BRITTANY FORCE PROV. No. 1 AT BRISTOL

BRISTOL, TN – Second year Top Fuel driver Brittany Force and her Castrol EDGE Dragster rocketed down the iconic Bristol Dragway with a 3.82 second pass at 317.94 mph. It was the quickest run of the first qualifying session today at the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals and Brittany picked up three additional NHRA Mello Yello bonus points for claiming the number one qualifying spot.  

 “I didn’t think we ran that fast. The car actually felt kind of sluggish and slow. I felt the car shake around the 700 to 800 foot mark as it started dropping cylinders and I was expecting it to start smoking the tires. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if I should lift and get out of it or keep my foot planted on the accelerator. I decided stayed in it until the end but I didn’t think it was that great of a run. I was shocked and even surprised when I found out I was number one qualifier for running that 3.82,” said Brittany Force.

If Brittany’s 3.82 second run holds tomorrow, it will be the second time this season she will compete from the one qualifying position on race day. Rain storms moved into the area and cancelled the second Top Fuel qualifying session much to Brittany’s disappointment as she was ready to jump back in the cockpit of her Castrol EDGE Dragster to see if she could improve her time.

“The Castrol EDGE team is pumped as we’re excited to be number one again. It is unfortunate the rain came before our second session as I was anxious to get up to the lanes and make the second pass. We’ll get two runs tomorrow so maybe we’ll step it up even more,” said Brittany Force

To say Brittany’s excited would be an understatement as she’s been qualifying in the top half of the field and going rounds throughout this season. She’s already been to her first Top Fuel final and has a claimed a much coveted number one qualifying spot in a tough field of fellow competitors. She’s also gaining valuable experience on every run that is making her seasoned driver and a formidable competitor.

“My years of racing in Super Comp and A/Fuel Dragster taught me a lot. I also spent a whole year testing in Top Fuel so I could gain more experience. If I had made the jump directly to Top Fuel without coming up through the ranks, I’d be a mess,” said Brittany Force.

Brittany’s experience behind the wheel is also paying off in huge dividends.

 “I’m definitely getting use to this Castrol EDGE Dragster. If it ran hard and shook the tires on a run like this last year, maybe I would have gotten out of it. But now, I know it if the car hasn’t done anything to act up on the run, I’ll stay in it. I learn something new on every pass and each run is always different,” said Brittany Force.

The Castrol EDGE Team led by crew chief Todd Smith and Dean Antonelli has tuned up the 10,000 horsepower Castrol EDGE Dragster and has given her one very fast and consistent race car that’s primed and ready to bring Castrol EDGE AND John Force Racing its first Top Fuel victory.

The John Force Racing Funny Car contingent opened the race with a stellar performance posting two of the three quickest runs of the first session. Mello Yello points leader Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang team were No. 1 after the first session with a strong 4.074 second pass at 315.27 mph. John Force, the 2013 Ford Thunder Valley Nationals winner, was No. 3 with a 4.099 second pass. Unfortunately when the rains rolled in near the end of the second qualifying session Hight and Force were still in the lanes along with Tommy Johnson Jr. and Cruz Pedregon. That quartet of Funny Cars did not get a second shot at qualifying. Del Worsham posted both ends of the track record 3.992 seconds at 319.45 mph to move into the provisional No. 1 spot.

“We wanted to get another run in but we totally understand safety comes first. There was lightning all over the place and then when it started raining we knew it was a long shot to get a second run. I am happy with how well we ran in the first session and that is closer to race day conditions. We got three bonus points and we will be ready to hit it again tomorrow,” said Hight.

Eventually Hight settled into the provisional No. 4 spot with John Force slipping to No. 7. Courtney Force stepped up in the second qualifying session moving from the No. 7 spot after the first session to the No. 6 spot. The youngest Force improved from a 4.142 second pass to a 4.077 second run in her Traxxas Ford Mustang.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPTS
JUNE 13, 2014
 
CHEVROLET SS SWEEPS TOP-THREE IN QUALIFYING FOR QUICKEN LOANS 400
Kevin Harvick Sets New Track Record En Route to Winning 3rd
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pole of the Season
 
BROOKLYN, Michigan (June 13, 2014) Kevin Harvick led the charge of Chevrolet SS drivers in securing the top-three spots in the final qualifying order for the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. With a new track record of 204.557 mph, the driver of the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet will lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) field to the green flag for the third time this season.
 
Harvick’s speed was the fastest pole-winning speed since April of 1987, when Bill Elliott set the all-time qualifying record of 212.809 mph at Talladega Superspeedway.  That makes Harvick the ‘Fastest Man in Michigan’, and the second-quick all-time qualifier in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Current NSCS point leader Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS, will start alongside Harvick for the 200-lap/400-mile race.  Coming off his win at Pocono last week, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will start the No. 88 National Guard/Superman Chevrolet SS from the third position on the grid.
 
Paul Menard, No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet SS, posted the fifth quickest time to give Chevrolet four of the top-five starting positions. Aric Almirola (Ford) complete the top-five in qualifying.
 
Defending and six-time NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS, and Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, qualified 7th and 8th respectively to give the Bowtie brand six of the top-10 starters in the 15th round of the 36-race season.
 
This marks the seventh pole for the Chevrolet SS in 2014 NSCS competition.
 
The Quicken Loans 400 is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday June 15th. Live coverage will be available on TNT, MRN Radio, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
 
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
YOU RAN A LAP OF 39.198 SECONDS, 204.557 MPH, CONGRATULATIONS. TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN:
“Obviously it was a really fast lap, a really fast couple of laps. But the car has been really good since we unloaded it off the truck and these guys put fast cars on the track every week and then we’ve been in contention for poles and wins every week. Today it just all came together from the time we unloaded. I’m just really proud of my guys and everybody at the Henrick Engine Shop and on these big race tracks when you have fast cars, speed makes the driver’s job a lot easier. So, it’s been a good weekend so far.”
 
YOUR SPEED IS THE FASTEST POLE-WINNING SPEED SINCE APRIL 1987, WHEN BILL ELLIOTT SET THE ALL-TIME QUALIFYING RECORD OF 212.809 MPH AT TALLADEGA.
“Just a little shy of that.”
 
BUT THAT’S STILL PRETTY QUICK. THIS IS YOUR 9TH POLE IN THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES AND THIRD POLE THIS YEAR, A SINGLE-SEASON CAREER HIGH FOR YOU:
“This format has obviously been good for me to I guess creep-up on it as you go through the sessions. And a fast car allows you to do that. A fast car really solves a lot of problems and Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and the guys have done a great job with that and we just keep at it.”
 
IN INSTANCES WHEN YOU THINK YOU’VE HAD A CAR CAPABLE OF WINNING, BUT FOR WHATEVER REASON COMES UP SHORT, TO COME BACK TO THE TRACK AND CONTINUE TO BE FAST, IS THERE ANY BETTER MEDICINE?
“Well, I think every week the cars are fast and you’re able to really be competitive. And when you have problems, you can leave with your head up still just for the fact that you know that you’ve got the speed to contend for wins and do the things that you have to do to win races and contend for poles. So it’s a lot of fun. But no matter if you’re running good or bad, Monday morning you have to forget about winning or losing the week before. Next week is a new challenge and a different style race track and a lot of different things come with it. So, I think the experience of myself and everybody on the team are, we’ve been tested (as to) whether we can do that or not this year, but I think everybody has proven week-in and week-out when we unload, usually every week, for the first practice the car is fast and we just keep plugging away.”
 
