Category: NASCAR Cup Series

BRISTOL, Tenn. (March 20, 2011) — Regan Smith fought handling issues as the Furniture Row Racing driver posted a 22nd-place finish in Sunday’s Jeff Byrd 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Smith, who started the 500-lap race from the third position, struggled with maneuverability through the high-banked corners at the half-mile oval. But as he has done so many times, the 27-year-old driver managed to get the most out of his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet.

“We just never seemed to find the right balance, which is critical at Bristol,” said Smith. “At times we were good, but the car was a handful for the majority of the race. Considering what we went through the last two races with an accident and engine failure, finishing the race was something we really needed to accomplish.”

Smith and the Denver, Colo-based team were hoping to finish off the Bristol weekend with the same success they had in Friday’s practice and time trials when Smith was one of the leading drivers by posting a career-best qualifying effort of third.

“We had some positives this weekend which we want to build on,” noted Smith. “The short track program (less than a mile in length) has not been the best for us, but we are getting better. Next week in Southern California is a two-mile track and we sure like that type of venue.”

Smith picked up one spot in the driver point standings and is 27th after four of 36 races.

The Bristol race winner was Kyle Busch. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard.

The next Cup race is Sunday (March 27) — Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

*NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES*

*JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY*

*BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY*

*TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT*

*March 20, 2011*

* *

*JOHNSON LEADS THE WAY FOR TEAM CHEVY WITH 3RD PLACE FINISH AT BRISTOL*

* *

*Bristol, Tenn. (March 20, 2011) – *After leading the most laps in the race, four times for a total of 164 of the 500 laps, five-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion Jimmie Johnson brought his No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet to the finish line in third place. The solid performance in race four of the 2011 season jumped him five places in the point standings to seventh in the order.

Paul Menard, No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet, continued his outstanding start to the season with a fifth place finish. He moved up one point position to fifth in the standings.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, recovered from a spin on lap 438 to charge his way back through the field and finish sixth. He now sits 15th in the point standings.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet, also off to a great start of the season, was 10th at the line and moved to fourth in points.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, finished 11th and remained ninth in the standings after working his way back through the field following a pit road speeding penalty late in the race.

With his 12th place finish, Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, remains 11th in the standings.

Two-time NSCS champion Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil Chevrolet, now sits third in the standings after battling handling issues created by incidental contact early in the race. He was scored 19th at the finish.

Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, dropped to eighth in points after a very solid run was nullified when he was involved in a multi-car accident on lap 437.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the race winner. Carl Edwards (Ford) and Matt Kenseth (Ford) completed the top five finishers.

The Series moves back to the West Coast on March 27, 2011 to Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California.

*POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT*

*JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3RD:*

KERRY THARP: We’re going to roll into our post-race for today’s race here at Bristol Motor Speedway. Joining us is our third place finisher Jimmie Johnson. Third place finish, leading the most laps, 164. Your thoughts about today’s performance?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Certainly a solid performance for us. I felt like coming off pit road in fourth with only 40, 50 to go, the guys I was racing with, I knew it was going to be tough to get back to the front. I think we had a slip on the rear tire changer coming around the back of the car. Amazing, one little slip on pit road what it equals on the racetrack.

Great performance, qualified well, raced well. Very proud of the team. Glad to be climbing up in the points.

KERRY THARP: Questions now.

Q. Jimmie, were you taking it all easy the last laps where Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch were really fighting for position?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: To a certain degree. I mean, we were all running really hard. There were a couple moments where I thought I might be given a big gift here. It’s not like I was really riding. There was nowhere for me to go if I got up in there and raced with these guys. I left myself a little bit of room. I was still running awfully hard to keep pace.

One neat thing about this track, you can run good lap times side by side. There’s just enough room to do that. These guys were digging up front and I was just waiting to see what was going to happen.

Q. I know it’s really early in the season. I know y’all will say, Anything can happen. Is it pretty much down to the 48, the 99 and the 18 this year? Three of you seem to be noticeably better than everybody else.

CARL EDWARDS: Are you seriously asking that question right now (smiling)?

I hope. It would be nice to have two guys to race. That would be great.

JIMMIE JOHNSON: If you’re going to go on short term results, you look who has done the best, it’s the 99. You look at us at Vegas last week, we just about killed each other during the race.

We’re still looking for some speed. I think on the short track stuff, we’re in good shape. Our research and development program on the mile and a half and two mile is still underway.

Q. Jimmie, when you were leading, how was it getting through some of the lap traffic for you?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: It’s always challenging. I mean, I’ve been here with a torn up racecar. You just go to the bottom or the top, pick a lane and sit there. You can still run fast lap times around here. So there’s always issues with torn up cars that you catch at the wrong time, maybe you’re alongside of a car for position, it gets frustrating.

Then there were some other guys racing hard to stay on the lead lap. You try to give them two or three laps, understand what they’re doing. But at that point when somebody starts catching when the leaders started catching me, I just had to start moving people, bumping people out of the way. Nothing major, but put pressure on them, lean on them, they would point you by and let you go. It’s kind of short track stuff. When you’re the leader, when you watch the lead you built up disappear, that’s frustrating. Those guys have every right to race for their lead lap position as well.

