TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
AUTOTRADER ECHOPARK AUTOMOTIVE 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
OCTOBER 17, 2021
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
2nd WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE
9th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CC READY MIX CAMARO ZL1 1LE
10th DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
2nd William Byron (Chevrolet)
3rd Christopher Bell (Toyota)
4th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Kansas Speedway for the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday, October 24, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner
YOU SURVIVED SEVEN STAGE 3 RESTARTS AND GOT IT TO VICTORY LANE. WELCOME TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME EVER FOR YOU, KYLE
“Yeah, this is unreal. I knew we had a good shot to win today, and our car was amazing. That’s probably the best 550 package, intermediate car, we’ve had all year. So, thanks to everybody on this No. 5 team, HendrickCars.com, Rick Hendrick, this is so cool; we had a lot of people from HendrickCars here. We get to go race for a championship in a few weeks. This is crazy.”
HOW ABOUT THOSE SEVEN RESTARTS YOU HAD IN STAGE 3? YOU NEVER ONCE FALTERED. HOW DID YOU KEEP IT TOGETHER FOR ALL OF THEM?
“I just got good pushes from behind me, really. I tried to stay patient on the throttle to keep them to my back bumper. And thankfully, I was able to just barely clear them every time into (Turn) 1 and not have to fight off of (Turn) 2. So thanks to William (Byron) and Tyler (Reddick) and Brad Keselowski, anybody who was ever behind me (laughs), especially Brad there in that last restart. So, it was just awesome to win and hope we can get some more wins throughout the rest of the year.”
HOW BIG WILL IT BE TO HAVE TWO WEEKS NOW TO GET READY FOR PHOENIX AND FOCUS ON THAT RACE AND GO RUN FOR A TITLE?
“Yeah, it’ll be cool. I don’t think we’re going to lose focus on Kansas or Martinsville, but I definitely think we can shift a little bit more to our Phoenix car and I really look forward to that. I love the West Coast. I love Phoenix. We’ve always been fast there. At least I was really fast earlier this year in the No. 5 and made a lot of mistakes. But I think we should have a good shot. Our team has been so strong all year long and we might as well close it all out.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
YOU CAME UP JUST SHORT TODAY WITH A SECOND PLACE FINISH. YOU GAVE YOUR TEAMMATE, KYLE LARSON, A RUN FOR HIS MONEY TIME AND AGAIN. WHERE DID HE HAVE THAT EDGE ON YOU ON THOSE RESTARTS?
“Just control of the lanes. It’s all about the push. And I think here at Texas, the shortest lane kind of wins because of the way the track kind of separates into Turn 1. Our Axalta Chevy was fast all day. We just never quite got control. I think he (Kyle Larson) was definitely better than us in that first Stage. And then I was right there with him the rest of the time and it was just clean air, basically. But congrats to those guys. Kyle really deserves it. They’ve been awesome all year and flawless on pit road; and pit calls and everything. Our team is right there and I think we’re building something really good for years to come.”
YOU WERE ELIMINATED FROM THE PLAYOFFS LAST WEEK. WHAT KIND OF A STATEMENT CAN YOU MAKE IF YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE RUNS LIKE THIS?
“Yeah, we’re here to stay. Rudy (Fugle, Crew Chief) is going to be in it for a long time, I feel like, and we’ve got a good team; a good young team, myself included, so I feel like we can do a lot of good things. I saw that last week. Just didn’t finish it off with the contact there, but yeah this week we had a pretty good run and had a shot at a win.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
ONCE THAT RIGHT FRONT TIRE ISSUE HAPPENS, IT WAS A TOUGH UPHILL BATTLE FROM THERE.
“Yeah, it definitely was. I appreciate everybody continuing to fight through that and get our car a lot better. I thought by the end, we were decent. Just by that point, obviously, it was too late. I had another one vibrate again after that, so I’m not really sure what we had going on there. I’m still currently confused. So, we’ll see. But congrats to Kyle (Larson, race winner). Hopefully we can join those guys in Phoenix and I’m looking forward to these next two weeks. I think we can run good at the next couple and I feel like we’re all super close in points. I don’t know where everybody shakes out.”
YOU’RE EIGHT BELOW:
“Yeah, there you go. I feel like if we just go do our job these next two weeks and control what’s in our hands, we’ll be alright.”
WHEN YOU HAVE A TOUGH DAY LIKE THIS WHEN YOU HAVE ISSUES WITH THE RIGHT FRONT, WHAT DO YOU AND ALAN (GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF) TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK GOING TO KANSAS? WHAT DO YOU FOCUS ON?
“There’s nothing really glaring as to what would cause that. So, I’m really confused. We’ll talk about it and maybe we’ll get to the bottom of why that happened. But regardless, just proud of the fight. Obviously, it could have been a lot worse. So, I’m looking forward to Kansas.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th
“It was a good day; up and down. I feel like we probably missed it a little bit on the adjustments in the middle of the race. And then right there at the end, during one of the stops when everyone came for tires and I was the first car without tires, I feel like we should have come for tires. We deserve maybe a little bit better, but we’ll have to keep working.”
ON THE CONTACT WITH THE NO. 19 (MARTIN TRUEX JR.):
“I feel so bad for him. I feel like I ruined the race for him, but he just can’t be doing that. I’m racing as well here. I have a lot of respect for the guys in the Playoffs. But one thing is respect, another is taking advantage of the situation. He wasn’t even close to being clear and I don’t know why he did that. We’re in the last 10 to 12 laps of the race; I’ve got tires and he doesn’t have tires. I don’t know, I think he’s just got to be a little smarter.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 MEDALLION BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
“Up and down day for the Medallion Bank Chevy. Finally got back on the lead lap at the end and got a top fifteen. Proud of the effort to stay in it all day as a team. Hope to take what we learned to Kansas and improve on it”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th
“I love Texas Motor Speedway, and our entire Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet team came here this weekend with the goal of backing up our performance from 2020 and finding Victory Lane. Things just didn’t fall that way. We ran in the top-10 early in Stage 1, but we were too tight to stay up there. Even though we threw the kitchen sink at our No. 3 Chevy during pit stops, our Chevy never got dialed in to my liking. The day became even harder with a couple of cut right-rear tires, and untimely cautions that caused us to fall off the lead lap. Our team never gave up, though, and we were able to fight our way back from two laps down. By the last restart, we were too loose. It definitely made things interesting. We worked hard to finish 14th. I’m proud of everyone on this Richard Childress Racing team for sticking with it today.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
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