MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
CONSUMER ENERGY 400
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 12, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
4TH AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW WE ARE INNOVATORS CAMARO ZL1
9TH CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
15TH RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 GRAINGER CAMARO ZL1
17TH KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1
19TH ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
3rd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
4th Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
5th Ryan Blaney (Ford)
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Saturday night, August 18 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW WE ARE INNOVATORS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
YOU WERE IN POSITION FOR A RUNNER-UP FINISH WHEN YOU HAD A NASTY VIBRATION. HOW PRECARIOUS WERE THOSE FINAL COUPLE OF LAPS?
“First, I want to thank everybody at RCR and ECR, Dow, we’ve got the We Are Innovators Chevy this weekend. Man, we had a fast car. I got to battle with (Kevin) Harvick there and that was awesome. I’m so proud of the guys for having a car capable of doing that. Yeah, that really stunk. We were kind of in position that if something happened to the No. 4 (Harvick) we could win the race. With two (laps) to go, I went into (Turn) 3 and I kind of missed the corner. When I came down the straightaway, it was just shaking like either the tire was unraveling or it was a loose wheel. But, I didn’t want to lose this great finish we had in front of us, but we brought it home with a top five at least.”
THIS IS YOUR BEST FINISH SINCE WINNING THE DAYTONA 500. HOW BIG IS THE TIMING AS WE CLOSE-IN ON THE PLAYOFFS?
“It’s huge. It’s great momentum for the team. The pit crew was amazing all day. It just feels good. We have this capability when we put our best days together and we’ve got to keep doing it and work hard. And we’ve got a great opportunity this year with being in the Playoffs.”
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END FOR YOU TO LOSE THOSE FEW SPOTS?
“I had an awful vibration there with two (laps) to go and it was like the tire was unraveling or the lugnuts were coming loose. I just wanted to bring back a good finish, we really needed that.”
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST FEW LAPS?
“Yeah, we had a loose wheel or a tire unraveling there at the end. So proud of my guys, RCR/ECR guys. Man, I wish I could have brought it home in second. Awesome racing with (Kevin) Harvick there at the end in our Camaro. Man, it just feels great when we have been struggling all year long since Daytona and to have a top five run like that is huge and really, I put ourselves as a second-place car today for sure. If the No. 4 makes a mistake we are there to capitalize.”
DID YOUR TEAM BRING SOMETHING NEW TO MICHIGAN THIS WEEK?
“Well, I think it just all came together. This is one of my best tracks. We have been working hard. We had spurts of speed in qualifying at the last couple of big mile-and-a-half’s. When you do that there is some reason… you should be able to keep that speed into practice and race time. We haven’t been able to do it and today we did. I don’t know if we hit something yesterday in practice that the car balance kind of kept the same speed that it did in qualifying, which was nice. The pit crew did a great job. Everybody just had a solid day, which is what we really needed.”
HOW MUCH IS THIS A BAROMETER FOR THE PLAYOFFS?
“This is a big place for everybody. Especially for all the manufacturers. To come out here and be the top finishing Chevy that means a lot for RCR also. We will keep working hard and hopefully this is a great showing leading into the Playoffs.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
BIZARRE DAY FOR YOU GUYS WITH A PENALTY AND A LOOSE WHEEL, BUT YOU CAME BACK FOR A TOP 10. HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS YOUR DAY?
“Yeah, we didn’t have a lot of pace and very frustrating, but I feel like we made the most of it.”
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 GRAINGER CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 15th
YOUR CAR SEEMED REALLY FAST BEFORE THE INCIDENT WITH THE TIRE AND THEN THE BRAKE LINE. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY OVERALL?
“It was a good rebound of a day for the Grainger Chevrolet. I barely caught the wall off of (Turn) 4 in some dirty air there. It basically rubbed a hole in the right rear tire. Had, I guess, probably the save of the day going 290 into Turn 1 it felt like and just lost a brake line, recouped from that and the guys did a good job of fixing it. My fault, I stuck it in the fence in the first place. A good rebound, but not near where we should have finished. Good run for Austin and his team.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 28th
ON HIS RACE:
“Yeah, we led some laps and were much more competitive today, so that was encouraging. Unfortunately, a loose wheel there at the end relegated us to laps down in the result, but we definitely raced way better than that.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in an on-track incident on lap 132
WHAT HAPPENED?
“Ran over something whether it was a battery or a piece of lead. I saw it, but I had nowhere to go we were two-wide there. You can’t really turn your car out of the way quick enough to miss it. I was just hoping it was a glove or something that wouldn’t collect it. As soon as it hit, it was like hitting a wall and I had no control of the car. I just drove it straight at 218 mph into the wall, no brakes, no nothing. So, hopefully, NASCAR finds whose piece that was because that shouldn’t happen in our sport. There shouldn’t be batteries laying on our tracks. Not to tear down, I know a lot of these people have to do a lot to make these cars come to the race track, but things like that can’t happen because it’s too dangerous at a place like this.”
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