NASCAR CUP SERIES
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
THE REAL HEROES 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE (FINAL FULL PACKAGE)
MAY 17, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM / NOCO CAMARO ZL1 1LE
3rd KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
4th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE
10th MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
3rd Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
4th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
5th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues with a return visit to Darlington Raceway on Wednesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM / NOCO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
YOU AND KEVIN (HARVICK) HAD A BATTLE ON THAT FINAL RESTART, JUST NOT QUITE ENOUGH TO PULL IT OFF. MAN, THAT WAS FUN TO WATCH YOU GUYS RACING THAT HARD.
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun to get to race a guy like Kevin (Harvick) at a place like Darlington (Raceway). Man, I’m pumped for ChevyGoods.com and NOCO. Hendrick Motorsports had four really fast race cars. It sucks to finish second, but it’s really good to restart the season this way with a strong car off the truck. We just needed a little bit more. I don’t really know what it was. At times we were tight, at times we were free. Neither times were we faster than the 4 on the long runs. So, I thought if I could get him there on the restart, we’d have a shot at it, but just came up a little bit short.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rd
I HEARD YOU SAY AT ONE STAGE IN THE RACE THAT ‘WE HAVE A GOOD CAR AFTER TEN LAPS’, SO IT JUST TOOK A LITTLE BIT TO GET THAT THING GOING.
“We were a little bit tight here, a little bit loose there. But, man, what a great team. Thank you to Chip Ganassi, Rob Kauffman, Felix Sabates. I’m the happiest guy in the world. I got to drive 200 mph today, pass some cars, felt the energy of the race car, and just to be out here and have a job. Thank you to Monster Energy and Chevrolet. I miss you race fans. We didn’t have you here, but I felt you through the camera. Thank you to FOX and NASCAR for making this happen.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th
“Had a slow start for sure, it was nice to get our NAPA Chevy back driving decent there at the end. Hate that we were so far in left field to start the race, but really proud of the effort. Pit stops were fantastic and the adjustments were really good. The track kept changing and we were able to kind of keep up with things and finally get caught back up to a decent place at the end. Hopefully we have something really good to build off of on Wednesday. Heard that was our best run at Darlington, so that’s good! Hopefully Wednesday is a few spots better.”
“Thought NASCAR did a great job of executing today in a safe manner. It was a good atmosphere, in my opinion. The lack of people is certainly a weird vibe, but I think from execution and them (NASCAR) doing a really good job of keeping everybody safe and trying to execute the first race back was very well done. Looking forward to Wednesday, like I said, just excited to be back racing. It was a fun day, it was a fun vibe. I loved the atmosphere and the fact that we didn’t practice, I thought it was really cool. I think it had zero percent effect on the race winner today. Hopefully we can kind of make this a trend and get back to our roots. It reminded me a lot of short track racing, which I think is a lot of fun. Looking forward to Wednesday.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
“Well, we’re officially back to racing, and it felt great. Our first day back in the No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet was a little rough around the edges at times, but starting out in the 29th spot and racing our way into the top five in about the first 125 laps was just an outstanding kick off our race. It felt like we were bouncing right back from our good momentum that we had at Phoenix Raceway before this break. It was a hot, slick track for sure today, which I love, but we also saw the track change quite a bit. Our No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet was really good and took off so well at the start of the race, that it was tough to adjust on it throughout the day. We really needed to though as the track changed, so that’s something I think we can look to improve on for Wednesday’s race, since we know how much the lanes could change during a race now. It was a wild day for us though. We had that piece of debris come off the wall and stick our splitter, which slowed one of our stops as we tried to get it all off. That caused a slight pit road miscue with a tire, which sent us to the tail of the line and forced us to fight back from 29th one more time. We never gave up, and all in all, it was a great day. A seventh-place finish is a great way to come back, and we’ll look to build momentum from here. Good news is, we get to come back Wednesday night and try to finish seven spots better.”
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th
“First off, thanks to NASCAR and everyone else involved in working to make today happen. Overall, today turned out really well for us. The first few laps today were kind of nerve-racking, but then it was sort of back to racing and thinking about what we needed to be better. Everyone on the team has worked extremely hard the last couple weeks to prepare for today, and I’m proud of what we accomplished today. I learned a lot throughout the race about the way the car handles and reacts to different situations, and it was nice to really get acclimated to the Camaro and the team in a real racing environment. It’s always a good feeling to get a top-10 at a place like Darlington, but to have done it under these circumstances feels that much better. I still have some room to improve, but today shows all of us we have a lot to look forward to as the season continues. It was great to be back racing, and we can’t thank everyone at Credit One Bank, McDonald’s, Clover, AdventHealth and Chevy for the support you’ve given to the team.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 SYMBICORT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 11th
“First off, I want to start off by saying good job NASCAR. That was awesome to be able to pull off a race like that here in Darlington. This place is awesome, I love this track. It can be so frustrating and so fun at the same time. Position 11; we had a really fast car there at the end. We ran the 42 (Matt Kenseth) down from way back. We didn’t have enough time, messed around there too much early in that last run.”
