NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
HIGHPOINT.COM 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
JULY 22, 2023
THREE CAMARO ZL1’S TAKE TOP-10 FINISHES AT POCONO
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
7th Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Blue Buffalo Camaro ZL1
9th Erik Jones, No. 43 U.S. Air Force Camaro ZL1
10th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Richmond Raceway with the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, July 30, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 BLUE BUFFALO CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 7th
Stenhouse Jr. on his top-10 finish at Pocono Raceway:
“It was an up-and-down day for the No. 47 Blue Buffalo Chevy team. We didn’t have track position at the beginning. We got it there in the middle stages of the race, but just wasn’t good enough to keep it. The guys made some really good adjustments and we got better. The final stage when we ran long, we were running good lap times when we got clean air. We took two tires and that gave us really good track position for when the cautions came out. It was just about timing those restarts there at the end. We messed up every restart there at the beginning, and then nailed every one there at the end. All-in-all, it was a really strong day for our team.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 U.S. AIR FORCE CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 9th
Jones on his top-10 finish at Pocono Raceway:
“It was a good day for the No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevy. I thought we had some good speed. We capitalized a lot on strategy and some opportunities to get up to the top there at the end. We had some restarts go our way and happy it played out for us. It was a good day and hope to keep improving.”
Your team is trending in the right direction and your team is heading to your home track of Michigan International Speedway in a couple weeks. How does that feel knowing that you guys have it going in the right way with your last five races going pretty well overall?
“Yeah, it’s exciting. You want to go to Michigan (International Speedway) and run well. We want to get through next weekend at Richmond (Raceway) and run well. It’s been a place where we’ve struggled the last couple of years with this car. But Michigan has been another one, historically, like Pocono (Raceway) that’s been good for us. We ran good there last year. Hopefully we can carry some speed and things we learned here that I think we can probably get better on our No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevy to go to a big track like Michigan. We’ll see how it plays out, but I’m happy with where we’ve been going.”
What does this momentum mean for you and the No. 43 Chevy team?
“It’s good. Obviously we wish we were fighting for that playoff spot – we’re in a must-win. But we need some more speed to get into a winning position on tracks like this. Daytona (International Speedway) is obviously going to be an opportunity, but we need another step going to a place like Michigan (International Speedway) coming up to contend for wins. We made big gains – we went from a 25th place team to a top-12 team, I’d say, right now. Just hope we can find a way to take that next step.”
NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 42 SUNSEEKER RESORTS CAMARO ZL1
Finished: 22nd
“Decent day for our No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevy team. Just lost too much on pit road and didn’t make good adjustments there at the end. It’s a step in the right direction, but we just need to be better. Disappointing, but we don’t have a mark on the car. We just need to be better.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BREZTRI CAMARO ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the Final Stage.
Finished: 34th
You got caught up in an incident after having a great run today. We saw the displeasure with Tyler Reddick – what happened and what message were you trying to send him?
“That I was mad. I don’t know – I heard (Dale Earnhardt) Jr.’s replay said that I came down a little bit. I felt like I was holding my own. He was at my left-rear going in there, and I knew we were three-wide. I think I’ve got the right to at least hold my lane. I’ve got to turn at some point to get down. Brad (Keselowski) was on my outside, maybe a half-lane up. But Tyler (Reddick) drove it in there, and obviously I feel like he drove it in there deep enough where he had to come up the track into me. We can look at the SMT and see the little fine movements that we make, but I felt like that was not the time to do that for the No. 45.
I hate it for the No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy team. We really sucked at the beginning of the race. We got the car much better and made some good strategy moves. But we just live to fight another day. It was a pretty rough hit.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 JOCKEY CAMARO ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage Two.
Finished: 36th
Suarez on the accident that ended his day:
“I don’t know – I got turned around on the right-rear on a very fast straightaway. Just lucky we didn’t get wrecked big time, but unfortunately we couldn’t continue anymore. But at the end of the day, it’s our fault. We shouldn’t be back there with those guys. We fought the balance of the car in the first stage. We lost a bunch of track position. We kind of got it back a little bit. I felt like once we got the balance, we were going to be able to drive the front. But we didn’t get the opportunity to and got wrecked before that.
It was a racing incident, but we shouldn’t be back there racing with those guys anyway.”
How tough of a deal is this given the playoff situation?
“Yeah, it’s not great; it’s not ideal. But I have to control what I can control, and I cannot control some of the other guys. Like I said, in my mind, we shouldn’t be racing back there. We had a car capable of running in the top-10, top-15 at least, and we were running in the 20s because we missed the balance of the car in the first stage. We just have to be better.”
How frustrated are you at this point?
“Definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this. I’m frustrated also because I feel like guys are wrecking each other and I’m the one that ended up out of the race without being in their mess. But what are you going to do – sometimes you’re on the good end of it and sometimes you’re on the bad end of it. Unfortunately today, I was on the short end of it.”
About Chevrolet
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