NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA SPEEDWEEKS
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 18, 2015

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS was involved in a multi-car accident during today’s first practice session and will go to a back-up car and start at the rear of the field in Thursday’s Budweiser Duel. Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Daytona 500 Practice →

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
MEDIA DAY
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FEBRUARY 17, 2015

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 CARPENTER FISHER HARTMAN RACING CHEVROLET AND SAGE KARAM, NO. 8 GE LED CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and previewed the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Season. Full Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: We have what are billed as The Next Generation, drivers who had successes in a variety of our ladder series.
Sage. Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Josef Newgarden, Sage Karam →

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
MEDIA DAY
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FEBRUARY 17, 2015

WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 SHELL V-POWER/PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET AND SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to preview the 2015 Verizon IndyCar season. Full Transcript:
Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya →

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
MEDIA DAY
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FEBRUARY 17, 2015

CHEVROLET PRESS CONFERENCE

THE MODERATOR: It’s an honor to have everybody here today. I must say that the Speedway looks much different than what we’re traditionally used to seeing during the month of May. One word I continuously heard this morning in some of our conversations was how special this facility is. We all know that it’s hosted so many special moments of automotive history. Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Media Day →

CHEVROLET RACING
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
MEDIA DAY
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FEBRUARY 17, 2015

SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET AND CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVO NORDISK CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to preview the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Full Transcript:
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by ‘The Veterans,’ Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. We have the stars of Ganassi Racing. We also have Charlie Kimball joining us.
Tony and Scott, been busy already this year. Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR Media Day →

Premium Motorsports
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series News and Notes

Race: Daytona 500
Date: Sunday, February 22, 2015
Location: Daytona International Speedway

Brian Scott
No. 62 Shore Lodge Chevrolet SS
Event Preview Fact Sheet

This Week’s Shore Lodge Chevrolet SS at Daytona International Speedway … Brian Scott is scheduled to pilot chassis No. 495 in Sunday’s 57th running of the Daytona 500. This is a new chassis that was utilized for the first time during last week’s Daytona 500 practice sessions at Daytona International Speedway. Continue reading Premium Motorsports–Daytona 500 Preview →

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES
FEBRUARY 15, 2015

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – POLE SITTER
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO GET THE POLE IN YOUR LAST RUN AT THE DAYTONA 500?
“The team at Hendrick Motorsports always puts so much effort into these restrictor plate races and every race. So much pride in the engine shop and the bodies and the engineering that goes into these cars. This year with this qualifying format the driver finally gets to play a role. With a fast race car and a lot of coordination between the spotter, Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and myself and our teammates that was pretty nerve racking. I didn’t think we were going to wait that long. I really wanted to go sooner than that, but that just feel very gratifying just as a total team effort to be able to have a 1-2 for Hendrick Motorsports and the front row. Continue reading Chevy Racing–Daytona 500 Qualifying →

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER NOTES & QUOTES
FEBRUARY 15, 2015

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS:
ON QUALIFYING:
“I don’t know how I screwed that up because everybody else I was drafting with is in the Top 10. I took and didn’t get through the gears good enough or something and he (No. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.) just pulled me and I lost the draft. So, I knew by the time I got off Turn 2, after we left pit road, I knew I was screwed. I don’t like this qualifying format because it doesn’t ever work out to my advantage. I’m pretty mad at myself or whatever for losing Junior. But, we still have the Duels, so we’ll be fine. I think they need to go back to single-car qualifying. I think that’s about it; for Superspeedways anyway, because this is pathetic. They just tore up a ton of cars in the first qualifying (session) and that’s probably the most smoothest we’ve run for group qualifying I guess, but I don’t see how it’s exciting. I don’t think the drivers think it’s exciting. At least for this race; this race has always been made off of how hard your team works to get the pole. I think they should go back to single car qualifying at superspeedways.” Continue reading Chevy Racing–Daytona 500 Qualifying →

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Sprint Unlimited
Daytona International Speedway
February 14, 2015

Race Highlights:
Richard Childress Racing teammates finished 12th (Ryan Newman), 17th (Austin Dillon) and 21st (Paul Menard).
Matt Kenseth earned his first Sprint Unlimited victory and was followed to the finish line by Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Casey Mears and Kyle Larson.
The 2015 Sprint Cup Series begins with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 22. The first race of the 2015 season is scheduled to be televised live on FOX beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern Time and broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio, channel 90. Continue reading Richard Childress Racing–Sprint Unlimited →

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SPRINT UNLIMITED
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
FEBRUARY 14, 2015

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Feb. 14, 2015 – In the 75-lap Sprint Unlimited exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway (DIS), the annual-opener to the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Martin Truex Jr., led the way for Team Chevy in his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet SS with a second-place finish in the crash-plagued kickoff. Casey Mears in his No. 13 GEICO Chevy SS finished fourth and Kyle Larson brought his No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS home in fifth, giving the bowtie brigade three of the top-five finishing positions.

