MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
COCA-COLA 600
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 28, 2017
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SALUTES VETERANS CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER
YOU PUT THE NO. 3 CAR IN VICTORY LANE. HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR EMOTIONS?
“It hasn’t sunk in yet. I can’t believe it. I was just really focused on those last laps. My fiancé wrote in the car, ‘When you keep God in the first place, he will take you places you never imagined.’ And, I never imagined to be here at the 600 Victory Lane. Praise the Lord and all these guys who work so hard; and my pit crew is the best on pit road. I love it for them. We’re in the Chase. It’s awesome.”
HOW NERVE-WRACKING WAS IT WHEN YOU KNEW YOU WERE LOW ON FUEL AND THEN THE NO. 48 (JIMMIE JOHNSON) RAN OUT AND YOU JUST HAD TO GET TO THE END?
“I was just trying to be patient with the No. 48. I could see him saving. I thought I’d saved enough early where I could attack at the end, but I tried to wait as long as possible. And when he ran out, I figured I’d go back in and save where I was lifting and it worked out. I ran out at the line and it gurgled all around just to do one little spin and push it back to Victory Lane. The good Lord is blessing us tonight and I can’t thank my grandfather (Richard Childress) enough. He’s put a lot into me. I thank ECR engines. I complain a lot, but they got me in Victory Lane tonight and the fuel mileage was great. So, thank you guys for everything you do.”
RICHARD CHILDRESS, TEAM OWNER FOR AUSTIN DILLON AND RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING:
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE THE NO. 3 BACK IN VICTORY LANE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?
“Unbelievable and to have my grandson Austin Dillon, everybody, I just can’t thank enough people. I just can’t stop thanking everyone and I know my great friend and everybody here Dale Earnhardt is smiling down tonight.”
CAN YOU PUT INTO WORDS HOW THIS FEELS WHEN YOU SAW HIM CROSS THE FINISH LINE?
“When Jimmie (Johnson) ran out (of fuel) I said (sigh). I knew that they told him to flip his switch on his going another lap and I thought we might have it. The No. 78 (Martin Truex, Jr.) was coming, but man it was unbelievable. I’m just so happy. Everybody was wanting to see that No. 3 in Winners Circle and we pulled it off tonight.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE PATRIOTIC CHEVROLET SS – Finished 10th
YOU GOT A TOP 10 IS THAT A GOOD WAY TO FINISH UP YOUR LAST 600?
“Yeah, I supposed considering last week. A couple of guys beat us on fuel, but we got a top 10 there. The car got better last couple of runs. We made a lot of changes and some of them working pretty good. We would have liked to have run a little bit better than that for sure. We think we should be running in the top five every week as a team, so that is still not really good enough, but compared to last week it’s a huge improvement.
“We’ve got to thank Jimmie (Johnson) and the No. 48 guys, Jimmie especially. He was communicating with me all week, calling me, talking on the phone. He would come across the garage and get in my window even during practice. Get out of his car and come talk to me. What a great teammate. I hated to see him run out of gas.
“But, congratulations to Austin (Dillon) man, that is awesome for RCR (Richard Childress Racing) and Richard. Anytime they can win it’s pretty cool.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CHEVROLET SS – Finished 12th
ON HIS NIGHT:
“We had a really good car. We got up to like fourth or fifth, I think at one point. I had a flat tire with about 100 laps to go and so we had to pit under green and it didn’t kill our night because we didn’t crash, but it got us behind and we restarted 20th. I don’t know. I think we drove up to 12th and a couple of guys made it on fuel mileage there. It was a really good night. We had a fast car, went to the back twice and passed a bunch of cars. Just needed a little more luck.”
HOW DID THE TRACK CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF THE NIGHT AND AFTER THE RAIN?
