Austin Dillon and the No. 3 American Ethanol Team Sidelined by Multi-Car Incident at Daytona International Speedway
“I didn’t see exactly what happened during the multi-car incident that ended our night early so am not sure. I tried to slow down. I downshifted but it wasn’t enough. We knocked the oil cooler and radiator out. It’s just part of this deal–you have to shove yourself in a bad position. I should have been smarter and rode around like half of the others in the field, but we were trying to get some bonus points coming to the end of the stage. It didn’t work out. Overall, though, I was proud to carry the American Ethanol patriotic paint scheme this weekend and close out the NASCAR Salutes refreshed by Coca-Cola program by honoring U.S. Military Veterans. It was cool to meet a group of them at the track this weekend and I’m thankful for their service.”
– Austin Dillon
Paul Menard Earns Season-Best Third-Place Finish in Moen / Menards Chevrolet at Daytona International Speedway
“On Thursday when we practiced I knew that we had a really good handling car. It sucked up pretty good in the draft, but I knew it was going to handle well tonight, and it did. We wanted to race hard all night long. I forget who wrecked in Turns 1 and 2 but we got in the wall pretty hard and had to work on some damage. It put us back at the end of the first stage and we couldn’t go anywhere. There was a bunch of attrition obviously, and we were able to pass some cars that way. We got some really big runs towards the end and made up a lot of ground and Clint Bowyer pushed the heck out of me on the last lap. I just couldn’t get a run off Turn 4 coming to the checkered. I guess I used it all the lap before. All in all, it was a really good weekend for us, for RCR, and for ECR. We had a lot of RCR race cars up front with ECR horsepower, so there was a lot of speed this weekend.”
– Paul Menard
Ryan Newman’s Conservative Run Pays Off With Top-Five Finish in VELVEETA Shells & Cheese Chevrolet SS
“I don’t want to say we got lucky, but we got lucky. We did not dominate tonight by any means. We rode around in the back for most of the race and it payed off for everybody but Austin. It was a little bit of luck. I think some guys were driving over their heads tonight and that is what causes accidents. We didn’t have a single accident in practice so I guess it was a little bit of the emotion that got in everyone’s way for the race there. For us, we had to play it smart. It was calculated and it was good enough for a top-five tonight.”
– Ryan Newman
