MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400
RICHMOND RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER (* = Playoff Contender)
4TH *CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1
6TH *AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW VORASURF CAMARO ZL1
7TH *KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1
8TH *JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1
12TH *ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER (* = Chevy Playoff Contender)
1st Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3rd Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
4th *Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
5th Aric Almirola (Ford)
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the inaugural race at the ROVAL. The Bank of American ROVAL 400 is scheduled for Sunday, September 30 at 2:00 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
POST RACE NOTES & QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
HOW DID YOU COME OUT OF HERE WITH A FOURTH PLACE FINISH?
“Yeah, just appreciate Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) making some good calls overnight. I feel like we changed about everything before qualifying yesterday. Typically, that does not work, so, just appreciate everybody’s efforts on my Hooters team to do that and put enough thought process and care into it to want to get better and for those guys to do what they did and make our car drive like it did tonight was really impressive. We had probably one of the worst practice days I’ve ever had throughout the season. We are in a position where we have got to run like that to get through.”
KNOWING YOUR CAR WAS SO GOOD ON THE LONG RUN HOW CHALLENGING WAS IT TO TRY TO PRESERVE IT AT THE START OF THOSE RUNS?
“Yeah, I really wasn’t preserving, I just couldn’t go like those guys could. Their cars were certainly different than mine. I felt like as the race went on, my long run advantage kind of went away a little more and more as the race track rubbered-up. So, yeah, Kyle (Busch) does such a good job of when it rubbers down. That is not the first time we’ve seen him struggle at the beginning and then come on late. So, need to figure out whatever he does there and hopefully can keep up.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW VORASURF CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
THAT WAS A NICE, SOLID RUN FOR YOU TODAY
“Yeah, that’s what we needed. I hate that we could have had Stage points in the first Stage if we would have qualified better. If we would have qualified better, we probably wouldn’t have had the car we had tonight. Impound, we knew we were going to have to bite the bullet in qualifying to have a car free enough to race good. We were just super-loose in qualifying. That was a long night to sleep on that. But to wake up we had confidence in the Dow Vorasurf Chevy and that was a heck of a run for us. We’ve done all we could in these Playoffs, so I’m really proud right now. I hope all the studying I’ve done for the Roval will pay off also. We don’t want to be the first group out.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
ON THE RACE
“The track bar adjustments weren’t working, so I was really limited on the adjustments in the car; especially here. You need to have the track bar so high to get started and then lower it in the course of a run. I just had to deal with it. I think we could have been better, but it was a nice top 10 finish. Hopefully we can go to the Roval and have a great day. Richmond is not our best track. And to get a top 10 is a respectable run for us. I think we could have been at least inside the top five. I think we came close to maximizing what we had in it. So, I feel good about that. We came from the back two or three different times for different reasons and had a good finish out of it.”
FROM A SPEEDING PENALTY ON PIT ROAD, NO TRACK BAR TO WORK WITH INSIDE THE COCKPIT TO COME AWAY WITH A TOP 10 FINISH IS THAT SOMETHING YOU CAN HANG YOUR HAT ON?
“Yeah, I think that is a good sign. This isn’t one of our better tracks. I was right there in a group of cars where I could have been fourth or ended up eighth. We had to fight through track position issues a couple of times, speeding penalties, started in the back at the beginning of the race and then the trackbar adjuster not working really limited the ability that I had on the short run and then late, late in a run. So, the middle part of the run I wasn’t bad, that is what we kind of aimed to set the car up for once we knew I had the problem. Through the meat of a run we weren’t bad, but short run and long run, I needed that trackbar to move.”
HEADED TO THE ROVAL SIX POINTS BELOW THE CUTOFF LINE. WHAT WILL YOU BE THINKING ABOUT BETWEEN NOW AND THEN?
“Crash all those guys in front of me, is that a good option? (laughs) I think surviving is just the biggest thing. We will just go there and give 100 percent and do what we can. It’s been one of those years, but we are going to go down swinging to the bitter end.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 12th
“We probably took a sixth place car and ran 12th with it. So, it’s a little frustrating. We just had to go a direction for the shorter run there at the end because it took probably 35 or 40 laps for our car to come in the previous couple of runs. And, it just didn’t work. So, we tried something and learned from it and we’ll move on.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 20th
“The guys did a good job on pit road and I felt like it was a pretty straightforward race. A lot of green flag runs, which I thought was going to be a strong suit, but just kind of ran where we ran. So, go back and work on it a little bit.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 28th
“Richmond Raceway is a really good track for me. I’ve always enjoyed coming here. We tested the track a couple months back and were really happy with the results. Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 had speed in both practice sessions. We just struggled through the corners during the race under the lights. I was too tight through the middle, but I would lose grip when my team made adjustments to loosen me up. It was a tough balance to get a handle on. But, I never gave up on my team and they didn’t give up on me. Tonight was definitely a battle for us, but we’re going to keep moving forward to finish the season strong.”
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