Q. On the short track racing, short oval racing, how big is the issue with brake cooling and engine cooling? Is this always a problem?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: A little contact with some guys when I was leading trying to push them out of the way. Did some damage to the radiator. My water temp was high at the end. It was 250 the last 40, 50 laps. I was a little concerned about that, but it survived.

Q. Jimmie, we talked to Jeff Gordon a few weeks back when Kyle was having a pretty decent run. He compared the young Kyle Busch to Kyle Busch now. How have you seen Kyle mature over the last year to 18 months?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Well, you can definitely see him bite his tongue at times and not say what is the first thought that comes through his mind. From being teammates with him and racing with him, I’ve been able to get to know him years back. I’ve always raced well with him on track. He’s always been patient, hasn’t roughed me up. So I haven’t had any issues on track with him over the years.

But you can see, especially now that he is a car owner, has sponsors to worry about, you can just tell in his interviews the way he speaks. He’s very aware of series sponsor, track sponsor, his sponsors. We’ve also probably seen that same transformation with Stewart over the years. Once you’re an owner, I haven’t been in that role, you understand how fragile this environment and sport is. It certainly matured him a lot.

I can’t say a ton in the car because I don’t think he was doing much wrong there to start with. I think outside the car, he’s handling himself better.

Q. Between you and Carl Edwards and Kyle, you have pretty much won all the short track races over the last two or three years. Even though these tracks are all different, what is the similarity? Why are the same guys winning? When you look particularly at Bristol with Kyle winning four of the last five year, do you feel the gap is widening or you’re closing on him here?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: I’m just happy to be in the hunt here at Bristol. It’s been such a long time for me to figure this place out finally, two years of Nationwide, then probably eight or nine years of Cup. I can say through all of that for me, if you don’t have the right rhythm at this track and know how to drive it, you can drive it a lot of different ways, I’d go out there and search for three or four different rhythms or lines, have Chad set the car up for one of those, it just wasn’t right. I would change my line in the race, see what I should be doing. Now I have the car set up to run differently.

I think now that we’re on the same page, I know the line we need to run, we can tune to it and improve the car in the right areas. It’s been helpful for me. It just took a while to get it.

This track, a lot like the other short tracks, technology doesn’t affect the cars as much, so your setup should last longer on a short track over the years. Then also the driving style, the technique for each track. That stuff doesn’t really change all that much.

The reason Kyle continues to run well, he started off strong well here and has done nothing but make small improvements and stay ahead of it.

Q. Jimmie, you mentioned you really started to figure out Bristol. Your result in August when you had the wreck, was there anything you learned from that?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Last year, the last race in August, I learned that you need to leave Juan Pablo a little bit more room. Thought he was getting crowded, turned down from being kept from running into the wall. Had plenty of room, but maybe couldn’t see over the dashboard. He’s kind of short, you know.

(Also in the room was CARL EDWARDS: That’s a low blow, buddy (laughter).

Q. There’s been a lot of talk since this track was reconfigured a couple years ago. Has it taken some of the contact out in these late race finishes? The old layout, would we have seen some pushing and shoving in order to get to the finish?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: There’s no doubt the old track lent itself to more contact. There was no outside lane. You would just go in and move the guy off the bottom and take the lane from him.

I don’t know what would have happened. It’s so far removed from that rhythm of the race. You’d have to think if you’re in second with one or two to go, that guy is within arm’s reach, you’re going to take a shot at it. The way it panned out today with two to go, Kyle had a big enough margin, even if the throttle was hung, that Carl could have got a him.

Some of the fans like the old track. From a racer’s standpoint, we can race finally. This place is fun to race at.

Q. Kyle’s second consecutive weekend sweep at Bristol, how do you put that in perspective, what it means?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Happy to talk about it (smiling).

Q. Jimmie, which one of your crew members fell on that last stop? Even though there is more room to race here, was losing that track position really that difficult to get back up there or was it the high side that Kyle had that was the difference?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: Definitely track position is a lot. Kyle and I traded the lead back and forth at different points today. Whoever had the clean air in the lead would get a nice margin. We’d pit, it would change around, we’d end up with the lead, we could stretch it out on him. I think there was a 10th or so being the leader that you had in your back pocket. It’s all a compounding event. If you can control the race on the restarts, that outside lane has a big advantage, there’s a big advantage going up through the gears. There’s something with the banking, the transition off the corner onto the straight where you can really launch on that outside lane.

I was impressed with Carl staying alongside of him on the restarts. That’s a tough job to do on its own there. The inside car being trapped down usually gets loose, then you don’t have the room on exit to stay on the throttle to stay alongside of someone.

With Kyle, really any of these guys, if Carl was leading the race, the guy off pit road on the last pit stop has a strong control of the event here. Other tracks maybe not so much. Here you can really control the short run. That’s really what we had, we had a couple quick cautions, then a 30 lap sprint at the end which is pretty much a short run.

