Alba Colon
October 01, 2014 – “Congratulations to Jeff Gordon, Alan Gustafson, Rick Hendrick, the No. 24 crew, and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports on their win at Dover last week. It was a great victory for Team Chevy. Also, congratulations to Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne, who along with Jeff Gordon, moved on to the ‘Contender’ round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“This weekend we head to Kansas Speedway, the first race in the second stage of the playoffs; and a place where our Team Chevy drivers and teams are looking forward to having continued success. The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is amazingly close; but with seven races remaining, we want to be sure that we place as many Chevrolet SS drivers in the top 4 as possible. Also, the Manufacturers’ Championship is still far from being decided. Our engineers are working hand in hand with the teams’ engineers to make sure they have all the necessary tools to be successful at each and every race remaining on the schedule.
“This marks our second visit to Kansas Speedway this year, and the teams have been able to build their set-up books. We will be racing in the afternoon this time, but the 1.5-mile tri-oval is always a fun track. It is smooth and fast, with transitions from flatter straightaways to banked corners; and it has a lot of grip. The racing on Sunday promises to be very interesting, and we are looking forward to a great race weekend at Kansas.”
TEAM CHEVY FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT – CHASE CONTENDERS:
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – 2ND IN STANDINGS
(ON CONTENDER ROUND AND KANSAS): “The rounds will just get tougher and tougher. In this round, I think everyone hopes to get to Talladega without having to worry about posting a good finish since that race is very unpredictable and there’s the likelihood of a big wreck that could shake things up.
Jeff Gordon
“We won at Kansas earlier this year, so we’re excited about this weekend. We’d like to get another win to go ahead and clinch a spot in the Eliminator Round. But if we don’t, solid finishes this weekend and at Charlotte hopefully put us in a good position before Talladega.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – 4TH IN STANDINGS
“Kansas can be kind of freaky because there is not much wear on the tire. Strategy is going to be a big part of that. Charlotte can kind of play that same role. I certainly want to be victorious in one of the two so I don’t have to worry about Talladega.”
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET SS – 5TH IN STANDINGS
“It’s definitely a little bit different just for the fact the (corner) entries are a little different than at most places. Turns 3 and 4 remind me of Turns 3 and 4 at Chicagoland Speedway, but there’s a lot more grip and a lot fresher asphalt than what Chicagoland has nowadays. It’s a very high-speed race track. You run the middle to the bottom of the race track. But I’m sure, as time goes on, that the groove will move back up. But, for right now, it’s very fast and very sensitive to your line and, with all the speed and how tricky the entrance is into Turn 1, you can miss your line easily. So, you have to be very specific about where you put your car and pay attention to what you’re doing.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – 9TH IN STANDINGS
“Kansas Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway are going to be so important for us to do well in this segment because Talladega is going to be such a crap shoot. It sure would be nice to win Kansas or Charlotte to take Talladega totally out of the mix.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – 10TH IN STANDINGS
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
“We have had fast cars all season but it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks. We are bringing the chassis that won both Poconos over the summer. So I’m looking forward to getting on track in Kansas and seeing what kind of speed we have.”
TEAM CHEVY FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT – NON-CHASE CONTENDERS:
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 CLOROX CHEVROLET SS – 13TH IN STANDINGS
“Kansas is a lot like the mile-and-a-half’s right now in general – – really the repaves. You get there and on Friday and Saturday the track has a ton of speed in it. It’s really fast. You are not out of the throttle a lot. It makes it tough because you set your car up for those conditions. And, then Sunday – whether it’s cooler out or whatever – – just the track sitting there with the NASCAR Nationwide Series rubber from the race on Saturday. It just seems like when we drop the green on Sunday the track really gets slickened up and the repaves especially are bad for that. It makes it tough because on Friday and Saturday it’s all about speed. On Sunday, no matter what the conditions are especially if it’s sunny out and the track has set there all morning in the sun you drop the green and it’s just way different. It happened in Chicago (Chicagoland Speedway) as well. Still as cool it was all weekend, it’s just the way the repaves are in general. It makes it tough to set up for. It’s just a fun race track.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 41 HAAS AUTOMATION CHEVROLET SS – 14TH IN STANDINGS
“The track is very smooth and it’s fast so you can be aggressive with shock control, sway bars and other things. Kansas is definitely its own animal but it compares more to a Michigan and the smoother race tracks that we run on versus the rough ones like Chicago and Atlanta. Kansas is unique in terms of how the wind changes direction from day to day. So, turn two might be a problem one day and turn four might be a problem the next day. I’m expecting that we’ll have high speeds like we had in the spring. The track will be fast. Cars will definitely be on edge.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – 17TH IN STANDINGS
Danica Patrick
“The 42 team has grown quite a bit since the last time we raced at Kansas. We had a pretty good weekend there in May and were really fast in the Target Chevy, but didn’t start off the race that great. I think that given all the team has learned up to now, we should be in store for a better finish this time around. I’m excited to keep up our momentum from the last few races, and am excited to be at a track this weekend that I think suits me. All of us are still working hard to get that first win this season.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA/MONOPOLY CHEVROLET SS – 19TH IN STANDINGS
“I think that Kansas might have been the best race car that we had all season when we were there in the Spring. We had a car with good speed and felt that we were capable of competing for a win. Unfortunately we cut a tire and ended our night early. Kansas Speedway is a lot like Chicago in many ways and we had a really good car there three weeks ago. I hope that we can put our team in position to unload fast on Friday and continue that through the whole weekend. It is always nice to go back to the Kansas City area too, because so much of my early racing career started with racing in that area”.
