NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
AAA 400 DRIVE FOR AUTISM
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPT
MAY 13, 2016
TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS ON FRONT ROW AT ‘MONSTER MILE’
Qualifying for AAA 400 Cancelled Due to Rain; Harvick, Earnhardt, Jr. to start 1-2
DOVER, Del. – May 13, 2016 – Qualifying for Sunday’s AAA 400 Drive for Autism NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway has been cancelled due to inclement weather.
The starting grid has been set per the provisions in the NASCAR rulebook. Starting positions are based on the times from the first practice session held on Friday. Twenty-two Chevrolet SS drivers will take the green flag on Sunday for 400-laps/400-miles of racing at the 1-mile concrete oval.
2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and last fall’s Dover winner, Kevin Harvick, piloting the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, will start from the top spot as he posted a quick lap of 21.799 seconds/165.145 mph in the first practice session. This will be the second time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career that Harvick will lead the field to the green flag at Dover.
2001 Dover winner, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., pilot of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS will start next to Harvick on the outside front-row giving Team Chevy a front-row sweep. Chevrolet drivers and teams have won the past six consecutive races at the ‘Monster Mile’.
Other Team Chevy drivers starting in the top 10 will be: Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS – 8th and Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet SS – 9th.
A total of 40 cars were entered for Sunday’s race, so no cars will be eliminated from the starting line-up.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) will start third, Carl Edwards (Toyota) will start fourth and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (Ford) will start fifth to round out the top five starters.
The AAA 400 Drive for Autism is scheduled to start on Sunday, May 15 at 1 p.m., ET and will be aired live on FoxSports1, MRN Radio and Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS, POLE SITTER AND DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS, WHO WILL START SECOND, MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA TO DISCUSS PRACTICE TODAY AND THEIR OUTLOOK FOR THE AAA 400 DRIVE FOR AUTISM ON SUNDAY. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
THIS TRACK LAST YEAR YOU WON WHEN IT WAS CRUNCH TIME. YOU ARE IN A LITTLE DIFFERENT SITUATION NOW, BUT YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET ANOTHER WIN HERE AT DOVER. WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR SUNDAY’S RACE?
KEVIN HARVICK: “The outlook has been a lot different just coming to this race track since I’ve been at SHR. This has been one of our really good race tracks. We have had a little bit of bad luck in the first couple of times we have been here, but obviously it all came together the last time in the fall. The car was really fast when we unloaded for practice. Having that first pit stall definitely helps here and looking forward to just the challenge of this particular race track just running every lap is hard. To do it the same twice and that is a lot of fun. The guys have done a great job prepping the cars and hit on some things that we like and it has worked well over the past few years.”
TALK ABOUT HOW THE NO. 88 CAR PERFORMED IN PRACTICE TODAY AND YOUR OUTLOOK FOR SUNDAY’S RACE HERE AT THE ‘MONSTER MILE’:
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: “Hopefully we will get some practice tomorrow to get to work on the race set-up a little bit. We just ran in qualifying trim today. The car was not real close when we came off the trailer, but they made some great adjustments and got some good speed out of it, got it real comfortable. I like this track. It is challenging to run the way you want to run every lap, lap after lap, and that is a fun challenge. It’s a challenge to really get the balance of the car throughout the day and chasing the track a little bit. It’s a tough place to run well at consistently every time you come here. I definitely love the banks and the size of the track is pretty good too.”
WITH THE FORECAST AND THE WEATHER TODAY DID THAT CHANGE YOUR APPROACH TO PRACTICE KNOWING THERE WAS THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOUR PRACTICE TIME COULD BE THE QUALIFYING TIME?
HARVICK: “Yeah, I think that definitely changes the approach. That was what the forecast looked like all week and we just decided to come in qualifying trim. Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and those guys made that decision pretty early, I would say about mid-week to practice that way.”
EARNHARDT, JR.: “I figured that they looked at the weather. We weren’t even sure we were going to get all of practice in. Everybody in the field was going to make sure to get a good hard lap down if they could.”
WE SAW A COUPLE OF CARS HIT A WALL WITHOUT A SAFER BARRIER IN THE FIRST PRACTICE. THEY’VE ADDED SAFER BARRIERS TO THE INSIDE OF TURN 3, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE THERE’S SOME HESITATION TO DO IT ON THE FRONT STRETCH BECAUSE OF THE GROOVE. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
HARVICK: ‘We put Safer barriers in the groove at Darlington and it’s two and a half cars wide. So, there’s really no excuse not to have it in my opinion. SMI and all the ISC tracks have laid them on most of the outside walls. The cars have hit in that spot and there’s just no excuse not to have them. We don’t wear our helmets and HANS devices for the impacts that we are prepared for. We wear those things for the instances where those one-off things can happen like happened today. So, there’s no excuse not to have it there in my opinion.
EARNHARDT, JR.: “I can’t add any more to that. I agree. We’ve added it to Bristol and Martinsville and all kinds of tight little tracks. It would alter the line slightly here, but we go pretty fast here, especially in qualifying trim. I’m in the gas in the center of the corner, full-throttle, not lifting. So, it would be a hard lick. At this place you hit one wall and you slide down and you hit another. So, you’re going to get a couple licks there in some of those instances that aren’t going to be a lot of fun.”
YOU SAID THAT YOU REALLY LIKE THE BALANCE ON THE CAR. THIS SEEMS LIKE THE HAPPIEST YOU’VE BEEN IN PRACTICE EVEN THOUGH WE DIDN’T SEEM TO HAVE THE TIME BECAUSE OF THE WRECK. WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK FOR SUNDAY? IS ONE OF THE BEST CARS YOU’VE BROUGHT TO DOVER?
EARNHARDT, JR.: “It’s hard to say. I really don’t take a lot of stock in Friday when everything can change and the race set-up can be quite different. A lot of the guys can find some speed tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes. I mean it was really hooked-up for that lap we had. And I think we were ahead of Kevin on the dart fish going into (Turn) 3. I pushed up off of (Turn) 4 real bad and had to lift on that exit. But the car was really, really good. I just didn’t drive (Turns) 3 and 4 exactly right. We unloaded thinking we needed to be in a certain area as far as the wedge trace goes and we were a little bit off; quite a bit off, so we learned some stuff even though we didn’t run any race trim today, we did learn a little bit about where our balance needs to be. So, that will help us zero it in tomorrow but I expect the competition to change quite a bit for tomorrow and we’ll see where we are.”
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