Category: NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

AUTO CLUB 400

AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 27, 2011

 

Kevin Harvick Wins at “Home” Track in California;

Team Chevy Drivers Claim Three of Top-Five Finishing Positions and Five of Top-10 in the Final Order

 

Fontana, Calif (March 27, 2010) – Kevin Harvick got to sample the sweet taste of winning in his home state of California by scoring his first career victory at Auto Club Speedway. The Bakersfield native only led one lap in his No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet, but it was the one that counted.

 

After starting 24th in the 43-car field of the Auto Club 400, Harvick methodically worked his way through the field to put himself in position for a dramatic last-lap pass of fellow Team Chevy driver Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet.

 

Scoring his 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) win moved Harvick six places up in the standings to ninth position.

 

Five time defending NSCS champion Johnson moved up two positions in the standings to fifth following his runner-up finish.

 

Ryan Newman, No. 39 US Army Chevrolet, continued his tremendous start to the 2011 NSCS season with a fifth place finish today in the 200-lap/400-mile race. After scoring three top-five and four top-10 finishes in the five races run so far this season, Newman is second in the point standings, just nine points down to the leader.

 

Clint Bowyer, No. 33 The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Centennial Celebration Chevrolet, finished seventh and advanced seven positions in the standings to 17th place.

 

Pole winner Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished 10th in the final order and sits eighth in the standings.

 

Paul Menard, No. 27 Serta/.Menards Chevrolet, sits seventh in points after his 16th place finish today.

Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, suffered handling problems in the closing laps of the race and had to settle for the 13th finishing position after leading four times for 11 laps. The two-time NSCS champion is sixth in the point standings.

 

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, finished 12th in today’s race and sits 12th in points to give Team Chevy seven of the top-12 drivers in the standings.

 

Next on the Series’ schedule is short track action at Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia on April 3, 2011.

 

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER

GIL MARTIN, CREW CHIEF, AND RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

 

THE MODERATOR:  At this time we welcome into the media room Kevin Harvick, winner of today’s race.

            Kevin, this is your first Cup win at Auto Club Speedway.  You just led one lap.  Tell us a little bit about that.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Yeah, we led the right one, that’s for sure.  But our car was really fast all day on the long runs.  The restarts weren’t exactly what we needed to have.

            But as everybody started to stay out those last two times, at least the guys we were racing, our car was able to get some air pressure built up in the tires and we were able to really fire off there right off the bat up top.

            We were able to keep pace with them for a few laps.  When they started racing side by side, we made up the ground.  Kyle started to get loose.  Drove around him.  Everything worked out going into turn three and four.  A good day for us.

            THE MODERATOR:  We also welcome Richard Childress, car owner.  This is also your first win here.  An interesting stat, so far this season in the competition, first time since 2005 we’ve had five different winners in the first five races.

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  That just tells you about the competition of NASCAR.

            I felt good about the restart with Kevin because I knew his car was fast on the long runs.  I knew if they didn’t get too far out in front of us, we’d have a shot.  All we needed was for him to get side by side, start racing.  He just made the right move going into three up there.  Jimmie gave him enough room, he took advantage of it, won the race on that last lap.

            THE MODERATOR:  We’ll open it up now for questions.

 

            Q.  Kevin, you talked many times about the lessons you learned here last year trying to chase Jimmie down at the end.  How did that help you today?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I knew I had a little left in the tank on the last restart.  I didn’t want the fenders to be knocked in and not have a chance.  There were several times where I was probably a little too conservative, but with the high line up there, you don’t have much room for air.

            I knew if I was going to hit the wall today, it wasn’t going to be till turn four coming to the checkered.  It was tight, but it was the right time to go.  We were able to keep pace.  I really had a good run coming off of turn two, and he rolled up in front of me, so I just laid on the back bumper all the way down the back straightaway, gave him a couple seconds to think about what was going to happen going into turn three.  The reason I did that, I just needed the one lane up top.  I knew what I was going to do.  I was hoping he would just roll through the middle of the racetrack or on the bottom or something.  So it all worked out.

