MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
APACHE WARRIOR 400
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 1, 2017
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 2nd
WHAT DID YOU NEED TO HOLD OFF KYLE BUSCH (RACE WINNER) IN THAT FINAL LAP?
“Just something different, I don’t know. I’m just so disappointed in myself. Golly, I couldn’t have had it any easier. It ran green from the stage break all the way to the end. And, I gave it away. I appreciate my team and their efforts today. The pit stops were great and they kept us in the ballgame. I didn’t.”
HE WAS USING THE HIGH LANE. DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT GOING HIGH OR USING A DIFFERENT LANE? YOU WERE REALLY STUCK TO THE BOTTOM THERE THOSE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS. WAS THAT SOMETHING MAYBE YOU COULD DO TO TRY TO HOLD HIM OFF?
“Maybe. You look back and obviously would do something different, I guess. But, I didn’t.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 3rd
HOW WAS THE CAR AND DESCRIBE WHAT YOUR RACE WAS LIKE:
“Yeah, we had a very competitive car today. It was great to have Shark Bite on the race car and AOL Smith as well. The car was good we just kind of fought track position and I wish I had done a better job on Friday and got us up in that front three sooner. It was so tough to pass, I think whoever came off pit road or had control of a restart was really in the catbird seat. But, a great day for our Lowe’s Chevy. These banked tracks seem to suit us much better than a lot of the flat we saw during the summer. Usually, if you run well at Dover, you run well at Charlotte, so we are excited to go to next week as well.”
WHAT TYPES OF THINGS DOES A VETERAN LIKE YOU SHARE WITH A YOUNG DRIVER LIKE CHASE ELLIOTT AFTER THE EVENTS OF TODAY?
“I know I can’t help the situation, but I thought maybe I could let him get a few cuss words out before he had the cameras and everybody else listening (laughs). I feel for him. I feel for that No. 24 team, great group of guys and man, they have been so close and I know today stinks. But, we are getting our cars going the right way and I know he is going to be a factor in Charlotte.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CHEVROLET SS – Finished 5th
DESCRIBE YOUR DAY TODAY:
“It was a really good race. I won that second stage and was the leader off pit road and then my engine was kind of struggling firing up when I would cycle the engine and cool it down under yellows. It just didn’t re-fire that one time and had to restart fifth and feel back to sixth. Kind of hard to pass when I got back there I couldn’t really move up the race track because I would be in dirty air. We short pitted, got to third, but fell back and finished fifth. I felt like if I could have restarted the leader I probably would have had a shot to win like the No. 24 (Chase Elliott), but once I had restart on the inside of the third row I was kind of done unless I had a caution, which there wasn’t any left the rest of the race.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – Finished 7th
IT SEEMS LIKE ITS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE YOU HAVE HAD A QUIET, UNEVENTFUL DAY AND A TOP TEN DAY TO BOOT?
“Absolutely. We probably showed a little bit more speed at different times during the weekend than where we ended up. I was talking to (Ryan) Blaney last night and he said, ‘man, you guys are so fast.’ And I told him I would just take a top ten after the year that I have had. I know the car was good enough to run in the top five and we showed that at certain points in the race and certain points of the weekend too. But the car was good off the truck, we tinkered with it, and I don’t know if we made it a lot better. We had a little trouble with trying to get through tech inspection. I guess we don’t need to run so good in practice because we had a hard time this weekend and lost a little time in happy hour. You know, I like that rule because it was a disadvantage to us. Not an excuse but still it made the weekend a little bit more difficult. So, it’s certainly a good deterrent. Next week we just need to get enough practice. But first off, we need to come off the truck like we did this weekend.”
THIS IS YOUR FIRST TOP TEN SINCE SONOMA, HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL TO GET THAT OUT OF THE WAY?
“I know. I feel like a road course ringer. (laughs). It feels good. This team is really a good team and we have just had a lot of odd misfortune and we have ill-prepared ourselves at times. When the car is good, it seems like we have some bad luck. Then there are weekends where we just can’t get the car right. It’s been a pretty down year but hopefully this weekend is the start of some more good runs. I think we will end this thing strong and I am excited.”
