MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
GANDER RV 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 27, 2019
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO MILITARY CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:
HOW WAS YOUR PRACTICE? OBVIOUSLY, THERE WERE A COUPLE OF CARS THAT CRASHED DURING THAT FIRST PRACTICE.
“Yeah, I don’t know if it was due to the PJ-1 or not. I don’t really think so. I think it was just people pushing it to the edge to go faster and faster. We’ve kind of seen it the last couple of weeks, so everyone has figured out that you kind of have to be freer with these cars to gain speed. I think people were just pushing that limit. On our Geico Military Camaro, we just weren’t really happy with the balance on it. Hopefully in this second practice, we’ll hit on something and get better.”
DO YOU THINK PEOPLE WILL PUSH THE PJ-1 IN THE SECOND PRACTICE?
“It’s so fast here, it’s kind of a leap of faith to get up there and get on it. You get a Truck race on it and some more laps on it, I think it will slowly come in. I think the worse thing that could happen would be to reapply it before the race because I think it just takes so long for anyone to get up there and get on it.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR THE RACE?
“Right now, I think it’s going to be a lot like the first race. It will be a little bit tough to pass, unless the PJ-1 really changes the direction of the outcome. I feel like we are going to see a lot of what we saw in the first race.”
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE RACE?
“It’s such a tough track. For me, it’s more of just trying to get our car to handle right. It’s one of those places where you just end up racing the track because the track position is so key. After about five or six laps, it’s hard to pass anyone. In practice, you just want to focus on having a car that you can run fast consistently with and we have a little room to grow there.”
WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING FOR YOU HERE?
“I think getting the security of entry in all three corners, since they are all so different. To have the same balance from the time I turn off the wall into the corner to where I’m comfortable in being aggressive getting into the corner. That’s where we seem to be lacking the last couple of times we’ve been here. Our teammates have been pretty good. Daniel Hemric was pretty fast, Austin (Dillon) was getting a little better. So, we are looking at what they did to try to make our car better.”
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NASCAR MEMORY?
“I would say winning some of my first races in the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series. Those were some of my really fun memories. I’ve been coming to the race track since the day I was born, so I don’t really have any other memories besides NASCAR memories. It’s been a big part of my life.”
IT LOOKS LIKE CHEVY HAS STARTED TO TURN THE CORNER. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU GUYS ARE SEEING FROM THE CAMARO THAT YOU DIDN’T NECESSARILY HAVE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON?
“I think it’s just time and developing. Obviously, it has taken our guys a little bit longer to get up to speed. I think this year, as a whole, has been a lot better. I think off season, we gained some ground. But those other guys are still getting better and better each week too, so we have to keep the pace on as far as developing our car. I think we are going to end up in a good place. We are still a little bit behind, but a lot better than we were last year at this time. I think as a whole, we have to keep digging and make sure we don’t slow down.”
About Chevrolet
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