MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
AAA TEXAS 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
NOVEMBER 5, 2017
TOP TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS:
* = Current Team Chevy Playoff Contender
POS. DRIVER
*8TH CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 HOOTERS CHEVROLET SS
11TH KASEY KAHNE, NO.5 GREAT CLIPS/JUSTICE LEAGUE
13TH AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 WINTER IN PYEONGCHANG CHEVY SS
16TH AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/CLICKLIST CHEVY SS
*27TH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS
TOP FIVE QUALIFIERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
3rd Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
4th Matt Kenseth (Toyota)
5TH Brad Keselowski (Ford)
The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) will be at Phoenix International Raceway for the Can-Am 500 at 2:30 pm ET on Sunday November 12th. Live coverage can be found on NBC, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 HOOTERS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 8TH
YOU STARTED FROM THE BACK AND MADE IT TO THE FRONT, BUT AT THE END IT JUST KIND OF GOT AWAY FROM YOU, DIDN’T IT?
“Yeah, we weren’t very good all day. Had some good restarts there and was able to get some decent track position at times, just never could hold it, so a frustrating afternoon.”
PRETTY SIMPLE TASK HEADING TO PHOENIX MUST WIN, RIGHT?
“Yeah, I guess. I haven’t seen it, but I assume so. So, we will try our best out there and see what happens.”
TALK ABOUT TODAY:
“It’s pretty straight forward. We just never really hit on it. We couldn’t find it at all. It was a very frustrating afternoon. But you’ll have that I guess, we’ll just go on to Phoenix. We are going to try our best. Try to get a victory and go on to Homestead.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER/CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 16TH
“It was a solid day. We maximized the day for sure strategy wise and going about it that was the best we could have asked for there. The car just got hot it was slick, we were just kind of on a razors edge. I could be too tight, but I really fought too loose into the corner. A couple of runs, I thought we would get it really close and make another small adjustment and it would go completely away. That last run there I was as loose as I had been all day. IT’s better, we finished, that is better than we did in a month, so we are gaining on it, but to get to the next echelon it’s a big leap. As a team everybody did all they could, that was a solid weekend, maximized it. We will just continue to dig and figure it out.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO MILITARY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 24TH
“Texas has been quite the challenge for our GEICO Chevrolet team to overcome this year. We didn’t have the day that we wanted, that’s for sure. This team works hard week in and week out, but we just haven’t hit on what we need to at these mile-and-a-half tracks. We struggled in practice to find a setup that worked for our GEICO Military setup and we didn’t have a great starting spot from qualifying, but then we got damage early on in the race and it just made us tight. We never could get it fixed, and it just got worse throughout the race. We did what we could though and used strategy to get laps back for a stronger finish. Each time we come to a track we are building notes for the next visit. I’m confident that we’ll get our GEICO Military Chevrolet where it needs to be.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS- FINISHED 27TH
IS THIS A RACE YOU WOULD JUST AS SOON FORGET?
“We’ve got to figure something out. Kansas was a lot like this. It was just extremely difficult to drive the car and carry entry speed. And then we had a loose wheel and then contact on a restart. We started off in a hole and just kept digging a deeper one as we went. I’m definitely disappointed. And, I honestly just feel bad for my team. These guys are working so hard. And to work this hard and not see any speed go back in the car and have bad results as the last three weeks have been is pretty disappointing.”
EARLY IN THE RACE YOU WERE DOWN TWO LAPS AND WE THOUGHT YOU’D TAKE THE WAVE AROUND AND GET A LAP BACK, BUT YOU GUYS CHOSE TO PIT. DID YOU AGREE WITH THE STRATEGY?
“I saw a few cautions came after. The driver usually has such a small vantage point and I didn’t want to say anything and I just didn’t know what was the master plan. It’s easy to look back and to see how quick those cautions came out and I’m sure there was good reason at the time.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CHANCE NEXT WEEK IN PHOENIX?
“It’s been a good track for us. But this last half of the year has been really weird. In places where we expect to run well and traditionally do, we haven’t. But I know we’re building a better race car and taking a few new ideas to Phoenix and we’ll go there and fight as hard as we can. And that’s one thing this team will never do it give up.”
DID THIS RACE JUST START OUT BAD AND JUST SNOWBALL FROM THERE?
“Yeah, we had a really loose car, especially on entry, we just couldn’t get out of it. The first pit stop, we had a loose wheel and that got us down further and then on a restart I ran into the back of somebody in the restart zone. It was just a bad day that just kept getting worse.”
HOW DO YOU ANALYZE AND WORK THROUGH A DAY LIKE TODAY?
“Trying not to make any bigger mistakes. A car not handling right…and then we just kept making mistakes through the course of the race. I just didn’t want to spin out like I did at Kansas. I had very similar balance in the car, and just told myself I can’t do that. I can’t spin out twice. I got away with it at Kansas, I wasn’t going to push my luck here.”
ARE YOU SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD?
“Yes, probably more than anyone else is. The corner entry at Kansas and here has just been really bad. I’ve had to let off really soon so people don’t get to my bumper and make my condition even worse.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track accident on lap 283
WHAT HAPPENED DID YOU FEEL A TIRE GOING DOWN OR ANYTHING?
“No, just can’t really execute. Whether it’s bad pit stops or bad luck with whatever happened to our right-front we had a loose wheel and then had to pit a couple of times to fix it. We just gave up track position. We took the best car and just whatever, I don’t know, it’s frustrating because I know I had the best car and lose track position and that is what happens. You try and move forward and it’s so hard to pass here you try and find some stuff and get in the wall.”
THREE STRAIGHT DNF’S NOW FOR YOU HOW TO DO YOU SHRUG THAT OFF WITH TWO RACES TO GO?
“I don’t know. Can’t wait for the last lap at Homestead.”
ARE YOU OKAY? HOW DID ALL THAT HAPPEN?
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a day of not very good execution at least in the second half of the race. It’s kind of the spot we put ourselves in and that is the result from it.”
HOW WAS THE RACING OUT THERE?
“I don’t know I mean our car was really good so I could pass, but everybody else got their cars better and then passing became tougher and that is about the point we had the issue with our right-front and had a loose wheel and had to pit a couple of times and restarted from the back. Lose the balance on our car and then just kind of work on it some there and get aggressive on the restarts because we are coming down to towards the end of it. There is probably only going to be one pit stop left in the race so you are trying to get everything you can to gain track position and we just couldn’t do that today.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE/JUSTICE LEAGUE CHEVROLET SS – Spent time during the race in the garage with a mechanical issue
WHAT DID YOU FEEL IN THE CAR?
“We burnt the hub up on the left-front, so we are going to change the spindle and change the hub and try to get back out there and finish the race.”
LOOKED LIKE YOU GUYS WERE HAVING A SOLID RUN UNTIL THEN:
“Yeah, it wasn’t bad. I mean the car has ran about 11th to 20th all weekend in all the practices and everything. I don’t know, we’ve got to get a little bit better to beat some of them guys up there, but I was having a good time and the car wasn’t too bad.”
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