 

            Q.  Does what happened last year and/or what happened yesterday make this win any sweeter?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I’ll take third on Saturday and first on Sunday any day, I can tell you that for sure (smiling).

            Last year I made a mistake and gave the race away with two laps to go.  I was able to not make any mistakes.  They didn’t make any mistakes on the car all weekend long.  I was at least going to get to the white flag lap this year and make sure we had something left.

 

            Q.  Richard, you have some rare engine problems the last couple races.  Today Kevin was so stout.  Did you find out what had happened last couple of races?  How confident now after today’s race are you?

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  We did have a problem with a couple of our engines, which is the same thing we’re running.  Trust me, I told Kevin in here, If I have to worry about it, you guys have to worry about it.  I told them at the driver’s meeting I was concerned.  I was more worried about that than how the cars were going to run.  I knew the cars would run real well.

            We’re running what we had last year.  There’s some changes.  We think we know what it is.  Whatever we can do, I know Gibbs has had a similar problem, we’ll be working with them, try to tell them what we think our problem was, maybe it will help them as well.

 

            Q.  In the past you mentioned that Jimmie had a horseshoe somewhere.  This time he had a bumper somewhere.  Was the car getting better on the pit stops or was it a good car to begin with?  How do you account for this gradual progression?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  We knew our car was good yesterday.  Really we only made one adjustment today on the car.  I think it was the second pit stop.  It was just a matter of it all playing out correctly for us as far as not coming down to a four or five lap restart.  Luckily we had a couple cycles on the tire and that helped us as we got going.

 

            Q.  Kevin, if there hadn’t have been the last caution where you were able to make up ground, do you have a lucky horseshoe up your ass now?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I hope it stays right on up there.  I’ll be more than happy to go ahead and tote the thing along (laughter).

            Anyway, it’s just one of those things:  when things are going your way, we’ve had four weeks that we hadn’t exactly had everything go right, but our cars have been fast.  Today we had everything go right and our car was fast again.

            As long as we keep our cars running the way that they are, we can overcome things and we can hopefully capitalize on days when our car is fast enough to win.

 

            Q.  It’s become sort of almost your signature of not leading 10 laps but being in position to go for the win at the right time.  Why is that?  Is it just sort of a coincidence or is that kind of your style?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  I don’t know.  I wish you could tell me.  I wish we could go out there and wear them out one day and not have to worry about waiting till the last lap.  Does seem we kind of wait till the end to really get going.

            I think, you know, for me, I always was taught to race, just go fast enough to put yourself in position to be around at the end and make sure your car still has all the fenders and tires and everything still underneath it.  When it’s time to go, you have a little something left, your car is hopefully fresher than the guys around you.

            Probably somewhat of a bad habit that I have, but I guess it works out.

 

            Q.  Kevin, in talking about the bumping, Jimmie said his goal going into three was he wanted to go down low, but by bumping him you gave him too much speed where he didn’t feel he could make the corner.  When you were talking earlier, you said he were trying to clear out a lane up high.  You both had two different agendas but it worked out for you.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Yeah, you know, I was after one thing and that was to run the very top of the racetrack.  I was hoping that he thought he was going to be going too fast to run the top of the racetrack and get loose.  I guess in hindsight he was looking for the bottom or the middle or whatever he was looking for.

            I just wanted to roll in as easy as I could and lay back to the throttle, go into the center of the corner, hopefully be able to leave it down on the exit.  It all played out okay.

 

            Q.  Did Gil make any changes to the car on the last stop, adjustments?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  No, we didn’t make any adjustments all day except for the second pit stop.

 

            Q.  Kevin, you’ve been critical of the crowds here before.  What did you think about the crowd today?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  The crowd looked pretty good.  With the weather the way it was this morning, I thought it was great.  Like I said on Friday, sometimes markets just seem that one race is what it’s needed for.  I’m pretty proud about the fact that they had a good crowd today.  They did a good job this weekend.

 

            Q.  How much did yesterday’s race play into the fact the top seven guys didn’t come in on the last caution?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  A lot, yeah.

