Chevy teams qualifying notes, quotes

Clint Bowyer Qualifies Second at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Clint Bowyer, Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Ashley Dickerson, ASP Inc.

HAMPTON, Georgia (September 3, 2011) – Clint Bowyer put his No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet, on the outside of the front row for tomorrow night’s AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a lap of 29.819 seconds, 185.922 m.p.h. It is the best qualifying effort for Bowyer in 10 previous starts at the 1.5-mile speedway.

Four time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, will roll off fifth in the 43-car field for the 325-lap/500.5-mile race scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday night.

Ryan Newman qualified the No. 39 U.S. Army Reserve Chevrolet in the ninth starting position and Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet will roll off in the 12th starting position. A total of 16 Team Chevy drivers qualified for the 25th race of the 2011 season.

Kasey Kahne (Toyota) won the pole. Kyle Busch (Toyota) and Brian Vickers (Toyota) complete the top-five starters.

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CLINT BOWYER, NO. 33 CHEERIOS/HAMBURGER HELPER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND:

ON HIS EFFORT: “That is a good start. Our Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet has been speed-wise all weekend long. We worried a little bit about our long runs today in practice. You can’t put too much emphasis on that, it was so hot today. The track was really greasy. That is what we are trying to figure out right now is where to be with our car. We have a lot of homework to do tonight and hopefully we can look forward to a good run tomorrow night because I want to run tomorrow night. This weather isn’t looking too good.

“It’s been a good weekend so far. We had the fastest truck. We dominated last night, we lost. We qualified good so hopefully he’ll pay can pay me back tomorrow night. We need a good run desperately.”

TALK ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN OUT THERE TODAY: “It was an important qualifying run. Obviously these next two weekends. We’re not out of this thing; we can’t give up on it. And a good qualifying run is a breath of fresh air for all of us. We’ve been struggling a little bit in the qualifying category. We’ve been hitting on some things at these bigger race tracks so I’m real proud of these guys on the Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet. She was loose; holy cow! It was a handful but it was a fun lap.”

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JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5TH:

ON HIS QUALIFYING: “For when we went and the conditions, I thought that was a good lap time. It was a big pickup from yesterday. I think with all these clouds, guys will beat us. Just happy with the improvements we’ve been able to make and the performance we’ve been having lately. I feel like we have a really good race car.”

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RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 U.S. ARMY RESERVE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 9TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It Is a real crazy qualifying situation where you practice one day, you practice another and then you go to qualifying trim and the track cools down, that part’s typical. But, we really don’t do a qualifying run on the day we qualifying so it is kind of unique. Proud of the guys on this U.S. Army Reserve Chevrolet. It was good. In the end, I think we have a good race car to work with tomorrow night.”

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JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH:

ON HIS QUALIFYING: “We’re getting better. We have a new car here that is a lot better, but we still have a lot of work to do. I think everybody on this Target Chevy is doing a pretty amazing job. We need a little more, but we are getting there.”

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KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 RHEEM CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 21ST:

ON HIS QUALIFYING: “I didn’t feel very good about it. The car was better than the driver. I didn’t do a very good job getting into turn one there but felt like I got through three and four ok.” ON TRACK CHANGING: “It didn’t seem to affect it much yesterday when we practiced from six to seven so I don’t think there will be a lot of changes.”