NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
AMBETTER 301
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 17, 2022
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20 RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
8th ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 WORLDWIDE EXPRESS CAMARO ZL1
9th DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 SLAM! CAMARO ZL1
11th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1
14th KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1
16th AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 GOLD FISH CASINO SLOTS CAMARO ZL1
19th ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1
20th JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Christopher Bell (Toyota)
2nd Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
3rd Bubba Wallace (Toyota)
4th Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next Sunday, July 24, at Pocono Raceway with the M&M’s Fan Appreciation 400 at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on USA Network, the NBCSports Gold App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED TO BEAT CHRISTOPHER BELL ON THAT LAST RUN?
“I just need to do a better job again. The same conversation as Road America, unfortunately. I feel like it was a poor run of execution on my end throughout that last run. I feel like it took me awhile to get past Joey (Logano) and the No. 45 (Kurt Busch), and I had to run a little harder than I wanted to. I got in front of those guys, just made a couple of mistakes and couldn’t get much breathing room. Christopher (Bell) did a good job. Congrats to those guys. They’ve been close to winning, so that’s cool.
Obviously for us, we were in a position where guys at this level really should close out a race if you have the lead like that, so just poor effort on my part.”
YOU SAY POOR EXECUTION, BUT THIS IS YOUR FOURTH-STRAIGHT TOP-TWO FINISH IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES. I’D HAVE TO SAY SOME THINGS ARE GOING RIGHT. YOU’RE PUTTING YOURSELF IN POSITION, RIGHT?
“Yeah, but when you’re in position like we’ve been in, you need to finish them off. The top-two’s don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes you have to step back and look at the reality of it; and the reality is I’ve given away a couple of races just by making too many mistakes. You don’t want to have that, so I’ll try to clean it up for these final events.”
ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 WORLDWIDE EXPRESS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
“It was a grind today. We just hovered between seventh and 20th. We just never had the balance of the car great. We were tight all day; really tight on restarts. It was really tough to make ground. The two tire to four tire strategies, I was just usually way too tight to fight those guys.
For the No. 1 Worldwide Express Camaro ZL1 and Daniel’s No. 99 SLAM! Camaro ZL1 to be nose to tail there at the end is a testament to Trackhouse Racing for building fast cars. If eighth and ninth is a mediocre day, I think we’re doing OK.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 SLAM! CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
“It was an OK day. Once again, we maximized what we had. I felt like our speed on the long run was probably one of the best out there; but on the short runs, it wasn’t. We were making adjustments and trying to help the short runs.
We’ll just have to keep working. It was a solid top-10 for the No. 99 SLAM! Camaro ZL1. It was a step in the right direction for our short track package.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 20th
“We were just off a bit today. We were plowing early, made adjustments throughout the race to try to make out FOCUSfactor Chevy better and then we were too loose at the end. We’re still learning with these cars – it’s hard to predict how it will react sometimes and we just have to keep building our notebooks and build on each week. We’ll keep learning and refocus for next week at Pocono.”
COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 BUILT.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 88.
WALK US THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED.
“It just got hung in between fourth and third gear on the downshift there. I had it happen earlier in the day when I wasn’t around anybody. I just thought I wasn’t pushing it into gear hard enough or whatever the case may have been. We were racing hard on the restart there underneath the No. 21 (Harrison Burton). I tried pushing it down to third and it just got hung between fourth and third, and it just locked both rear tires up so they weren’t turning. I hate that other guys were involved. We’ll have to take a look at it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was a weird thing.. the first thing we’ve had all year with the transaxle.
It’s been a tough stretch. I feel bad for my No. 7 Spire Motorsports team. We were trying to pull off another good week from last weekend’s momentum. It wasn’t meant to be, but we’ll get them next week.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 6.
ALEX BOWMAN OUT OF THE RACE EARLY. WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
“We qualified bad. Unfortunately, they were just racing hard. It looked like the No. 42 (Ty Dillon) and the No. 31 (Justin Haley) got together. The No. 42 just overcorrected and stuffed us in the fence.
Bummer. I hate it for everybody at Ally and Hendrick Motorsports. We’ll move onto the next one.”
TEAM CHEVY RACE QUICK NOTES
Stage One:
· Chase Elliott led Chevrolet in the starting lineup, taking the green of the Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from the front row. This marks the fifth-consecutive race that Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 has started from the first two rows.
· Chevrolet’s Alex Bowman and Ty Dillon were caught up in an accident on lap six, with damage ending the day for both drivers.
· Team Chevy Stage One: Top-10 Results
3rd Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1
4th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
9th William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
Stage Two:
· In a stage that saw five cautions, varying pit strategies among teams played a vital role in track position throughout the stage.
· Team Chevy Stage Two: Top-10 Results
3rd Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
5th Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1
7th Ross Chastain, No. 1 Worldwide Express Camaro ZL1
8th William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
Final Stage / Post-Race Notes:
· Chase Elliott led the bowtie brigade to the finish in the 301-lap race, crossing the finish line in the second position. This marks the fourth-consecutive top-two finish for Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 team.
· With 20 races now in the books, Chevrolet continues to lead all manufacturers in NASCAR Cup Series race wins (11), top-fives (49), top-10s (91), laps led (2,653) and stage wins (18).
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