 

            Q.  How much did yesterday’s finish play into any decision about not to pit on that last caution?

            GIL MARTIN:  It was looking a whole lot like what happened yesterday.  I think one of the major things that made me feel reasonably confident about it was how Tony performed when everybody stayed out.  He posted some of the best laps of the race out there, clean air.  I think the tires being pumped up deserved a lot of speed there.

            THE MODERATOR:  At this time we would like to welcome Gil Martin, crew chief for the No. 29.  We’ll open it up for questions again.

            GIL MARTIN:  I can follow up on that, too.  If we would have pitted, Richard would have killed me (laughter).

            RICHARD CHILDRESS:  I looked at what Tony did.  Great call (smiling).

 

            Q.  Gil, last week in Bristol, a different speedway than here, was the tire problem any issue during the race or was everything on the safe side concerning the tire?

            GIL MARTIN:  The tires were perfect this week.  It seemed like every set was balanced pretty well.  There wasn’t any issues as far as having a loose set or a tight set or anything like that.  Goodyear did a really good job on this tire they brought here.

            No issues like Bristol.  We overcame what happened at Bristol pretty well.  They brought a good tire here.  There was no problem.

 

            Q.  Kevin, did anybody ask you if you could take us through that last lap and what was going on in your mind, especially when you were pushing Jimmie down the backstretch.

            KEVIN HARVICK:  For me coming to the white, I had a great run off of turn four and was able to get right on him.  Rolling into one, my whole goal was to not give it away.  If I could make the pass, fine.  If not, just don’t overdrive it getting into the corner, make sure you get the pedal down as soon as you can and roll through the middle, not get in the fence, not screw anything up.

            I rolled through there really good, was able to get back to the throttle on the top and had a good run.  He slid up in front of me.  I knew if I went low that I was not going to be    that was bad for me, the bottom was.  So I just pushed him, hoping that I just needed that one lane to open up up top, and it opened up.  We were able to roll through there.

            My whole theory was not to drive it in again and get back to the throttle, so it all worked out.

 

            Q.  Heading into Martinsville next weekend, do you think this momentum is going to carry with you or do you still have to go back to the shop and work on a few things?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, our short track stuff was really good for Martinsville last year.  A lot of that should carry over to this year.  Momentum never hurts.  I always tell people, you have to take the highs and lows, treat them pretty much the same.

            Bottom line is, you can’t ever shake off the confidence that winning gives you.  Hopefully we can carry that over into Martinsville.

 

            Q.  Kevin, you talk about not wanting to make a mistake.  I don’t think any of the other guys made a mistake.  Talk about what it’s like to win a race, compared to the way with Kyle won yesterday?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  Well, the 18, he got loose.  He made a couple mistakes, took himself out of contention there at the end.  That’s what I didn’t want to do.  Maybe his car was just so loose that he was trying to do all he could do to stay up there.

            Our scenario played out better than Jimmie’s did with our car being able to run as high as it was and carry as much speed as it was.  I just didn’t want to be the one to screw it up like I did last year.

 

            Q.  Kevin, it’s probably too easy to make too much of beating a guy like Jimmie Johnson at a place like this where he’s been so good.  Does it carry any more personal significance to you?

            KEVIN HARVICK:  It doesn’t hurt, that’s for sure (smiling).

            But I keep going back to last year.  Last year taught me a lot about what patience and the things I needed to do to beat a guy that doesn’t make mistakes.  In order to do that, you can’t make mistakes yourself.

            This race one year ago is what helped us win today, by being patient, not taking yourself out of the race, having something there at the end until it was time to go.

            But, yeah, I mean, those guys are five time champions, won a ton of races.  We feel as a team we can race right with ’em, but so does everybody else.  There’s a lot of other guys that think the same thing, but nobody’s beat them in five years.  We’ve just got to keep chipping away at it.

            THE MODERATOR:  Gentlemen, thank you very much.

           

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET – FINISHED 2^ND

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

 

            THE MODERATOR:  At this time we’re joined by Jimmie Johnson.  Jimmie finished second in today’s race and currently sits fifth in points, 14 behind Carl Edwards.

