NASCAR CUP SERIES
SONOMA RACEWAY
TOYOTA / SAVE MART 350
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
JUNE 11, 2023
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Kyle Busch, No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Camaro ZL1
5th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
6th AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Gabriel Glas Camaro ZL1
8th Kyle Larson, No. 5 Valvoline Camaro ZL1
10th Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1
TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
2nd Kyle Busch (Chevrolet)
3rd Joey Logano (Ford)
4th Chris Buescher (Ford)
5th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues in two weeks at Nashville Superspeedway with the Ally 400 on Sunday, June 25, at 7 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BREZTRI CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 19th
“I’m proud of everyone on the No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE™ (budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Sonoma Raceway for fighting back and staying in it all day. We were strong today, but the results don’t show just how strong we were. I got loose in Turn 11 and thought I would be able to recover, but contact in the right-rear from another car sent me into the tire bundle and we spun. It’s just very typical of the season we’ve been having. After the spin, we were last but we were able to climb back up to 19th before the Checkered. We had a fast Chevy and we were on our way to one of our best road course performances after a lot of focus and preparation for this race, so I hate that we had that setback, but I’m proud of everyone on the No. 3 team for their efforts. We’ll take advantage of the NASCAR off weekend to regroup and be refreshed and ready to battle at Nashville Superspeedway.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 MCLAREN CUSTOM GRILLS CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 2nd
“Not too bad of a day for the No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team at Sonoma Raceway, I just wish we had a little bit more. I tried hard to keep Martin Truex, Jr. honest. I felt like I could beat him a little on a lap, and then I would mess up and he would beat me by more on the next lap. We were trading a little bit, but he was able to pull away late. Overall, great job by all the RCR and ECR guys on this Camaro. I’m proud of the effort. We gave it everything we had. We made a lot of changes. We got a lucky break with the yellow with only three laps on tires. We were able to cycle to the front. Once we got up there, we could maintain pace with some of the good cars and had a good top-three speed race car. Good fortunes for us, and it’s nice to come out here with a second-place finish after a win last week. We have three wins at this point in the season, and this team is really stringing together some good runs, so I don’t know if I want an off week. It will be good to regroup, focus and set up for the last 18 races of the season, though. Overall, I’m just really proud of the guys on this team, the communication, and the way they are able to go to work, work through some of our issues and try to improve on what I need to be able to feel in a race car and pull out finishes like the one we had today. If we can keep doing those things, we will be a force for the championship.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 5th
“It’s nice to get a top-five, no doubt, so proud of that. We were trying to do something a little different with strategy. We had pit about six or eight laps there before that caution. We just felt like our only play was to stay out. I was really hoping that more people would do that with us so we’d have three or four rows. It still probably wouldn’t have been enough, but I do think it would have been nicer to have a couple more rows and a buffer for those with tires.
It was certainly a good fight for the No. 9 NAPA Chevy team. It was one of our better runs there in the last couple of races, so always good to finish strong. It wasn’t an ideal situation, so to kind of fight through it there and come home with a top-five is good. Looking forward to build on that and hopefully contend for a win before long.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 GABRIEL GLAS CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 6th
“We started off pretty good there. We got up to fourth there in Stage One, and I thought at that point, we were the third- or fourth- fastest car. We were about one lap away from being really good. I got really loose the second run, so we were going to pit and right before we pit, the caution came out. That made us restart 16th and then it was just kind of a dog fight from there. I felt like we had pretty good pace with short-run speed, but I would get super loose in traffic, so I had to fight that. It’s just so hard to pass.
I thought the No. 16 Gabriel Glas Chevy team did a great job all day. The pit stops were really good. We had a good stop there at the end – were able to make up a couple of spots and make what we could out of it.”
JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 CIRKUL CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 21st
“Overall, it was not a bad day for this No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection team. I feel like we were really good in the high-speed areas and not so great in the braking zones. I felt like we had some speed, but my biggest issue was not being able to pass. We will regroup after the off week for Nashville.”
TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS:
Stage One
· Road course phenom AJ Allmendinger and the No. 16 Gabriel Glas Camaro ZL1 team qualified in the fifth position – leading Team Chevy to the green flag at Sonoma Raceway.
· With no stage break cautions during road course events, pit strategy came into play during the races’ early laps. A handful of cars chose to short-pit and make their first round of pit stops prior to the end of the stage, including Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.
· Allmendinger maintained a steady top-five running position throughout Stage One – leading the Bowtie brigade to the green-white checkered in the fourth position.
· Three drivers from three different Chevrolet teams collected stage points at the conclusion of the caution-free Stage One:
4th AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Gabriel Glas Camaro ZL1
9th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Pride Camaro ZL1
10th Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger / Cottonelle Camaro ZL1
Stage Two
· Following the completion of the green-flag pit cycle, early pit strategy paid dividends for Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson – with both drivers powering their Camaro ZL1’s to the top-five on the leaderboard.
· The first caution of the race fell on lap 49 for an uncontrolled tire on pit road. Varying pit strategy continued with some teams opting to stay out for track position including Team Chevy’s Kyle Busch, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Daniel Suarez – giving their Camaro ZL1’s a top-10 starting position for the restart.
· The field took the green for the restart with three circuits remaining in the stage with Busch driving his No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Camaro ZL1 to the lead. The series’ most recent winner, Busch ultimately took the Stage Two win for his second stage triumph of the season.
· Busch led Team Chevy to five of the top-six finishing positions at the end of Stage Two:
1st Kyle Busch, No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Camaro ZL1
3rd Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1
4th William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1
5th Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger / Cottonelle Camaro ZL1
6th Austin Dillon, No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1
Final Stage / Post-Race Notes
· A spin by Denny Hamlin brought out the race’s second caution of the day with just 18 circuits remaining in the race. The majority of field’s lead lap came to pit road, with crew chief Alan Gustafson keeping the No. 9 NAPA Camaro ZL1 out for a front-row starting position for the race’s final restart.
· Kyle Busch led Team Chevy to the checkered flag at Sonoma Raceway – driving his No. 8 McLaren Custom Grills Camaro ZL1 to a runner-up finish. This marks Busch’s ninth top-10 finish of the 2023 season and his ninth top-10 finish in 18 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Northern California road course.
· Busch led Team Chevy to five top-10 finishes in the event – recorded by drivers from four different Chevrolet teams.
· In 16 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series race this season, Chevrolet continues to lead the series in wins (nine), top-fives (35), top-10s (68), stage wins (17) and laps led (2,032).
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.