IS THIS TRACK TOO FAST? DO YOU HOPE IT SLOWS DOWN OR STAYS AS IT IS?
“Well, Michigan has been fast for a long time. I think how fast is too fast, you know what I mean? It’s the perfect storm with pavement with the cars in qualifying trim. The cars will slow down a tremendous amount when we get them in race trim and in a pack. It’s going to be quite a bit hotter on Sunday. They’ll slow down. Qualifying speeds are high. It’s just a matter of whose opinion is taken on whether it’s too fast or not.”
 
WHEN WE MENTIONED THE FAST SPEEDS BY BILL ELLIOTT, UNRESTRICTED. WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO GO THAT FAST ON A RACE TRACK? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE POTENTIAL OF THAT EVER HAPPENING? WHAT IS YOUR NEED FOR SPEED?
“This is one of those race tracks where you’re running fast but you really can’t put it all in perspective I guess until you hit something just for the fact that it’s so wide and so fast and so smooth. But you don’t really get that huge sensation of speed. So, we just want to win. So however fast we need to go to win, we’ll just call that ‘good’.”
 
ON FATHER’S DAY, TALK ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU:
“For me, it’s special to have him (son, Keelan) here and to be able to share these moments. I’m fortunate to be able to do this all the time, but to be able to share it with him a lot and to have him here this weekend is a lot of fun. He seems like he’s enjoying it. He wants to grab and throw the microphone at somebody, but it’s pretty special. I love how our sport embraces Father’s Day and our troops and (is) really just a family sport. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/SUPERMAN CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD
HOW WAS THE CAR IN PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING? WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR SUNDAY? “Real happy with the qualifying effort obviously, especially in the transition from the second round, to the last round. We’re making some good gains on how we need to adjust the car to find the balance we need as continue to cycle the tires each qualifying run. That is something we really needed to improve our qualifying efforts. The car has real good speed. The car is pretty comfortable. Both cars – the Nationwide car and the Cup car – seem to be very competitive. We’ll get a chance tomorrow to really work on our race trim package for the Cup car tomorrow. We ran a little bit of race trim this morning. The track wasn’t ideal, but we understand some balance things we need to work on, and some things we can do to ease the work load tomorrow. So that’s good.  We’ll see how the car feels in practice, and how confident we are. That determines how we will start the race, and how well we can do Sunday.”
 
PLEASE TALK ABOUT 203 PLUS (MPH) THAT IS AWESOME AROUND HERE:
“I don’t remember what we ran before. Is that a new record?”
 
MODERATOR:
“The 204.577 mph. is a new record. In fact, it is actually the fastest qualifying speed since Bill Elliott – 1987 when he ran 212 before the restrictor plate.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
“WOW! That says a lot about the cars. How comfortable the cars are. I didn’t really feel like we were going that much faster than what we have ran here in the past. We’ve added a good amount of downforce in the cars since last year. We’ve anticipated that we would be faster everywhere we went this year, and we have as a sport.  This place is no different. This is just an excellent race track. Really lends itself to a good motor – good power plant.&nbsp
; I think you have to give Hendrick a lot of credit for what they were able to accomplish today getting the pole, and having the top-three.  I also think that even though we got beat out there by a Stewart-Haas car, the relationship between the two companies is one that benefits both sides. It definitely appears to be pushing both companies to new heights taking something from a conversation I had with Steve Letarte.  We’re happy about the power plants. We’ve had some real good motors last week at Pocono. We knew coming in here it was going to be a plus for us. That is how it seemed to turn out today, like we expected.  Hopefully we can get this car to handle through the corner good, and utilize all that power on Sunday.”
 
IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE UP FRONT HERE AT MICHIGAN?
“When we practice, as much as you want to be out there running by yourself when the car drives great, you need to get in behind people and see what the balance of your car does.   I’ve experienced….JEFF GORDON INTERJECTS: Don’t tell them. Don’t tell them.  DALE EARNHARDT, JR:  Don’t tell them everything?  I experience different things depending on the track.  (LAUGHTER) So, we need to get out there and learn everything we can. That means getting behind guys and running. It might not look good on a stat sheet, or the lap times might not look the best, but you need to get out there in traffic and get an understanding of what you need to work on, and the balance, and things you can adjust, and what to expect on Sunday.”
 
IS THE HIGHER SPEEDS HERE TYPICAL OF WHAT HAPPENS WITH A RE-PAVE?
“They didn’t really change anything when they re-paved the track. The configuration is very similar, but it is just really smooth. It is standing up well even after this much time, you would anticipate a bump or two around the tunnel and maybe down in a couple of corners, and maybe the seams coming apart a little bit and they come in a fill up those seams with the stuff we don’t like to run on, but the track is holding up really well. We beat the asphalt up here because we are going through the corners so fast. But, it is holding up well. It is starting to lose a little bit of grip in three and four. That particular corner is lighter and one and two because of the way the sun sets here. That corner gets cooked and baked throughout the summer and winter time, a little bit longer throughout the day. So, it has a little less grip, so the car turns a little bit better through that corner. I think that corner is wider because of that. When I was here practicing, and even today in the Nationwide car, I could run near the apron kind of the preferred groove a lot of guys are running. At the test I was running about the groove with real comfort. You aren’t able to do that in one and two because the track is still a little bit polished down there. Even though it is as fast as it is, it has widened out a good bit, and the speed is due a little bit to the re-pave, but even more so due to the extra spoiler. We have so much spoiler on the back of these cars, and we have improved the front of these cars a lot. With the new rules to get the cars on the ground, it has also added additional grip and downforce, so we are really maxing out the downforce like we have never done before and that is why we are faster wherever we go, no matter what the surface.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
CERTAINLY A STRONG EFFORT TODAY BY THE FOLKS AT HENDRICK AND YOUR ARE RIGHT UP THERE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR FOR THE POLE.  203.776 MPH THAT IS PRETTY QUICK AROUND HERE.  HOW DID IT FEEL OUT THERE IN THE CAR GOING THAT FAST?
“It has to feel pretty good if you are going to go that fast because the speed obviously comes from the long straightaways and the big sweeping corners and the amount of grip that we have.  You have got to push it hard and as Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) mentioned the added downforce I think the combination of the spoiler and the downforce, but then what the teams have been able to do with those lower ride heights to maximize the amount of downforce as well as maintain a little car down the straightaway for good straightaway speed.  Then you take the horsepower on top of that and makes for a very fast race track and times there qualifying.  That was a great session for us.  The last two weeks have been great sessions for us.  We have improved in the final session, made it to session three solidly in all three session and then actually made our best lap on the final run.  It wasn’t enough for (Kevin) Harvick, he was strong.  Even the first time out I thought my lap was pretty good, which it was, but nowhere near Kevin’s.  That last time we actually got a little closer to him, had a good lap, but still not enough for Kevin (Harvick).  Those guys are really tough especially in qualifying, but great effort by Hendrick engines and to have me and Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) right there second and third and I know Jimmie (Johnson) is not that far back either.  Really am pretty excited, all day we have had a good car.”
 