Q. Jimmie, anything from last weekend give you much pause going forward either at California or the one and a half mile tracks? Was it more of a one race particular to Vegas?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: There’s plenty of concern. Once the dust settled, we came home, we started the race, we were really bad. Made some good adjustments, worked our way up inside the top 10, then had some things kind of go wrong with two tire strategy at the end, we tried four, everybody else did two. We came in early for four. Some guys waited and took two. We lost a bunch more spots there. Then we had a problem or pit road.

If we look at where we were running and how we recovered during the race, I think we’re on to something. I’m not saying that California is going to be real easy on us. But I think we found a direction. We certainly got smarter through the course of two weeks ago in Vegas. I look at where we evolved in the Phoenix race weekend, all four Hendrick cars unloaded pretty far off and by the end of the race, we were there. One or more mile and a half, two mile tracks, I think we’ll be where we need to.

KERRY THARP: Thank you. Congratulations today. We’ll see you at Fontana.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports

*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 .

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

March 20, 2011

JOHNSON LEADS THE WAY FOR TEAM CHEVY WITH 3^RD PLACE FINISH AT BRISTOL

Bristol, Tenn. (March 20, 2011) – After leading the most laps in the race, four times for a total of 164 of the 500 laps, five-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion Jimmie Johnson brought his No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet to the finish line in third place. The solid performance in race four of the 2011 season jumped him five places in the point standings to seventh in the order.

Paul Menard, No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet, continued his outstanding start to the season with a fifth place finish. He moved up one point position to fifth in the standings.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet, recovered from a spin on lap 438 to charge his way back through the field and finish sixth. He now sits 15th in the point standings.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet, also off to a great start of the season, was 10th at the line and moved to fourth in points.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, finished 11th and remained ninth in the standings after working his way back through the field following a pit road speeding penalty late in the race.

With his 12th place finish, Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, remains 11th in the standings.

Two-time NSCS champion Tony Stewart, No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil Chevrolet, now sits third in the standings after battling handling issues created by incidental contact early in the race. He was scored 19th at the finish.

Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, dropped to eighth in points after a very solid run was nullified when he was involved in a multi-car accident on lap 437.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) was the race winner. Carl Edwards (Ford) and Matt Kenseth (Ford) completed the top five finishers.

The Series moves back to the West Coast on March 27, 2011 to Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California.

POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3^RD:

            KERRY THARP:  We’re going to roll into our post-race for today’s race here at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Joining us is our third place finisher Jimmie Johnson. Third place finish, leading the most laps, 164.  Your thoughts about today’s performance?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Certainly a solid performance for us.  I felt like coming off pit road in fourth with only 40, 50 to go, the guys I was racing with, I knew it was going to be tough to get back to the front.  I think we had a slip on the rear tire changer coming around the back of the car.  Amazing, one little slip on pit road what it equals on the racetrack.

            Great performance, qualified well, raced well.  Very proud of the team.  Glad to be climbing up in the points.

            KERRY THARP:  Questions now.

            Q.  Jimmie, were you taking it all easy the last laps where Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch were really fighting for position?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  To a certain degree.  I mean, we were all running really hard.  There were a couple moments where I thought I might be given a big gift here.  It’s not like I was really riding.  There was nowhere for me to go if I got up in there and raced with these guys.  I left myself a little bit of room.  I was still running awfully hard to keep pace.

            One neat thing about this track, you can run good lap times side by side.  There’s just enough room to do that.  These guys were digging up front and I was just waiting to see what was going to happen.

            Q.  I know it’s really early in the season.  I know y’all will say, Anything can happen.  Is it pretty much down to the 48, the 99 and the 18 this year?  Three of you seem to be noticeably better than everybody else.

            CARL EDWARDS:  Are you seriously asking that question right now (smiling)?

            I hope.  It would be nice to have two guys to race.  That would be great.

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  If you’re going to go on short term results, you look who has done the best, it’s the 99.  You look at us at Vegas last week, we just about killed each other during the race.

            We’re still looking for some speed.  I think on the short track stuff, we’re in good shape.  Our research and development program on the mile and a half and two mile is still underway.

            Q.  Jimmie, when you were leading, how was it getting through some of the lap traffic for you?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  It’s always challenging.  I mean, I’ve been here with a torn up racecar.  You just go to the bottom or the top, pick a lane and sit there.  You can still run fast lap times around here.  So there’s always issues with torn up cars that you catch at the wrong time, maybe you’re alongside of a car for position, it gets frustrating.

            Then there were some other guys racing hard to stay on the lead lap.  You try to give them two or three laps, understand what they’re doing.  But at that point when somebody starts catching    when the leaders started catching me, I just had to start moving people, bumping people out of the way.  Nothing major, but put pressure on them, lean on them, they would point you by and let you go.  It’s kind of short track stuff.  When you’re the leader, when you watch the lead you built up disappear, that’s frustrating.  Those guys have every right to race for their lead lap position as well.

            Q.  On the short track racing, short oval racing, how big is the issue with brake cooling and engine cooling?  Is this always a problem?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  A little contact with some guys when I was leading trying to push them out of the way.  Did some damage to the radiator.  My water temp was high at the end.  It was 250 the last 40, 50 laps.  I was a little concerned about that, but it survived.

