MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIESSONOMA RACEWAYTOYOTA / SAVE MART 350TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTESJUNE 22, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:POS. DRIVER1st Kyle Larson, No. 42 Credit One Bank Camaro ZL12nd William Byron, No. 24 Hertz Camaro ZL14th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL110th Chris Buescher, No. 37 Hellmann’s Camaro ZL111th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:POS. DRIVER1st Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)2nd William Byron (Chevrolet)3rd Joey Logano (Ford)4th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)5th Daniel Suarez (Ford)
FS1 will telecast the Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway live at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, June 23. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Pole WinnerWHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT THE TRENDS YOU’RE SEEING FOR THE RACE TOMORROW?“I guess the trend of getting the pole and then struggling in the race (laughs).. I hope it’s not the same for tomorrow. I felt good. I had a mock run yesterday in practice. We ran a good lap and both of these two runs we ran good too. I felt like I over-drove the first session. In the next session, I said ‘Alright, I’m just going to calm down and not make any mistakes’ and I probably under-drove just a little. I felt like through the Carousel and Turn 7, I probably under-drove some and gave up a little bit of speed. But I felt like I made up some time in some other areas too.” “It’s cool to get a third pole in a row here at my home track. Thanks to Credit One Bank and all my guys for preparing another fast car. We’ll see if we can do a little better tomorrow than we typically do during the race.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HERTZ CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd“Road courses have been a challenge for me, especially this place. I feel like it’s the hardest place to come as a driver with inexperience knowing what your car needs to do and how you need to manage everything. I feel like this is a good weekend so far. We’ve had good speed really, throughout the weekend. And, we’re just going to have to put it in the race and be realistic with the race. It think it’s going to be a challenge, for sure, but I’m looking forward to it.
“I think we’re going to have to go for the points. We’re 14th in points, so we’ve got to continue to build the gap. So, I think we’re going to go for points, but hopefully we can manage our way through traffic and we can gain from there and try to improve that.”
“He (Kyle Larson, pole winner) is exceptional at it. I don’t know what he does. I’m going to try to figure that out but he just hits everything really good. It’s good to be second, but it would have been nice to have another pole.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4thDO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO PULL OFF A WIN HERE?“I hope so. I think we’re a lot closer today than we were yesterday. So, our issue yesterday was a little bit of short run pace and then a lot of long run pace, so I really don’t know until we get going tomorrow.
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th“Coming out of the carousel is really tough to get right. So, I think you can get a run on someone a lot easier and be able to capitalize going down the straightaway and use the draft a little and then go at it in the braking zone. So, I feel like we might have a better opportunity to pass the way it’s configured now in Turn 7.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMAROZ ZL1 – Qualified 12th“I spun the tires pretty bad the first lap. I made some mistakes early in the lap and tried to make up for it later. The second round was going to be tough, regardless; it’s a little frustrating but our race car is way better than that and we’ll drive it to the front tomorrow. I’m not a road course racer so I’m having to work really hard to make speed. I just feel like you sit there and you wait for your crew chief to say okay, go. To me, that kind of gets me, I don’t know, over-ramped up. It’s really annoying. I just wish we’d either just run single car and knew exactly when we’re supposed to go. It’s the sitting there and waiting that I just mentally spin myself out a little bit.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 20th“I’m learning every time I go out. Every session we’ve picked-up a second. So, if we can keep on doing that hopefully by the end of the race the driver will be where he needs to be because I think we know JTD has got some really good road racing cars. So, we’re just getting laps right now.”
DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 POPPY BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th“This is a tough place to get around. I told everybody yesterday it’s one of the most challenging places I’ve ever been in my life, which is a good thing. You want to be challenged. And our team is doing a good job of staying patient with me and letting me get my bearings around me. Every time we’ve been to a race track we’ve been faster and faster. I think that was a little over a second and a half pick-up from where we were yesterday. So, we’re in the right. I thought I gave up about a half or three-quarters of a second there on my money lap. I look forward to having a good weekend with this Poppy Bank ZL1.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 30th“It’s not up to me to tell them to make adjustments to the track. I was enjoying how it was. But now, you’ve got to be kind of cautious. For me, I’m already cautious because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing out there. But all in all, we’re continuing to gain speed and that’s the biggest thing. Picking up time for me, I feel like I adapt well; but when it comes to road courses it takes a little longer. We’ll just go out tomorrow and have fun.”
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