            Jimmie, talk us through the last few laps of today’s race.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  For me, we worked hard all day long to get our car to handle well.  We made some smart adjustments when we were deep in the pack.  But getting track position really was everything.  Once we had track position, got near the top five, the car didn’t necessarily drive a ton better, but we had a lot more speed and had a shot to win.

            Good day.  Wish that we could have won the race.  But I was really loose, as well, knew that the two tires were coming with the 29 car.  Looking back, maybe if I could have got by Kyle a lap earlier, it would have made the difference.  But he was rolling on the top really, really fast.

            Hate that we finished second.

            THE MODERATOR:  We’ll take questions. 

 

            Q.  Jimmie, on that last lap going into three, Harvick was right up on your bumper, gave you a push.  How did that impact things?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Him being that close and kind of breaking the plane of our bumper, certainly affects how my car drove.  When he to my bumper down the back, I felt like if he turned into the bottom and followed me, I was in trouble.  I kind of wanted to run the bottom coming to the checkered flag.  Felt like that was the place to be.

            I decided to stay at the top.  When I went off into three with the extra speed, had my car kind of sideways getting in there, I couldn’t get a real good arc into the corner.  I heard that he was looking outside near the middle of the corner.  Once he got there and broke the plane of my bumper, spotter said, Outside, I was dead in the water.

 

            Q.  By getting on your back bumper, he dictated how you were going to go into that corner?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Just because of the speed and the push that he gave me, where he gave me, I would have gone into the corner and missed the bottom, gone into there with too much speed.  Him being close certainly affected my car.  He did exactly what he needed to.

            I was on the loose side.  If I was in his shoes, I would have done the same thing.  The closer you can get to the car in front of you when they’re loose, the harder it is for that guy to use the power.  You have a good shot to pass them.

 

            Q.  Jimmie, were you expecting that bump on your bumper at the end or did that take you by surprise?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  No.  Coming off of two, I ran a lower line than he did.  He was up around the top of the wall.  I had assumed he would get to me down the back at some point.  I could see he wasn’t favoring towards the bottom.  So I knew something was coming.  I knew if I was in his shoes, I would be right on the guy’s bumper getting in the turn.  He gave me a little shove.  It worked out well for him.  Like I said earlier, it took away my option to use the bottom.

            As close as he was, it just had me on the top of the track, to the center of the corner, and worked out for him.

 

           

            Q.  Jimmie, Earl was telling you when Harvick was on your bumper that he was on your bumper.  When he was pounding you like that, how hard is too hard to pound somebody on a two mile track?  You expect that at Bristol.  You said you would have done the same thing in his position.  Was it all fair on the last lap?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Oh, yeah, without a doubt.  I don’t think he got into me all that hard.  I actually put my head back against the headrest and thought it was going to be a lot harder than what it was.

            He did it well.  He did his job.  I didn’t do my mine holding him off.  That was racing.  That’s the cool thing about our cars, especially the way they’re designed now.  You can lean on each other at 190 and still make it back.

 

            Q.  Do you know what the mistake was that he made last year that you were able to hold him off?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Last year, he had the same line working really well.  That last lane up by the fence, I just don’t have it up there for whatever reason.  He was catching me up there last year and got into the wall and slowed himself down, hurt his car and slowed himself down.  This year he got it done.

            I think he was smarter from it and kind of knew how to run that line better.  I think he was up there most of the day as well.  He had a good rhythm going for the top.

            I just didn’t have much luck up there.  I was already a lane higher than I normally run coming into the checkered trying to protect the top some.  I thought I closed off the outside, but he still found a way to get up a lane higher.

 

            Q.  Did the shorter race make any difference with strategy?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It seemed like a 500 mile race to me today, I don’t know about you (smiling).  No.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I wish it was 399 (smiling).

           

            Q.  Jimmie, any particular reason why you chose the lower line going into that final corner?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  That was pretty high for me.  The higher I went today, my car just got up out of the track and really wouldn’t handle well.  I needed to run a lower line, kind of let the lateral forces hold the car down, make the car turn.

