NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 5, 2015
KURT BUSCH PUTS CHEVY SS ON FRONT ROW FOR SOUTHERN 500
Three Chevrolet SS Teams to Start in Top Five
DARLINGTON, S.C. – (September 5, 2015) – Kurt Busch led the way for Team Chevy in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifications at Darlington Raceway for the 66th running of the Bojangles’ Southern 500. Busch posted a quick time of 27.691-seconds/177.588 mph in his No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS to earn the outside pole position for the 367-lap race. It is the 11th top 10-start for Busch this season and his ninth top-10 start at the 1.366-mile track.
Busch’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate and current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Kevin Harvick, will start third. This is Harvick’s 17th top-10 start in 25 races thus far in 2015. The driver of the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS is the defending winner of the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington.
Seven-time Darlington winner, Jeff Gordon, who holds more wins than any other driver at the track dubbed, ‘Too Tough to Tame’, will make his final career Southern 500 start from the fifth starting position in his No. 24 3M Chevrolet SS.
Martin Truex, Jr. will start seventh in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Visser Precision Chevrolet SS and Paul Menard qualified 12th in his No. 27 Moen/Menards Chevrolet, giving Team Chevy five spots in the Top 12 starting order.
Brad Keselowski (Ford) will lead the field to green as the pole sitter and Joey Logano (Ford) will start fourth to round out the top-five qualifiers.
The 367-lap/501.3-mile Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday night September 6. Live coverage will be available on NBC, MRN, Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 and NASCAR.com.
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THIS IS YOUR FIFTH FRONT-ROW START THIS SEASON. TELL US ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING EFFORT TODAY
“Oh, it was quite exciting with the way that the format is set-up with three runs to go for the pole. Each run out, you lose so much grip in the tires. It’s a challenge to try to find the right balance. And, it turns into fun. Our first lap out was almost too fast. The car almost drove too good. And then, the second outing, I messed up and got really sideways through (Turns) 3 and 4, but the car had enough speed to make it back around and post fourth best. And so, then the challenge becomes what do we adjust and how do we get the most out of the tires that are already worn out? So, it’s a lot of fun at Darlington to try to balance qualifying and to go for a shot at the pole. That’s all a driver can ask for. And Tony Gibson (crew chief) and the guys and this retro-paint scheme from Haas Automation almost had the pole. But outside pole is great. And for the full 500 miles now we have to focus on making sure that the rear of our car doesn’t slide too loose with all the lack of downforce. So, it’s really a unique challenge this weekend with the downforce package and the softer tires. I think the cars are driving great. We’re all having fun with it. And the energy and vibe in the garage area has been really unique with all the retro paint schemes and driver suits and team hats. The crew on Austin Dillon’s team, I’m going to give them the award for the best appearing crew. It’s been really neat to see everything.”
WHAT’S THE BALANCE BETWEEN BEING AGGRESSIVE AND BEING CONSERVATIVE? HOW DIFFERENT IS DARLINGTON BEFORE THE REPAVE TO WHERE IT IS NOW?
“Well, it’s a tough balance. It could be compared to a ballet or to dancing and you don’t want to step on your partner’s toes. And the Lady in Black, she’ll spin you around or spit you out if you treat her the wrong way. And so, that old cliché, race the race track, is what you have to do. For qualifying, you try to attack the track and get all you can out of it for that one lap and say, ‘Thank you, I just wanted to borrow the track for an instant.’ And then you give it back to her because this is a trough track.
“The repave, it still isn’t back to the same old Darlington. It seems like the new asphalt, they’ve pushed the rocks closer together, and so the aggregate, the actual grading material that chews the tires up, is still a bit fine. And the track ends up getting rubbered-in and kind of glazed-over, instead of chewing up the tires. But we’ll still see good drop-off tomorrow. The downforce levels have been decreased and the tires have been softened, and we’re seeing the best tire wear, the most tire wear, we’ve seen all year. And so it’s great to see the tire wear come back into play.”