DALE WAS SAYING HE DIDN’T EVEN REALLY NOTICE HOW FAST HE WAS GOING IT WAS JUST SO COMFORTABLE.  20 CARS ABOVE 200 MPH THAT USED TO BE A REAL DAUNTING NUMBER NOW IT SEEMS YOU GUYS HAVE GOTTEN ACCUSTOMED TO RUNNING THAT FAST HERE.  IS IT COMFORTABLE TO BE ABOVE 200 HERE NOW?
“It’s daunting if something goes wrong I can tell you that.  This weekend is going to be a real challenge for reliability.  We are going so fast.  From engines to just components on the car, tires, it’s concerning.  I’m glad it’s 400 miles, but even 400 miles you are going to have to manage it.  The cars are comfortable enough and stuck so well that is why you are not really noticing the speeds as a driver.  As a driver, I don’t know how much faster we’ve gone this year than last year, but I feel like it’s quite a bit.  My car was way more comfortable and those speeds were easier to handle this year than they were last year.”
 
HOW COMFORTABLE DO YOU THINK YOUR CAR WILL BE WHEN IT IS IN TRAFFIC?
“I mean we were really hoping that we would qualify well.  We had some issues getting switched over into qualifying trim in practice and we only got to make one run and it was a pretty good run.  I felt like I left quite a bit out on the track because I just wasn’t as aggressive as I could have been.  Sometimes you only learn that by making a run that is why you like to make two or three runs in practice.  Luckily I was able to learn a lot from that and then go apply that in qualifying the three sessions.  I think that luckily we are starting up front, but we know we are going to get back in traffic at some point.  I hope we don’t.  It would be nice to keep the track position, but you’ve got to believe that you are going to be in it.  You hope that by that time the groove is widened out a little bit more as Dale mentioned three and four is definitely a little bit wider so you have a few more options.  But one and two there are really not a lot of options.  The speeds that we are carrying even last week at Pocono we had some different strategies going on and I got back into about 15th or 18th at one time and it was like flipping a switched.  The amount of grip that the car had went from awesome to none.  It was very challenging.  We are just seeing more and more of that as the cars become more aero dependent.  I say that because we are maximizing the grip and downforce and so if you take any amount of that away it makes a bigger difference than it ever used to. You get back in traffic at a place like this in the corners for the length of time that we are in the corners it’s going to be a huge change.  That is another part of the survival is surviving traffic and being prepared for it.  There is nothing the team can do.  There is very little the team can do.  It’s yo
u having to figure out what is going to happen when you drive into the corner and recognize that the car is buffeting around and there is probably not a lot of downforce on it.”
 
LAST YEAR IT BECAME KIND OF A TIRED STORY LINE PEOPLE STARTED TO ASK YOU TO LOOK TOWARDS THE END OF YOUR CAREER AT THIS POINT LAST YEAR AND HERE YOU ARE LEADING THE POINTS CAN YOU REFLECT ON THIS LAST YEAR WHERE YOU ARE AT NOW COMPARED TO MAYBE A YEAR AGO?
“Man I’m just trying to go out on top.  (Laughs) That is going to get me in as much trouble as what I said in January.  Yeah, I have always said that the combinations are being healthy, being competitive and just enjoying myself out there.  I felt like if those first two things are working for me then the last is going to come as well.  As long as that is there then I want to keep doing it.  Obviously, I’m enjoying myself a lot right now.  I had a little health issue a couple of weeks ago, but that is subsided now and feeling pretty good.  The race cars are just so good that I’m just enjoying every time we are on the track every weekend that we are racing and that has certainly brought back some fire in me and the team.  I just feel like Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) has really worked hard to step things up to be a championship caliber team.  I think that the performance this year is showing that hard work and effort paying off.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 13, 2014
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
BEFORE THIS KNOCKOUT QUALIFYING CAME INTO PLAY SIX NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES POLES.  YOU KNOW HAVE THREE WITH THIS FORM OF QUALIFYING:
“I think that is just a credit on our Budweiser and Stewart-Haas race team for putting fast race cars on the track.  When you put it together with the Hendrick Motorsports engine package it creates a lot of speed and it makes coming to these place a lot of fun.  Really excited to start on the pole and get that first pit box and hopefully we can put the whole day together on Sunday.”
 
WAS YOUR CAR JUST THAT GOOD BY ITSELF OR DID YOU TRY TO FIND SOME AIDE AS WELL?
“We just kind of wanted to go right at the beginning of that session.  The second session I got too close to the No. 88 coming to the green and I felt like it hurt my lap.  We just tried to get a clean lap that time.  The car actually ran the fastest that it had.  I think clean air for us was probably a better decision.”
 
YOU CAN’T HOLD YOUR BREATH AROUND HERE THAT LONG, CAN YOU?
“You know, it’s actually the opposite. You just have to relax and really pay attention to not overdrive it because it’s so easy to miss your line on the entry to the corner. So, I’ve just got to thank everybody on my Budweiser Chevrolet; and everybody from the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop. You put those two packages together and it creates a lot of speed. My guys are doing a great job and we just have to keep doing everything we’ve been doing, and we have fast race cars.”
 
HOW FRUSTRATING HAVE THE WEEKS BEEN WHEN YOU HAVE THE FAST CARS AND YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO COME THROUGH WITH THE WIN?
“Well, it’s just part of it. In my career I’ve won a lot of races that I probably shouldn’t have won and lost a lot that you should have won. So, it’s a vicious cycle and we’ve had flat tires two weeks in a row and really fast cars to go along with it. But, you just have to keep plugging along week by week, and that’s where the experience in this sport, and a lot of these guys have been around this a long time. Monday morning, you’d better forget what you did last week because you’ve got to worry about the week coming.”
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
IS THIS A MATTER THAT EVERY DEPARTMENT AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS TO WORK HARD AND GET EVERYTHING OUT OF THESE CARS WHEN YOU ARE GOING THIS SPEED?
“Absolutely, you’ve got to get through the corners, but at this place you’ve got to get down these long straightaways and I think it’s just a full combination of all the hard work of the body, the chassis and the set-up as well as that great horsepower from Hendrick.  Hendrick engine on the pole, obviously that is what it takes to be on the front row here today.  We are pretty excited.  We put up a heck of a lap that I thought was just another great effort by this Drive To End Hunger Chevy SS team.  Just not enough to get Harvick those guys are really tough right now.”
 
