CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 3 OF 10
CITIZEN SOLIDER 400
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 2, 2016
STRONG RUNS AT DOVER ALLOW FIVE CHEVROLET SS DRIVERS TO ADVANCE IN THE CHASE
The Monster Mile Collects Three Chevy Championship Hopefuls
DOVER, Del. (October 2, 2016) – Strong finishes at the end of the Citizen Solider 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway, led five Team Chevy drivers to advance to the Round of 12, the second bracket of the Chase for the championship 10-race playoff. Rookie of the year contender and first time Chase competitor, Chase Elliott, led the way for Team Chevy at Dover with a third-place finish in the No. 24 Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS. This is the ninth top five finish for the 20-year old Hendrick Motorsports driver in his first season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and his second top 10 finish in two races at Dover.
Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson overcame a late race pit road penalty to rally back and earn a seventh place finish in the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS. Johnson led the field on two separate occasions for 90 laps. The result was enough to move him and the No. 48 Chevy SS team to the Round of 12 and continue his quest for a record-tying seventh series title.
After a tough week last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in which he was forced to go to the first back-up car of his career following a practice accident, Austin Dillon earned an eighth place finish at Dover to move himself and the No. 3 AAA Chevrolet SS team on to the next round of the Chase.
Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch are also moving on to the Round of 12 to represent Team Chevy in the championship battle. Harvick locked himself into the next bracket of races last weekend with a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. A broken trackbar mount early in the Citizen Solider 400 sent the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS to the garage for repairs and resulted in a 37th place finish. Harvick’s stable-mate, Kurt Busch, earned a 15th place finish to quietly move his No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation team into the next round.
The Monster Mile was not kind to the Chip Ganassi Racing organization. Championship hopefuls Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Credit One Chevrolet SS and Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS, both experienced internal mechanical issues that thwarted their championship campaigns. Larson experienced a battery failure on lap 38 forcing him to need a push off the race track onto pit road. The team quickly fixed the issue, but too many crewmen had traveled over the wall for the repair resulting in a pit road penalty. The entire ordeal cost the No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS team three laps and relegated them to a 25th place finish.
McMurray informed the team early in the 400-lap event that he had a vibration, but the problem seemed to go away as the race continued. However, as the midway point approach, the vibration returned and McMurray felt as if he had lost a cylinder. Eventually the engine did expire and forced the No. 1 Credit One Chevy to the garage unable to continue in the event. McMurray was credited with a 40th place finish. Both he and Larson were eliminated from Chase contention with their finishes.
In his final season of full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition, Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Nature’s Bakery Brownie/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS team earned a 13th-place finish at Dover.
Despite the top 15 run, the three-time series champion was not able to make the cut to advance to the Round of 12.
Martin Truex, Jr. was the race winner, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was third, Brad Keselowski (Ford) was fourth and Matt Kenseth (Toyota) was fifth to round out the top-five finishers.
All eligible Round of 12 Chase drivers points are reset following today’s race at Dover to 3000 each to start the second portion of the Chase playoff.
Next week the series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the first race in the Round of 12 and the only night race in the Chase on Saturday October 8th.
POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 8th
THE MODERATOR: We’re going to get started with the post‑race media availabilities for today’s Citizen’s Soldier 400 here at Dover International Speedway. We are joined by Austin Dillon, the driver of the No. 3 AAA Chevrolet, who finished eighth in the race today but secured the 12th spot in the Round of 12, moving on in the Chase. Austin, why don’t you talk about what that means for you.
AUSTIN DILLON: Well, just everything for our team out of Welcome, North Carolina. First off, give all the glory to God because, man, the race played into our favor. We did have a fast race car, I’m proud of that. I’m proud to be moving on to the Round of 12 where I have some really solid tracks, one being Talladega where we were able to finish third earlier this year.
Just too proud of this AAA team. We didn’t panic. I had a lot of people telling me not to worry. We didn’t have a good practice, and we had a fast race car today, a really fast race car.
Q. Can you talk about as the race went on, were you aware of where you were standing in the points? Was that a part of the conversation as you were clicking off the laps?
AUSTIN DILLON: Never heard anything about the points until 10 to go, and they said I was 11 to the good, and that was about it. Didn’t want to listen to it, really. I knew what we had to do.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us, and welcome to the next round.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports
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