NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BOJANGLES SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 5, 2015
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 3RD
WHAT WAS YOUR CAR LACKING TODAY?
“We were fairly good in the first two rounds. I felt like I could have pushed harder in those two rounds to go faster; and that last round, we just kind of missed the balance on our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevy. We were just too loose and didn’t quite adjust it enough to keep the tightness in the car like you need to (do) to go fast. We have a really, really fast car, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow night.”
YOU WON FROM THE POLE HERE LAST YEAR. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES IN THE RACE?
“I feel a lot better about it in race trim than I did in qualifying trim. We try to concentrate on that the most because there is so much falloff. The cars are going to slide around so much that I really feel like the cars need to be as manageable as you can make them throughout the night. It’s really not about the first two or three laps. You’ve got to be able to stay in there and be able to maneuver your car and be comfortable and keep it off the wall for at least 400 miles so that you can be around at the end. So, we’ll try to take care of our car and make sure we do everything right and get our car adjusted so that we’re ready for the last 100 miles of the race.”
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 3M CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 5TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING SESSION AND HOW THE CAR FEELS:
“I’m excited. That was a really nice qualifying effort. The car was rock solid. We didn’t make a qualifying run yesterday, so I was pretty nervous coming into today with our 3M Chevy team. The guys really focused on the race, so I’m equally or more excited about the race than I am how well this qualifying session went. The car definitely has the speed. We kept up with the tires and the track, so I’m very proud of that top five.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW/VISSER PRECISION CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 7TH
IT WAS A STRONG QUALIFYING EFFORT. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT IT?
“Yeah, it was decent. I think you always want to be that guy on the pole or on the front row. But, it was definitely a decent effort by all the guys on our Furniture Row Chevy. It was definitely an interesting session. You’re wearing out tires and you’re slowing down and you’re trying to figure out how you can go faster the next time around, the next time out. So, it’s a tricky qualifying session. But we were able to pick up spots each round, which was good. We’ve got a really good race car. We were hoping for a Top 10 start and we can get ‘em from there tomorrow night.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS LOW DOWNFORCE PACKAGE IS GOING TO BE LIKE?
“It’s going to be a lot of fun is what it’s going to be like. It’s fun to slide around and wear tires out again here. It just feels like six or seven years ago before they repaved it is what the track feels like now. So, it’s getting pretty rough over there off of Turn 2. There are a lot of bumps and a lot of character. It’s just going to be a lot of fun to race here tomorrow night and getting against the wall and sliding around and stuff. It should be a great race.”
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MOEN/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT AND WHY HE LIKES DARLINGTON SO MUCH:
“Darlington is just an awesome track. It’s a lot of fun to drive. The first two rounds were pretty good and I forgot my trackbar in the car and I didn’t adjust it enough for the third round and that hurt us.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 25 NAPAP AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 22ND
*Will make his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Darlington
“In this afternoon’s first round I was way too free in turn three, but my NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet SS felt pretty good in the other corners. Round two I was still free, but much tighter in the center through the late exit. I’m happy with everyone’s hard work and excited to be in tomorrow’s show. Thanks to all my No. 25 guys.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 VALVOLINE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 26TH
WHAT WERE YOU MISSING IN YOUR CAR THAT FIRST ROUND?
“I don’t know we just didn’t have good balance. The car didn’t drive very good. The guys will go work on it and see what is going on. We made a lot of changes from yesterday to this session and nothing really worked for us.”
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU WILL NEED TO WORK ON FOR TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE?
“I thought we had a pretty good understanding with where we needed to go with our race package in the final practice yesterday. We had a pretty good little run there and liked what we felt. So hopefully we go back in that direction a little bit.”
HOW MUCH DOES THE TIRE FALL OFF HELP YOU MOVING UP AND BACK THROUGH THE FIELD?
“I’m looking forward to it. I love racing here. I think we had a pretty good direction yesterday with race trim. It’s going to be a challenge. Do we have a fast racecar? No not really, but it’s okay, it’s good. If we can just be smart and get a little track position we will probably have a good run tomorrow.”
HAS IT BEEN TOUGH FOR YOU ALL WEEKEND?
“Yeah, we were awful when we showed up. We didn’t really get the car reasonable until the end of practice yesterday. We were just way off. The car was plowing. I don’t think anybody liked the way their cars drove, but we were just slow, no speed. The car was way too tight. We never really got it figured out. We got a little bit of a direction at the end of practice and started to run some decent laps. We just need another two hour practice (laughs).”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 30TH
*Will start in a back-up car
“The GoDaddy Chevy was just too loose in qualifying today and got into the wall on our third run, so we have to the back-up car for the race. It’s definitely not the position we wanted to be in going into tomorrow, but it’s a long race, so we’ll just try our best to gain track position every chance we get.”
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