YOUR CAR IS EXCEPTIONAL IN RACE TRIM, AND NOW ALSO IN QUALIFYING TRIM
“The car is just really solid. I’m really proud of all the guys and all the hard work they’ve put in as well as the engine shop. At a place like this, the only way that Drive to End Hunger Chevy SS is getting around here that fast is that you’ve got to have a lot of power under the hood. The engineers are doing a great job with the bodies and getting the cars through the corners as well. It’s been a fun day. I struggled here last year and boy, these last two weeks have just been phenomenal qualifying sessions and cars for us. You’ve got to take your hat off to (Kevin) Harvick and those guys. They are just superfast, especially when it comes to qualifying. We gave it a great effort but not quite enough to get those guys. But we’ll certainly take this second place and take it into Sunday with a lot of momentum and a lot of excitement.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/SUPERMAN CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD
HOW WAS THE CAR IN PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING? WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR SUNDAY? “I’m real happy with the qualifying effort obviously, especially in the transition from the second round, to the last round. We’re making some good gains on how we need to adjust the car to find the balance we need as continue to cycle the tires each qualifying run. That is something we really needed to improve our qualifying efforts. The car has real good speed. The car is pretty comfortable. Both cars – the Nationwide car and the Cup car – seem to be very competitive. We’ll get a chance tomorrow to really work on our race trim package for the Cup car tomorrow. We ran a little bit of race trim this morning. The track wasn’t ideal, but we understand some balance things we need to work on, and some things we can do to ease the work load tomorrow. So that’s good.  We’ll see how the car feels in practice, and how confident we are. That determines how we will start the race, and how well we can do Sunday.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH
“We just actually got through (Turns) 1 and 2 really good on that last run I was out. I think I overshot (Turn) 3, which I had to lift all the way out and gave up too much speed getting back to the throttle. So I would say I got through 1 and 2 so well that I thought there was a lot in 3 and there wasn’t. So I ended up pushing the car and making it a little too tight and we lost a little bit with our Farmers Insurance Chevy. But there is still a lot of speed in the car. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and working on it and getting prepared for the race on Sunday. It’s a pretty good track and we should run really well here. Our engines and cars are really strong.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 13, 2014
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
BEFORE THIS KNOCKOUT QUALIFYING CAME INTO PLAY SIX NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES POLES.  YOU KNOW HAVE THREE WITH THIS FORM OF QUALIFYING:
“I think that is just a credit on our Budweiser and Stewart-Haas race team for putting fast race cars on the track.  When you put it together with the Hendrick Motorsports engine package it creates a lot of speed and it makes coming to these place a lot of fun.  Really excited to start on the pole and get that first pit box and hopefully we can put the whole day together on Sunday.”
 
WAS YOUR CAR JUST THAT GOOD BY ITSELF OR DID YOU TRY TO FIND SOME AIDE AS WELL?
“We just kind of wanted to go right at the beginning of that session.  The second session I got too close to the No. 88 coming to the green and I felt like it hurt my lap.  We just tried to get a clean lap that time.  The car actually ran the fastest that it had.  I think clean air for us was probably a better decision.”
 
YOU CAN’T HOLD YOUR BREATH AROUND HERE THAT LONG, CAN YOU?
“You know, it’s actually the opposite. You just have to relax and really pay attention to not overdrive it because it’s so easy to miss your line on the entry to the corner. So, I’ve just got to thank everybody on my Budweiser Chevrolet; and everybody from the Hendrick Motorsports engine shop. You put those two packages together and it creates a lot of speed. My guys are doing a great job and we just have to keep doing everything we’ve been doing, and we have fast race cars.”
 
HOW FRUSTRATING HAVE THE WEEKS BEEN WHEN YOU HAVE THE FAST CARS AND YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO COME THROUGH WITH THE WIN?
“Well, it’s just part of it. In my career I’ve won a lot of races that I probably shouldn’t have won and lost a lot that you should have won. So, it’s a vicious cycle and we’ve had flat tires two weeks in a row and really fast cars to go along with it. But, you just have to keep plugging along week by week, and that’s where the experience in this sport, and a lot of these guys have been around this a long time. Monday morning, you’d better forget what you did last week because you’ve got to worry about the week coming.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 13, 2014
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and discussed resigning of Farmers Insurance, racing at Michigan, status of his contract with Hendrick Motorsports, Kyle Busch and other topics.  Full transcript:
 
ON RENEWAL OF FARMERS INSURANCE AS PRIMARY SPONSOR: “It is really good news. It is exciting to have Farmers Insurance re-sign for three more years, and be part of our No. 5 team. We’ve done a lot with them, and have really enjoyed working with them over the years. We won some races. We have a good partnership. I think what we did this year with ‘Thank a Million Teachers’ was a…I had a lot of fun with it. It was a great promotion that they did just showing teachers how much we appreciate them. I spend a lot of time with teachers and then with students at the same time in the month of May in four different states, four different schools. I really enjoyed that. It is things like that that I am excited about that we will get to keep doing with Farmers Insurance. I’m looking forward to winning also, and getting them in Victory Lane more than we have at this point.”
 
ON SECURE FEELING OF HAVING SPONSOR SIGNED, AND CHALLENGES OF MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY: “It feels good when you know you have sponsorship. They are such a big part of what makes us able to race each weekend and put everything into it that Hendrick Motorsports does. I’m glad about Farmers Insurance. We have Great Clips there as well. I’m excited about it; I think there will be some good things there.
 
“As far as Hendrick at this track, I think that they have always been pretty strong here. I remember racing against them before I was at Hendrick, and they were fast. I know Fords have won here a lot for some reason, but I’ve watched Jimmie (Johnson), Jeff (Gordon) and Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) win twice here. I feel like it is a good track for us. We were leading here and had a tire problem in turn one. Jimmie was really good as well. We were fast today, and look forward to a solid weekend.”

WHERE ARE YOU WITH YOUR DRIVER’S CONTRACT WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS? “I like being at HMS. It is just an unbelievable place. Getting to work with the three teammates that I get to work with each week is better than anything I’ve ever done in racing as far as guys I’ve been able to work with. I am getting information there from three of the best in racing. I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. Mr. Hendrick is always trying to help me as a driver; as a person and he gives us every opportunity. So, I want to be there a long time. We still have a year-and-a-half before my deal’s up. So I think performance, and sponsors that want to be part of them, and just getting our team back where it needs to be. We’ve struggled some this year for really no reason. We can’t have that. If we can get rid of some of those struggles, I would hope that I would be at Hendrick Motorsports for a long time.”
 
WHEN DO YOU START TALKING ABOUT RENEWAL? “I think you start talking about it whenever they start talking about it. I don’t know when that date is, but I think we have a lot of really good things going on, and with a little bit of performance here and there, maybe it will come up sooner than later. I would love to be there for a long time, so we will kind of have to see how that works out.”
 
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS TRACK AND YOUR PERFORMANCES ON IT? “It is a really smooth, high-speed different Michigan than what it was the first seven years I came here and raced. I enjoy it. It is going to be hot; it is going to be 83 on Sunday. I think there will be a little less grip out there which hopefully should open up the race track and give us more opportunity to make passes because the track is a lot grayer than it was last year. I think it will be good. It just takes time when a track gets repaved especially with this type of banking and this type of speed to really have the track open up and race really well. I think it is heading in that direction. As far as our performance, we ran pretty good in both races. We had a tire in the second one leading, so I felt like we had a top two or three car there. In the first one we got to seventh from the back, so that was pretty good performance.”
 
YOU ARE GOING TO SONOMA NEXT WEEK, AND TEMPERS CAN EASILY FLARE AT A ROAD COURSE, AS WELL AS IN YOUR PERSONAL CAR ON THE FREEWAY.  WHAT ARE THINGS THAT CAN MAKE YOU ANGRY WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING YOUR PERSONAL CAR ON THE HIGHWAY?
“There are a lot of things that make me angry out there. People driving slow in the fast lane, that is the first one. Not paying attention. Texting. Swerving because they aren’t paying attention.  Someone sitting at a stop sign and not paying attention…I saw this yesterday, and it got to me pretty good. It is just people not paying attention more than anything at the end of the day.  I just feel like when you are on the roads, it is a good place to pay attention. Things happen fast. Until you have been in accidents, you might not realize that. But once you get in one…even at 40 miles-an-hour, it happens a lot quicker than you are expecting it to.”
 
