Chase Elliott led a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the top four spots in qualifying for Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Talladega Superspeedway in his No. 9 NAPA Night Vision Camaro ZL1 to capture his fourth pole of the 2019 season. Elliott’s speed of 192.707 mph around the 2.66-mile oval was plenty fast enough to collect his eighth career MENSC career pole and second at Talladega.
The feat also marked the 14th MENSC pole of the year thus far for the Camaro ZL1, the 37th for Chevrolet at Talladega, and the 713th for the brand in NASCAR’s premier racing division.
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates were close behind in the qualifying runs with Alex Bowman, No. 88 Nationwide/Amazon Echo Auto Camaro ZL1 second quick, William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 in third, and Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 qualifying third.
Kyle Larson, fresh off a win at Dover last weekend, was the fifth fastest Chevrolet in his No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1.
Rounding out the Top 5 in the order was Aric Almirola in a Ford.
NBC will telecast the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway live at 2:00 p.m. ET Sunday, October 3. The NBC Sports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO 9 NAPA NIGHT VISION – Pole winner AT THESE SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING SESSIONS, YOU GUYS ALWAYS SAY IT COMES DOWN TO THE TEAM BECAUSE YOU JUST PUT THE PEDAL TO THE FLOOR AND STEER IT AROUND HERE. BUT FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, SPECIFICALLY, YOU GUYS SEEM TO PRIDE YOURSELF AT SPEED AT DAYTONA AND TALLADEGA. HOW MUCH EMPHASIS IN THE SHOP HAS GONE INTO NOT JUST THIS RACE, BUT REALLY ALL FOUR OF THE SPEEDWAY RACES THIS SEASON TO PERFORM LIKE THIS IN ALL FOUR QUALIFYING SESSIONS?“In general, I feel like as a company, obviously at Hendrick, we’ve done a great job I feel like, in the time I’ve been there and just continue to put emphasis on the speedway and on things that take time that might not be worth a whole lot, but make you go faster on qualifying day. Some of the small stuff may or may not help you when it comes to being in the draft. I like to think it does. I think a lot of the small things tend to add up and hope that if you have just a little bit of an advantage somewhere, that might help you at some point. I’d rather have it than not. And, luckily our team is the type of team that continues to put emphasis on these places and doesn’t overlook them. And I think there’s something to be said for that, especially after last week and coming off a tough day and a failure and to come back here and to still put the effort in the areas that need to be done and didn’t just overlook this week, I think was important. And so, I’m proud of that.”
A LOT HAPPENS ON SUNDAYS DURING THE COURSE OF THE RACE AND WHETHER YOU START FIRST OR 40TH, DOESN’T MATTER A LOT, I DON’T THINK. BUT, WHAT DOES IT MEAN, GETTING THE POLE FOR TOMORROW, FOR YOU THINK ABOUT WINNING A DOUBLE BY WINNING IN THE SPRING AND AGAIN TOMORROW?‘To me, I feel like our car has pace, which is a good thing. Typically in these races, cars that have pace tend to kind of set the standard and are able to do some things that you wouldn’t be able to do if your car didn’t have pace. I would much rather have pace on my side than not. Can you still win without those little extra things here and there? Yes. But I do think it is a good thing to have if you do. And luckily, I feel like our car does. Hopefully it drives well tomorrow. And, I’m sure as we start the race, we’ll see some gamesmanship being played amongst the manufacturers and I’m sure that’ll form-up very quickly.”
DID YOU SEE THE END OF THE TRUCK RACE?“I did. I barely caught it.”
THE FACT THAT NASCAR MADE A CALL ON THE YELLOW LINE RULE ON THE LAST LAP, HOW MUCH DOES THAT PLAY INTO YOUR THINKING IN THE FINAL LAPS? OR, IS IT GOING SO FAST THAT YOU’RE JUST REACTING AND WHATEVER THE CALL IS, THE CALL IS?“In those situations, that’s so hard because you do what you think is right at the time and you kind of have to make some really quick decisions. So, I guess the bottom line is with that situation of the yellow line is the out of bounds, so if a guy is going to run you down there, you just need to crash him and just be done with it because it’s not worth you being penalized for not causing a wreck. So, I guess at the end of the day, you just need to wreck him and go on down the road.”
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