MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
QUAKER STATE 400 PRESENTED BY WALMART
KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 14, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS:
POS. DRIVER
9th KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
13th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
14th JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S/JIMMIE JOHNSON FOUNDATION CAMARO ZL1
17th JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 ARCTIC CAT CAMARO ZL1
20th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE FINISHERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
2nd Ryan Blaney (Ford)
3rd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
4th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 on Sunday, July 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
IF YOU HADN’T HAD THE TRACKBAR ISSUE DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE HAD ANYTHING FOR THE TOP GUYS?
“It’s hard to say if I would have had anything to win. I drove by the No. 78 and then right after that we had our trackbar issue there and went plowing tight. Then we had to crutch it with wedge there the last run and it drove okay, just built being back really tight at the last 25 laps or so. So, yeah, it’s hard to say if I would have won or not, but I would have at least liked to have had the shot.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE TRACKBAR AND HOW DID THAT CHALLENGE YOU?
“I’m not exactly sure what happened to it. It was down five and a half inches on my dash and I could move it. They couldn’t move it under the pit stops and like I said they had to crutch it with the wedge so I’m not sure what causes that, but it happened.”
ANOTHER RACE WHERE ONE OF THE THREE MAIN GUYS WINS IS THAT FRUSTRATING? HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THAT?
“I don’t know. It’s frustrating because I feel like I had a car capable of competing with them. I felt like I was better than the No. 4. I passed the No. 18 a couple of times, passed the No. 78 there before that second to last run. I passed him and kind of drove away from him for a few laps until right when our trackbar broke. Like I said, it’s hard to say if I would have had a shot to win. You never know how these races will play out, but I would have loved to have had a shot.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU HAVING TO GO TO THE BACK AFTER MISSING DRIVER INTRODUCTIONS?
“A little miscommunication and was late to intros.”
DO YOU THINK THE GROOVE HAS WIDENED OUT AT THIS TRACK?
“Yeah, I was surprised how quickly (Turns) 3 and 4 moved up. I knew it would move up a little bit and I didn’t know it would move up that far. So, I was happy about that. You could kind of roll a little more speed on exit. I think it was the bottom tightened up you just kill your momentum on exit down there and I could work a lane or two up and just have less wheel in the car on exit and just carry a lot more momentum. Was surprised that the track widened out. (Turns) 1 and 2 I thought had potential to, but it kind of just stalled out and got too tight. A lane off the bottom was just a little too tight. But yeah, it was a decent track.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 13th
“We were better than we started the day, but when the sun went down the track started gaining grip – everybody moved to the bottom and we needed more front turn.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 20th
ON HIS RACE:
“I felt like at certain times we would gain a little bit on adjustments, but just didn’t have a lot of potential to run any higher than really where we were. I felt like if other guys made mistakes we could run a couple of positions better than where we were, but we were just kind of right around that 15th to 20th range and it seems kind of like when the other guys hit their adjustments right we were already kind of maxed out to where we could adjust. I felt like we fought really hard and had some good pit stops that got us some track position. I felt like we were always gaining spots on restarts, we just couldn’t hold that.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Experienced a tire failure on lap 109
ARE YOU OKAY AND WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE RACE CAR?
“Yeah, I’m fine, Hendrick Motorsports builds good safe race cars. My Hendrick carbon seat held up well, everything is good. Unfortunate we blew a tire. Kind of looked like it might have broken a brake rotor before that, but it’s hard to say because you break the brake rotor when you hit the wall anyway, so part of it. We will move on and evaluate what happened. Pretty early to blow a tire. So, my Axalta, Hendrick Motorsports guys will work hard and we will be better next week.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Yeah, we were the last guy that didn’t have any DNF’s we made it one week farther than everybody else. But, it’s a bummer, we popped a right front (tire) there. Don’t know if a brake rotor caused that or if we just had a tire go down. It’s unfortunate, but we will move on from it and go to the next one.”
WHEN THAT HAPPENS HOW DO YOU MOVE ON? I KNOW YOU WANTED IT BAD HERE:
“Yeah, absolutely we are right in the thick of the points stuff, so we can’t afford this, this will hurt us quite a bit. It’s a big bummer for my guys and for Axalta and Nationwide and everybody that makes this deal happen. Really unfortunate, but it’s not something that we could prevent it’s nothing that we caused and there is not much you can do about it. You pop a right front and have a long time to star at the wall and then you hit it and then you’ve got to move on.”
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