“I thought the track was pretty racy. It seemed like you could run the bottom for 10-15 laps, some guys would stay on the bottom, some of them would move to the middle. The middle was a little bit quicker, the very top never came in, but I mean I felt really good on the restarts no matter what line I was in. I really thought the track was a great balance of not being stuck in the wrong lane. I thought that was all really good.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 17th
JUST A COUPLE LAPS SHORT, TELL US ABOUT THE CLOSING LAPS:
“I didn’t know we were thinking fuel. I could have done a lot better job with the front side of the run to put us in a better position. Then when I got the news about saving fuel, I did all that I could from that point and just came up a little bit short. A strong performance for the car. Had a couple of weird things go on, on some restarts where I lost some track position. I think the No. 17 (Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.) spun the tires really bad in front of us and I went from I don’t know the third or fourth row to way back. So, I had to fight back through some of that, but we still had a look at a win on fuel strategy and I don’t even know where we finished. I don’t see myself on the board, so it can’t be very good.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in accident on Lap 292
YOU GOT INTO THE WALL EARLIER AND IT HAPPENED AGAIN AND IT PUT YOU OUT FOR THE NIGHT
“I got really loose into (Turn) 3 and hit the wall and got a lot of damage and the tire started to go down and then exploded in (Turn) 1. I just hate it that I made a mistake there in Turn 3 and got in the wall. I was not even running hard up there. I just got loose and then I hit it and it ruined our day. I’m hoping to hold onto the point lead and then go to Dover next week and try to do better.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined with a mechanical problem on lap 244
YOU SAID ON THE RADIO YOU THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE THE TRANSMISSION IS THAT WHAT IT WAS?
“It ended up being a rear-end gear. Not really sure what it is, but it blew a huge hole out the back. Just mechanical failure. It was a rough day for our GEICO Military Chevy. We had a fast car, but right on the start the No. 38…some cars checked up in front of us, the No. 38 never really got slowed up and ran into our door and put the fender on the tire. So, we had to come down and do a green flag stop right out of the gate and put us two laps down. So, we were trying things to get ourselves back on the lead lap or get some laps back. Just kind of snake bitten all race and then apparently, the day was kind of doomed from the start and blew a rear-end gear. Unfortunate, we have had a great year so far and we will go on to Dover and be strong there.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 LIFTMASTER CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined with a mechanical issue on lap 244
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Yeah, it was really crazy. My crew chief said there is oil on the track, but I knew I broke something on the car, so actually broke a left-side truck arm. I got underneath the car when I got out and looked at. It was just hanging. I don’t know why that happened, but it broke, so then the rear-end was moving around and I couldn’t drive it.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Sidelined in accident on Lap 19:
“This is so disappointing. Our NAPA Chevy was going to be all right as the night went along. But the No. 33 (Jeffrey Earnhardt) broke something, I guess, and I hit it hard and I saw some fire. And I guess I was laying down some oil all at the same time. And Brad (Keselowski) couldn’t get stopped. I hate it. It’s such a bummer. We’ll just go after it again next week.”
WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OKAY?
“Yeah, I’m fine. The No. 33 car or whoever it was, broke something ahead of me and ended up hitting it. I hit it pretty hard. I knew it had hurt our nose at least, then I saw some flames and figured we were laying down oil too, I guess. Brad (Keselowski) couldn’t get stopped and ended up kind of finishing us off, but it was a bummer. I hate it. I don’t really know what you do about stuff like that. Just move on.”
LOOKED LIKE SOMETHING CAME OFF THE NO. 33 CAR IN FRONT OF YOU, WHAT DID YOU SEE?
“Yeah, I saw parts and pieces flying. I don’t know if he blew a tire or something and I ended up hitting something that he had on track. I hit it pretty hard. It was really solid, so I knew it was rough. I saw some fire, tried to get stopped and get out of the way and I guess Brad got in my oil and couldn’t get slowed down, so I hate it. Man, it is so just ridiculous. I wish I knew what to do to try to fix things like that, but at the end of the day you really can’t.”
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