            The higher I went, kind of the g forces come out of the car when you roll up out of the top.  My car would never turn.  Once it would finally start turning, it would snap loose.  Just didn’t work well.

            Looking back, I mean, I wish I could have    I should have maybe tried to stop my car getting into three and ran in the middle like I had been all day long.  I tried to go up a lane higher than I was on the previous lap, tried to protect the top, but Kevin still found a way by.

            Just didn’t have enough to hold him off.

 

            Q.  Jimmie, a day like this where you’re kind of scrambling around making adjustments, end up being second, is that the type of finish ends up winning championships?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  At the end of the year, it does definitely.  Right now it’s about wins.  We all want wins.  We want max points, also bonus points, things like that.  Today was all about a win.

            I mean, there is the flipside.  When Kevin was alongside of me off of four, I could have maybe tried to squeeze the door, do something a little stupid there.  I’m like, If I spin out here and finish 15th because I’m down on the grass, can’t get the car fired up, it would just be stupid.

           

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  That’s what happens at 35 and 10 years in the sport. You weigh those things out.  Within reason today it was all about running the race, especially when we got to the front.  We ran around in 10th to 15th for most of the day.  Then got in the top five, stabilized, had a stop or two to make our car better.  From there had a chance to race for the win.

            All in all a good day.  It’s like kissing your sister, running second and I don’t have a sister (smiling).

 

            Q.  Jimmie, you were on a show called Breaking In on FOX this weekend.  Explain what you would rather do in life, act or race cars?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I prefer my job.  No offense.

 

            Q.  Do you think actors are pansies?

            THE MODERATOR:  Okay, next question.

 

            Q.  Jimmie, coming out of Bristol you had expressed concern for Hendrick Motorsports’ two mile program as a whole and said this race wouldn’t be easy on the Hendrick organization as whole.  How do you feel now?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  We’re getting there.  I mean, my teammates, I’m not sure where they finished.  I ran with them most of the day in the teens.  We still have work to do as a group.

            At Vegas we started really bad and improved the car during the race.  Today we started fair and made the car better.  We’re going the right way and we’re finishing the weekends probably where we should start when we get here.

            We’re getting there.  It’s just going to take a little while to get that stuff sorted out.  I’m excited about our short track stuff.  Hopefully we’ll get this big track stuff under control.

 

            Q.  What did you think about the crowd today?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Actually, I thought it looked okay.  We always want a full grandstand.  After a couple years, especially if we come back and the weather is like it’s supposed to be, we’ll probably have a better showing.

            But I thought today was decent for sure.

             

            THE MODERATOR:  Thank you, guys, very much.  We’ll see you next week in Martinsville.

           

     FastScripts by ASAP Sports

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Kyle Busch (third) was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Auto Club Speedway.

Busch started eighth and led 151 (of 200) laps at the two-mile race track in southern California.

Camry drivers Brian Vickers (eighth) and Kasey Kahne (10th) also earned top-10 finishes.

Other Camry drivers in the field included David Reutimann (19th), Martin Truex Jr. (21st), Joey Logano (25th), Casey Mears (29th), Bobby Labonte (38th), Denny Hamlin (39th), Todd Bodine (40th), Joe Nemechek (42nd) and Michael McDowell (43rd).

Toyota drivers in the top-20 in the NSCS point standings after five of 36 races include Busch (fourth), Kahne (11th), Truex (13th) and Labonte (18th).

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing Finishing Position: 3rd What happened at the end of the race? “It’s just we give it up, you know. We gave the race away today, unfortunately. We seem to be losing the handle a little bit two runs from the end and especially that last set of tires. We just didn’t quite have what it took in order to keep the front end under the car and then the back end under the car on the exits of the corner. I just couldn’t get the right speed that I needed. The guys did a great job this weekend. The Interstate Batteries Camry was good from when we unloaded the second one Friday. I can’t say enough about the guys on pit road and the guys back at the shop. They did a great job for us and got us in position and just unfortunately I couldn’t get the job done today. I didn’t have what it took there at the end.”