Former two-time Sprint Unlimited winner, Jeff Gordon, finished 7th in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS.

The special event featured 15 Chevy teams and drivers; however seven were sidelined in multi-car accidents that caused the race to be red-flagged twice to clean-up debris.

Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was the race winner and Carl Edwards (Toyota) finished third.

The 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series officially begins with the prestigious Daytona 500 at 1:00 pm ET on Sunday, Feb. 22 at DIS; and will be aired live on FOX.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we’re joined now by our second‑place finisher in tonight’s Sprint Unlimited, Martin Truex, Jr., driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet. Martin, a strong car all night long, led for a little while. Tell us how it went.

MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Well, it was a lot of fun. Honestly, it was the most fun I’ve had in a racecar in quite some time, probably about a year and a half. Just proud of my team. Proud of everybody at Furniture Row. Everybody back in Denver at the shop that put the car together. Just felt really good to be out there, you know, leading laps and mixing it up with the guys up front all night long, especially after the last year and a half being pretty rough. It was pretty awesome to get out there, get back in the car tonight, have a whole bunch of fun. Hate we came up short. Just kind of two against one there at the end. Kind of hard to compete with.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions.
Q. The intensity level seemed like it was there from the start. Do you agree?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Absolutely.
Q. Why?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: That’s what made it fun. Why? Because there’s no points on the line. Everybody’s just out there to win. That’s the only thing that matters. Nobody is going to remember next year that I finished second in this race. So that’s kind of the mentality of everyone that goes out there. There’s a lot of things we can build off of as a team. But at the end of the day, it’s all about winning. That’s why everybody runs that hard all night long.
Q. The car ran so well tonight. Any concerns about your 500 car after what happened in practice?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: No, not at all. You know, it was minor issues today. We found the oil pan leaking a little bit. No issues internally with the engine. It should be fine, good to go tomorrow, yeah.
Apparently our 500 car they say is better than this one. That’s something to be happy about. They always say that. They always bring a third or fourth best car for the shootout, the Unlimited, then you get out in your 500 car on Thursday for the Duels, you’re like, Damn, that car we had the other night, we should be racing it. That car was pretty good tonight. It was pretty sporty.
Q. You obviously caught Matt coming into four, caught back up with him. What were your options at that point? Did you have a plan at that point or were you just hoping?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Well, I mean, I was hoping that I would be catching him with a little bit more speed. I kind of got the setup that I wanted coming off of two on the last lap. The problem was the 19 was the car behind me. He was obviously the 20’s teammate. He wasn’t going to give me the push down the back that I needed to get the momentum to get around the 20.

I didn’t have enough speed when I got to him to keep him from blocking me. So the simple truth is, if Carl would have pushed me a little bit harder, he was probably dragging the brake because he didn’t want me to pass his teammate.

I just didn’t have enough speed on the 20 to make the move without him being able to block.
Q. On the final lap, was there a point where you kind of had to give up on getting the win and just settle for second place?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Well, once Kenseth blocked me and I lost my momentum, yeah, I mean, the race was over. The 19 came up beside me. We were side‑by‑side. There was obviously nothing either of us could have done at that point.

Once he threw the block, slowed my momentum down, I was done. There was no chance after that. We would have needed two more laps to get lined up to have another shot at him.
Q. Did you learn anything tonight that you can apply to group qualifying tomorrow for the 500?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: I learned a lot tonight that’s going to help us throughout the week, mostly next Sunday for the race. Obviously we learned a lot about our racecar. We learned that it is fast. It’s got speed.

But honestly it’s been a long time really, a couple years, since I had a car that I could make moves like that with, you know, make moves to take the lead, hold guys off for the lead, be able to run at the front all night long.

So I learned a lot. I really felt like my race, the win, I gave it away when the 20 got the lead with a handful of laps to go. I really felt like that was the race just because it’s hard to pass the leader here, especially a guy like Matt that’s really good at playing the draft and holding guys behind him.

