NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
BANK OF AMERICA 500
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 10, 2013
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SECOND
TALK ABOUT THE EFFORT THAT YOU HAD THIS AFTERNOON AND THEN QUALIFYING TONIGHT:
“Well if we wouldn’t of had the pole last week we probably wouldn’t be disappointed this week. For us qualifying has never been a strong suit of what we do. To have a better pit selection and not have to pass half the field to start the race and keep yourself on the lead lap and worry about your car in traffic is a good sign for us. We were able to get some race practice in before we put it into qualifying trim and qualifying trim was really good right off the bat. I just knew (turns) one and two was going to be our corner and probably just gave up a little too much in (turns) three and four making sure that I didn’t push the nose up off the corner. That was probably the difference in the pole for us.
WERE YOU SURPRISED HOW THE TRACK PICKED UP AT THE VERY END?
“I think it’s like Greg (Biffle) said. I think everybody sat and watched and saw that the guys were trying to get too much on this end and you could take as much as you wanted to on this end. There were a lot of good cars at the end of the session as well. I think a lot of that just kept leading up to the cars going faster and faster at the end.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND COMPARED TO LAST WEEKEND AFTER QUALIFYING YOU STILL HAD ALL THE QUESTIONS STILL BUT KIND OF ABOUT THE TIRE AND YOU KNEW THERE WAS GOING TO BE A TEMPERATURE CHANGE AND THIS SEEMS THAT THINGS WOULD KIND OF BE MORE KIND OF CONSTANT OR MORE STABLE THIS WEEKEND OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. IS THERE ANY REAL DIFFERENCE OR MORE CONFIDENCE?
“I think for us we have pretty much the same four springs in the car that we ran last week and the same car, but you have a lot less circumstances to deal with. Mainly with the weather in my opinion because when we tested on Thursday we fought the exact opposite problem for the rest of the weekend as we went through the colder weather. Obviously there were some unknowns with the tires, but there’s going to be similar challenges with the cars because they seem like they are going to fall off a ton. The track seems a little more abrasive, rougher than what it has in the past. Tremendous amount of fall off in the Nationwide cars and the Cup cars in practice so you are going to have to control the tightness of the car with the speed at the beginning of the run and making your car run through the whole run is going to be a challenge.”
FIRST POLE IN SEVEN YEARS LAST WEEK, FRONT ROW THIS WEEK, IS THAT AN INDICATION THAT YOU HAVE SUDDENLY FOUND A LITTLE BIT MORE SPEED IN THE CARS OR IS IT GREAT EMPHASIS ON QUALIFYING FOR THE CHASE? COULD YOU TALK ABOUT TURNING THE CAR AROUND FROM GETTING IT BACK TUESDAY NIGHT AND GETTING IT READY FOR THIS EVENING?
“Turning the car around couldn’t have come at a worse week. We tested in Martinsville for two days so we had to split the guys up to go down to the inspection on Tuesday. So they basically Wednesday night basically rebuilt the whole car and put it back together. Everybody wants to win. We are racing in the thick of the championship and qualifying well for us was a huge benefit last week with that first pit stall. Obviously we wanted to be greedy and get that again tonight, but I think the cars are just better than what they have. They have been working hard because we had that pad leading into the Chase to really go to work and come out with some better cars and engines and things and apply them as the Chase has come on. It’s been nice to see the speed and you always when you are in that position it seems like everybody just digs a little deeper to make the details a little bit better on the car and the driver and everybody just finds a little bit more when it comes Chase time.”
AS YOU WATCHED JEFF GORDON MAKE HIS LAP DID YOU HAVE ANY FEELING THAT HE ACTUALLY WAS GOING TO GRAB THE POLE AWAY FROM YOU?
“I had no idea I was obviously in the car. Obviously you want the pole, but it was exciting for the fans they were having a good time."