. I just lifted and pumped the brakes a little bit earlier and coasted into 1 and it really got to the gas good. When it came to (Turns) 3 and 4 I just tried to keep my gas foot in it as much as I could and use the whole track. I felt like we had a good pull to the start/finish line. It felt like it kicked up and was running well. Just proud to put that No. 3 back where it needs to be. Hopefully, we can do this a few more times this year.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 2nd
DID YOU CHANGE YOUR LINE DURING THE THREE ROUNDS?
“Well each round was a little bit different. The second round I had a little traffic getting onto the race track. The first round was pretty clean. I didn’t really change anything. I think I caught the inside of that seam with the right-side tires a little more than I wanted to through (Turns) 1 and 2 and it just started to step out and I had to pedal it three or four times down there because it was loose. Pretty good through (Turns) 3 and 4, but all-in-all a good day for our Jimmy John’s/Busch team and hopefully we can cap that off with a win when we get done on Sunday.”

ON HIS CHANCES SUNDAY:
“Yeah, this is the first qualifying/practice and then going from practice to qualifying that I think we have all felt like the car did exactly what we thought it was going to do. Our goal was to run the same lap time all three rounds usually that is going to put you in a spot to have a chance, but all-in-all it’s been a good start to the weekend and really looking forward to the race on Sunday.”

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 14 JANSSEN ARNIE’S ARMY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS – Qualified 24th
WHAT WERE YOU LACKING IN THAT SECOND ROUND?
“We just got really tight. It’s funny we fought loose in qualifying practice and just got really tight out of (Turn) 2 in qualifying there. We didn’t really see that coming, didn’t expect it, so we are going to go back and look at everything. I felt really good about the car in race trim this morning. I think we were faster in race trim than qualifying trim. I’m not worried about it at all tomorrow or the race we’ve got a little work cut out for us, but it’s easy to pass here. It’s a great race track, a lot of fun. It’s a special weekend for me being back on the race track after everything that happened last year, especially being here with Treatmyclot.com and raising awareness about blood clots. It’s blood clot history month so, it’s an important month for me and then having Arnie’s Army on the car. How cool is that? Mr. Palmer he is a legend. So being partners with him is great.”

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Corvette C7.Rs in the Thick of GTLM Fight
Saturday victory would be 10th in class at Sebring for Corvette Racing

Garcia fifth, Milner sixth in ultra-tight GTLM qualifying
Corvette Racing going for fifth consecutive Triple Crown victory
Action Express Racing Corvette DPs fill out second row of Prototype grid

SEBRING, Fla. (March 18, 2016) – Corvette Racing will find itself right in the middle of another victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida on Saturday following GT Le Mans qualifying session. After finishing 1-2 in class to open the 2016 season in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the team’s two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs were part of a tight fight in the class Friday with all 10 cars within 0.768 seconds.

Antonio Garcia, part of last year’s Sebring-winning lineup in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R, qualified fifth with a best lap of 1:58.856 (113.280 mph). Right behind was Tommy Milner with a 1:58.878 (113.259 mph) in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R, which was the class-winning car at the Rolex 24.

Corvette Racing is aiming for its 10th class win at Sebring and third in four seasons. The team also has won four straight events as part of sports car racing’s Triple Crown: the 2015 Rolex 24, Sebring 12 Hours and 24 Hours of Le Mans plus this year at Daytona.

Milner, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler are back together after winning the Rolex 24 by 0.034 seconds in a 1-2 finish for Corvette Racing. Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller are sharing the sister Corvette. Things remain razor-thin between the two Corvettes with only 0.022 seconds separating them on their best qualifying laps.

Between the six Corvette Racing drivers, the group has 13 class victories. Gavin has five wins, Magnussen four, Garcia two, and Milner and Fässler one each; the latter’s was an overall win 2013. Magnussen and Garcia were part of the winning lineup a year ago.

The Corvette brand has long been a force at Sebring since its racing debut 60 years ago. Of Chevrolet’s 27 class victories in America’s oldest sports car race, 22 have been by a production-based Corvette including nine for Corvette Racing since 2001. In all, Corvette Racing has 98 victories worldwide.