            Q.  Jimmie, we talked to Jeff Gordon a few weeks back when Kyle was having a pretty decent run.  He compared the young Kyle Busch to Kyle Busch now.  How have you seen Kyle mature over the last year to 18 months?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Well, you can definitely see him bite his tongue at times and not say what is the first thought that comes through his mind.  From being teammates with him and racing with him, I’ve been able to get to know him years back.  I’ve always raced well with him on track.  He’s always been patient, hasn’t roughed me up.  So I haven’t had any issues on track with him over the years.

            But you can see, especially now that he is a car owner, has sponsors to worry about, you can just tell in his interviews the way he speaks.  He’s very aware of series sponsor, track sponsor, his sponsors.  We’ve also probably seen that same transformation with Stewart over the years.  Once you’re an owner, I haven’t been in that role, you understand how fragile this environment and sport is.  It certainly matured him a lot.

            I can’t say a ton in the car because I don’t think he was doing much wrong there to start with.  I think outside the car, he’s handling himself better.

            Q.  Between you and Carl Edwards and Kyle, you have pretty much won all the short track races over the last two or three years.  Even though these tracks are all different, what is the similarity?  Why are the same guys winning?  When you look particularly at Bristol with Kyle winning four of the last five year, do you feel the gap is widening or you’re closing on him here?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  I’m just happy to be in the hunt here at Bristol.  It’s been such a long time for me to figure this place out finally, two years of Nationwide, then probably eight or nine years of Cup.  I can say through all of that for me, if you don’t have the right rhythm at this track and know how to drive it, you can drive it a lot of different ways, I’d go out there and search for three or four different rhythms or lines, have Chad set the car up for one of those, it just wasn’t right.  I would change my line in the race, see what I should be doing.  Now I have the car set up to run differently.

            I think now that we’re on the same page, I know the line we need to run, we can tune to it and improve the car in the right areas.  It’s been helpful for me.  It just took a while to get it.

            This track, a lot like the other short tracks, technology doesn’t affect the cars as much, so your setup should last longer on a short track over the years.  Then also the driving style, the technique for each track.  That stuff doesn’t really change all that much.

            The reason Kyle continues to run well, he started off strong well here and has done nothing but make small improvements and stay ahead of it.

            Q.  Jimmie, you mentioned you really started to figure out Bristol.  Your result in August when you had the wreck, was there anything you learned from that?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Last year, the last race in August, I learned that you need to leave Juan Pablo a little bit more room.  Thought he was getting crowded, turned down from being kept from running into the wall.  Had plenty of room, but maybe couldn’t see over the dashboard.  He’s kind of short, you know.

            (Also in the room was CARL EDWARDS:  That’s a low blow, buddy (laughter).

            Q.  There’s been a lot of talk since this track was reconfigured a couple years ago.  Has it taken some of the contact out in these late race finishes?  The old layout, would we have seen some pushing and shoving in order to get to the finish?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  There’s no doubt the old track lent itself to more contact.  There was no outside lane.  You would just go in and move the guy off the bottom and take the lane from him.

            I don’t know what would have happened.  It’s so far removed from that rhythm of the race.  You’d have to think if you’re in second with one or two to go, that guy is within arm’s reach, you’re going to take a shot at it.  The way it panned out today with two to go, Kyle had a big enough margin, even if the throttle was hung, that Carl could have got a him.

            Some of the fans like the old track.  From a racer’s standpoint, we can race finally.  This place is fun to race at.

            Q.  Kyle’s second consecutive weekend sweep at Bristol, how do you put that in perspective, what it means?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Happy to talk about it (smiling).

            Q.  Jimmie, which one of your crew members fell on that last stop?  Even though there is more room to race here, was losing that track position really that difficult to get back up there or was it the high side that Kyle had that was the difference?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  Definitely track position is a lot.  Kyle and I traded the lead back and forth at different points today.  Whoever had the clean air in the lead would get a nice margin.  We’d pit, it would change around, we’d end up with the lead, we could stretch it out on him.  I think there was a 10th or so being the leader that you had in your back pocket.  It’s all a compounding event.  If you can control the race on the restarts, that outside lane has a big advantage, there’s a big advantage going up through the gears.  There’s something with the banking, the transition off the corner onto the straight where you can really launch on that outside lane.

            I was impressed with Carl staying alongside of him on the restarts.  That’s a tough job to do on its own there.  The inside car being trapped down usually gets loose, then you don’t have the room on exit to stay on the throttle to stay alongside of someone.

            With Kyle, really any of these guys, if Carl was leading the race, the guy off pit road on the last pit stop has a strong control of the event here.  Other tracks maybe not so much.  Here you can really control the short run.  That’s really what we had, we had a couple quick cautions, then a 30 lap sprint at the end which is pretty much a short run.

            Q.  Jimmie, anything from last weekend give you much pause going forward either at California or the one and a half mile tracks?  Was it more of a one race particular to Vegas?

            JIMMIE JOHNSON:  There’s plenty of concern.  Once the dust settled, we came home, we started the race, we were really bad.  Made some good adjustments, worked our way up inside the top 10, then had some things kind of go wrong with two tire strategy at the end, we tried four, everybody else did two.  We came in early for four.  Some guys waited and took two.  We lost a bunch more spots there.  Then we had a problem or pit road.

