MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
GANDER RV 400
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MAY 6, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE SMALL BUSINESS CAMARO ZL1
3rd KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
5th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO 9 NAPA BRAKES CAMARO ZL1
8th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1
13th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
2nd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
3rd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
4th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
5th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Kansas Speedway with the Digital Ally 400 on Saturday evening, May 11th at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE SMALL BUSINESS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
A GREAT EXAMPLE OF EXECUTION. YOU STARTED AT THE BACK AND NEARLY JOINED MARTIN TRUEX, JR. IN SCORING HIS FIRST WIN AT DOVER. YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD GO AN EXTRA 100 LAPS
“I’m worn out. This is the physically hardest race of the year for me, for sure. We at least had a shot at it. That’s really all you can ask for. Congrats to Martin Truex, Jr. Our Nationwide Small Business Chevy was really good. Cool deal they’ve got going on. A small business owner can enter to win a $100,000, so that’s a pretty neat promotion for them. I’m still proud of (crew chief) Greg Ives and everybody on this No. 88 team. We had a miserable start to the season and we did a really good job of resetting over the off-weekend. We’ve come out strong since then.”
BACK-TO-BACK SECOND PLACE FINISHES FOR YOU AND YOU’VE ALMOST SCORED TWO WINS IN A ROW. WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THE CONFIDENCE DEPARTMENT? NOT ONLY FOR YOU, BUT FOR THE ENTIRE TEAM?
“It would be better if we had a trophy, right? But, we needed this, for sure. Talladega is a speedway and it’s a lot of luck involved. But to come here to, in my opinion the hardest race track we go do, and run like that from the back of all things, was pretty special. I’m just proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for all the improvement we’ve made over the last year or so and we’re going to keep it going.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 3rd
YOU FINALLY BROUGHT IT HOME IN THE TOP 5 WITH A THIRD PLACE FINISH. YOU FINALLY DELIVERED WITH WHAT YOU EXPECTED OUT OF THIS CAR. DESCRIBE YOUR DAY
“Oh, yeah, we ran inside the Top 5 all race long. We fought tight early-on, with our Credit One Bank Chevy, but we freed it up and got it to where I felt like I was pretty good. And in the last run there, after cycling through green-flag stops, I was really loose and got stuck in traffic and then was just looser in the dirty air. So, I had to just make sure I hit the bottom lap after lap to hold (Kevin) Harvick off. So, it was good to finally have a clean race. I don’t think we’ve had a clean weekend all year long. And we’re 11 weeks into the season. So, it’s good to finally get a clean day, like I said, and thanks to our race team. Our pit crew did a good job today as well. It was a nice day.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 5th
YOU WERE THE POLE SITTER AND YOU LED A LOT OF THE RACE. YOU HAD A GOOD FINISH, DIDN’T WIN, WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END? “Yeah, we just fell off there at the end of that second Stage. That was the time of the race that we needed to be controlling it and not falling back. Just a bad time to have a bad half of a run and that is kind of what happened. So, we were fast, just not fast enough when it really mattered.”
YOU HAD A GOOD RACE CAR, BUT IT SEEMED LIKE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HARD FOR A NUMBER OF YOU TO CATCH MARTIN TRUEX JR.?
“Yeah, he was really good there at the end for sure. His car came on about the time I felt our car was starting to fall off. And hey, that is what pays.”
HOW DID YOU LOOK AT THE RACING BECAUSE THERE WAS SO MUCH TALK ABOUT HOW IT WOULD BE WITH THIS PACKAGE?
“It was a tough race for sure. It was a very physical event, a lot of corner speed, which is hard on us for sure.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
TELL US ABOUT HOW THE RACE PLAYED OUT FOR YOU GUYS? “Yeah, we had the strategy deal where we took two tires and got some Stage points. And then we had to start at the back, and ultimately we were clawing our way back the whole race. We finished behind the 22, and we both started in the back, which was unfortunate. The guys brought a really fast car that was a lot of fun.”
COMPARE IT HOW IT RACED LAST YEAR VERSUS THIS YEAR
“It was really hard to pass. Coming from the back the one time, it took me the whole race to get back there. The 22 and us worked our way back from wherever we were at the end of Stage 2, and then it took another 130 laps to kind of get any farther. That was unfortunate, but he could run the top which is nice.”
YOU SAID IT WAS HARD TO PASS, IS THAT THE PACKAGE HERE?
“I don’t know. It might have just been me, but it was hard to pass anyone on the bottom and really defend significantly on the bottom. I don’t think I passed many guys on the bottom all day, if we were both running bottom/bottom. If they ran up a car length, I could get enough air that I could. But the only passes I made really all day were on top.”
SEEMED LIKE NOBODY HAD ANYTHING FOR TRUEX ANYWAY
“I am not really sure. We were kind of with him at the end of Stage 1 and then got in the back. So, I really don’t know for sure.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 22nd
“We didn’t really know what to expect coming into this weekend but speeds here were incredibly fast. It made the racing a lot more challenging in some ways, but we made it through with a good, clean race. My Twisted Tea team worked hard all weekend to get our Camaro ZL1 where we needed it to be. We went back and forth on the balance throughout the day, but I ended the race feeling pretty good about everything. I wish we could have cracked into the top 20, but I’m proud of the progress we’ve made as a team at this track. This was a solid race for us and a good day to keep 2019 going in a positive direction.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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