CHEVY MENCS AT LAS VEGAS 1: Kyle Larson Leads Team Chevy at Vegas

POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 3rd 

THE MODERATOR:  Now we are joined by the driver of the No. 42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet, third‑place finisher Kyle Larson.  Kyle, this is your second consecutive top‑three finish at Las Vegas, another good one following up a win yesterday.  Maybe talk about the race out there, please.

KYLE LARSON:  Yeah, it was a good race for us, finished third, I think, in both stages and third in the race.  You know, solid day.  Had to fight pretty hard there a few times throughout the race just from losing a lot of track position on the pit stops and stuff.  I don't honestly know what was going on yet with the pit stops, but we'll watch some tape, and if it was something I was doing wrong, we'll fix that up.

But yeah, it was a good day.  Our Credit One Bank Chevy was fast.  Nowhere near Harvick's level, but I felt like for most of the day we were second or third best, so happy about that, and yeah, you know, with coming back later in the year for a playoff race, it's nice to know that you've been fast here now the last two years and hopefully can continue that.

 

Q.  When a guy is as much faster as Kevin was today, do you reach a point during the race when you're sort of resigned to, hey, I'm probably racing for second unless he blows up or something happens?  Does it get that bad when a guy is this fast?

KYLE LARSON:  No, I don't think ever in a NASCAR race you can think that because it seems like so often a caution will come out with less than 10 to go, and you have to come down pit road, and that can change the race.  I wanted to keep myself as high up as I could to just give myself a shot on pit road or something like that or for a late‑race restart.  You never know what can happen at any point throughout a Cup race, but especially there at the end.  Everybody gets so aggressive.

Yeah, I mean, if you know it's going to go green the whole time, then yeah, you're like, okay, I'm racing for second or third right here.  But yeah, like I said, you can never count yourself out in a Cup race.

 

Q.  The Hendrick guys seemed to talk about trying to learn this new body.  You're running well; do you feel like you have it pretty much handled or do you feel like you see a lot of improvement as far as what you guys can do with the new body?

KYLE LARSON:  I don't know, I mean, yeah.  For whatever reason it definitely seems like the other ‑‑ I wouldn't even say the other Chevy teams because RCR I feel like is running about as good as they did at this point last year, but Hendrick for some reason, they seem to be off.  It was kind of odd to lap three out of the four cars there in the first little part of the race.  But our team, I guess ‑‑ I don't know, whatever we do different helps us out.  All we really get from Hendrick is their engines, so they could be doing stuff way different than us.

But yeah, you know, I feel like at this point in the season, I feel like we're probably actually a little bit better than we were last year.  I say that, but Atlanta I felt like maybe we ran one or two spots worse than we did all day, and then here I felt like we ran probably three or four spots better than we did all day last year.

If we are better, it's barely anything.  But it's good that we're not any worse than we were last year.

 

Q.  You ran the race yesterday, obviously, and today ‑‑ yesterday it seemed a little bit more racy, a little bit less track position.  Is there something about the Cup cars that it's just a little bit more difficult here?

KYLE LARSON:  Well, I just think there's better drivers with more experience in the Cup Series.  In all of our cars maybe stuck to the track a little bit better.  But I just think when you have a field full of Cup drivers who have so much experience, they kind of know where they need to be each lap of the race, really, and really good at feedback.  So, everybody is always getting their cars better throughout the race.

So, I think that's why sometimes you can see less passing.  If you compare trucks to Xfinity, I mean, there's better racing in trucks than Xfinity because there's ‑‑ well, that, and there's just a lot of less experienced guys that are wild.

But it just ‑‑ yeah, I mean, I think the more you go up the ladder, you have more experienced guys that know what to do with their car and where to position themselves.

