Matt Tifft Earns First Top-10 Finish at Bristol Motor Speedway in No. 2 Nexteer Automotive Chevrolet
“My team worked so hard all weekend long on our No. 2 Nexteer Automotive Chevrolet. We lacked a lot of front turn on Thursday during practice, and we had to make some major changes to it. It handled a lot better during qualifying, which showed when we started fifth, our second top-five starting spot in two weeks. When I fired off for the race, I struggled with no rear grip at all and got shuffled back. Randall (Burnett, crew chief) made the call to pit under the first yellow flag and made major changes to the car. It handled much better after that, and we were able to race in the top five for most of the remaining laps of the race. Unfortunately, on the overtime start I just didn’t have the tires to keep up and fell back a couple spots. It still was a top-10 finish though, and my first one at Bristol, so we’ll take this and continue to build off it.”
-Matt Tifft
Bass Pro Shops / Cabela’s Team Brings Fast Chevrolet to Bristol Motor Speedway for Ty Dillon
“My team built a fast Bass Pro Shops / Cabela’s Chevrolet for Bristol. I took off in that first stage, and I had a top-three car on speeds. I got up to the second position for the Stage 2 restart, but I got stuck in the bottom lane and fell back. That bottom lane was brutal for most of the race. You couldn’t go anywhere if you had to restart down there. It finally started coming in for me during Stage 3, and I was able to use it a bit. In the end, though, I got too aggressive trying get as much as I could for my team, and I tagged the wall. It’s unfortunate because this car really was a top-five machine. I’m ready for my next two races with this No. 3 team. It’s a great group of guys, and we’re going to make things happen in Darlington and Indianapolis.”
-Ty Dillon
Late-Race Misfortune Ruins Daniel Hemric’s Top-10 Run at Bristol Motor Speedway
“This is not how we imagined our night ending here at Bristol Motor Speedway. Our South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet had speed tonight and my crew chief Danny Stockman was doing a great job working on the handling of the car so we could make it work around the top and bottom. There at the end we had a loose wheel and I was trying to ride it out to the end of the race, but it didn’t last. The car spun and made contact with the inside wall. When we tried to come back in a second time to work on it, the steering locked up and we were done for the day. We were going to have a top-10 day, but that’s all part of racing. We’ll move on from this and focus on Road America next week.”
-Daniel Hemric