What happened during the final few laps of the race? “Today was a really, really good race for us anyways. We had a really good race car. Can’t thank the guys enough — everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, chassis shop, bodies

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

AUTO CLUB 400

AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES

March 27, 2011

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 JIMMY JOHNS CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER:

GIVE US THE RUNDOWN ON THE FINAL PASS ON THE LAST LAP:

“You know those guys (Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson) started racing and they got side-by-side and we were able to pull up in there. The more cycles that got on our tires, the better off we were. But I was really nervous about that last call staying out but it all worked out in our favor and we were able to make up ground. The guys on this Jimmy Johns Chevrolet did a great today. I just have to thank everybody from Budweiser, Rheem and Chevrolet for letting us put these cars on the track.”

WHEN YOU ARE RACING AGAINST KYLE BUSCH AND JIMMIE JOHNSON, ANY ADDITIONAL PRESSURE OR HUNGER TO DO WHAT YOU JUST DID ON THE LAST LAP?

“Well, we had them all beat last year here and I gave it away. First off I just have to thank everybody at Jimmy Johns, I know they are pumped, Budweiser, Rheem, Chevrolet and Sprint and all these fans for coming out today. What a great day! All these guys did a great job on pit road and Gil (Martin, crew chief) made the right call. I was like, when I saw those guys pit at the end, ‘I said man, we might be in deep trouble’. But, we held those guys off and our car just kept going.”

YOU HAVE SAID THAT SEVERAL OF THE FIRST RACES YOU SHOULD HAVE CONTENDED FOR THE WIN AND DIDN’T, IS THIS REDEMPTION?

“Well, we have just had a lot of adversity that we have fought through. We knew our cars were fast enough to win races. We just haven’t had the circumstances go right. We had a fast car and the circumstance played in our favor. And I have to say HI to my wife at home, love you.”

WHO MAKES THE FINAL DECISION ON A CALL LIKE THAT? YOU OR YOUR CREW CHIEF GIL MARTIN? “Well, it all depends on what day it is I guess. I kind of knew our car was fairly good and Gil (Martin, crew chief) obviously knew we were better after the tires have air in them. It all worked out today.”

DID THE CHANGE IN TODAY’S WEATHER THROW YOU GUYS A CURVE BALL AT ALL TODAY? “Not really. The track conditions stayed fairly consistent for us. I just want to thank all the fans for coming out here today and supporting us. To win at home, that is pretty cool.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THAT RUN BETWEEN YOU AND HARVICK? “It reminded me of last year in the Spring race, you know. Just didn’t hold him off that time. Those tires made the difference. I knew he was coming, they said he was coming. If I could have got by the No. 18 maybe a lap sooner that might have been enough to give him the margin I needed. Just way loose. I was driving my butt off just trying to keep this Lowe’s Chevrolet up front but it didn’t pan out. I hate losing it coming off of (turn) four like that but we did everything we could today. We had a great race. Made our car a lot better all day long so I’m really proud about that.”

DID YOU GET IN THE FENCE? “Yeah there was one time off of (turn) two I was chasing the No. 18 and I got crossed up and smacked the fence. I was dead sideways all day. Even when I was tight I was still loose. Just glad it turned out to be a decent day.”

ON HIS DAY:

“We had a great race today and I knew tires were coming. If I could have gotten by the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) a lap sooner maybe that would have made the difference and I would have had enough of a margin to hold off the No. 29 (Kevin Harvick, race winner) but he was rolling on the top. I did all that I could. I was dead-sideways. I think I hit the fence one time off of [turn] two chasing Kyle with the right rear first because it was sliding off the corner, Great day for the Lowe’s Chevrolet. I just wish I could have won here at my home track.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 U.S. ARMY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH

TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY. “We had some bad pit stops and they we under green fortunately at least one time I should say for sure I shouldn’t say two. Tony Gibson made a great call staying out. Just really proud of the U.S. Army Chevrolet and everybody at Stewart-Hass Racing giving us the opportunity. Unfortunately Tony (Stewart) didn’t get to finish the way he ran all day but as long as you finish you still get the points.”