HAVE YOU AND KYLE BUSCH SPOKEN SINCE LAST WEEK? IF SO, HOW DID THAT GO?  “He sent me an email, then a text to ask if I got it. I told him I did, and that is how it went. I talked through every situation and scenario last year with him when we had them, and to this day, I’ve still raced him the exact same way. For him to do that, I knew it was coming as soon as he floored it in the corner. I was like ‘He can’t. He can’t. He’s going to run me right in the wall’. I think he was having a bad day, and just loses it. But as far as us talking, we haven’t. He did write me an email, but I don’t really care anymore. I don’t care to talk to him or anything.”
 
WHAT CAN BE READ INTO THE PRACTICE SPEEDS AT MIS, AND BEING FASTEST IN THE FIRST PRACTICE? IS THAT A GOOD READ OR IS THERE STILL ENOUUGH TIME FOR EVERYBODY TO CATCH UP? “Well it was all just qualifying, so the cars change a good bit for the race. They will change the setup a lot for tomorrow. The set-ups, and kind of the balance of the car and what you can get away with. This place when you are taped solid, and have all the downforce put in the car, it’s a much different feel than what we’ll have tomorrow, and especially what we will have Sunday when there is cars all around. I wouldn’t say you can read a lot into it, but definitely think that when you hit on something, you can carry some of that with you. I felt like at the end of practice we made some really big gains with our Farmers Insurance Chevy. I look forward to the whole weekend, I think we will be a strong car all weekend long after how we have started.”
 
HOW DO YOU KEEP THE PRESSURE FROM MOUNTING ON YOU AS THE RACES ARE COUNTING DOWN, AND WINS COUNTING SO MUCH? “Really where we are at right now, as a team, we need to show up each weekend, and put full weekends together; from myself to Kenny (Francis, crew chief) to everybody on our team. We all have talked about this all weekend, and all week long leading into this race. We just need to step up, and if we do that, I feel like ‘yes, there is going to be pressure, we want to be in the Chase’. But we have fast enough cars. We have all the equipment; everything there to do it. We just need to put those weekends together. Put ourselves in position, and there is still plenty of time to win races.”
 
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GAME OF CHICKEN THAT GETS PLAYED WITH SOMETHING THINKING THE OTHER ONE IS GOING TO LIFT? “This is just when one guy in on the inside and one guy is on the outside and a wall is coming, the car on the outside is going to hit the wall first if he doesn’t…. you know, when you run out of space.  The guy on the inside
wants to use the entire exit of the corner to carry his speed down the next straightaway. My whole opinion, and my whole point on that was I had already passed Kyle (Busch) the reason he passed me back was because I was passing Ryan Newman and two cars, with no one in front of us-the next car was way up-going down the straightaway side-by-side gave Kyle the opportunity to get a big draft, and stick his nose in there when we got to turn one. So suddenly he is back and he knows if he didn’t clear me there, that we would be a position behind. So he just floored it, and if it is close someone is going to life. So that is the way I look at it. You just put someone in that position, and it’s all up to the guy on the inside. His spotter was telling him outside, outside, outside.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 13, 2014
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 QUICKEN LOANS CHEVROLET SS met with media and discussed racing Michigan, home of Quicken Loans and auto industry manufacturers, team efforts to improve at-track, his plane ride to the track the morning, and more. Full Transcript:
 
ON QUICKEN LOANS SPONSORING THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP RACE AT MIS THIS WEEKEND
“Well, you know how when we come up here to Michigan we talk about the importance of the manufacturer’s side of it and what it means to win in the backyard of your manufacturer; so when you can win in the backyard of your manufacturer, your primary sponsor, and the sponsor of the race, it’s probably about tenfold more important. And we had an opportunity to come up here and test. We had a really good test. I feel like our Quicken Loans Chevrolet was pretty good here in practice. We didn’t get the absolute best qualifying lap as I think some other guys did, but it’s been a lot of fun working with the guys at Quicken Loans. Their backyard is Detroit. So this is their backyard race track and it was my kind of race track growing up being born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. So, it’s a good opportunity for us to get back to Victory Lane like we did in Indy.”
 
COMMENT FROM JAY FARNER, PRESIDENT AND CMO OF QUICKEN LOANS
“There’s nothing better than doing something in your backyard. We’ve got 12,000 + team members out in the city of Detroit. We’re really actively involved in helping to make sure that Detroit and all of Michigan is growing, so this is great for our team. We’ll bring hundreds of our team down to watch the race and hopefully watch the No. 31 car have a great day. It’s also just great for the state of Michigan. I think it helps show off to the country all the wonderful things that are happening here in the state of Michigan and MIS is a beautiful place so we’re excited to be a part of it.”
 
RYAN, YOU’VE BEEN REALLY CONSISTENT WITHIN A NUMBER OF TOP 20 FINISHES, BUT HOW DO YOU GET TO THAT EXTRA GEAR AND GET IN THE TOP 5 AND HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN?
“We’ve been working on that. Pocono was a good rebound weekend for us after having a tire issue at the Coca-Cola 600 and then a transmission issue at Dover. So, we’ve been running where we’ve been finishing for the most part, but we do need to step that up, definitely. If you’re in the top 10, you’ve got a chance of finishing in the top 5, but rarely can you be in the top 10 and have a chance at winning. You have to be running in the top 5. So It’s just a combination of everything. Everybody’s got to step their game up a little bit; me included. Little things like watching your speed on pit road and capitalizing on not losing time. Pit stops; obviously the race car is the biggest part of that, but overall, it’s a compound effect of all the little things that really make a difference.”
 
THIS MORNING WE HEARD DALE EARNHARDT JR’S VERSION OF THE ‘TRAVEL MORNING’. THERE WAS SOMETHING LIKE THEY CHANGED THE TIME FOR THE PLANE TO LEAVE. WERE YOU AWARE OF IT?
“I talked to Junior Monday night and asked if I could bum a ride up here because my wife and the kids are coming up tomorrow on my plane, and it just made sense if I could just jump a ride instead of sending a plane back and forth. He said yeah, no problem. I double-checked and made sure that we were 8:30 Friday morning and everything was good because it was pretty much the last ride that I thought was going to go out to come up here. It was convenient and we were flying into the same airport and we were supposed to leave at 8:30 and I showed up before 8:30 and his truck was there and the airplane was gone.
 
“So, I knew I was in trouble at that point. I jumped in my truck and drove across the airport, literally, and happened to see Dale Jarrett’s plane sitting there. I walked in and Dale wasn’t there yet, but his pilots were. And I said, ‘I’m hoping you guys are going to Michigan, right?’ And they said yes and so I bummed a ride. It was extravagantly convenient and lucky at the same time.” (laughter)
 
HE SAID SOMETHING LIKE MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE CHECKED EARLIER IN THE WEEK
“We had texted back and forth a couple of times because he wasn’t sure about what FBO and all that stuff. I forget when the last confirmation was, but we were good. And it was just an honest mistake, I guess; he forgot. I don’t think it was by any means on purpose. He had more people on the airplane.”
 