TOP TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS:

POS.    DRIVER

3rd       KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
11th     RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1
12th     JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1

13th     AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SILASTIC SILICONE ELASTOMERS CAMARO ZL1

15th     CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 NATURAL LIGHT CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE FINISHERS:

POS.   DRIVER

1ST       Kevin Harvick (Ford)

2nd       Kyle Busch (Toyota)

3rd        Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)

4th        Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)

5TH       Ryan Blaney (Ford)

The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) will be at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona for the TicketGuardian 500 at 3:30 pm EDT on Sunday March 11th.  Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. 

TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – FINISHED 3RD:
A GOOD EFFORT FOR YOU, BUT IS THERE ONE PLACE IN PARTICULAR YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS COULD HAVE BEEN A LITTLE BIT BETTER TO CATCH THAT FORD?
“I don’t know about catching the Ford (Kevin Harvick, race winner). He was quite a bit faster than everybody. But I felt like for the most of the day we were second or third best. I had to fight pretty hard there after a few bad pit stops. But, it’s nice that we have really fast race cars. If we can just clean up everything, I think we’ll be a contender for more wins. We’re not too far off from a win, I don’t think. We’ve just got to keep working hard and keep fighting to get our Credit One Bank Chevy into Victory Lane.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 11th 
ON HIS RACE: 
“Well, we struggled at the start.  Had a real bad vibration, a set of tires I think, but that was a good bounce back for us with the Caterpillar Chevrolet.  We’ve got some work to do it looks like.  The boys with the Fords are strong here on the 1.5-miles, so we’ve shown that we’ve got some speed.  We’ve just got to get it there the entire race.  I know we can.  We had it here in the test and we just… for whatever reason didn’t have it when we came back.  We will regroup and go on to the next one.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 12th 
A BIG COMEBACK FROM WHERE YOU STARTED: 
“Yeah, that first set of tires, those scuffs we were on were just really off for our car.  I don’t know what went on there.  We just put tires on for the second run and had a lot more pace in the car and a lot easier to drive and then we just kept chipping away at it all day long.  The last restart we had to start at the tail end.  I wish we would have had a chance to start up in there with everybody.  I think we could have been up inside of the top 10.”

DO YOU FEEL BETTER NOW ABOUT THIS CAR? 
“Every outing we are learning more about it.  There is a piece of performance that is familiar from last year, so I think we have some work to do ourselves underneath the body with the chassis and the set-up of the car.  But, today I was in a lot of different aero situations that at first, I was flinching in and then I grew very comfortable with and kept charging and driving through.  I think the body is definitely helping the car, we’ve just got some other stuff to sort out to go along with it and kind of find the sweet spot for the car too.”

CAN YOU SORT THAT OUT IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS? 
“Phoenix has turned into an aero track, just with the repave and the higher speeds to a small degree. Fontana will be like Atlanta.  We are always learning.  This car is so new to us we are still learning every time we get on track.”

HOW DO YOU STAY CLAM DESPITE THE FACT YOU ALMOST WENT TWO LAPS DOWN AT THE FIRST PART OF THE RACE? 
“You just go.  There is nothing you can do.  At the end of last year and even in Atlanta I was trying too hard.  Just giving 100 percent and driving the car where it’s at and bringing it home is what I need to start doing.  I have been trying to carry it and I’ve crashed more cars in the last six months than I have really in any six month stretch or whole year stretch.  Just trying to drive it 100 percent and not step over that line.” 

