Ford and Chevy Daytona 500 Qualifying Quotes

CHEVROLET:

RICK HENDRICK, OWNER OF HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS

YOU JUST KEPT SAYING, ‘I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’.

“You know, you work all these years coming down here and you want all the cars to run well. And if you have one up front and a couple in the back, in the middle; but this is a tribute to our organization, the engine shop, the chassis, body shop, and the teams, to come down here and run with four cars running that good. So, I can’t believe it. Congratulations to Chevy for their 700th pole and our fifth in a row down here. I’m so happy for William and for all our guys, for Alex (Bowman) on the outside and Axalta and all the sponsors. This is Ally’s first race. So, we’re just pumped. It’s a good way to start the year.”

AND NOBODY BLEEDS BOWTIE GOLD MORE THAN YOU. 700 POLES IN CUP, AND YOU WERE THE MAN WHO GOT THEM THEIR 700TH

“Well, you know, Chevrolet has been awfully good to me. That was my first dealership. It’s all I’ve ever raced. It’s all my dad ever raced. That bowtie, we’re bowtie-proud; thinking about Jim Perkins today and man, what a great day for Chevrolet, our organization, and these drivers. I’m really proud.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – POLE WINNER

THIS IS YOUR FIRST CAREER CUP POLE AND ALSO THE 700TH CUP POLE FOR CHEVROLET. CONGRATULATIONS.

“Yeah, it’s awesome for Chevrolet. The Axalta Chevy was really fast. Credit to (crew chief) Chad (Knaus) and all the guys. It’s been a great off-season. We’re prepared. We’re ready. This is kind of the first step of our process together, so hopefully it goes well next Sunday. We can kind of chill out throughout the Duel races and learn a little bit. I’m looking forward to it. This is awesome.”

YOU SAID YOU FELT LIKE THERE WERE A COUPLE OF AREAS YOU COULD HAVE IMPROVED ON IN THE FINAL QUALIFYING ROUND

“We lacked a little bit getting up to speed. A think a little bit too much wheel spin. This thing is fast and it’s obviously a lot of credit to the guys. I’m looking forward to next Sunday.”

THINK ABOUT A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO WHEN YOU HADN’T DRIVEN A RACE CAR AND THEN JUST A FEW YEARS LATER YOU’RE ON-POLE FOR THE BIGGEST RACE.

“Yeah, it’s pretty special. It’s definitely a huge blessing.”

CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1

YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT MAKING MEMORIES AND HAVE MADE MANY THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER. YOUR OLD DRIVER, JIMMIE JOHNSON, WALKED UP AND EXTENDED HIS HAND. WHAT DID HE TELL YOU?

“He said, ‘You got me my first pole and you got William his first pole. That’s pretty cool.’ Yeah, man, that’s pretty fantastic. I couldn’t be more proud of everybody on the No. 24 team; and honestly, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. A lot of effort went into all four of those cars. So, to come down here and qualify on the pole with these guys, a new team, a new driver; representing Axalta and the No. 24 car has been a lot of fun.”

YOU JUMPED UP ON THE WALL AND WANTED TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE SCOREBOARD BECAUSE AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, IT’S BASICALLY FOUR CARS IN ONE TEAM

“Yeah, it’s such a huge accomplishment. We’ve got a small little military group of guys that really work hard on our Superspeedway program. And all these guys really put a lot of effort into them. There are many others, obviously, as well; but they work really hard over the off-season. To be able to see those cars 1-2-3-4 on the first two rows, is awesome. It’s a cool photograph. I’m enjoying working with William and the guys. It’s really neat to come down here and be able to perform like that for Axalta and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports.

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1, QUALIFIED 2ND FOR THE DAYTONA 500

ON YOUR RACING RESUME IT SAYS A POLE AND AN OUTSIDE POLE AT DAYTONA. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE YOU LIKE SO MUCH?

