Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Dow Camaro ZL1 Team Maximize Tire Strategy to Earn 12th-Place Finish
“Considering the handling issues we fought throughout the weekend, leaving here with a 12th-place finish in the Dow Camaro ZL1 isn’t too bad. Turn 3 was a challenge for us during practice, and continued to be during the race. We decided to use pit strategy to make up track position, which I felt like we needed more than handling adjustments. We stayed out longer in Stage 2 than anyone else and took two tires when we finally came in for our stop. Our Camaro ZL1 handled the best when we took two tires at a time. For the rest of the race, we tried to use that to our advantage, which got us into the top 10 during the final couple of restarts. We just couldn’t hold that spot long enough to make it to the checkered flag. I wish we could have gotten a top-10 finish out of today, but we’ll take 12th and learn what we can before we come back here in July.”
-Austin Dillon
Ryan Newman and The Kalahari Team Settle for 25th-Place Finish After Contact with 10 Laps to Go
“Overall, we made gains in qualifying again, but handling-wise we weren’t all that good. We pushed in Turn 3, which was our weakest point on the track, and were loose in Turn 2. We took advantage of the stage cautions to make major adjustments to help climb into the top 12, but we ended up being an innocent bystander at the end. I said right before that restart with 10 to go that we’d have another caution and we did. Unfortunately, we were involved, when the 20 hit the Kalahari Camaro ZL1 in the left rear. We were running 12th at the time and were hoping to gain some spots, but we had to pit for repairs and that cost us all our track position. We’ll keep at it to try and get better and hope to get some luck on our side.”
-Ryan Newman