            If we look at where we were running and how we recovered during the race, I think we’re on to something.  I’m not saying that California is going to be real easy on us.  But I think we found a direction.  We certainly got smarter through the course of two weeks ago in Vegas.  I look at where we evolved in the Phoenix race weekend, all four Hendrick cars unloaded pretty far off and by the end of the race, we were there.  One or more mile and a half, two mile tracks, I think we’ll be where we need to.

            KERRY THARP:  Thank you.  Congratulations today.  We’ll see you at Fontana.

     FastScripts by ASAP Sports

 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.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES

March 20, 2011

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWES/KOBALT TOOLS CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD:

ON HIS RACE:

“The race off pit road is what got us. That track position was everything. Really, the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and I didn’t see much of the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) all day. We were pretty equal on pace. Whoever had clean air was going to be in control. We just didn’t get off pit road in front of everybody. Great stops all day long, just a little off there at end. A little group of guys that learning and I know these guys are going to be rock solid. They are clearly fast, just need to give them more experience and they will be fine. All-in-all a great day for this Kobalt Tools Chevrolet and looking forward to the next one.”

TELL US WHAT YOUR STRATEGY WAS AND WHY YOU COULDN’T CATCH THE FRONT:

“Oddly enough clean air is important here and it makes a big difference. I didn’t so much the No. 99 all day long but I knew the No. 18 and I were relatively equal and whoever had clean air could get a little gap and that was kind of it.

“So it came down to that last pit stop. We didn’t get off pit road first and I really think that is where the race was done at that point especially with Kyle. He knows how to control the starts, he knows how to take advantage of a clean race track, restarts well. He really had control from that point on and it was the rest of us racing for second, third and fourth.”

PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 CERTAINTEED/MENARDS CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH:

ON THE ROLL HE IS ON GOING, ANOTHER TOP-FIVE:

“It is Bristol so there is a lot of attrition but Slugger (Richard Labbe, crew chief) built and awesome race team. We had fast race all day long. Just having a lot of fun right now.”

THIS TEAM JUST CONTINUES TO IMPRESS:

“Yeah, had a fast race car all weekend. What’s cool is we’ve been to four different race tracks and we’ve had strong runs at all four. A testament to Slugger (Richard Labbe, crew chief) and everyone at RCR. There is a lot of talent up there. Slugger built a hell of a race team and just having a lot of fun right now.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET – FINISHED 6^TH:

DID YOU JUST GO THROUGH A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING IN THAT RACE TODAY?

“Well, I just want to thank all my guys. You know when we were sitting there running third and fifth really we were just riding. I just wanted to make sure that we had a race car left and the No. 4 got a little tight and the No. 5 ran over us again. Luckily we didn’t hit anything and they got the fenders off the tires and our Budweiser Chevrolet was really, really fast today, especially the last run there. I was able to maneuver and pass cars and do what I needed to do there. We’ve had top-five cars every week and we don’t really have a lot to show for it. We came back and got a good sixth-place finish today. These guys are doing a great job and I really think it shows the maturity of the race team and the things that we go through and the way we’ve been able to come back.”

HEARD WORDS UTTERED OVER THE RADIO THAT IT WHAT A CHAMPIONSHIP IS ALL ABOUT, DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS YEAR?

“We have a championship team. We proved that we could race for it last year. Everybody is just so confident in each other and everybody is just mellow on the radio and when something happens we just fix it and come back. That’s not a feeling I’ve ever had until last year and these first four weeks I’ve had that feeling over and over again and we keep fighting back.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 TORNADOS CHEVROLET – FINISHED 10^TH:

“I think our Tornados Chevrolet was probably better than where we finished today. We had fighting getting loose during a run all day, and then at the end we just got way too tight. I’m not really sure why that happened. But all in all it was another good top-10 finish for our team and another good points day for us. We got kind of behind there on our qualifying, but we worked really hard on Saturday and got the car right for the race. I’m just really proud of the entire Tornados team today and how we have started this season.”

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH:

ON HIS RACE: “Well, we weren’t running good at the start of the race. We had some issues. Changes we made on the car last night I don’t think were in favor of us today. We went in there and had to work on that all day long to get the car somewhat competitive. Just kinda…I gave up about four spots with that speedin’ on pit road. Should have finished in the top-10. But, pretty good finish otherwise. We didn’t really have a very good car when the race started. Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the whole team has made the car better every day, every race. It’s been awesome.”

THE WAY STEVE TALKS TO YOU ON THE RADIO, IT IS OBVIOUS THAT IT HELPS YOU: “Well it is hard to really point on and put a finger on it right now. He just does a good job of keeping me calm and keeping me focused on trying to do good. You know…I have such a temper man, in that car. It is hard to maintain it. That car is like a big ole balancer when you’re in there. You feel like you could take on anybody cause you have on, you know, over your shoulder and you get mad, you get real angry. But, he keeps me calm and we’ve worked close on what the job is. We keep getting good finishes, we’ll be all right.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 PEPSI MAX CHEVROLET – FINISHED 14^TH:

TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY

“Yeah, it was more down than up, I think. We had one run where the car was just unbelievable on the long run and we had a long run and I don’t know how far we drove up there but I drove by a bunch of cars and I was pretty optimistic at that point. And I was still a little bit tight, which is what we’d been fighting in the center of the corner; and we freed it up and was so loose I couldn’t drive it after that. And we just went back & forth and back 7 forth. We salvaged a 14^th place finish out of it, which you can’t complain too much about that.  It was definitely not our day so we were frustrated at times and fighting hard but I felt like we worked well together as a team to get through kind of a rough day and come out here with a decent finish.”