DOES DJ’S SON STILL SPOT FOR YOU?
“Yeah. I got in the car and I told Jason his old man saved me on this one (laughs).  That’s probably the closest I’ve been to not making a practice. I made it from the Adrian Airport to here pretty quick.”
 
GOING TO SONOMA NEXT WEEK, TEMPERS CAN EASILY FLARE ON THE ROAD COURSE. TEMPERS CAN FLARE ON THE HIGHWAY AS WELL. WHAT THINGS REALLY MAKE YOU ANGRY WHEN DRIVING YOUR CAR ON THE HIGHWAY?
“The biggest thing is people driving in the fast lane with their phone in their hand. That really gets me going. But that’s the majority of it. I always say accidents happen because two people aren’t paying attention. If you cross the centerline, the other person has a responsibility, too. But when you’re out there driving and you think you’re just minding your own business and everything’s fine but you’re blocking up traffic, I’m just not big on that. I don’t like to lose time on the Interstate. It’s hard to make time.”
 
CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RYAN NEWMAN?
JAY FARNER:
“He’s smooth. He found a way to get up here when he missed his first flight. This guy makes it happen. He’s got a great personality and the reason we do sponsorships, and in particular NASCAR, is that we want to connect with the fan base. You don’t get a mortgage every day. It’s every five or seven years. We need to find ways to connect with our clients and fan base and let them know that we’re here. And so there’s not a better way than to pick a guy like Ryan who can do that for us. He has a good sense of humor, and he’s a quality guy; even his road rage stories are pretty tame. You don’t have to worry about him doing something crazy for your brand. So, he’s a sharp guy. We say that we’re engineered to amaze because we’re focused on the process and what we’re doing and that’s the same thing we’ve learned from him. He’s very thoughtful about everything that happens in that race car and on the track, so we just think he’s a good representation of our brand.”
 
RYAN, YOU WERE THE MOST RECENT CHEVROLET WINNER LAST YEAR AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. CHEVROLET HAS 10 WINS IN THE LAST 10 YEARS THERE. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT CHEVROLET’S SUCCESS AT THAT PARTICULAR TRACK?
“Yeah, I was actually talking to Alba (Colon, NASCAR Sprint Cup program manager for Chevrolet Racing), and she reminded me of that when we were doing one of our hospitalities at Pocono. It’s a pretty impressive stat actually, to have 10 in a row at a race track that’s sponsored by Chevrolet is obviously pretty cool. But to be such a big race, it makes it even sweeter. For me, had I not won, Jimmie Johnson would have and it would have been another Chevrolet in Victory Lane. In the end, it’s just an honor. I’ve always said that with Chevrolet, the difference is in the nuts and bolts and the difference is in the people; and they have proven not just in winning the Brickyard, but also in championships, that they make a difference. Those people make a difference.”
 

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Spirit of Le Mans Award for Fehan
Receives prestigious honor from Le Mans governing body
 
DETROIT (June 13, 2014) – Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan is presented with the Spirit of Le Mans award today from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest – the sporting authority of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Fehan, who oversees the Corvette Racing program on behalf of Chevrolet, received the honor the day before the start of the 82nd running of Le Mans.
 
The Spirit of Le Mans award is presented annually by the ACO to the person who has been instrumental in the growth in stature of the 24 Hours.
 
Fehan has been the program manager for Corvette Racing since its debut in 1999. Three years earlier, he and former GM Racing executive director Herb Fishel – a Spirit of Le Mans recipient in 2003 – helped put the plans in place to launch Corvette’s return to professional road racing in 1999, and the program debuted at Le Mans in 2000. A year later, Corvette Racing captured the first of its seven class wins at Le Mans.
 
“I am deeply honored and grateful to receive the esteemed Spirit of Le Mans award,” Fehan said. “To be in a group that includes some of endurance racing’s most famous names is extremely humbling.
 
“Returning to the 24 Hours of Le Mans each year is a very powerful and emotional time for me personally, along with everyone at Corvette Racing,” Fehan added. “Le Mans is one of the world’s great competitions and one where we have had considerable success. But even without that, Le Mans would still retain the mystique that comes over me each time I drive into the track for the first time each year. Those experiences – and many others we have achieved at Corvette Racing – are ones that I will remember for the rest of the my life.”
 
Corvette Racing debuts the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R this year at Le Mans with a two-car attack in the GTE Pro class. Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor will drive the No. 73 Corvette with Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook manning the No. 74 Corvette.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 13, 2014
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/SUPERMAN CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and discussed his Superman paint scheme on the No. 88 Chevrolet SS this weekend, fan reaction from his win last week at Pocono, leaving fellow Chevrolet driver Ryan Newman at the airport and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
YOU WON HERE IN 2012 WITH THE BATMAN SUPERHERO ON YOUR CAR, THIS WEEK YOU HAVE THE SUPERMAN PAINT SCHEME.  WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HAVING A SUPERHERO ON YOUR CAR THIS WEEKEND AND HOW DO YOU THINK THAT IS GOING TO PLAY OUT FOR YOU?
“Well we’ve got to prove to the fans that Superman is not bad luck for me.  We ran Superman on the car at Charlotte and everybody was very excited about the promotion with DC Comics that we are doing at Hendrick Motorsports.  We’ve got a program with them for a couple of years it’s going to be very exciting.  Pairing DC Comics with the National Guard seemed like a natural fit.  We went into Charlotte thinking we were going to do very well. The car was very fast and felt like we had a good shot of running really well maybe even winning the race.  But had some troubles in the race so my race fans were a little curious as to why we needed to have Superman back on the car.  We are here to prove this weekend that he belongs on the hood and that we can do some great things and hopefully win this race this weekend.
 
“I think it’s a great looking race car.  I thought it looked awesome at Charlotte. Now we’ve got the gold numbers on it this weekend and Superman is on the hood.  I’m excited.  I enjoy working with DC Comics they are a fun group of people with a lot of great initiatives that match well with our sport and fit well with our sport.  We like to have them around need to keep them around and hopefully win a race here and get them excited about the future.”
 
WHAT WAS THE THING THAT STOOD OUT IN THE CELEBRATION OR REACTION YOU GOT FROM PEOPLE DURING THE WEEK?  YOUR TEAM IS REALLY PUMPED UP AFTER LAST WEEK’S WIN:
“Well the one thing that stands out to me is the fans reaction.  Especially the stuff on You Tube, the stuff Mike Davis puts together and just being able to see that it’s a bit of an ultimate reward.  And is kind of at the core of why we go out and race.  It wouldn’t be any fun people would all be bored to death if there wasn’t anybody here watching.  To see somebody get that excited and that happy about our efforts is a hell of a pat on the back.  That is the big take away.  Obviously we are really happy about how we performed and felt worthy of winning that race and felt like that we are that kind of team that can go out there and win multiple races and compete very well.  I have felt for a while now that we were right on the brink of something good something new and hopefully that is what we are seeing this year and hopefully we can get even better. I think we can compete even better than we are now.  Hopefully we can make that happen in the next several months when the time is right.” 
 
