MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
BANK OF AMERICAN ROVAL 400
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROVAL
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018
Three Chevy Drivers Advance to NASCAR Playoffs Round of 12
Camaro ZL1 Drivers Take Two of Top Five and Five of Top 10 in Wild Finish
CONCORD, N.C. (September 30, 2018) – The inaugural race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval did not disappoint. Twists and turns abounded throughout, but at the conclusion of the Bank of America Roval 400, three Team Chevy drivers emerged to advance to the second round (Round of 12) of the Playoffs in pursuit of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) championship.
Chase Elliott, No. 9 SunEnergy1 Camaro ZL1, heads into the Round of 12 eighth in the standings after finishing sixth unofficially in the 109-lap/400-mile race. Alex Bowman finished a hard-fought fourth to capture 10th in points heading into the fourth race of the 10-race Playoff schedule.
Richard Childress Racing driver, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Camaro ZL1, unfortunately suffered race-ending damage in a single car incident during Stage 2 that ended his chances to continue racing for the title.
Seven-time MENCS champion Jimmie Johnson was not only in position to win the race, but to move on to the second round until the last corner of the last lap when a he and the leader, Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota), were involved in a two-car accident that relegated him to an eighth-place finish placing him in a three-way tie with Aric Almirola (Ford) and Kyle Larson for the final transfer spots in points. Larson, who led a race-high 47 laps, but was caught up in a multi-car melee on lap 103 that severely damaged his Camaro ZL1. He and Almirola won the tie-breaker with better finishes in the first two races (Las Vegas and Richmond) in the first round of the Playoffs.
Ryan Blaney (Ford) was the race winner, Chevrolet’s Jamie McMurray earned a hard fought second-place finish, Clint Bowyer (Ford) was third and Kurt Busch (Ford) rounded out the top five finishers in the inaugural race at the Charlotte Roval.
The next race on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is the Gander Outdoors 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, October 7th and can be seen on NBC Sports Network and heard on MRN Radio and Sirius/XM channel 90.
Post-Race Press Conf. Transcript:
CHIP GANASSI RACING TEAMMATES, JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1, FINISHED SECOND, AND KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER/FIRST DATA, FINISHED 25TH, BUT ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND IN THE PLAYOFFS, THE ROUND OF 12
THE MODERATOR: We’ve been joined by a few additional guests here, driver of the No. 1 DC Solar Chevrolet, Jamie McMurray, who finished second today, and also Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford, who was the final driver to advance into the Round of 12 for the playoffs.
Q. Jamie and Kyle, both of you have run the Rolex 24 before, both of you have won the Rolex 24 before; what, if anything, could you take from that road course oval to this one today?
KYLE LARSON: Nothing. Nothing really. I don’t think anything. These are totally different race cars. Those are totally different cars than anything I’ve ever driven. They have a lot better brakes, a lot better grip, traction, traction control, everything. Even if we were to take a Cup car on to the Daytona Roval, it wouldn’t even compare I don’t think.
I don’t know, yeah, it’s just a different deal.
JAMIE McMURRAY: Yeah, I mean, the only thing to me that this track reminded me of Daytona is especially with the splitters is that in the Rolex car you could go really quick through the back ‘Bus Stop’ if you used more curb, but every time you did, it would just destroy the splitter, and that was kind of the same way here today. You could get fairly aggressive, but everything else is just so much different. You know who you’re racing with. In the Rolex race, half the guys you’re around, you don’t even know who’s in the car, and it could be somebody different every time you catch the same car, so it’s pretty ‑‑ it’s so much different.
Q. Kyle, I just saw the replay of how you did that. How close did you come to not being able to finish that race the way your car was driving?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I had kind of ‑‑ I knew I needed the 88 to not pass people, and it looked like he was creeping his way up the pilon there the last couple laps. I knew I was in bad shape, so I kind of, I guess you could say, giving up, but I couldn’t even drive my car, it was so bad destroyed.
But then they said they were all crashed and they were coming to the checkered. I was over here getting on the oval, and they said they were starting to crash, so I ran hard. We had, I guess, so much camber and tow in our car they said if I ran fast I would blow a right front. But I was like, you’ve got to go.
So, I ran hard through, whatever, 1 and 2 over there and through the Bus Stop, and then blew a right front center of 3 and 4 and plowed the wall, I was like, crap, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get down to make the chicane, but luckily it came down off the banking and I could turn right okay.
So, I got through the 16th corner, and then 17 I hit the wall again on the front stretch, and the 96 was stalled the whole time. I think they told me the 96 was stalled when I was like at the backstretch over there, and he wasn’t able to get his car re-fired ‑‑
KYLE LARSON: He was like 100 feet from the start‑finish line. I could start to see him creep in when I was getting to 16. I was like, gosh, don’t go, don’t go, and we were able to make it. Hey, I was pretty lucky.
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