YOUR CAR GOT BETTER, TALK ABOUT STRATEGY TO TAKE TWO TIRES EARLY AND THEN DIDN’T STOP LATER IN THE RACE: “It was kind of all based off of what the guys did in front of us and where I wanted to be on the restart. The outside was definitely to my advantage today. I just want to thank all the fans for coming out. Good day for the US Army Chevrolet to get a top-five finish and in the points. Really strong start to our season. We’re really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – Finished 12th:

“We ran up to 12th. We were faster than the No. 16 (Greg Biffle) and the No. 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) right there. We only had right-side tires; I think they did too. We were faster than both of them and faster than probably two or three more cars in front of them. So it’s hard to get there. Your car just don’t naturally drive right up through there in all this dirty air and guys racing you real hard on the outside and stuff; they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. It was fun but I’ve got to qualify better.”

HOW GOOD IS THIS TEAM RIGHT NOW?

“We’re a top 10 team. We’re doing pretty good. I like the consistency. That’s something I’ve never really had. This is the most consistent I’ve ever been in my whole career. So that’s a good thing. I think the team’s pretty good. I’ve got to do a better job helping them put a car on the track for qualifying that’s going to get us in the top 15 for qualifying. You’re really not helping yourself starting races in 30th. We have really good race cars and don’t want to be doing that.”

WHERE IS YOUR CONSISTENCY COMING FROM RIGHT NOW?

“Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the team get all the credit for how well the cars drive and how well they improve throughout the race. He was able to improve on the car throughout the race and make the adjustments that we needed to get us up there and be competitive and beat the guys we need to be beating and that we need to be running with every week.”

DOES THAT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE WAY THAT YOU GUYS COMMUNICATE AND LETARTE BEING ABLE TO FIX THE CAR AFTER YOU TELL HIM WHAT YOU NEED, RIGHT?

“Yeah. Well, I’m just trying to stay calm and be patient and I have a 100 percent confidence that he’s doing everything he can to help me. And the team is working really hard. I feel like they believed we can do well and improve throughout the year. That feels good. Everybody is believing in everybody. Everybody is confident that things are going to work out. The communication feels really good. Today, in the first half of the race, was the first time we made changes to the car all year that it didn’t do anything. And I don’t want to be repeating myself here but nothing’s working yet so just remember, we haven’t made it better or really touched on what we need to fix. And we tried a couple of other things and that steered him (Letarte) in a different direction and we found what we needed to find to help me with the car a little bit. It was just a little bit too late in the race to really get us a top 10 finish, but we had the car that was capable of doing that.”

WERE THE TIRES THE RIGHT CALL AT THE END?

“Yeah, we were running 12th when we pitted. Four (tires) were definitely not the right call. We saw that with the run before that. Those guys took four back there behind us and really couldn’t do much. Steve said Tony (Stewart) took no tires and was running well earlier in the race. I think our car was a little free. And so when we put two tires on it, that kind of did give me a little bit more of an adjustment that I was asking for all day. So that was the right call for us. I would have liked to know what we could have done staying out on used tires. But two tires was probably the right call.”

CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 RONALD REGAN FOUNDATION’S CENTENNIAL CHEVROLET – FINISHED 7TH

“We had a solid top-10 finish today for the No. 33 Chevrolet. We had a car that could win in the end, but just got a little loose on that last restart. I’m proud of these guys for bouncing back from last week.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET – FINISHED 10TH

“The Target Chevy was good on the short runs but got tight the longer we ran. Brian and the crew worked on the car all day and made some good calls. The goal was for a top-10 finish and that’s what we got. I’m pretty happy.”

About Chevrolet: Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 140 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers “gas-friendly to gas-free” solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com ce5&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.chevrolet.com%2f> .

