Johnson's pole ensures Chevrolet dominance at Chicagoland

Pole winner Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

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TELL US ABOUT YOUR LAP OUT THERE DID YOU GET EVERYTHING? “I felt really good about that lap. I certainly hope that it holds up. I think it’s going to be our objective to try and be in the top 10 for qualifying at a minimum. Of course I’m hopeful that it hangs on for the pole that would be a great way to start the Chase.”

DID YOU TRY TO DO A LITTLE STRATEGY WITH PRACTICES WITH TRYING TO GO OUT EARLIER TODAY? “Yes and no, we were trying to be smart, but at the same time we wanted to work on race trim in that first practice and stayed focused on it. We felt like the second practice session the temps would be closer to know than anything. It just kind of worked into our favor that way.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/7-ELEVEN/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FOURTH

HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? “The car was awesome, real good, good grip. (Turns) one and two felt awesome, good speed, (turns) three and four were a little bit tight.”

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE CAR FOR THE RACE TOMORROW? “We were real happy with the car yesterday. It had good speed in practice, felt real comfortable with the car. I’m looking forward to it.”

DO YOU HAVE A TOP-FIVE CAR FOR THE RACE TOMORROW? “Yeah, I think so. I think it has good speed. You guys saw the practice speeds. I mean the car is good it’s got good speed. We liked the changes we were making, like the way the car was responding. We got a good starting spot, should be able to maintain our track position all day and have a good time.”

WHO IS GOING TO BE YOUR TOUGHEST COMPETITION TOMORROW? “Ourselves probably number one just trying to make the right calls. You never know how these races end up at the end with cautions and stuff like that. Tires do not seem to make a big difference so just getting a late caution it could jumble up the field on a restart could be tough getting in the wrong lane or something on a restart late in the race. There are a lot of good guys out there. I think the No. 11 car looked really good yesterday in practice.”

DOES QUALIFYING MEAN MORE NOW? “Yeah, qualifying is real important. Track position is real important it’s not easy to pass the competition here because the competition is so close. Looking at who has won races nobody really stands out as winning a lot of races. Denny (Hamlin) has won four and it’s pretty evenly matched from there on back. It’s just real good tough competition, real hard to pass. Qualifying well is going to be real important all throughout the Chase.”

KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SIXTH

HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? “It was pretty good. The car feels really good. I just kind of drove in a little too hard into (turn) one and I got tight because I over shot the corner. Once I got it to turn I felt really good from there out. I was happy with it. I think our race stuff will be really good tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.”

REGAN SMITH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/FARM AMERICAN CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SEVENTH ON HIS LAP: "I went out early and wasn't sure how our time was going to hold up," said Smith, who was the sixth driver to take a qualifying lap. "But it did pretty well even though it wasn't a perfect run. It's always my goal to go after the pole and the past few weeks the Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet recorded strong qualifying runs. Now we have to go out there on race day and take advantage of our qualifying effort."

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 12TH

HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? “It was pretty good. I was sick last night so I was a little bit nervous about getting in the car because I’ve been somewhat light headed this morning. I thought overall it was pretty good. I don’t think it was as good to go out late as it would have been early. I think that is good for the time I went out.”

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 19TH

HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? “No near as good as good as I was hoping for. We ran the same time we did yesterday so it wasn’t a very good lap. It’s going to put us back. The car was a little bit loose. I think a lot of people are struggling with that.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 41ST ON HER LAP: “It was loose really loose. I’m definitely not good enough at this point to know how to fix that; or exactly what I even what I need even necessarily going into qualifying. I’m still at the point where we are going to have good things happen and bad things happen in the weekend.

Definitely getting going in practice was a good thing for us and getting closer on race runs was a good thing for us. The last one I did which was Atlanta we popped off a good lap in qualifying but we weren’t so great in practice. Here I would say we were better in practice but our qualifying lap wasn’t any good. These things are going to happen on the weekends so we just need to keep finding the good stuff and work on how to make that happen all the time.”

STEVE LETARTE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/7-ELEVEN/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET- TEAM CHANGING ENGINES FOLLOWING QUALIFYING:

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT CHANGING ENGINES AFTER QUALIFYING FOURTH TODAY FOR TOMORROW’S RACE? “Yes, we have to change the engine and go to the back of the field. I don’t think we are super concerned. We had a great car in practice and qualified really well so we showed we have good speed. Fortunately, this is a race track that there are multiple pit strategies and it’s not a really simple straight forward pit strategy to call. I think there will be a lot of opportunities to use our good pit stops and place on pit road to get back towards the front.”

Source: Chevy Team