Paul Menard and the No. 2 Chevrolet Team Lock In Third-Straight Top-Three Finish at Watkins Glen International
“We had a good qualifying effort yesterday. I think we kind of surprised ourselves a little bit actually. We were chasing Kyle (Busch) and Kyle (Larson) and qualified third. So, I’m really proud of that effort. Our car didn’t take off very well at the start of the race, so we had to adjust track bar and play with the air pressure a little bit. The last run of the race was our best of the day. I think we ran our fastest lap right towards the end. Our Richmond Water Heaters/Menards Chevy had really good long-run speed. The leaders would gap us a little bit and we could maintain or run them down slightly but just not enough. Overall, I’m really proud of Justin Alexander since it was his first time calling an (NASCAR) XFINITY Series race with our team. We’ve got a solid group of guys. The pit crew had fast pit stops, we had good race strategy, we were just one spot short at the end.”
– Paul Menard
Ty Dillon Leads Laps, Muscles his Way to 11th-Place Finish
“Our Rheem Chevy struggled to get through Turn 1 and the carousel turn throughout the whole race. We definitely showed some speed there in the beginning and were able to use pit strategy to lead a few laps. It definitely hurt us when we got that penalty for deviating from the commitment line on pit road. I just saw the red lights come out so I tried to get off real quick. That’s just a little bit of bad luck, but we bounced back and almost had a top 10. I really like road racing, so I’m glad we get to do it again next week.”
– Ty Dillon
Brandon Jones Gains Nine Spots to Finish 13th in Season’s First Road Course Race
“It was a pretty solid weekend all around for the No. 33 Roland team. It was our first road course race of the year and my second ever (NASCAR) XFINITY Series race on a road course, so I definitely can’t complain with a 13th-place finish. I felt like we ran consistent all weekend long and it ended up being a pretty good finish today. I am looking forward to getting to Mid-Ohio next weekend. Since I have run there in the past, I think we’re going to be that much better.”
– Brandon Jones
Brendan Gaughan Marches to a Eighth-Place Finish in Caution-Filled Event at Watkins Glen International
“We had an excellent South Point Chevrolet today. We raced into the top five before a pit-road scoring mishap dropped us from third to seventh. The front bumper was literally 10 feet from the pit entrance line when pit road was closed, forcing us to make a pass through. Our braking system is phenomenal, so I could out-brake a lot of cars in the field. We had great strategy and great stops on pit road. The car was better than eighth, but we haven’t had a good finish at The Glen in a while, so we will take it. We will move onto Mid-Ohio and hopefully things will fall our way.”
– Brendan Gaughan