ON THE THROWBACK PAINT SCHEMES, WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO DO THINGS LIKE THIS? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE OF IT MOVING FORWARD?
“Well, it’s important to do it to remember our past and to acknowledge our history and to thank the pioneers that have created the environment that we all enjoy today. And it’s a tribute. And it’s something that the sport can use to eject a history lesson and fun at the same time. And it keeps it real. Everybody has been really excited about it. And to see the involvement and to see teams like Stewart-Haas Racing, all four of our drivers’ suits have that retro look and the paint schemes go back to original sponsor logos. That’s what makes it fun. And so it’s important to do that internally, for the sport; and then the external side, the fans. That’s what we’re all here for. They get to enjoy something unique and fun. The race track has the walls painted different and it’s a cool feel coming here to South Carolina.”
WHERE DO YOU THINK NASCAR SHOULD GO WITH THESE NEW RACE PACKAGES NEXT YEAR? DO YOU THINK IT SHOULD BE EVERY RACE OR CERTAIN RACES? DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR?
“I believe it’s up to them to decide. Collectively as a group, we need to do the best job to understand what each race track wants and what won’t be too costly for the teams. But putting on a good show is not necessarily looking at a survey for green-flag passes or lead changes. Looking at statistics, that’s one thing. But looking at a show and having a ticket in your hand that says the ‘Southern 500 Retro Weekend’, this s a value to me. This is fun this weekend. It’s a full 500 miles. You know you have to race the race track here. But all the other race tracks have their own unique characteristics and they might need their own balance, but we also have to keep the costs under control and not be switching it back and forth too randomly. As a group, I think we can come up with a collective solution. And I do see this package, this weekend, coming into play next year.”
WITH THE WAY THIS TRACK IS, IS IT INEVITABLE THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HIT THE WALL AT SOME POINT?
“Yeah, the way that the track can just jump up and bite you at any moment. The tire wear is so extreme and the pace drop off is so great that something that you did the lap previous and you are like ‘oh okay I will go back and gain that time the next lap’. Well your tires have worn out even that much more and you cannot literally gain that lap time back. So you try and as soon as you try too hard the track will jump up and bite you. The lady will teach you that is not what you are supposed to do. You try to survive as long as you can all night long without putting marks on your car, but as soon as you do it seems like you roll up your sleeves and you have to get even that much more serious about it, but still not overdrive the car. It’s a very fine line.”
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING END OF THE RACETRACK FOR YOU? HOW CLOSE TO A DARLINGTON STRIPE HAVE YOU GOTTEN THIS WEEK?
“The more challenging end is the (Turns) 3 and 4 end of the racetrack which is the slow end. It’s a tighter corner it has less banking and it seems real easy to overdrive Turn 3 because you carry so much more speed down the back straightaway than you do the front straightaway. So, you have more speed and a tighter corner. So, Turn 3 is the toughest spot and then that apex area right at the center is usually where you get the most Darlington stripes. That is the easiest spot to get it.
“I have one little scrap. It came in Turn 2. I just got the quarter panel right above the right-rear tire. I was just kind of giving the lady a kiss.”
ON THE TIRES THEY ARE RUNNING THIS WEEKEND:
“It’s a great question because the tires have changed and they haven’t necessarily received any of the spotlight. The sidewalls look great going to all white in big block letters, but the actual compound and the durability in the tire it seems like they made a great step on the left-side. Needed a little more on the right-side to help balance the right side tires into what you are talking about. The rears seem to be dropping off quicker. Some of it comes back to tire management and can the drivers do their part? It doesn’t seem like we are to that step yet, but it’s to the teams responsibility of not being too aggressive on cambers. We are close. It’s a great step in the right direction to find the best drivable car for qualifying runs like today and the best race package to be able to race in traffic side-by-side. That is what we are still after.”
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