Cameron Leads Corvette DP Qualifying Efforts
Action Express Racing paced the Corvette Daytona Prototype contingent in Prototype qualifying Friday as Chevrolet power goes for its second straight overall Sebring victory. Dane Cameron qualified third at 1:51.943 (120.275 mph) in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP that he will drive with Eric Curran and Scott Pruett.

Cameron was 0.262 seconds quicker than reigning Sebring co-champion Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP. He set a lap of 1:52.205 (119.995 mph) in the Corvette DP he will share with Joao Barbosa (with whom he won Sebring in 2015), Felipe Albuquerque and Pruett.

Marc Goossens will start behind Fittipaldi in Visit Florida Racing’s No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP after a 1:53.185 (118.956 mph), with Rubens Barrichello lining up behind Goossens in Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP.

The 64th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring is set for 10:40 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 19. It will air on FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2 and FOX Sports Go. Live audio coverage from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTLM: “(The times in qualifying) open up the race for everybody. We are all in six or seven tenths, at least the majority of us. Except for the first two cars, the rest of us are within three tenths. It is a classic, tight GTLM grid. It was difficult to judge what the track would be like in qualifying. It’s way different from this morning definitely. Based on how everything went in practice and how the car was, I think we are in good shape. I wouldn’t say I had a clean run at all, so looking back at how we did in practice and how the car behaved there, we just need to look at how good the car will be in the race. We just need to look and analyze how the car is and see if we can get anything toward the race, but if not, I still think we are pretty good.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED SIXTH IN GTLM: “That is kind of where we sort of expected to be. From testing here we thought we had good race cars. We made some changes since we’ve been here this week. The conditions are different so we have adjusted to that, and you see that the two cars are within a couple hundredths of each other. We are all pretty equal. I think coming in here we kind of knew we weren’t going to get on pole, but we always have great race cars. This track is really rough. There are lots of new cars in the class. We just need to keep our nose clean and just be there at the end. We will come away with good points no matter what. If it rains, everything else might change.”

DANE CAMERON, ACTION EXPRESS RACING NO. 31 WHELEN ENGINEERING/TEAM FOX CORVETTE DP – QUALFIED THIRD IN PROTOTYPE: “Some days all you do is be the best of what you are. That is what we did today and we are quite happy with that. I think we have a really good race car. Track conditions at Sebring change so fast with the weather and the amount of cars in other series that are running here. After the Continental Tire race the track was really different so I wasn’t quite as happy with the car as I was in the morning…but the car is still very good, and very well-prepared for the race. We are starting in third, up near the front and down on the inside so it will be a good view going into Turn One. It is going to be a long 12 hours tomorrow but the Action Express boys have us well prepared.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 18, 2016

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the team’s positive progress this year, the new race package, and more. Full Transcript:

YOU’VE HAD A GOOD START TO THE SEASON WITH THREE TOP 10’S AND AN 11TH PLACE IN THE FIRST FOUR RACES. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND’S RACE IN FONTANA?
‘The biggest thing is to just to keep it rolling. We did that this first practice. I was proud of the guys. We kept getting better every run. I’m excited. We’ve got a really fast car. Hopefully we can back it up this evening in Qualifying.” Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Auto Club Speedway–Austin Dillon →

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 18, 2016

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway and discussed his progress thus far this season, how the new rules package has affected his driving style and many other topics. Full Transcript:

ON PRACTICE AND THE FEEL OF THE CAR:
“All of Cup practice we spent in qualifying trim there. We ended up fifth that was because we were one of the first cars out there in qualifying trim, the track had more grip and all that. I thought we struggled a little bit there in practice to try and get the right feel. Both ends were quite a bit different feel wise for me. (Turns) 1 and 2 would be close and then we would get down to (Turns) 3 and 4 and be terrible. Then we got 1 and 2 better and we were still too tight in 3 and 4. Then finally we got too loose in 1 and 2 and were okay in 3 and 4. So, we tried getting the balance better throughout all of practice. There at the very end I changed up a little bit of what I was doing and thought we gained a little bit more speed, but still we were a couple of tenths off. We will probably still qualify good here in a little bit. In Xfinity practice there obviously Kyle Busch is really fast, but I thought once he fell off we were just as good, if not better than him. It’s a track I like a lot. That run we had in 2014 was really good in both races. Hopefully, we can come here tomorrow and Sunday and do just a little bit better than we did in 2014.” Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Auto Club Speedway–Kyle Larson →