I messed up a little bit there. I kind of learned a little bit from that mistake hopefully. All in all I learned a lot about our car. Hopefully it’s stuff that will help me on Thursday and on Sunday.
Q. Martin, Logano said he was pushing you a lot tonight. That was one of the things he was trying to do there with Kevin. Was he giving you a lot of help out there?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Yeah, his car was really strong. He pushed me a lot. Honestly, he’s the only person I seen that could get on to somebody’s bumper and push them forward. Last year with this package, it seemed like when you would get on somebody’s bumper, you would just slow them down. He was able to get on my bumper at times and push me past people, which is kind of unheard of with this package. So he’s obviously got a really strong car.
Q. Martin, the end of ’13 was a disappointment for you. ’14 you led only one lap. What did it feel like to have a fast car and be out front?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Well, it’s what every racecar driver dreams of, honestly. It’s been miserable for a while. Last year was a tough year for us, on and off the racetrack. It’s just been fun to come to the racetrack. If we can come to the racetrack and know we’re going to have cars like that every week, that’s a dream come true for me. This is the most fun I’ve had in a racecar since 2013. I just can’t thank all the guys on our team enough, all the guys that stuck behind me and worked hard, brought us a race car like we had here tonight. Hopefully we can continue that not only tonight, but throughout the season.
Q. Were you surprised by the level of mayhem out there tonight? 13 cars getting torn up. How close did you come to any of that?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: You know, honestly, I wasn’t surprised. I was just glad that it was in my mirror for once. I’ve been caught up in a lot of wrecks here over the years. The key to staying out of them is trying to stay up front. When you have a car that fast, honestly, I don’t think we were out of the top three or four all night after the first couple laps. That’s what it takes to win the 500 and be consistent down here, you’ve got to have fast racecars. I’m just excited to drive the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevy and hopefully our 500 car will be better.
Q. How was your first race with Cole Pearn?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: I thought everything was great. Cole did the last couple races last year so we kind of got our feet wet as far as that goes, as far as him calling the races, kind of getting accustomed to all that stuff.

Really, it was flawless. I thought he did a great job. He’s been doing this a long time. He worked beside Todd Berrier a long time, was his right‑hand man. It seems like so far, it’s going well. I know it’s Daytona and it’s a little bit easier here. The real test will be when we get to places like Atlanta and places like that.

So far he’s done a great job of preparing all the racecars and preparing the team. So far everything has run flawlessly.
Q. While you were out front, multiple drivers and spotters were commenting about what a good job you were doing playing the draft. How much of that is your spotter and how much is that instinctual?
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Well, the spotter, he’s the guy up there telling you what’s happening behind you, but the whole time you’re out there, you’re just staring in the mirror. You’re looking out the mirror 10 times more than you’re looking out the windshield.

You’re trying to play the lines. Honestly, that was something I felt coming down here I had to work on. In the past, I was normally not aggressive enough in blocking. There were times I could get my car to the front and I couldn’t stay there long enough because I wasn’t aggressive enough at blocking.

You see guys like Matt that run up front every time here. When they get out front it’s really, really hard to get around them. You have to have a really good run. I just made one mistake tonight when I gave up the lead, that ultimately cost me the race. Hopefully I’ll learn going forward.
Q. Martin, a number of teams caught on pit road for violations.
MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: I don’t know what they were for. I imagine it was probably for the crew jumping off the wall too early. That’s probably the biggest thing. I felt like, especially here with the pit boxes being so big, I didn’t feel like the three box rule in and out for the drivers was a big deal at all. I came in like I normally do. I barely drove through one pit box before mine.

I don’t know that it’s a big deal for the drivers on the bigger tracks where the pit boxes are pretty big. Pit crews are probably going to have to have things they need to get through, and that’s probably jumping over the wall too early.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Martin.

MARTIN TRUEX, JR.: Thank you. Appreciate it.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
DAYTONA 500
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE NOTES
FEBRUARY 14, 2015

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – EXPERIENCED AN ENGINE FAILURE DURING NSCS PRACTICE 2 FOR THE DAYTONA 500

THIS PRACTICE SESSION A LITTLE BIT OF WORK FOR YOUR GUYS:
“Something just happened in the bottom end of the motor going into Turn 3. Everything was going as planned until then. The Caterpillar Chevrolet tried to diesel on me and it doesn’t like to diesel. We will change the motor, figure out what happened to this one and get ready for tonight with a different race car and qualifying tomorrow.”

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING CHEVROLET SS:

Experience a crack in the oil pan during the second NSCS practice session for the Daytona 500. The team will NOT change the engine.