“You know a driver can’t really do much. It’s all car and crew, so very proud of these guys, the Hendrick engine shop and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They do a great job. It’s neat. Really cool to have a fast race car down here.”

NOW LOOKING AHEAD TO SUNDAY AFTERNOON:

“You got to get your stuff driving better than it drove here. We will approach the Duel as necessary. I think this car has a good bit of handling in it. So, we could probably race the Duel pretty aggressively. We will learn a lot in The Clash today as long as the rain stays away. It should be good.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1, 3RD IN DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING

700th POLE FOR CHEVROLET AND TOP FOUR SPOTS FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT?

“Yeah, that is pretty awesome. Super happy for the company, Chevrolet, all of our partners. A great way to get things started with Ally. So, just a great Sunday. It is what we had hoped for, it’s what we talk about internally at the shop all winter long. ‘It would be great to go down and get 1-4’ and then to do it is pretty awesome.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CAR FOR THURSDAY’S DUEL RACE?

“I don’t know yet. This one I haven’t had in the draft. Clearly, it has speed which is just hard to find, but until we get into those drafting practices, I’m not too sure.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, 4TH IN DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING

700TH POLE FOR CHEVROLET AND TOP FOUR SPOTS FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. NOT TOO MUCH MORE YOUR GROUP COULD DO TODAY:

“Yeah, cool deal. Everybody knows qualifying down here is such a reflection upon the work over the off season and luckily, I know a lot of organizations don’t, but I feel like Hendrick Motorsports has always put a lot of effort into our speedway cars and why not? I mean, they all count and why not try for these things too. I know some people don’t like to, but we are trying to push in all areas and this is a good way to get started.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 BASS PRO SHOPS/CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1, 5TH IN DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING

TOP FIVE IN QUALIFYING FOR YOUR FIRST DAYTONA 500, NOT BAD:

“Oh my gosh I’m incredibly proud of all of the No. 8 team, everybody on this Bass Pro Shops/Caterpillar Camaro ZL1 for picking up the speed we picked up. I didn’t know what we had for speed based off yesterday and we exceeded what my expectations were. Proud of these guys, so cool to have the whole top five be all Chevy Camaro ZL1’s. It’s cool to be here and I’m looking forward to next week.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1, 10TH IN DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING

NOT THE POLE, BUT STILL THE ENTIRE RCR TEAM HAS SHOWN LOTS OF SPEED:

“Yeah, it’s a good showing for RCR. I’m really proud of the guys for all the effort they put in back at the shop. That is all you want to ask for is to have a car that is fast enough. You get in the top 12 I’m happy. We will go race from here.”

Ford

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING ABOUT THE MUSTANG OUT THERE?  “We thought all along it was gonna be really competitive and I think it hasn’t missed a beat from testing to now.  We’re pretty excited about it.  I think it’s a pretty good upgrade.”  WHAT IS THE STRATEGY FOR THURSDAY?  “To win the race.  Nothing else matters.”  HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CAR TO FEEL IN THE 500?  “I think with this rules package, especially with the temperatures we’re seeing, you’re gonna probably trim for speed rather than handling.  I think just fast.”  DO YOU LIKE IT TO BE LOOSE OR TIGHT OR WHAT?  “Generally in the 500 you want to be a little bit tighter than most of the race weekend here.  It seems like the track always changes on the 500 day a little bit.”

 RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Ford Mustang – “Today is really only about the front row.  If you’re not there, then you really need to focus on making your car faster and making it drive good in race conditions.  We’ll work on our Oscar Mayer Ford to do that on Thursday.  We didn’t spend any effort at all with the way timing worked out in practice yesterday, so we’ll see how it drives on Thursday and then make sure we get it all tuned up for next Sunday.  That’s what really matters.”

 ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “I think we’re pretty happy with that lap.  I thought it was a good lap for us.  We weren’t really sure what to expect because we didn’t know what we really had based on practice, but we felt good about it.  If you’re not gonna sit on the front row, you’ve really got to make sure your car drives good and you’ve got a good race car and I think we’ll have that.  I’m looking forward to it.  The Smithfield Mustang has been pretty comfortable to drive and it feels racy, so that’s what’ll pay off next Sunday.”

 RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Peak Ford Mustang – “We haven’t drafted with our 500 car yet, but I stress out the least about qualifying here because you have a chance in the duels to get better.  I think we qualified around there last year and we went out and won our duel and were really good in the 500.  I mainly look for how my car drives, if it’s gonna drive well and make aggressive moves.  Sometimes it seems the cars that qualify the best don’t handle great in the 500, so I think that was our strongpoint last year.  We could make really aggressive moves and our car did have decent speed, so we have chances to get up there, but we’ll see.”

 CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – “Obviously, it’s all about the front row, but I’m happy with our Mustang so far and the performance in it.  There are a lot of unknowns when you bring a new race car to the forefront you don’t know, and the guys worked hard.  You knew they put in the effort, the time and the hours spend on these race cars is just unreal.  The effort is there and now I’m happy with the results.  That being said, that’s qualifying day.  Let’s go out here and see what it does here in the race.  I’m looking forward to this Clash.  Our Clash car felt really good.  It pulled up really good in the draft and did a lot of good things you need it to do in these kind of conditions, so we’ll get that race under our belt and get ready for the 500.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang – “It wasn’t too bad.  I’m a little disappointed we weren’t any faster than that.  We come down here and want to be in the final round and have a good shot at a pole, but the Hendrick cars are really fast so nobody has really got a shot other than them.  Our Fastenal Mustang felt really good yesterday the little bit that we did draft, so I’m looking forward to the duels.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang – “We picked up a little bit from our mock runs yesterday, so I was happy with that.  The Hendrick cars are really fast, so we didn’t really figure we had a shot at the front row, so we put a little bit of driveability in the race car with it being an impound for the duels, knowing that we were gonna give up a little bit in qualifying because of that.  I was happy with having the speed in the car, plus the driveability we have.”  HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CAR TO HANDLE?  “Here you definitely need big suck ups.  You don’t chase balance quite as much here with the new package and everything and last year with the ride height rule.  The cars are really stiff, they’re real rough so you just have to kind of deal with that.”

 JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE BIG ONE?  “There’s not much you can do about it beside being ahead of it, but you can feel it ramping up as the pressure keeps building.  The moves are more aggressive.  The blocks become later and the bumping is more aggressive and eventually we crash.  You know it’s coming, you just hope that you’re ahead of it or in a place where you can miss it, but you can’t back out of it.  You might get yourself a solid top 10 if you do something like that, maybe, but that’s not the way I race and I don’t think that’s what the fans are here to see.”  HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CAR TO FEEL IN THE 500?  “I want it to feel fast, really fast.  You want a car that has speed so you can make a move to the bottom or make a move somewhere and can finish it and complete the passes, but you also have to have a car that’s driveable to where you can take a bump to the back or you can put yourself in really tight spots and not crash.  You’ve got to have that too, so it’s just a balance between those two.”

 MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang – “You always want more speed, but we’re happy with where we’re at.  We built those cars in-house and feel really good about everything that we’re doing.  Somewhere inside that top 20 is good.  You’d love to have a shot at the front row, but we knew going into qualifying that the four cars that are up there sort of had it locked in, so we really set our car up to drive good Thursday night and I believe it will do that and we’ll go racing.  I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row Motorsports.”

 DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 Select Blinds Ford Mustang – “We would have like to have gotten one more run yesterday in final practice and we could have adjusted a little bit more, but we were able top pick up some anyway.  That’s something we can go race with on Thursday.  For us, it’s all about fine-tuning on this car and getting it to drive good.  I think anytime you’re within a few tenths of those top 10 cars, you’re gonna be able to race well.  Our car drove good yesterday in the draft and this is an impound race, so it’s important for us to race good on Thursday to set us up good for the weekend.”