NASCAR CUP SERIES
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOLDS OF HONOR QUICKTRIP 500
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 21, 2021
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
3rd ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
6th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Ryan Blaney (Ford)
2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
3rd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
4th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
5th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, March 28, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
YOU WON TWO STAGES, LED 268 LAPS – WHAT A PERFORMANCE TODAY. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHERE YOUR CAR WENT THAT LAST RUN WHEN (RYAN) BLANEY WAS CLOSING?
“I don’t know – I think he just got a lot better there that last Stage and it kind of changed up my flow of the race a little bit. I could get out to such a big lead and then I could take care of my stuff; and run the bottom, where it was maybe slower, but I could take care of my tires. He was fast there and I just wanted to maintain that gap that I had, so I had to run in the faster part of the racetrack and just use my stuff up. And then, he was just a lot better than me there late in the run.”
“Hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but we had a really good car that we brought to the track. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was fast there for a long time. I don’t really know; I don’t know if we got that much worse or he just got way better and, like I said, it just kind of changed up the flow of my race.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rd
A STRONG THIRD-PLACE FINISH. IT SEEMED LIKE A PRETTY QUIET DAY; YOU WERE ALWAYS UP TOWARDS THE FRONT.
“Yeah, for sure. It was a good day to come home third. Obviously wish the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) would have won there, but I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports continually bringing really fast race cars to the race track. I feel like our Ally Camaro was pretty good. It was just a little bit off on the long-run stuff. But finally, a day where nothing bad happened. We’ll take a good solid day, a solid top-three, and move onto Bristol.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th
“Today was a good little step in the right direction from where we’ve been the last few weeks. Everyone on the Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet team did a great job with adjustments throughout the race. During portions of the race, I couldn’t turn the wheel on entry, so I would just go in there straight. I made up time running some very weird lines. Justin Alexander and the team kept working on it and got it pretty good in Stage 3. I found some grip in the middle of track late in the race. If I would have found that earlier, we might have been better. We’ll keep working on it.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th
“Decent day for the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet team. We were up around the top-five for most of the day and just had a bad final run; a bad restart got us back there and we just never could really recover. We managed an eighth-place, which is decent, but definitely want a lot more than that. We’ll go to work and figure out where we can improve so we can get better for the next one.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
“It was a really solid day for our No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet team at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Our biggest thing this season is to be consistent, and bringing home a fourth top-15 finish accomplishes that goal and it’s great to see us achieving that so early in the season. I had the speeding penalty early in the race, but our car had enough speed that we were able to keep working on it throughout the long runs and get back inside the top-10 and top-15. Something we’ve been working on is to keep hammering each week and not get stagnant in what we’re doing, and having this momentum heading into the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race is a huge advantage and I’m really looking forward to it.”
ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 TUBI TV CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th
“Fourteenth – it’s progress. This No. 42 Tubi TV Camaro was good. We got it freed up, finally, part-way through the race. We got our lap back and just ran fast lap times there at the end. We passed some really good cars and made some really good progress. We’ve made progress in the last two stops with Phoenix (Raceway). As crazy as it sounds, for me, it’s translated in the direction we’re going. It seems to be better for me.”
“I can’t thank all the boys and girls at Chip Ganassi Racing enough. They’re believing in me, even when I didn’t necessarily believe in myself. We were the last car on the lead lap. Fourteenth – good, long 500-miles at Atlanta (Motor Speedway). Proud of the effort; a lot of pit stops. Onto Bristol.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 17th
YOU HAVE TO BE ENCOURAGED WITH HOW YOU RAN FOR MOST OF THE DAY
“Yeah, it was good. I’m very proud of everyone in this group. They work very, very hard. They build a very fast car. It was a car capable of finishing in the Top 10, that’s for sure. I made a mistake on my part that kind of got us out of contention. But it’s something very good to build on.”
YOUR FILL-IN CREW CHIEF, JOSE BLASCO-FIGUEROA, DID A GREAT JOB AND HE’S HAD A LOT OF EXPERIENCE IN THE NASCAR MEXICAN SERIES, CORRECT?
“Yeah, he was good. Jose and I already know each other. So, it was good to have Jose today on the box, although we do miss Travis (Mack). Travis is very, very good and he already knows me. This was the first time ever working with Jose making the calls. I feel like, overall, it was a positive day. It’s just not the result that we deserve.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 24th
“Just not a great day for the Petty’s Garage Chevrolet. Struggled with the speed for the most part and never got it much better. Learn from it and we’ll focus on Bristol (Motor Speedway) for next week.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 26th
“It has been a tough start to our season, but my No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet team stuck with it today at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I got into the wall early in the race, but my team did a great job making all the necessary repairs to keep us going. I had a lot of speed after that and ran some great lap times all race long, but we were just trapped a couple laps down for the majority of the day. We made some gains on handling today, which will be important to take note of when we come back to Atlanta later this summer. I struggled with a lack of rear lateral grip early on, but the adjustments made throughout the race really helped on that issue. I still wanted to be tighter at the end of the race, but this at least gives us some good notes to build off of for July.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined with mechanical failure on lap 220; Finished 38th
IT’S BEEN ONE OF THOSE DAYS FOR CHASE ELLIOTT. YOU GUYS JUST REPAIRED THE NOSE AND THEN, BOOM, THIS PROBLEM. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE HAPPENED?
“Yeah, obviously we broke a motor there later on. We got some damage there on that restart. Kyle (Busch) kind of spun his tires and then I was pushing him and Kurt (Busch) was pushing me. We all just really jammed together hard and ended up hurting the nose some. So, I don’t know if that had something to do with breaking the engine or not.”
“I hate it, for sure. I feel like our car was pretty decent. We drove up there – we got up to tenth, or so, at the Stage. I felt like we were in a decent position to work on it throughout the day. I appreciate all the effort. It’s great to be home in Georgia; home for me and home for NAPA Auto Parts. I wish we could have had a good result, but we’ll try again at Bristol.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 112; Finished 39th
WAS IT JUST A PRODUCT OF WHEELSPIN AND GUYS HAVING TROUBLE GETTING GOING ON THE RESTART?
“Yeah, I think the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) was the outside-lead car. The No. 9 (Chase Elliott) kind of checked-up, too. I checked up; the No. 17 (Chris Buescher) hit us from behind. It was just the accordion effect and then I jumped to the middle. I’m like ‘I’m here’; I positioned myself. It wasn’t like I re-arranged my lanes and made another block.”
“He didn’t do anything vicious or malicious there. It’s a 500-miler and these are the days that it hurts the worst. This absolutely hurts the worst because we had a top-five, winning, Monster Energy Chevy.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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