HAS RYAN NEWMAN ANSWERED YOUR TEXTS?  CAN YOU TELL US THE WHOLE STORY ABOUT HIM BEING LEFT AT THE AIRPORT?
“No, is he here?  Let me check (checks his phone).  Yes, he did.  He said ‘I should have texted last night’.  But I still don’t know where he’s at.  Yeah, this is what happened, this is the honest truth.  Tuesday he asked me if he could get a ride to the race track which is common for drivers to do that.  We were leaving at 8:30 a.m. that is what it said on my calendar.  Then since Tuesday we have added some media to this morning, did a couple of things out front.  My PR guy Mike Hoag moved take-off time to 8:00 a.m.  I didn’t know about it. I didn’t look at my calendar. When I got up this morning I didn’t look at the clock, I just got in the shower, went downstairs, got in the car and drove to the airport and got on the plane.  I forgot about Ryan.  Even if we were taking off at 8:30 a.m. and he wasn’t there I probably would have left him.  Yeah, he should have texted me last night.  I think he got a ride. That was unfortunate for sure, but it happens.”
 
 YOU WON YOUR SECOND RACE OF THE YEAR LAST WEEKEND NOW EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT HOW MANY RACES YOU WILL WIN THIS YEAR.  DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT AT ALL?  DOES IT SURPRISE YOU?
“Definitely that’s new. That’s the new conversation topic for us, but I just want to win the next one. We have so much fun winning and going to Victory Lane and last week was so much fun (with) the feeling that you have inside and that you have for several hours after that. It’s like the best feeling ever. And I want to do it again; I want to do it now, this weekend. So, I just want to win more races and take care of the car and finish as well as we can and I think that mentality and making that a reality can win us a championship. But, just one week at a time, trying to win a race, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
 
NOW THAT YOU HAVE TWO WINS, YOU ARE PRETTY MUCH PUNCHED INTO THE CHASE. DO YOU GAMBLE SOME TO GET MORE VICTORIES OR DO YOU PLAY IT CAUTIOUS?
“No, we don’t play it cautious. We’ve gambled pretty good, a little bit more than we typically would after we won Daytona because of the new point system, so I think we can even be a bit more aggressive and Steve (Letarte, crew chief) probably will in certain situations. We can definitely be more aggressive with our fuel mileage. That’s typically the one thing that you’ll be more aggressive with whereas say, if you don’t win a win and you’re three laps short, you might try to stay out and hope for them cautions or try to save that fuel mileage over that particular run. Whereas, with two wins, we might do that with something like seven or eight laps short, something ridiculous. But hey, if we get a couple of cautions, then we’re right on the fine line of making it work. And track position at some of these tracks is so important, for example this past weekend at Pocono, you could really gamble hard on that fuel mileage where two years ago, you would have definitely come down pit road and filled it up and tried to get a top 10, like we did in 2012, I think.”
 
WITH YOUR SUCCESS LEVEL AT MICHIGAN, WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL FOR THIS WEEKEND?
“I feel pretty good. You’ve got to be confident because we ran well here, but at the same time, this is a new package. We haven’t raced here with the cars slammed to the ground and all the new rules that we’ve got this year. We’ve got some new competitors in the battle. The No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) has been lightning fast every week, so you’ve got to be looking at him when practice starts today to see how they are because they’re going to be fast. And you’ve got a lot of new players and some new cars that are going to be up front trying to compete. And, a lot of new challenges that you’re going to have to face that you didn’t face last year or the year before. So, it’s a little bit of a whole new deal. So we’ll see how it works out. I think we can be quick. We came here and tested for Goodyear and had some time and opportunity to work on our car a little bit while we were at the test and maybe learn some things that we needed to learn. Hopefully that will give us an edge.”
 
YOU HAVE BEEN STRONG HERE SINCE 2012. LAST AUGUST THERE WAS A TIRE PROBLEM. WITH THAT TEST, DO YOU HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE AND DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE IN GOOD SHAPE?
“Well, we weren’t on them tires too long at the test. We would just run 15 or 20-lap runs and look at wear and let Goodyear decide on what tire they felt comfortable with. We blew a tire in the race last year; blew a right front and hit the
wall. We blew a motor at the other race. We were running well in both events; leading one and running in the top 10 in the other. So, I feel like we can be competitive here and we’ll just have to be real conservative on our right front camber, air pressures, and things like that to make sure the tire lives. That’s going to cost us some speed and cost us some competitiveness in our car, but to make sure we don’t have any problems, that’s what we’re going to have to do. And, maybe we can work around that with some other components in the car and regain that speed throughout the weekend.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 13, 2014
 
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Michigan International Speedway and discussed the speeds at Michigan, his expectations for Sonoma and many other topics.  Full Transcript:
 
WHAT IS THE SPEED LIKE HERE FOR YOU GUYS?
“I don’t know I like Michigan a lot.  It’s a 2-mile track.  I think I do well on the 1.5-mile to 2-mile race tracks.  I wish I would have gotten to race here before they repaved it.  We did well here in the Nationwide race last year and looking for some good things again this week.  It’s probably a lot of a pit strategy race and track position race, but I feel like our Target team is good at getting me track position.  I’m really excited about this weekend.”
 
ARE THE SPEEDS DIFFERENT HERE THAN AT OTHER FAST TRACKS LIKE ATLANTA?
“I have never ran a Cup car at either Atlanta or here so I don’t know how the sensation of speed feels.  This track is so smooth or at least in a Nationwide car last year you don’t really feel like you are going 200 plus miles per hour, but it’s always different in the Cup cars.  These cars are extremely fast.  I bet it will be a fast race track.  This track has got a lot of grip though too.  That makes it feel like it slows down some.”
 
HOW DO YOU FEEL HEADING INTO THE SUMMER MONTHS? WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR YOUR SUMMER?  DO YOU THINK THERE IS A TRACK WITHIN THOSE RACES YOU COULD GET YOUR FIRST WIN AT?
“Yeah, I think Michigan is a good track for a first win.  It’s the size race track that I like.  We have been close a few times.  We have been pretty competitive every week so I think just keep knocking on the door and the wins will come.  Just have to stay consistent and put yourself in contention each week to try and sneak out a win.”
 
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR PROGRESS THUS FAR THIS SEASON?  YOU ARE TOP 10 IN POINTS, THINGS SEEM TO BE GOING WELL FOR YOU:
“Yeah, it’s all going really good so far.  Top 10 in points; we have been a top 10 car every week pretty much.  It really is fun I’m having a blast this year.  A lot of stuff going on, me and Katelyn (Sweet, girlfriend) just found out we are having a baby so it’s a really exciting time.  How good the racing has been going, a new house, all that and now that so it’s been a lot of fun.”
 
SONOMA NEXT WEEK HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO GO ROAD RACING NEXT WEEK?
“I’m really excited I like road racing a lot.  I haven’t done much of it.  I did three Nationwide races last year and felt like I was pretty competitive at all three of those races.  Road America I ran third or fourth most of the race and got caught up in an accident in the last part of the race and was able to get back to seventh.  Mid-Ohio I came back from three laps down to be running third on the last lap and got moved out of the way which ended up in a bad finish there.  In Watkins Glen we were quick, but I missed a shift there and blew the engine up.  Really looking forward to going to Sonoma for my home town race.  I get to see a lot of friends, go to a sprint car race nearby to go watch on Saturday night.  It’s going to be a lot of fun going home.”
 
