Austin Dillon and the American Ethanol Team Avoid Melee, Earn Top-20 Finish at Talladega Superspeedway
“To he honest, I was worried at the start of the race because the American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 was not handling very well. My crew chief, Justin Alexander, and the team worked hard to fine-tune our Chevy throughout the race and we were able to earn some Stage points at the end of Stage 2. We opted to hang back in Stage 3 in anticipation of ‘The Big One.’ We knew that if we could avoid that, we would have a solid shot at the end. It didn’t work out quite the way we hoped with a relatively calm race and not enough laps to get to the front at the end. You win some, you lose some.”
-Austin Dillon
Loose Wheel Spoils Day for Ryan Newman and the No. 31 Liberty National Camaro ZL1
“Taking the green flag P22 in our No. 31 Liberty National Camaro ZL1 gave us an opportunity to see how the race would play out early on in the pack up front. As Stage 1 wore on, the Camaro ZL1 become loose in the tri-oval and tight everywhere else. Near the end of that stage, it felt like the left rear was going down but thankfully that didn’t happen. Starting the second stage P12 was key to show the speed we had at the beginning of the race. Unfortunately, a loose wheel on lap 75 forced us to make a green-flag pit stop and put us a couple laps down. Before the final stage, we did a fuel-only pit stop to give us options later in the race. We were in lucky dog position for the final 20 laps and eventually caught a break to put us on the lead lap with two laps remaining. However, in overtime I was caught in a wreck and the car was heavily damaged. I know we were better than where we finished, P25. Sometimes the dominoes just don’t fall your way. We’ll be ready for Kansas next week and hopefully string together some solid runs to close out the year.”
-Ryan Newman
