Austin Dillon and the No. 3 TRACKER Off Road/Bass Pro Shops/E-Z-GO Chevrolet Team Fight Their Way to Top-20 Finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL But Come Up Just Short of Advancing in the NASCAR Playoffs
Finish: 19th
Start: 6th
Points: 9th
“We tried our hardest, but nothing fell our way today on this No. 3 TRACKER Off Road/Bass Pro Shops/E-Z-GO Chevrolet team. We were looking pretty good at the end of Stage 1. We took tires and got to fifth by the end of the stage, but an unlucky caution happened and that cycled us. We knew we were dead meat at that point because we didn’t have dry tires on, so we pitted at the end of Stage 1 to try and jump some people. That backfired on us because we had to go to the tail end of the line since pit road wasn’t open. We just had a lot of stuff happen to us today. Again, a caution fell late in Stage 2 while we were running 12th. We had no help from cautions. The race just didn’t play our way. I’m actually pretty happy with our performance as far as my road course racing has been. I feel like I’ve improved. I raced hard all day. We finished 19th, and that shows some progress. I think if we would have been up further in the field and had track position, we would have maintained just fine. I’m proud of this team, and even though we are no longer in the NASCAR Playoffs, we still have several races to go in the season and will do our best to get another win. We’re already looking forward to next season.” -Austin Dillon
Tyler Reddick and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Team Earn Hard-Fought 12th-Place Finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL
Finish: 12th
Start: 16th
Points: 19th
“Every time I come to a road course, I grow as a driver. We had a great No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet today, and I want to thank my team for working with me all day long. It wasn’t an easy day, but we all kept with it and improved throughout the race. It took a little bit of Stage 1 to re-familiarize myself with the course, so I spent a lot of that stage being careful to not overstep and wreck. After a pit stop and adjustment during the second stage, I was able to rotate a lot better all throughout the track, which helped me gain a lot of traction on the field. We had a couple cautions fall later during the race that helped us with some track position a little bit, overall, it was a really good effort by my No. 8 team today. They kept with it and remained patient with me throughout the day, while relaying information on areas of the track to continue to work on. I definitely learned more about this track today and will put that in the notebook for next year.” -Tyler Reddick