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 13th 
ON HIS RACE: 
“We fought hard.  We didn’t have enough speed to really fight with those guys up front.  Getting to stay on the lead lap at the end of that first stage, getting the lucky dog twice and just fighting all day for that.  That is the hardest I’ve fought for 16th just driving the wheels off of it for that position.  It ended up paying off and we got all the way up to 13th. I’m proud of my guys they worked hard all day.  Just got to find some speed in the racecars.  Obviously, some of these other guys, other teams are doing a good job.  We’ve got to do a better job also. (Ryan) Newman got to 11th, that is promising. That is just two spots different than us, but we want to compete in the top five each and every weekend to have chances to win.  I think the only way we can do that is to put more speed in the car.  They are not driving awful, they just don’t go anywhere.  We will keep working on it.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 NATURAL LIGHT CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 15th
ON HIS RACE: 
“That was a lot of fun first of all.  Best race we have had this year and looking at quite a few at the end of last year.  From what I remember that was big.  For us to be able to get a top 15 with our Natural Light Camaro ZL1 here at Vegas makes me excited to come back for the second one.  I know conditions will be a lot different, but man it was a good time.  We were able to go up there and pass some cars and get in a good spot.  We just got a little bit off on that last stop there, but at the end of the day that was a lot of fun. I’m proud of everybody they worked hard this weekend. We didn’t unload very close, but we got a lot better by the end of practice and it showed in the race.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 95 WRL GENERAL CONTRACTORS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 19th 
“We struggled just getting the front to turn. I was quite the handful, but the guys got it better. They stayed after it the whole time and we ended up with a top 20.  I just wish we could have had it a little better we could have had more speed.  It was just a little bit, but geez it was a long race.”

KEVIN HARVICK WAS DOMINANT TODAY. WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE GAME TODAY FOR THIS RACE? 
“Two weeks in a row they have some things figured out.  They are on a roll right now.  I thought they were at the end of last year.  Maybe not at Homestead, I don’t think he was quite as fast as a few of the others, but up until then, I thought they were really rolling and they have carried that over and probably even gained a little more.”  

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 24th 
“It took us a while to find a balance that worked for our GEICO Camaro ZL1 today. The dynamic of the car just changed so much from practice to the race. We finally got it to where it needed to be and were the best we had been all day at the start of the final stage. My boys were fast on pit road, didn’t make any mistakes. We just have to find our speed from the beginning of the race. We will keep our heads up and keep digging. The last race in Phoenix was one of our best of the year, and we’ll be ready for them next week.”

 

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA/DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in an on-track incident on lap 176

“I blew a right-front tire.  I don’t really know what happened. Up to that point we were definitely better than we were at Atlanta.  I thought we had a good car. It was hard to pass today.  The track really rubbered in and it seemed like the bottom was the preferred groove and when everybody was running the bottom it was pretty tough to pass, but we had a good car.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in a crash with No. 41 Kurt Busch and was sidelined on Lap 183

YOU HAD A WORD WITH KURT BUSCH, WHAT HAPPENED?

“Yeah, I think he just got loose in the bottom there and I was, unfortunately, the guy that was up top. So, we were just trying to be solid today and make the most of what our NAPA Camaro had, and I thought we were doing a pretty good job of that; kind of like what we did last week in trying to get a little bit better. I was just kind of there at the wrong spot and the wrong situation and I’m headed home early.”

HOW DISAPPOINTING IS THIS? 
“Yeah, it was unfortunate.  I thought we were getting a little bit of momentum.  We had a really good pit stop there and gained a bunch of spots on pit road, got ourselves inside the top five and could run with them for a few laps.  So, just trying to make the most of what we had and there was no guarantee how it was going to end up and ended up poorly. We will move on down the road.”

DID KURT (BUSCH) HAVE A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN TO YOU WHAT HAPPENED? 
“Yeah, he just said ‘sorry’ and that he got loose on the bottom and kind of swapped ends.  I just happened to be on his outside.  It happens and it’s unfortunate.  I hate to tear up another racecar.  We are two for three on wrecking, so we will try to not wreck next week.”

YOU WERE REALLY AN INNOCENT VICTIM IN THIS SITUATION: 
“Yeah, no nothing you can do just move on down the road and hope that next week goes a little better.”

KURT (BUSCH) SAID IT ‘STEPPED OUT ON HIM’.  DOES THAT JUST HAPPEN SOMETIMES? 
“Yeah, it just happens.  I haven’t really seen a good replay of it or what went on.  It’s really hard to see the guy underneath you when you are in that situation.  I felt him hit me and hit the wall.  Kind of hard to say, but we will move on to next week.”