“Man, that was fun. The 8 car was amazing; really fast today also. So, I think we can look at both of our setups and learn something, and kind of mix between the two. Thank you to everyone from Symbicort and all our partners. Once again, thank you NASCAR for coming back and being successful. This was cool. I miss the fans, for sure. I was worried it wasn’t going to feel like a race, but when you put the helmet on and get in the car, it was a race. It was nice to be out there racing against all those guys. It was a good one. Thank you to everyone that helped put this on.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 19th
“My Germain Racing guys did a good job today and prepared a solid race car to bring here to Darlington. It’s not easy to just unload and have your first lap on the track, be the first lap of the race, but it is a pure testament to their hard work at the shop. Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 1LE was way too tight for two-thirds of the race, but Matt (Borland) and I kept working on it to make the handling pretty good by the end. We as a team worked through the frustration in the beginning and kept building on it. I’m happy to get a top-20 finish to kick off this stretch and now we will look forward to Wednesday night.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 COTTONELLE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 20th
“Overall, it was a solid day for our Cottonelle Chevy. We’ve been in a little bit of a hole to start out the season for reasons we weren’t able to control, but this is a positive step forward. We were able to get some stage points and run towards the front, just had a few pit stops that didn’t go our way. We’re a team and we’re moving forward together. We know we have the speed, just need to put everything together. Starting on the pole this Wednesday is going to be really fun. I’m very grateful for all of our frontline workers, everyone at the shop, and our NASCAR industry as a whole for rallying together to be able to safely get us back on the racetrack. We definitely miss the fans but hope that having our sport live on TV fills the gap until we can safely have everyone back at the racetrack.
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 21st
“P-21 for our World Wide Technology Chevrolet team. We were kind of around that spot all day long. We had some really good battles, especially there at the end with Ryan Preece. We were one spot short from starting on the pole for Wednesday, but all-in-all, gave it our best effort. It was good just to get back on track and figure out what we need to be better. We’re already looking forward to Wednesday. I know I need to work on myself personally, mentally and physically, to get through these long races. But, all-in-all, it’s good to be back.”
“It’s definitely different without fans there, but I thought today was a good show. There was a lot of action and exciting stuff early, and some drama there, for sure. We’ll regroup and go get them Wednesday! Right back down at Darlington. Victory Junction is going to be on our Chevrolet this time, so looking forward to it.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA ‘COLOR OF THE YEAR’ CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 35th
“We had such a fast car today. We just had a vibration that kept getting worse and the wheel finally came loose. I really appreciate me team sticking with it today and for all the hard work they have put in to unload with such a fast Axalta Chevy. Good thing we can rally and do it all again on Wednesday. We’ll be ready.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined in crash on lap 89; Finished 38th
YOU HAD A LIGHTNING-FAST 48 CAR TODAY. WAS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT OFF OF TURN TWO THAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE OVER THERE?
“Gosh, what I would do to get that corner back to do it over again. Coming to the end of the stage, I was just trying to make sure I got a good run off of turn two. I felt like I was going to be able to exit the corner side-by-side with him, things just went horribly wrong there. What a great car, I feel terrible for my team and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. I’m very thankful for Ally and all of their support. We have great race cars and things are coming in the right direction, just unfortunate that things didn’t really turn out there off of turn two.”
“Man, that hurts, what a bummer. There’s a race in a few days and we’ll be back. Stuff happens, it’s racing. The good news is that the 48 is fast, my team is on it, and my Camaro is fast. We have great support from Ally and great support from my fans. This will sting a little on the drive home, there’s no doubt. But I will use this and learn from it. I will be back Wednesday and then it’s on.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined in crash on lap 1; Finished 40th
“Not really sure what to say there about our first lap, first corner. Pretty embarrassing for myself, our team. My crew guys, I feel awful for them. They put a lot of hard work into getting our cars ready and coming all the way down here to Darlington. I put myself in a bad spot there. The 32 (Corey LaJoie) looked like he had to check up and I put myself on the inside of him. Just put ourselves in a bad spot and ended our race before it ever started. I’m looking forward to getting back here on Wednesday to try and put a better run together, and put this behind us.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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