HOW DID THE TIRE TREAT YOU?

“Well, it doesn’t have a lot of grip but we didn’t have any tire problems, or the No. 24 team didn’t have any tire problems. I don’t know if anybody else did. I know Goodyear’s intentions were good to try to get the drivers’ more grip, which is what we like to have. That’s what that first tire had. But we’ve got to have one that puts rubber down on the track too. This seemed like a good fix.”

YOU’RE NOT VERY HAPPY WITH BRAD (KESELOWSKI). WHAT HAPPENED?

“Well, the guy was three laps down. I understand. He’s trying to keep from going a lap down and hey, you’ve got to give him credit. They fought back and got back on the lead lap and got a decent finish out of it. I’ll just tell Brad that the next time I’m three laps down, and he’s on the lead lap, just expect the same out of me, you know? I don’t expect him to just let off. He had a fast race car. But when you’re three laps down and then you door-slam the guy trying to pass; that’s what ticked me off is when he got loose underneath me and got up into me, I got pretty mad then.”

 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.

Ford Finishing Order:

2nd – Carl Edwards

4th – Matt Kenseth

8th – Greg Biffle

15th – Marcos Ambrose

16th – David Ragan

26th – Travis Kvapil

27th – David Gilliland

28th – Tony Raines

31st – AJ Allmendinger

34th – Trevor Bayne

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Scotts EZ Seed Ford Fusion (Finished 2nd) – “It was exciting. I thought I could get to him at the end and rough him up a little bit and maybe get by him, but his car took off. I just told them I should have hit him harder when I got to his bumper the first time, but we were racing really hard. His car was better there at the end. I didn’t know how fast Jimmie was, so I thought, ‘Man, if we starting roughing each other up, it might end up worse for us in general.’ But it was a good race at Bristol. Kyle did a good job. Our team did a good job. We’ve got to thank all the fans and we appreciate them coming out and supporting us.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Black Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) – “We had a lot of fun out there racing today and got lucky and got the right lane on the restarts a few times. We were able to make up some positions. It took all day, but we finally were able to make some adjustments that had the Crown Royal Black Fusion pretty decent.” HOW WAS YOUR DAY? “It was a struggle all day. I’m thrilled with our finish. It’s the highest up we ran all day. We struggled between about a seventh or eighth place car in a best-case scenario to about a 20th-place car at times. They made some great adjustments on that last stop and got real lucky getting in the right row on the restarts and we were able to make some ground up there at the end when we needed to.”

WHAT EFFECT DID THE TIRE HAVE TODAY? “It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. We got to use the same date code the whole day. They changed that right before the race and I think that made a big difference. Actually, all of my tires that were on the car were really consistent and we didn’t have any issues.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 9 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Finished 15th) – “We had a good day considering it was rough. We fought hard to stay on the lead lap and got some damage late, which hurt the handling of the car, but I’ll take it. If we have a difficult day and finish 15th, that’s not too bad. We just kept digging all day and did the best we could. I like this track. I’m disappointed with 15th, but when you have a difficult day like that, you’ve just got to walk away saying I’ve got a straight car and decent points.”

GREG ERWIN, Crew Chief – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion (Biffle finished 8th) – “I was worried at the halfway mark. I think we wound up with a little bit of what we saw in practice and probably just had the air pressures down a little bit too low for this tire combination and this bump stop combination that we had. It looks like as soon as we put a little air in it we got it freed up a little bit and it looked like it came alive. I’d say we were a better long run car than a short run car, and I think we proved that on that 100-lap run and that 75-lap run. We were able to pass cars on the tail end of those runs, but the restarts at the end just really kind of hurt us.”

DID HAVING ONLY ONE SET OF TIRES YESTERDAY PUT YOU BEHIND TODAY AS FAR AS HAVING THE CAR DIALED IN? “We had one set of tires and ran 60 laps on them, and then popped a hole in the right-rear when we ran over something on the race track. That actually cut our practice about 10 minutes short, but you’ve got to look at it and say it might be equal for everybody. If we all had more tires, everybody else would have probably gotten a little better as well. The way the car drove the first 250 laps of the race wasn’t really in the direction we thought it was gonna be, so that kind of threw us a curveball.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 UPS Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) — “We were just a little bit off at the beginning of the race with those new tires. We just didn’t make enough of an adjustment as we needed, and it took until the second or third run for it to start changing the car a little bit. I can’t say enough about our UPS team. They never gave up and we could have easily finished 25th, but we made a lot of adjustments there at the end to race back up on the lead lap. We had a fast car and got a 16th-place finish. It’s not a win, but we’ve got to look at the positive and get better.” 