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 18, 2016

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed the new downforce package, his approach to the Fontana track this weekend, the upcoming break this week in the schedule, and more. Full Transcript:

TALK ABOUT THE PHOENIX RACE AND HOW THAT PLAYED OUT. HAVE YOU WATCHED IT ON TV SINCE THEN?
“Yeah, I’ve definitely seen it. And obviously, you wonder how things that play out like that actually happen. But now that I know more of the situation and how the guys behind us obviously had tires and we were more of a defensive position than I have asked about or was told. At that point, it really didn’t matter. So, it wound up being a great finish. We had a great car. We had the dominant car for the last 150 laps, or so. And it wound-up being really close with the strategy call. But, I think in the end, that’s really what the soft tires and low downforce and when you pit, you want it to matter and make a decision to see the strategies play out. In the end it was a great day and I’m glad to get the win out of the way.”

CAN YOU GIVE US A SENSE OF THE NEW DOWNFORCE PACKAGE SO FAR THIS YEAR, AND TELL US WHAT YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE THIS WEEKEND IN FONTANA? HOW HAS THE PACKAGE IMPACTED THE RACING?
“As a driver, especially last week; when you look at myself and Dale (Earnhardt) Jr., and you look at the way you could go through traffic, it seems like the cars were affected a lot less by the aero push and being around each other. They seemed a lot less dependent on where you are in the field. Obviously they are still not going to be as good as they were if you were the lead car, but I think we’ve definitely made some headway. I think there’s obviously a lot of notes that have been gathered and from a driver’s standpoint, I think this is the race we’ve all been looking forward to the most just because of the fact that you have some high speeds and lots of racing lanes and the cars are going to slide all over the place. So, it’s definitely a weekend that we’re all looking forward to. This has probably been one of our better races over the past several years, so it’s going to be a fun weekend.”

THIS TRACK HAS SEAMS THAT AREN’T AT MOST TRACKS. HOW DO YOU ATTACK THE SEAMS? DO YOU TRY TO STAY IN BETWEEN THEM? DO YOU PUT YOUR TIRES IN BETWEEN THEM? AND, WHAT IS THE PENALTY WHEN YOU CROSS ONE ON A RESTART OR IN A RACING SITUATION?
“A lot of it just depends on how this particular package reacts to where the groove is going to go; straight to the wall….the left side is going to lay a lot of rubber. I was watching the race from 2011 and the left sides would actually keep the race track clean. So, right on the seams seemed to be pretty good because the race track was cleaner there. So, you just have to see how the race track rubbers-up. With this particular tire, the hardest part about the seams is just getting hung on one. That’s really what you don’t want to do. You want to have the tires just below or just above it and split it. But, if you have the tire right-on, it just grabs it like glue and it goes in the direction that you don’t really want to go in. So, you definitely have to try to split the seams and be off of it with the tire itself in order to make time.”

AFTER THE END OF THIS WEEKEND WE WILL HAVE FIVE RACES IN THE BOOKS. IS IT GOOD FOR TEAMS TO BE ABLE TO GO AND REGROUP? HOW WILL THAT HELP YOUR TEAM GOING FORWARD TO EVALUATE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AND CONTINUE WITH THE SEASON?
“I think it’s definitely good for everybody to have a chance to recharge their batteries. The West Coast swing is hard and everybody as I’m sure a lot of you guys know. Just the travel and the way that the schedule is now you either have to stay out here or you are traveling back and forth. So, you are going back and forth in between time zones, but the logistics of the race cars are the hard part because there are six race cars that have to be prepared and ready to go when you take off from Atlanta. These aren’t any of the race cars that you can basically race at Atlanta. I guess you could race them here (at Auto Club Speedway), but you basically have to have 10 race cars ready because you have to go to Daytona. Probably 12 because you’ve got to go to the Shootout (Sprint Unlimited), so you’ve got to go to the Shootout, you’ve got to go to Daytona, you’ve got to go to Atlanta and you have to have everything ready for your West Coast swing. You are looking at 10 or 12 race cars that have to be prepared at the beginning of the year way in advance. Then the logistics of getting everything out and getting hundreds of people back and forth across the country wears on everybody. It will be a much needed break in order to kind of get into the meat of the season to not have to stay out west and do the things that it takes to run this West Coast swing.”

HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE DOES THE SPEED AND THE LAYOUT MAKE AS FAR AS LIFTING GOING INTO THE TURNS OR ARE YOU REALLY NOT GOING TO HAVE TO? HOW IS THAT GOING TO PLAY INTO THIS WHOLE PACKAGE?
“Oh you are going to have to lift a lot. You are probably going to have three seconds of fall off, maybe more, as you go through the run because the tires just fall off so fast. You are going to have a lot of straightaway speed because of the low drag, so yeah, there is definitely going to be a lot of off throttle time. I think the amount of time is going to change dramatically from the first lap to lap 30. It’s going to be a huge pace swing.”

RON HORNADAY WON A CHAMPIONSHIP FOR YOU GUYS WHEN YOU WERE A TEAM OWNER. HE IS ON THE LIST OF 25 NOMINEES FOR THE NASCAR HALL OF FAME THIS YEAR. WHAT DID HE MEAN TO YOUR ORGANIZATION WHEN YOU GUYS HIRED HIM AND BROUGHT HIM IN?
“I’ve known Ron (Hornaday) a long time. For me Ron was kind of one of my racing heroes as I grew up watching him race at Mesa Marin and in the Southwest Tour up and down the state. He has been very successful at what he has done. He did a lot of that on his own to start with. Obviously, he wound up with DEI (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.). I think as you look at where we were as a company he brought a lot of… he made our company legitimate from a racing standpoint. Because you brought in a champion, a winner and he continued to win. We won a couple of championships with Ron there. I think we won 40 or 50 Truck Series races. I think as you look at what he brought, he brought that instant approval of a winner and a proven champion and proven winner in himself. We knew we just had to get our stuff right and we were able to be successful together. I was fun to see him be successful at the end of his career.”

WILL YOU AND YOUR TEAM SET UP THE CLOCK SUNDAY NIGHT TO SEE WHAT YOUR SISTER TEAM IS DOING IN F1 IN AUSTRALIA?
“Man, that time change is so much different. I was watching the Twitter feed and they were out there practicing and doing all the sliding into the gravel pit, I saw one time. We are definitely keeping up with it. It will definitely probably be on the DVR though. I don’t think it will be live. We will definitely be watching.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 18, 2016

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 14 JANSSEN ARNIE’S ARMY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Auto Club Speedway and discussed his battle with blood clots, driving the No. 14 Chevrolet SS at Martinsville and beyond and many other topics. Full Transcript:

CAN YOU SHARE YOU’RE FEELINGS BEING HERE LAST YEAR AND GETTING OUT OF THE CAR AND HOW YOU FEEL GETTING INTO THE CAR THIS WEEKEND:
“I’m glad I made it to the stage this time in a firesuit. It has been a challenging five or six years for me. As many of you know. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, in a weird way I’m very thankful for those experiences. I’ve grown a lot as a person and a lot of good things have come from it. The opportunity to raise awareness as we discussed up here, on an issue… I was lucky to win my battle with blood clots, many people are not. The first time I went I was misdiagnosed as well. They felt I had pneumonia. I was taking antibiotics. Luckily I stuck around to find out that wasn’t the case because that would have been really bad if I had left the hospital. I understand exactly very much what we are talking about. It’s a serious issue. It’s interesting when it first happened to me I had so many people, fans and crew members and truck drivers that came up to me and said they have had or do have blood clots and they are on this medication or that. It’s interesting that story just kind of keeps coming to me. I didn’t know a single person before I had my first blood clot that has blood clots. Then all of a sudden I had my first blood clot and I knew all these people that had blood clots. They just never told me. No one ever really talked about it. It was so interesting. Now I feel like because of what we have done here and what we have been doing for the last three years, more and more people are talking about it. More and more people are discussing it amongst themselves and with other people and it really does make a difference. I’m really proud of that. Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Auto Club Speedway–Brian Vickers →