Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Chevrolet Team Show Speed in Coca-Cola 600 But Retire Early Following On-Track Incident
Finish: 34th
Start: 4th
Points: 21st
“I’m disappointed because we had a fast Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Chevy Camaro ZL1 all weekend so I thought we would have a stronger race today then what we did. We were a victim of circumstance, but that’s what happens in racing sometimes. We worked hard throughout the race to adjust our car and keep up with changing track conditions, but our race ended early after an accident during the final Stage. I saw the No. 42 car spinning. I don’t know if it would have turned out in our favor if I would have slowed down and tried to get stopped, but I saw a gap so I made the decision to go all the way to the left to try and get through it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. It’s part of it. We’ll be ready for Pocono Raceway next week.” -Austin Dillon
Early Contact Hinders Daniel Hemric’s Efforts in First Coca-Cola 600 Start with Cessna Chevrolet
Finish: 21st
Start: 10th
Points: 25th
“I really hate this night did not turn out better than it did for everyone on this Cessna Chevrolet Team. Luke Lambert and everyone on this team gave me a really fast No. 8 Cessna Chevy. We showed that in practice throughout the weekend and in qualifying on Thursday night. The car took off really well to start the race but we got so many cautions in Stage 1 that we made a strategy call to stay out and were able to grab the lead by doing that. Being able to lead in my first Coca-Cola 600 was a cool experience for sure, but the cars with fresher tires were much quicker on the restart. One of them made contact with the right rear and sent me into the outside wall off Turn 4. I’m really proud of everyone on this team, because they never gave up. We hit pit road as much as possible the rest of the night and they made repairs as best they could. We kept adjusting on it and just tried to do all we could to get to the end. When the caution came out with about 35 laps to go, we took the wave around to get one lap back and hoped for a quick caution, but we never got that when we needed and had to hit pit road under green with 20 laps to go. We will head to Pocono and try to change our luck there.” -Daniel Hemric