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (Finished 34th) – “This race was totally different than the Nationwide race. Everybody always talks about how tough the (races) are here in Bristol. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah…But this is totally different. You’re beside somebody the entire time. It never singles out. You never just ride. With that said, also, it’s 200 more laps. You get to 300 when you’d normally be done, you know, that’s when you finally get a little fatigued – around 300. But then you have 200 left. You’re counting down every lap. It’s a tough race. Mentally, physically – everything.”

DAVID GILLILAND – No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Finished 27th) – “Today just wasn’t our day. We got ourselves up front early in the race by staying out under the caution, but then we got bit by running out of fuel. It was still early enough in the race for us to battle our way back, but then we cut a couple of tires. After that, we actually didn’t have our TMone/Taco Bell Ford running too bad. I think we ran our fastest lap toward the end of the race, but we were just too far back at that point to gain too much. We’ll look for a comeback in California.”

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Finished 26th) – “It wasn’t a horrible run, and not what we had hoped for coming into the weekend. We struggled with the handling of our car all weekend, so we made a lot of big changes to it throughout the race, and we actually made some decent progress with it. But this is Bristol, you know. It doesn’t take long to get lapped if you’re struggling, even a little bit, from the start. But, we did OK and got a decent finish and it should help us out in points a little bit.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE – “I thought we’d be better matched with him. I thought I’d be able to race with him harder for those last 15-20 laps, but he took off and I was a little loose off and I just couldn’t get back to him to race, but while we were racing for the first couple of laps after the restart it was a blast. If I would have known that was the only shot I was gonna have, I might have raced a little harder, but that’s a good race at Bristol. It was fun and I’m just ready to go to California and hopefully we’ll have strong cars there.”

DO YOU WISH YOU WOULD HAVE DONE THE BUMP AND RUN WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE? “Yeah, I should have (laughing). It was a little early. I told him after Phoenix that I still owe him one, but I’ll save it up. But, you know, I was talking to Jimmie on the way over here. We were running so hard at that point in the run, I don’t know that you could really bump a guy and just move him. You might cause a big wreck, you might wreck yourself. Jimmie was right behind us. I thought maybe it would give him the win, so I figured we’d let it calm down and we’d just race. It ended up the fastest car at the end won the race. Hindsight is 20/20, but that’s the way it panned out.”

IT’S EARLY IN THE SEASON, BUT IS IT DOWN TO THE 48-99-18 THIS YEAR? YOU SEEM MUCH BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. “Are you seriously asking that question right now (laughing). I hope. That would be nice to just have two guys to race. That would be great.”

WAS THE NEW TIRE AN ISSUE FOR YOU? IT SEEMED LIKE YOU STRUGGLED AND THEN CAM E ON. “We never ran the old tire in that second practice, so I think that’s why we were 33rd or 34th on the board, so it looked bad, but I thought we were pretty good. Once we made two or three runs on that tire, I felt like we were pretty competitive. At the beginning of the race we weren’t very good, though. We went backwards pretty quick and Bob made some pretty large changes with the car. We didn’t think we were gonna be struggling as much as we did when the race started and it was a little bit more of a curveball than we thought.” 

CARL EDWARDS CONTINUED – DID YOU THINK YOU COULD GET HIM ON A RESTART OR IS HE JUST THAT GOOD? “I think the last two, if I’m not mistaken, I had to lift out of the gas. I got a pretty good jump on him, so I kind of figured out what he was doing, but he does do a really good job on restarts. I think that outside lane, you have a little more of a hill to come down or something, so you have a little advantage on the outside. I was doing everything I could to take away that advantage, but I needed a few restarts just to figure out how to keep up with him because he was doing a really good job.”

DID HE BREAKAWAY BECAUSE JIMMIE PUT SOME HEAT ON YOU OR WAS HE STRONGER? “He was just better off of the corner. I think I worked my tires a little too hard there on the bottom racing really hard with him, and my car had been loose all day. That was the tightest it had been, but coming off the corner I’d push the throttle down and I was sideways all the way to the flag stand. Once Kyle got far enough out there, all I was doing was trying to keep Jimmie behind me and I think he was struggling with the same thing, so, at the end, Kyle, I think, definitely had more drive off the corner.”

HOW BIG IS BRAKE AND ENGINE COOLING ON SHORT TRACKS? “I was a little nervous about my brakes today because I was riding them a long way through the corner. I kept asking Bob about our wheel temps and stuff, and he said they were fine. We didn’t have any trouble today, but I was nervous about it.”

YOU THREE HAVE WON ALL THE SHORT TRACK RACES THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS. WHY IS IT THE SAME GUYS WINNING? AND IS THE GAP CLOSING OR WIDENING WITH YOU AND KYLE HERE AT BRISTOL? “I didn’t know I’d won that many short track races, but these guys have been doing a good job. I don’t know. I think these races are pretty grueling. They’re tough for the whole team, driver, pit crew, crew chief, engineers – everyone. I think I look at some of the best teams in the garage and it’s Jimmie and Kyle’s teams and, from my perspective, that’s why they do well here because they have good, well-rounded teams and they’re great drivers.”

