Chevy Racing NSCS at Phoenix: Post Qualifying Driver Quote Sheet

CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 9 OF 10
CAN-AM 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 11, 2016

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SECOND

WHAT WERE YOU MISSING TO GET THE POLE?
“I probably over drove the entry of (Turn) 3 maybe a little bit and didn’t get wide-open soon enough off of (Turn) 4. My owner is going to come over here and tell me I should have got the pole, but he was giving us a hard time before qualifying saying we always win these practices, but we aren’t winning anything when it comes down to it. Second is not too bad with the Target Chevy it is my best qualifying effort here at Phoenix. We have always qualified well here, just inching our way towards a pole. Would have liked to have gotten a pole, but second is not bad.”

YOU ALWAYS RACE WELL HERE. WHAT WILL YOU WORK ON TOMORROW FOR THOSE TWO PRACTICE SESSIONS?
“I don’t know if I race well here. This is one of my worst tracks. My first year here I was okay, but last season I wasn’t very good and then earlier this year I wasn’t good. I’ve gotten a little bit better on the short track stuff, but still not where I need to be. Today in race trim I thought we were really bad. We will have to work on that some. I was really loose on entry, which is something that is not very fun here. I won’t dig deep into the set-up stuff, but the engineers and stuff will and hopefully we get some speed for tomorrow.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SIXTH

HOW IS YOUR CAR?
“It’s a lot better. We started quite a bit off. We did that last time here too and we just had to work a lot through our race trim and then we applied that to our qualifying trim. It had the speed that it needed in qualifying trim so they have done a good job of getting the balance back to where they needed and everything seems to be going okay.”

IS THIS WEEK ANY DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER WEEK WHERE YOU HAVE HAD YOUR BACK AGAINST THE WALL?
“Doesn’t seem to be. I think it’s just that I think you guys read a lot more into that than we probably do as a team. Just because that everybody is basically in the same position that we are. If somebody wins, there is only going to be one points guy that goes through. So you need to pretend that you are in a must win situation if you plan on going to Homestead because there is probably going to be somebody in those eight that do win. And you will have to win again next week to win the championship. So it’s just kind of the nature of the beast at this time, especially with two different winners already.”

AS GOOD AS YOU ARE HERE, AND AS MUCH AS PEOPLE THINK IT’S A GIVEN, ARE YOU WORRIED THAT AT SOME POINT THE LAW OF AVERAGES WILL WORK AGAINST YOU?
“They did last year. You know we dominated the end of that race and wound up losing it to rain and where the caution came out. So they are a lot easier to lose than they are to win. Anything can happen and we just have to control the things that we can control and try and put ourselves in position to where we usually do and see where it all falls. That is what makes all this here exciting and really what I like about it is the sense of the unknown, the competition, the effort, and the thought and everything that goes into that is intriguing for me. From a team standpoint to see where everybody is at and how they approach it is fun to me and I like to see people performing and working at that level. Because once they do it, you can hold them to it.”

DO YOU LIKE THAT PEOPLE THINK YOU ARE A GIVEN HERE OR DO YOU THINK IT’S KIND OF SILLY?
“It’s a little bit silly, I think, just because I have been around this long enough to know that there are no givens in this particular sport. There are too many things that can go wrong and that can change. From the first race till this race, when we are done today, if you looked at the setup sheets you would think we are at two different race tracks. And that is just how fast things progress and change. “

DID YOU TALK TO (AUSTIN) DILLON AT ALL ABOUT LAST WEEK AND ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT ANY RETALIATION?
“He can handle things however he wants to handle them. Obviously, he is a little bit bitter about the things that I said in 2012 and that is probably a little bit my fault for never speaking to him about the situation. Ty and I have spoken about it and have been on the same team for a portion this year at the same race tracks. So as far as the incident itself, it’s pretty self-explanatory when you watch the in-car as to what happened. There was nothing intentional there. He is mad and he should be mad. They are just starting to perform like they need to perform and he wants to win and he is a competitor and I can’t blame him for that. So yeah, I reached out to him and he didn’t reach back. So, it is what it is.”

