MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
GOBOWLING AT THE GLEN
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 5, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 SUNENERGY1 CAMARO ZL1
6th KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK/DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1
7th JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1
8th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HERTZ CAMARO ZL1
14th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
2nd Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
3rd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
4th Daniel Suarez (Toyota)
5TH Erik Jones (Toyota)
The Consumer Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway is scheduled commence on Sunday August 12. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 at 2:30 p.m.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 SUNENERGY1 CAMARO ZL1 – RACE WINNER
WHAT WAS YOUR EMOTION DURING THOSE FINAL FEW LAPS WHEN THE NO. 78 (MARTIN TRUEX, JR.) WAS TRYING TO CATCH YOU?
‘Holy cow! What a thrill! I don’t know what to say. I’m just so thrilled and so emotional. There’s so much relief you know; it’s been working on three years and I hadn’t won a one and came here with a good opportunity today. I was able to get it done. But, just thanks to all the fans. I hope all my buddies are ready to get rowdy tonight because it’s going to be a good one.”
WHAT DID YOUR DAD (BILL ELLIOTT) SAY TO YOU AFTER THE CHECKERED FLAG AND WHAT DID HE SAY TO YOU DURING THE RACE?
“He was really just spotting and doing kind of the normal spotter deal. And he was pretty encouraging those last couple of laps, which was certainly helpful and I was able to get it done.”
WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE NO. 78 AND THE MISTAKE IN TURN 1? WERE YOU THINKING, OH, I’VE GIVEN IT AWAY?
“Yeah, I started to wheel hop. I knocked it out of gear to not spin out and luckily had a big enough gap where he couldn’t get me. But, what a day.”
YOU MENTIONED THESE FANS. THEY ALL STOOD UP WHEN YOU WON. THEY CHEERED SO LOUDLY
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and I just want you all to know that. And, I am very grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Let’s go get some more.”
YOUR 99TH START AND YOU ARE IN VICTORY LANE YOUR INITIAL THOUGHTS AND REACTIONS:
“What a day. Just so thankful for the opportunity to be here and have the chances over and over that I have had more than a couple to win a couple of these things. Hadn’t gone our way for one reason or another. Me messing up, or whatever it was, so the group of guys behind me they deserve to win they were winners when Jeff (Gordon) left and I haven’t been able to give that to them and just proud to do that today.”
TALK ABOUT THE LAST LAP:
“Yeah, so I had a decent gap coming to the white and I felt really good about it. I felt too good about it apparently. I got into (Turn) 1 a little hard and started wheel hopping and had to knock it out of gear to keep from spinning out and got… obviously I missed the corner because of that. Luckily, I had a good enough gap to where he didn’t get up next to me and didn’t miss it too bad. So, what a day.”
A UNIQUE VICTORY LAP WITH TEAM MATE AND SEVEN TIME CHAMPION WHAT DID THAT MEAN?
“Well, I just appreciate the support and the respect on the race track. Jimmie (Johnson) has been one of my heroes for a long, long time. I leaned on him a lot over this past off season and I always lean on him, but certainly a lot throughout this off season just about the opportunities I’ve had in the past and not closing them out. He has been a big supporter of mine and that was one of the coolest things ever and I will never forget it.”
ON HIS VICTORY:
“It took us some kind of hard times to get here. I had to have a good group around me to keep pushing me and keep making me realize that we weren’t in those positions by accident. And, it was funny this morning. I woke up and I watched the video. Kirby Smart had a speech about having pressure is a privilege. And, I had that on repeat this morning in the bus, just thinking about it. I thought we had a chance today and wanted to make sure that if we were in a position to try to capitalize, and we did. What a day. But, just thanks to all my partners. SunEnergy1 is on the car this weekend, NAPA Auto Parts, Chevrolet, Kelley Blue Book, Valvoline, and Hooters, and all the folks that support us. This is one hell of a day.”