IS THE ONLY WAY HE COULD HAVE BEEN BEATEN IS IF YOU PASSED HIM QUICK AFTER A RESTART? “Looking back on it, I think that was the only way, but, at the time, I thought our 99 car was gonna be better after 10-15 laps, so I wasn’t too concerned with it, and I really thought we were gonna get another caution or two. My gut told me there was gonna be another caution, but you never know how those runs are gonna go. You don’t know the adjustments the guys make on the last pit stop, you just don’t know.”

HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU THE LAST 50 LAPS AND ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED WITH 2ND? “It’s no fun to run second, but when I look at the big picture, the fact that I’m sitting here frustrated about a second-place run, being I think one or two points out of the point lead, that’s a huge jump from a year ago. When you’re running poorly, you’ll take anything you can get. I guess we’re just so greedy that when you’re running well, you want to win every race, you want to lead the most laps, you want to sit on every pole, but our performance has been great. It’s just been amazing. It’s been a huge turnaround, so I’ve got to keep this in perspective. By the time Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolls around, we’re gearing up to go to California I have a feeling I’ll be alright.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE WHEN YOU HAVE THE TALENT AND AREN’T COMPETITIVE? “It’s very difficult. I think all of us got here by performing well and getting great results. We’re used to running well. We’re used to getting the result we want. The problem is when you start to not get the results, you have to make sure that you still give your best performance. They’re two completely different things, so it’s very difficult for me – I don’t know about other guys – but it’s difficult for me to do a worse job because I’m trying too hard, I guess. It is tough and, looking back, if I could write a letter to myself and send it back eight months, I’d say, ‘Man, just keep doing what you’re doing. Everything is fine.’ But, at the time, you just want to explode you’re just so frustrated.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SWEEP A WEEKEND LIKE KYLE HERE? “That’s a pretty big feat. That’s a good weekend right there and to put two back-to-back like that is pretty amazing.”

Sunday, March 20, 2011 Dodge Motorsports PR

Bristol Motor Speedway Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City Post-Race Quotes NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

http://twitter.com/teamdodge www.media.chrysler.com

KURT BUSCH (No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T) Finished Seventh “It was a good day for us with our Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. We were in good position early on, riding around in third and could see the leaders. We pushed our car hard on some of the restarts trying to get up there and lead a lap. It just didn’t seem we had the mojo to compete. Those guys were pretty tough today. Overall, we had a solid day. We couldn’t adjust on the car as the race got past halfway. That seems to be our struggle. We had another top 10 which is great. We’ll take that. It’s a point-leader type effort. We just want to get up there and try to win one of these things. We’ll keep pushing hard.”

TRAVIS GEISLER (Competition Director, Penske Racing) “We ran in the top five all day and felt like it was a race where we could easily have a top five and if things worked out for us, we could have competed for the win. I think overall, these guys did a good job hanging in there. Big picture racing, if you come out of Bristol with a top 10 and the point lead, you can’t really complain a whole lot. We’ll go back, look at what we have to do to improve when we come back here and keep on doing what we did here which is staying in the top 10 every week. This is the fourth top 10s in a row for this team. We’ve just got to keep that going.”

ROBBY GORDON (No. 7 SPEED Energy/Food City Dodge Charger R/T) Finished 39th “I stopped for four tires earlier, so I had tires with 10 less laps on them than any car other than the 34, but popped the right front. I didn’t anticipate that. It was almost a full-run on fuel, so I guess we just wore the tire out. (Kevin) Harvick and I touched, but it was on the left side on my car. It had nothing to do with the tire on the right side. I didn’t have any issue on the right front until the tire popped and I hit the wall. We have a broken A-arm and the front valence is knocked off of it. We would like to fix it and go out and score some more points, but there’s still a bunch of cars running.”

CHEVY FAST FACTS

51st ANNUAL JEFF BYRD 500 PRESENTED BY FOOD CITY

BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

March 20, 2011

A total of 17 Team Chevy drivers will start the 51st Annual Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS), round four (4) of the 2011 season.

FIVE CHEVROLET DRIVERS STARTING IN THE TOP-10:

. Regan Smith, No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet will start 3rd

. Paul Menard, No. 27 Certain Teed/Menards Chevrolet rolls off 4th

. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet starts 6th

. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Pepsi MAX Chevrolet starts 7th

. Mark Martin, No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet rolls off 9th

CHEVROLET ON THE TRACK-BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY:

* A Chevrolet driver has won 42 of the 100 previous NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) races at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS)

* Chevrolet drivers have won 35 poles at BMS

* Team Chevy drivers have scored 177 top-five finishes and 354 top-10 finishes at BMS * A Chevrolet has led 20,823 laps (42.1% of 49,474 possible) at BMS * Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet, is the defending race champion

TEAM CHEVY IN NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (NSCS) COMPETITION:

. Chevrolet has won 34 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Manufacturers’ Championships

. Team Chevy drivers have scored 670 wins in NSCS competition

. In 2010, Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team scored their unprecedented fifth consecutive drivers’ and owners’ NSCS championships

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> .