NASCAR CUP SERIES
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
ECHOPARK AUTOMOTIVE GRAND PRIX
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 27, 2022
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ONX HOMES / IFLY CAMARO ZL1
2nd ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1
4th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 LLUMAR FILMS CAMARO ZL1
5th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1
9th ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1
10th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BENNETT CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Ross Chastain (Chevrolet)
2nd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
3rd Christopher Bell (Toyota)
4th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
5th Tyler Reddick (Chevrolet)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Richmond Raceway with the Toyota Owners 400 on Sunday, April 3, 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:
ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ONX HOMES / IFLY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 1st
Chastain has been so close this year to getting that first career win. Ross, today you couldn’t be denied. You had to fend them off at the end. You go from first to third. There was beating, there was begging. What was that last lap like, and what is this first win like?
“I don’t know. It’s insane. To go up against some of the best with AJ (Allmendinger) – I mean, I know he is going to be upset with me; but we raced hard, both of us, and he owes me one. But when it comes to a Cup win, man, I can’t let that go down without a fight. So, Justin Marks, Trackhouse, AdventHealth, the Moose. A million Moose members, they better be celebrating tonight all across the country and the world. Phil Surgen (Crew Chief), man. He is so good. People don’t know how good this group is. I can’t believe Justin Marks hired me to drive this car.”
You lost control of that final restart. You get a good restart on the outside, which nobody had done. What did you have to do to make that happen, and how is that watermelon tasting right now?
“It’s never tasted sweeter, I got to tell you. I don’t know. I don’t know how we got back by. I was so worried about AJ (Allmendinger) on the second-to-last restart that I let Tyler (Reddick) drive right by both of us. And AJ is so good. I’ve learned so much from him. And it was like how do you go beat the guy? He taught me so much. I’ve learned so much from so many people from 417 Speedway back home with my dad.I was thinking about on those late restarts, my dad used to make me race on old tires, and back then I was not going to win. It was in my head before I even started. It crossed my mind, like, We’re not going to win, we’re on old tires, but I couldn’t think that way. I thought neutral. Chevrolet, everything they do for me gave me the tools to try to go execute and we did it.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BENNETT CAMARO ZL1– Finished 10th
“Finished top-10 and we were really good on those restarts at the end. Came from a long way back. You know we had a little pit trouble that sent us back, but we were able to just keep going and get all the way up there to finish where we needed to. Luckily these races are really long, so you can’t let an early penalty get you down. Just stay focused and we were able to progress and make the car better. To come back after two bad races getting taken out kind of out of our own hands, we kept this one in our hands all day and it was wild there at the end. It feels great to get a top-10. Probably not our best track that we would look forward to coming to and it’s becoming better and better for us. Really proud of our guys and the effort that we put in our Bennett Chevrolet.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1– Finished 5th
WALK ME THROUGH THOSE LAST FEW LAPS
“Yeah, just didn’t get a good launch off turn one. And just almost had the 1 car cleared but didn’t quite. We were really on the loose side all day long and that make us pretty susceptible to getting aggressive at the end. So, was just easy to get moved around there and that was kind of a problem I had all day. Just a little bit of pressure I had from anybody, and the back of this car was out of the track. It could get through the esses pretty good and could do a lot of things really well, but we just missed it in a little way where if we had to battle with other cars in traffic, it was really hard to get the good launch off the corner and complete a pass or really battle hard. So, it was tough, but we will learn from it and go back to the simulator and go back to work.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 LLUMAR CAMARO ZL1– Finished 4th
WHAT WAS YOUR POINT OF VIEW AND WHAT DID YOU HAVE TO DO TO HAVE A FINISH THIS SOLID? YOU FOUGHT FOR IT ALL DAY LONG CHASE.
“Yeah, I didn’t really have to do anything. They just kind of wrecked and they were out of the way so I just kind of ran it on the road and I got a free couple of positions, so I will take it.”
YOU AND KYLE BUSCH WERE GETTING INTO IT A LITTLE BIT EARLY OR WERE YOU GETTING INTO IT? WAS THERE ANYTHING HOT AND HEAVY BETWEEN YOU TWO?
“No, I messed up earlier in the race. I got crossed up in the braking zone and hit him. Obviously, we were racing for last and probably weren’t even racing for Stage points and I think he knows me better than that. But yeah, that was completely on me…….and my fault.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 ACTION INDUSTRIES CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 33rd
“This Action Industries Chevy was so fast, and our pit stops were great all day. If we had a long run, nobody was going to touch us. I’m so proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing. All these men and women have had a lot of sleepless nights trying to just get these cars to the next race. I was doing everything I could do to try to sweep the weekend for them. We were that close. We know we had a shot to win the race. It’s tough to win a Cup race, so when you put yourself in a position to legitimately run up front all day and have a shot to win it, it’s a pretty great day. Unfortunately, just we needed about two more corners.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1– Finished 12th
“Tough day. Definitely put us behind with the speeding penalty. We were going to cycle out there in between AJ (Allmendinger) and Reddick (Tyler) and messed it up on my part. I thought our car was decent all day. Definitely some things to work on, but good to come home 12th, get a solid finish and we’ll be good at Richmond and Martinsville. Looking forward to it.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1– Finished 2nd
WHAT’S YOUR TAKEAWAY ON THAT LAST LAP IN THE BATTLE FOR THE WIN?
“We had a really fast Ally Chevrolet Camaro and I have been trying to do a better job as a race car driver at these road courses and I felt like from where I started the weekend, we accomplished that. So, thanks to Greg (Crew Chief Ives) and all the guys and really happy for Ross (Chastain) in getting his first win. Its been a crap weekend, so I am ready to get home and see the dogs and move on to next weekend. But glad to come home with a second place finish.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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