MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
FOOD CITY 500
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
APRIL 16, 2018
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
DID YOUR CAR JUST PROGRESSIVELY GET TOO FREE NEAR THE END?
I was really, really good on that long run. And yeah, as soon as we restarted there, I was extremely loose. The No. 17 (Ricky Stenhouse) got to my inside. I just really didn’t have any grip. I thought it would tighten-up for me and I could get going, but it never really did and I was just really loose. I hate that I didn’t win. It’s another one at Bristol. I feel like every time I race here I almost get a win. It was a fun race. I’ve been beat by Kyle (Busch) about every time I race here, too; so that gets frustrating after a while.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 3rd
RAIN, SLEET, AND EVEN A VIBRATION WITH TIRES THERE AT THE END YOU DODGED EVERYTHING. HOW BIG OF A MOMENTUM BOOSTER IS THIS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM?
“Yeah, it really is a great boost. I’ve said for weeks now that we’re getting better and it’s great to finally have a result to back that up. We’ve had decent Fridays and really good Saturdays and then some bad luck in the races. Although we had plenty of bad luck over the course of the four or five days that we’ve been here, we were able to pull through and get a great third place finish. So, I’m very proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and thank everybody on this Lowe’s For Pros team and let’s get home and get out of here. It’s snowing again.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 5th
*Best Career Finish
THAT LAST RUN DID THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?
“Yeah, I mean we got a good start there for once and had some good track position. Just thankful for driving for Hendrick Motorsports. It’s been a lot of fun finally getting some good runs going our way. It’s been cool. To run fifth, it’s not a great day, but it’s better than what we started the year doing. We are making progress, making steps in the right direction and just got to keep doing that.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU FINISHED WHERE YOU DESERVED TODAY?
“I think by our self we had maybe even a faster race car than that. I just couldn’t be consistent with it. We were really loose in and my car was really sensitive to traffic. If anybody got within a half a car length of me behind me, it just turned sideways getting in the corner every time. If I could break that gap and get away from them I would drive away, but with them right there I couldn’t do anything. It was interesting trying to fight through that, but glad we finished top five.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 BASS PRO SHOPS/CABELA’S CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 10th
10TH FOR YOU TODAY ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THAT SURVIVING HERE AT BRISTOL?
“Well, we were a top five car, just got the wrong spot on the restart there. Wish we would have been sixth instead of fifth, gladly would have been fourth. Good run for our Bass Pro/Cabela’s Chevrolet. The team did a good job this weekend. Starting clear back as far as we did and then being as high as second, good team effort. Something to build on going to one of my favorite race tracks next weekend.”
DARRELL ‘BUBBA’ WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 STP CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 16th
*Lead First Laps of Cup Series Career at Bristol
NOT THE FINISH YOU WERE LOOKING FOR, BUT YOU DID LEAD YOUR FIRST LAPS IN THE CUP SERIES TODAY:
“Yeah, hell of a day. Didn’t know what to expect firing off and we fired off like a freaking badass and got our way up to 10th in that second stage there. That was good, get some stage points and got up to the lead. I was as surprised as anybody. Going through the emotions we were really good and that last caution came out and we were struggling with left front problems there late in runs, locking up easily, but still was able to make decent ground. Then all of a sudden it went away there and man, just blindsided there by that. Great car all day, nothing to be pissed off about, that is racing. You could be good for a second and then the next second you are not, but awesome takeaways. The momentum is still here. I’m just dejected because I’m scratching my head on where in the hell we went wrong or what we wrong. I don’t think we did anything wrong, I guess that is big-time auto racing, but it was a good day.”
WAS THAT FRUSTRATION SITTING IN YOUR CAR AFTER THE RACE OR ARE YOU FATIGUED?
“Oh, I was frustrated. No, I’m all good. I could go run another 500 miles here. That was easy, especially when you have a good car like my guys gave me. Our STP Chevrolet was on rails and then all of a sudden it was like a kick in the teeth. That was just the look of dejection, devastated, everything that relates to that.”
ON HIS VETERAN MOVES:
“Yeah, you’ve got to, but just a bummer when you don’t have nothing to show for it there at the end. Definitely was a top five car, top seven car, I will give us that and we walk away 16th. So, it’s disappointing.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1- Finished 28th
“I always love coming to Bristol Motor Speedway. It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t very nice to our team this weekend, but we made the most out of what we could. We had to take a lot of time during the first stage to fix damage to our front end after I was checking up for a caution and was punted into the 47 car. It put us 17 laps down, but no one on this team gave up when it would have been easy to. We came back this morning to gain as many spots as we could. Every position is worth a valuable championship point. Our goal was to let the chaos breakout in front of us while we ran a clean race to make it to the end, and we did. It is certainly not the result we wanted, but those are the breaks in racing sometimes. We will keep digging and head to Richmond next weekend.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BUSH’ BEANS CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 118
YOU HAD A GREAT RUN GOING UP ON THE TOP AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
“First off, our Bush’s Baked Beans Camaro was really good today. Unfortunately, we were in one of the accidents before that and got us back there where we really shouldn’t have been. We had three or four of us trying to stay on the lead lap and we were all being held up by the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne). I got a good run on the outside the slower cars and came off the corner and thought we were good, and it just swiped right up the front. By the time you lift, it’s a little too late. It’s really unfortunate. I love this place. It’s my favorite race track that we go to. We had good speed. We’ve just got to get back after it the next time we come here.”
TELL US WHAT HAPPENED:
“It’s a bummer. Our Bush’s Baked Beans Camaro was really good this weekend. This team worked really hard throughout practice and we made a lot of really good gains by the end of it. We had a really good race car. Unfortunately, we got punted checking up for a wreck a little bit earlier, so we were back where we really never should have been. We had three or four of us fighting to stay on the lead lap that had decent cars all getting held up by the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne) there. Just trying to get around, he went to the bottom and a lap car went to the top and we had a great run up off the corner, everything looked clear and just came up and swiped across the nose a little bit too late to be able to do anything. Unfortunately, I hate that it did collect (Ryan) Blaney and everybody involved. I hate that we all got a bunch of torn up race cars. All three or four of us were trying to get clear of one car for a long time and it got very frustrating. The top was coming in. It was exciting, I think it’s going to be a great race to the end. I’m just pissed off that we are not participating anymore.”
WHAT ABOUT THE RACING CONDITIONS?
“Yeah, the weather is horrible. We are trying to get it in and out. The rain is starting to fall again right now. By the end of the competition caution you couldn’t see. We had people sliding in and out of the groove. It’s just nasty weather. I appreciate all the fans that came out and are holding out with us and are watching us try and put on a good show. The VHT or whatever they call it, it held its own for a little bit. It’s starting to wear off. The top is going to come in and it’s going to be strong. IT’s going to make for good racing. Like I said, mad we are not participating now.”
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