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Dodge Motorsports PR

Auto Club Speedway Auto Club 400 Post-Race Quotes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series http://twitter.com/teamdodge www.media.chrysler.com

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Auto Club Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 17th “A tough weekend for the Auto Club Dodge Charger. We unloaded slow and never found speed. The short practice on Friday (because of rain) really hurt and we couldn’t find the balance that we needed to be fast. We threw everything we could today at the track – bars, air pressures, spring rubbers, you name it. The car never reacted to the track. With a big two-mile oval like Auto Club, carrying speed through these big sweeping corners is critical to be fast. We struggled getting over the bumps and getting our car to rotate through the corners like we needed. It’s disappointing because we wanted to come here and extend our point lead and gain some momentum heading into Martinsville next weekend. We went in the wrong direction. It’s a long season…a marathon, not a sprint. We’ll put this behind us and head short-track racing next week.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 26th “We have a lot of work to do on our Dodges for these kinds of tracks. We were hoping for big things this weekend, but it didn’t carry over. We’ve got to go back and think about what we need to do be able to run up front. We made some small gains during the race, but we had some loses too. I don’t think we were anywhere close to where we needed to be to run with the front guys here today. At least we were able to bring back the car in one piece. We’ve just got a lot of work to do.”

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 34th “Just a bummer of a day for the SPEED Energy Dodge today. We had a 15th to 20th-place car most of the day and screwed up when we ran out of fuel. You just can’t do that on a big track like Auto Club Speedway. We finished 34th because we ran out of fuel. You’re never going to make up two laps unless you catch some cautions and with the race going green for so long, we were dead in the water. We struggled with mechanical grip and when you can’t get a hold of the race track, you can’t go fast.”

Kenseth’s Strong finish leads three Roush Fenway Fords in Top 11 of race

FONTANA, Calif. (March 27, 2011) – Matt Kenseth drove to an impressive fourth-place finish in the waning laps of Sunday’s Auto Club 400 Sprint Cup race to lead three Roush Fenway cars in the top 11 of the event, but it was Carl Edwards who used a sixth-place finish to claim the Sprint Cup points lead; giving Roush Fenway the lead in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.)

The race’s final caution was waved with 12 laps remaining, setting up a wild and frantic finish. Kenseth used a two-tire stop on the race’s final stop to catapult his No. 17 Crown Royal Ford to the top-five finish.

Edwards elected to stay out on the caution and finished sixth, while Greg Biffle rebounded from a 32nd starting position to finish 11th. David Ragan, who qualified sixth, rounded out the Roush Fenway effort with a 22nd-place finish.

Kenseth used the top-five finish to move up three spots to 10th in the points. After a tough start to the season, Biffle climbed up three more spots to 20th and David Ragan is 22nd after five races. Edwards leads the standing by nine points over second-place Ryan Newman.

The Sprint Cup Series will return to action next weekend at the short track of Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, where Roush Fenway has four wins and has led over 1,300 laps in Sprint Cup action.

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts Ford Fusion (Finished 6TH) – “What an exciting race. I am really excited for these great fans you know to be able to see that wild of a finish at this race track which is one of the best race tracks we go to. For our Aflac team to come out of here leading the points is big considering how we ran all day. We really weren’t that good. Congrats to those guys that battled up front. They put on a good show and we will just go to Martinsville now.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Finished 11TH) – “It was a pretty good day considering where we qualified and how the car drove most of the day. We really came back. Our car was turning and really loose and felt like it was cutting off the left front too much at the end. That is why I lost all that track position. We came back and put two on and got back to 11th. I would have had Montoya at the end there but the 88 was inside me.”

MATT KENSETH, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion (Finished 4TH) “The last two weeks Jimmy and these guys have made some great adjustments and had our Crown Royal Ford the best it has been all day at the end of the race which is important. It is a good day for us. You are always greedy and want more. I was the first guy on tires and I didn’t do probably as good a job as I needed to on the restart. It just took awhile to get there.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Finished 30TH) – “Today was a long day. From the first lap to the last lap we were tight the whole time, sliding the nose through the center of the corner and all the way off. I couldn’t get the gas down and that cost us a lot of speed and a lot of position. Those tires seemed to bite us the last two weeks in a row with being tight.”

YOU HIT THE WALL EARLY, WAS IT THE SAME DEAL AS YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT? “It was the same deal. We took off tight and I didn’t expect it to give out like that. You could lean on it and lean on it and then it just felt like just take off. That is what happened at the beginning there.”