THIS TEAM SEEMED TO BE PRETTY SOLID ALL WEEKEND:
“I really liked the way we ran at Texas. We were really good there and it just felt like we were a really good car. I still think that has been our best effort so far.”
CAN YOU BUILD ON THIS OR IS THIS JUST A DOVER THING?
“We have been trying some stuff. If you look at our car and how we have run…I know it’s kind of hard to see, but we ran really good at Darlington and it carried over to Richmond. We had a strong run there and we were really good on the long runs there. We brought some of those same principles to Dover. Some of that stuff can probably carry over. I am optimistic that our performance is on the uptick and we will see how it works out for next week.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CHEVROLET SS – Finished 9th
TALK ABOUT HOW YOU ARE FEELING NOW THAT YOU ARE MOVING ON TO THE ROUND OF 12:
“Well, I’m pleased. I feel like and I said it on media day that we have run about eighth all year long, so if we just did what we had done all year long that we would be fine. Had a great car today. Got behind in qualifying, but recovered well and we were a little safe on our strategy, but man, had a great car again.”
ON THE NEXT ROUND:
“Charlotte has been great and you just never know at Talladega anybody has a chance to win there. That has been a great track for me, so I look forward to it.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 WASTE MASTERS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 13th
TALK ABOUT YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT NOT MAKING IT TO THE NEXT ROUND:
“Well, we just weren’t good enough, as simple as that. We didn’t have a fast-enough race car, we didn’t have the right strategy. We qualified better, that was a plus, but these first three races were a challenge for us. It seemed like everybody else stepped up their game and we didn’t.”
YOU WERE REALLY CLOSE TODAY. TALK ABOUT THE RACE
“We weren’t good enough. It’s as simple as that. I’ve got to thank Waste Masters for sponsoring us for this race. They’re a great partner. We just didn’t have what it took. And you can’t run where we ran the last three races and expect to go out and win a championship. So, we’ve got some work to do to build on for next year, and we’ll do that.”
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – Finished 14th
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU WERE BATTLING TODAY?
“Just track position was one of the biggest challenges for us. It was just tough… we didn’t pass really well, but had a pretty decent car, but it was a bit of a struggle to pass guys that were running the same speed, so we just kind of ran in that spot and tried to use some strategy to get up. It seemed to really work, but then on the long end of it, it didn’t work out. Darien (Grubb, crew chief) did a good job. The guys worked hard and that was the best we could do.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AAA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 16th
WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED TODAY AND ACROSS THE BOARD WHAT TYPES OF THINGS DID YOU NEED TO DO BETTER IN THIS ROUND OF THREE?
“Well, I put it back on myself in Chicago. I got a speeding penalty there where we were going to get stage points and a top 10 run and that just kind of crushed our points situation. Today was more luck than anything when the No. 33 spun out there it put us two laps down, had to take a wave around and we fought out of that hole back on to the lead lap and the No. 17 (Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.) he played the strategy right and got the stage points and we were racing him pretty much the rest of the day. So, we tried some more strategy stuff by staying out there at the end on older tires and we didn’t get the caution. So, congratulations to the NO. 17 team for moving on. We will just keep working hard and see if we can’t get a win by the end of the year and come back stronger next year.”
YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT TO THE SECOND ROUND. HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP TODAY?
“It started off pretty good. We were headed to the front and were really good on that first long run. We pitted and the caution came out. That was pretty much it. (Ricky) Stenhouse getting those stage points; we were better than him all day. It would have come down between me and the No. 31 (Ryan Newman). We decided we had to run long right there to see if a caution would come out and put everybody a lap down to get us on the same strategy Stenhouse got his points on. It stinks. But, I’m proud of my guys. They fought hard. I would have liked to have to battle down to the end with the No. 31. But, that first caution kind of killed our day right there.”
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