FOR YOU GOING TO SONOMA WHAT IS THE KEY FOR YOU GOING TO THAT RACE TRACK?
“I guess the key for every road course is to stay on track all day and you can get a top 10 finish.  There is a lot of chaos that goes on at road course races.  So just have to stay out of trouble and get a good finish.  We have worked really hard to get to where we are at in points right now so just can’t throw it away by doing something stupid.  Just stay out of trouble and hopefully get a good finish.”
 
WHAT IS THE HARDEST PART TO YOU ABOUT ROAD RACING?
“I haven’t done a whole lot of it so I don’t know it 100 percent yet.  I got to go do Bondurant this week and I feel like I learned a little bit that will help me a lot.  I’m excited to get to Sonoma just because of the stuff that I learned at Bondurant I hadn’t known really until now.  I think I will be even better when I get to Sonoma.”
 
WHEN IS THE BABY DUE?
“It was December 29th the first time she went then it was Christmas now it is kind of back to December 29th.  Christmas sounds cool so I will go with Christmas.”
 
 

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Second and Fourth in Qualifying for Corvette C7.Rs
Garcia leads qualifying efforts for the Le Mans debut for C7.Rs
 
LE MANS, France (June 13, 2014) – Corvette Racing will start second and fourth Saturday in the GTE Pro class for the 24 Hours of Le Mans following strong qualifying runs for its two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Antonio Garcia set a best time of 3:54.777 (129.867 mph) in the No. 73 Corvette C7.R and Oliver Gavin qualified the No. 74 Corvette C7.R fourth in class at 3:55.190 (129.618 mph) – encouraging starts for each of the two Corvette Racing entries.
 
“The Corvette Racing team had two solid evening sessions on track to qualify P2 and P4 in the GTE Pro class,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “It also was great to get the Corvette Racing drivers additional laps in the new Chevrolet Corvette C7.R at night. The whole team is fully focused on the race.”
 
Garcia – driving with Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor – posted his quickest in the middle portion of the night’s final session. He improved on his best effort in the first session – one that was faster than any other car in the opening two hours – by 0.261 seconds around the 8.3-mile circuit.
 
“I had a very good qualifying lap today,” Garcia said. “It’s always difficult to know exactly how much you can push, especially on Thursday when you more or less know that these laps in the last session are the last laps before race day. You don’t want to take too many risks and we have seen on quite a few occasions this year and in the past that if it goes wrong here, it goes wrong big time.”
 
Gavin, who is teaming with Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook, also set his best lap in Thursday’s final session.
 
The times were improvements from Wednesday’s red-flag filled session in which Garcia set the best time in the No. 73 Corvette at 3:56.443 (128.935 mph). Milner’s best effort in the No. 74 Corvette C7.R was a 3:59.446 (127.319 mph).
 
Judging by qualifying times, the race should be extremely competitive. The gap from Garcia to the seventh-place Porsche was less than a second.
 
Corvette Racing will go for its eighth class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2001 at 3 p.m. CET/9 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 14 with live coverage throughout on FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, the FOX Sports Go mobile app and FOXsports.com – which will stream live Corvette Racing in-car camera feeds and a pit camera for the full race in the U.S.
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 73 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“I’m quite happy with the balance and how the car feels for the race, so it looks promising. We mustn’t forget that this is still the first Le Mans for the Corvette C7.R, so we still have some unknowns regarding certain aspects. But we did a good job in preparing the car over the past two days and the Test Day and I can say we have a real good car for the 24 Hours. We’ll still have to see where exactly our competitors are, because cars can be fast over a single lap while others can be a bit slower over a single lap but be very consistent once they’re on race pace.”
 
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 74 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It was certainly better this evening than yesterday. We managed to get some decent running in the car and develop it a little more. We feel like we have a better racecar now. I managed to stick in a time in there that put us fourth. It would have been great if Tommy could have had a really good run at it right there at the end with maybe some softer tires. We’ve made some steps and it seems like we are right there in the hunt with everyone else. It also seems that most everyone is complaining of low grip and edginess. The circuit, the surface and tires don’t seem to be bonding and working together so well at the moment. But that could come; the circuit could rubber up more and we could get a more consistent and quicker race car. We’re in a good spot. This should be a dogfight throughout.”
 
DOUG FEHAN, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER
“This is a solid start and represents a complete team effort. Our drivers, engineers and crew worked in sync to sort out a few handling issues with our Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs following multiple red-flag periods tonight and Wednesday. The time we did have on track was extremely beneficial as we were finally able to get back to a competitive aero package tonight. We don’t have much in the way of long-run performance testing, so that could still bite us. But the ultimate performance should at least let us compete. Now we just need to execute and have some luck for a clean race. We really appreciate our drivers for not putting a foot wrong in practice and helping us work through to good setups. From the time sheet, this looks like it could be a very exciting race!”
 

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Garcia Leads Corvette Attack on First Day
Spaniard fourth among GTE Pro runners in No. 73 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
 
LE MANS, France (June 12, 2014) – Corvette Racing’s two Chevrolet Corvette C7.R race cars sit fourth and ninth in the GTE Pro class after Wednesday’s first qualifying session at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. An additional pair of two-hour qualifying sessions are set for Thursday and will help determine the grid for this year’s twice-around-the-clock enduro.
 
Antonio Garcia was the fastest driver for Corvette Racing. The Spaniard set a best time of 3:56.443 (128.935 mph) in the No. 73 Corvette C7.R that he shares with Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor. It put Garcia 1.689 seconds behind the provisional pole-sitting Ferrari.
 
Tommy Milner set the best time in the No. 74 Corvette C7.R that he drives with Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook – a lap of 3:59.446 (127.319 mph).
 
The crew of the No. 74 car had to change the gearbox during Wednesday evening’s four-hour practice session after Milner lost drive late in a lap during the closing 45 minutes. By the time the car arrived back in the garage, the Corvette Racing crew had a spare transmission, hoist and tools laid out to complete the swap. The repairs took less than an hour.
The day featured a number of lengthy red flag periods due to heavy crashes and damage. Race organizers ended qualifying 30 minutes early.
 
The first of Thursday’s two qualifying sessions is set for 7 p.m. CET/1 p.m. ET. Corvette Racing will go for its eighth class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2001 at 3 p.m. CET/9 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 14 with live coverage throughout on FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, the FOX Sports Go mobile app and FOXsports.com – which will stream live Corvette Racing in-car camera feeds and a pit camera for the full race in the U.S.
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 73 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“It’s been an interesting day in that we’ve never had that many red flags on the first day of practice and qualifying at Le Mans. It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. Normally we go through our entire to-do-list of changes and things to try, but now we only managed maybe 20 percent of that. We didn’t have much track time, but we will still have to analyze all the data – mainly from out- and in-laps. Still, the car feels very good and is very comfortable to drive. We’re definitely heading in the right direction. Hopefully we’ll have more track time tomorrow.”
 
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 74 CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R
“The best way to put today is that I’m looking forward to tomorrow. There were lots of little things here and there. The car right at the end was pretty good after some setup changes and after we fixed the issue with the driveline. It felt a lot better but I could never get a lap because of traffic and cars going off. We tried to get Richard (Westbrook) some laps in the car but couldn’t make that happen. So we’re all looking forward to tomorrow now.”