NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA ROAD COURSE
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 253 AT DAYTONA
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
FEBRUARY 21, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
4th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 HYPERICE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
9th RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 KROGER/COCA-COLA CAMARO ZL1 1LE
10th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
14th ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Christopher Bell (Toyota)
2nd Joey Logano (Ford)
3rd Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
4th Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
5th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the Dixie Vodka 400 on Sunday, February 28, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th
KURT BUSCH HAD, WHAT I WOULD CALL AN EVENTFUL DAY. KURT, YOU GET TO THE LEAD, YOU GO THROUGH THE INFIELD. I THOUGHT YOUR RACE WAS DONE AND THE NEXT THING I KNOW, YOU’RE BACK UP FRONT.
“Man, I just crossed over that fine-line of grip and the car – it’s there, but I was just over-driving. The tires at this track, with the worn-out asphalt in that infield section, is really easy to step over the line. I actually took a deep breath and just said ‘stay cool, stay cool’, and then I pounded that curb and it shot me straight out.”
“Matt McCall (crew chief), all my guys – they had an awesome day on pit road, strategy-wise and with their stops to get us that track position and to get us back up front. If I’m going to make a mistake, it’s on me to then dig us out of that hole and stay out there on old tires. Really good points day; top-five I think in all the stages. So, that’s a good checkmark to bounce back after the Daytona 500. Thanks to Monster Energy, Chevy, GearWrench – we’re rolling now.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 KROGER/COCA-COLA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th
“Our No. 37 Kroger/Coca-Cola Chevrolet was the best road course car we’ve had. We struggled early in the race needing a little more forward drive, but Trent (Owens, crew chief) made some really great adjustments and kept working on it to get us where we could make moves. I’m really proud of everyone at JTG Daugherty Racing for giving us a car that was fast and even with the damage from a late-race caution, we were able to hold our track position and get a second top-10 finish for the season. It’s been a great start so far and we’re just going to keep digging forward next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th
“Ended up P-10. Not a great day, but we definitely held on and got an OK finish out of it. Just was buried at the end and monster-trucked a turtle. They are unforgiving, bent something up a little bit and kind of had to fight through it. But really proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Ally and my whole No. 48 team. We had a really fast Camaro. Not a ton to show from it, but we got a top-10.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th
“It was a pretty up and down day for our Richard Petty Motorsports team. We had a tire issue early and then got lucky with a caution – stayed on the lead lap, and then had to battle back from that. We struggled a little bit keeping the track position and staying up front. It was kind of a back-and-forth battle for us. I thought we had a top-15 Chevrolet, maybe top-10 finish if some things worked out.
“It is a decent finish for the No. 43 Petty’s Garage Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. We just missed the set-up from the Clash; we tried to do a few new things and change some stuff around, but it didn’t quite work the way we wanted. Good notes for us coming back and hopefully for the future road courses. I think we can do some things to continue to make it better. I am glad we could get a decent finish out of it and move onto next week.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 IFLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 16th
“That was a good run for us today. I felt like we kept making the car better and better. We were definitely better on long runs. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of long runs until the end. It was fun to lead those laps. We want to do that a lot this year. We will keep working. We’ll be ready for Homestead next weekend.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 21st
YOU DOMINATED MOST OF THE RACE AND LED 44 LAPS. CHASE, THERE WAS SO MUCH ACTION, I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START. YOU WERE OFF TRACK, ON TRACK, RACED YOUR WAY THROUGH. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THIS RACE?
“When you have those late-race cautions like that and you have a mixed bag of who stays and who goes, it’s a bit of a gamble either way, I felt like. I thought tires was the right move. Tires won the race, so I think it was the right move. You get back in traffic and it just gets to be so chaotic, and then just depending on who gets through and who doesn’t kind of determines how it’s going to shake out.”
“I hate it. I made too many mistakes. We went off track and it was just a bad deal. We had a fast NAPA Chevy and I appreciate the effort. I hate it for Corey (LaJoie). He ran me off there, so I thought he was going to take the lane again, so I went to cross him over and I think that time he was actually going to give me the lane. So, go figure. But we’ll try again next week.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 NATIONSGUARD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 30th
“It took 5 or 7 laps to get comfortable on the track, but even after that you’re inching up on your braking zones. I think halfway through the first stage I was in a good spot with being comfortable with the race track. I made some decent passes and we made the car better. We were in a great position to win but made a mistake that cost us a chance to win.
“I just drove in really far and probably got a little wheel hop. I just carried too much speed and backed it into the tire barrier. I just got overly aggressive.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW MOBILITYSCIENCE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 34th
“Well, it was a bummer. We didn’t get the finish we deserved. We ran in the Top-10 for most of the day. It was the best road course appearance we’ve had in the No. 3 car in a while. I’m really proud of everybody’s off-season work and I put in some, as well. It was good to be really competitive. They didn’t show it on TV I guess; but the No. 17 (Chris Buescher) and the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) got into it through the last chicane and the No. 17 jumped the last curb. I tried to go low and I don’t know if he got blocked down there, or what, but just got into the grass. We fought to get it back out there. There was a lot of damage. But man, I was really excited. We had a really good car and it should bode well for the rest of the road courses this year. I’m proud of the guys. I just wished we could have salvaged a better finish and got some stage points. We’ll work on it and go to Homestead.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT RENTAL STORE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 38th
“We headed into this weekend with high hopes for our No. 8 Cat Rental Stores Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, given how well we ran in the Clash last week. Unfortunately, today was a little bit more of a roller coaster, but we kept fighting as long as we could out there. There was definitely speed in our Chevy today, so that is promising. I was able to drive into the top 15 on the initial start but then had to fight my way back through the field a couple times after that. Unfortunately, on one of the late-race restarts, the field got bottled up and I got shoved off-track on the restart, which ended our day. We’ll study this race to prepare better for the other road courses later this season, but in the meantime, I’m looking forward to Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend and our chances there.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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