TO HAVE YOUR DAD HERE, KNOWING THAT HE GOT HIS FIRST WIN ON A ROAD COURSE AND HE WAS HERE HELPING, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU TWO?
“Well, I’m just glad to have him here. I wish my mom was here, too. She hasn’t missed many races; my mom and my grandma are some of my biggest supporters and biggest fans. I’m looking forward to getting home and seeing them. We’re going to have one hell of a night, I can assure you of that.”
THAT LAST TURN 1, WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT MOMENT?
“Yeah, I started wheel-hopping and I had two options: knock it out of gear, or spin out. So, I chose to knock it out of gear and missed the corner, but luckily had a big enough gap where Martin wasn’t next to me. I felt like if I could just be in front of him before the esses, it’s typical you can gap a guy through there just because it’s so fast, and what a day. It worked out. A big thanks to everybody that makes this happen. This is a dream come true and I’m just proud to be here.”
BILL ELLIOTT QUOTE:
YOU ARE HERE AND THIS IS WHAT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. HOW DOES IT FEEL?
“I don’t know how to describe it. I was standing over there and kind of letting the laps run down and I was thinking, you know, what’s going to go wrong now? He held it together and low and behold, (Martin) Truex runs out of gas. It’s just that luck went our way today.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK/DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
ON HIS DAY:
“Yeah, a lot better finish than I thought we would have. I always feel like I don’t race well at these places, but able to run a nice smooth race, so I was happy about that and I think we finished sixth or seventh, so yeah, pretty cool. Thanks to everybody at Credit One Bank, DC Solar, Chevy, Chip Ganassi Racing and everybody that helps out. Today was a fun day, finally, on a road course.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th
TOP 10 DAY FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE HERE AT WATKINS GLEN IT LOOKED LIKE A FAIRLY SMOOTH DAY:
“Yeah, I think we finished sixth or seventh and that was about where we were when we unloaded and we had a really clean race, we had good fuel mileage. Just a really good day for our GearWrench Chevy.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HERTZ CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
NICE TOP 10 EFFORT FOR YOU FIRST TIME HERE AT WATKINS GLEN AND YOUR TEAMMATE PARKED IT IN VICTORY LANE. TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“Yeah, it’s awesome. Good for those guys to get the win. I feel like we are just getting faster and it’s just being easier. I don’t know if we hit everything just right today, but it was easier to run where we were. It’s fun, it’s getting there. I’m excited.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 14th
ON HIS DAY:
“I really feel like the car was a little better than the driver all day. But it still wasn’t a terrible day for us. Just a little off of where we needed to be. Still a good points day and the pit crew was really good, they did a good job. We will move on and got to Michigan.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 15th
“I’m not really sure what happened there. I don’t know if the No. 11 and No. 18 were… I just don’t know. I was just kind of in the train of cars there just trying to be patient and they just stopped. I tried to get checked up and just got into the No. 22 (Joey Logano) and it just got the nose. Did decent amount of damage and took a lot of the front aero away and the car wasn’t the same, obviously. It just away overall grip more front than rear. The guys did a good job to kind of button it back up and at least make it somewhat drivable. It didn’t have the speed that it was going to have. I don’t think we had the pace all weekend to go win the race, but for how the car drove with that much damage, I thought we could have easily run in the top 10 and got a decent result out of it, but that is just the way it is.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 23rd”
“Making the trip up to The Glen is always interesting. We only come to this track once a year, and we came this year with a new crew chief, a new body style and a new inspection system to adapt to. We had decent practice sessions with our GEICO Camaro ZL1, and I felt good going into the race today because I like road-course racing. We just struggled through the esses all weekend. I was loose all the way up the hill at the start of the race. We improved it a bit with air pressure adjustments, but then the front end was struggling to turn and we had to address that with changes too. We made the adjustments that we need to throughout the day to make it to the end of the race. I wish we could have cracked into the top 20, but this team worked hard. We’ll have all of these notes to build on next year.”
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About Chevrolet
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