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 QUAKER STATE/MENARDS CHEVROLET SS – 20TH IN STANDINGS
“Kansas has been a really good track for us since the repave the last couple of years and even before that actually. We really did not run well in the spring so I’m feeling anxious to get back there and try to improve on what we’ve done in the past and try to get back on track at Kansas. It’s been a good track, we just let ourselves down in the spring.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET SS – 21ST IN STANDINGS
“I’m really comfortable at Kansas Speedway. I’ve earned pole awards there in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and I feel like I’ve made quite a few laps there in both of those Series. I made my first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start there. It’s a fun track and it’s getting even more fun as the surface wears in, following the repave.”
MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW CHEVROLET SS – 24TH IN STANDINGS
“We need to continue what we’ve been doing and even step it up a few more notches. We’ve had some decent finishes the past three weeks and right now our main focus is to find more speed and get this Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet ready with more consistency for the 2015 season. It feels like we’re going through one of our better stretches of the season. I’ve had some good runs at Kansas over the years — a couple of second-place finishes and have led a bunch of laps. However, we weren’t that good at Kansas back in the spring, but that was then. We have learned a lot since the last Kansas race and would be truly disappointed if we aren’t competitive on Sunday.”
CASEY MEARS, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – 25TH IN STANDINGS
“We had decent runs at Loudon and Dover, so after two good races we’re looking forward to getting the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS to Kansas and continuing the effort to build our intermediate program. We’ve struggled on these tracks in the past, but seem to be doing better on some of them this season. The Germain Racing team is always working hard to advance our program and I think you’re seeing that this season.”
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 ASPEN DENTAL CHEVROLET SS – 28TH IN STANDINGS
“Honestly, the most rewarding part of my night was probably when I drove around the outside of the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) on a restart. That was probably my most rewarding thing all night. I say that with all the respect in the world. It’s a big deal because he is Jimmie Johnson. Aside from that, I was really just overall proud that we stayed up front all night. That was the biggest thing. When the race started, it was about finishing the weekend off right and just staying up there. You know you’re going to go up, you’re going to go down a little bit, and we sure enough did that. But we more than held our own through the whole race. I’m extremely proud of this crew for building a car that was just awesome. It was so good on restarts and long runs and tires getting old. Hard work pays off and they definitely put the hard work into it.
“(Tony) Gibson (crew chief) did a good job in making changes for the race and it was good from the get-go. And I think what says even more are two things: It was really good on restarts and it was really good when it wasn’t quite right, and it was really good on long runs. But, overall, I’m just proud for the team. Kevin (Harvick) has been a great teammate in helping me out and obviously he was very fast at Kansas.”
JUSTIN ALLGAIER, NO. 51 BRANDT PROFESSIONAL AGRICULTURE CHEVROLET SS – 29TH IN STANDINGS
“I would normally say that I’m looking forward to Kansas [Speedway], but unfortunately I just haven’t had good luck there in the Sprint Cup Series. I’ve been in accidents in the two Sprint Cup races I’ve ran there. Hopefully, we can build some momentum this weekend in the BRANDT Chevy.”
MICHAEL ANNETT, NO. 7 ACCELL CONSTRUCTION HQ CHEVROLET SS – 31ST IN STANDINGS
“We’ve had some extra time at Kansas this year, having participated in the tire test right before the spring race. Our mile-and-a-half program has gotten to the point where we’re a top-20 car. We finished 18th at Kentucky and 21st at Atlanta. I feel like we can continue to improve on that this weekend.”
AUTO AND TRACK NEWS 