REGARDING YOUR TEAMMATE KURT BUSCH, HAVE YOU GUYS SUPPORTED EACH OTHER THROUGH THE CHASE FOR THE MOST PART?
“I think our teams always look at what each other have and we all have a little bit different direction that we go. So nothing has really changed as far as the dynamics of how all that works.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE ANYBODY IS CREEPING UP ON YOU AT THIS PLACE?
“I think the guy that is the best here isn’t racing here and that is Dale Earnhardt, Jr.”

NONE OF THE OTHER FIVE GUYS YOU ARE RACING?
“They are all capable of winning here and have won here. I think everybody has won here except for Joey (Logano). So the guy that has been the most competitive over the last two years has been Dale Jr. in my opinion when you look back at the races and who you were racing against consistently.”

ARE YOU GOOD HERE BECAUSE RODNEY (CHILDERS, CREW CHIEF) GETS THE CAR EXACTLY HOW YOU WANT IT OR ARE YOU GOOD HERE BECAUSE YOU ARE ABLE TO ADAPT?
“I went to Disney World one time and I found this magic wand (laughs). And I wave it here. I think they are very open to changing things to get them how I like them. I have a specific way that I like to let off the brake and get back to the throttle. I want the car to feel here. So it seems like we are always changing a lot of things, migrate back to a lot of things, and have the balance of the car different from time to time. We are usually searching for something that I like that they are good to try and adapt to.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF TONY RETIRING IN TWO RACES AND WHAT HIS LEGACY IS GOING TO BE HERE?
“It’s not going to be what it should be because I don’t think anybody did a very good job of giving him the credit that he deserved throughout the year at the race tracks and from a sports standpoint. That has been very disappointing from my standpoint. I know that Tony probably would say that he didn’t want that but I don’t think anybody has done a very good job of giving him the credit for the time that he has put in and had in the sport. A three-time champion, multiple race winner, IndyCar champion and winner and to auto racing in general. It’s been pretty disheartening to me to see the lack of credit that he has gotten.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 13TH
“For qualifying, I had a great Farmers Insurance Chevy right there. We did it in one lap the first time, fastest first lap of anybody and the second time we were just a little snug and it’s so close we missed it by just a touch. My car actually feels great. Tomorrow we will work on it some more and try to get it to feel the same way for Sunday. If it does, we will be able to race pretty strong.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 KOBALT CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 16TH

WHAT STOOD OUT FOR YOU IN THAT QUALIFYING SESSION?
“Just missed it on balance. It has been a challenging day in qualifying trim, some conditions we couldn’t really adjust and get tuned out of the car, but qualifying has never been my strong suit I’m always better about racing. Looking forward to 312 laps on Sunday afternoon here.”

PHOENIX HAS BEEN A PRETTY GOOD TRACK FOR YOU OVER THE YEARS. HOW MUCH MOMENTUM DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GAIN BY PICKING UP ANOTHER VICTORY AND KIND OF ELIMINATING SOMEBODY ELSE FROM PUNCHING AN AUTOMATIC TICKET TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND WHERE YOU ALREADY ARE:
“Well, the No. 4 is still going to go there, so the idea of eliminating somebody, I don’t know if I necessarily buy into that one. You might keep someone out that you would like to keep out. I think historically, Homestead favors the No. 4 car, the No. 18, they have been able to go down there the last couple of years and do what they need to in order to win. There are still going to be four cars in the Chase, if it knocked it down to three that would be really cool and it would be all that much more motivation to go out and win. We will take every bit of momentum we can take from here to Homestead, but again, Homestead is its own season. It is one race, winner take all, a track that we don’t race at in the spring. We are there once a year and it’s the only track like that on the circuit so it is its own race.”

 

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About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 115 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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